History of Sinology/Chapter 11

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Chapter 11: Portugal and Spain — The Iberian Roots of European Sinology

Introduction

No account of the history of Western sinology can begin without acknowledging the foundational role played by the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal and Spain, the two maritime powers that divided the non-European world between them by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, were also the first European nations to establish sustained contact with China in the early modern period. From Portuguese navigators reaching the coast of Guangdong in 1513 to the Spanish missionaries operating through the Philippines, the Iberians opened channels of communication that would ultimately transform European understanding of Chinese civilisation. Their contributions to sinology unfolded across two great eras — the age of travelogue sinology (youji hanxue 游记汉学) and the age of missionary sinology (chuanjiaoshi hanxue 传教士汉学) — and their legacy reverberates in the scholarly traditions of both countries to this day.

I. Portugal: Pioneer of the Maritime Encounter

1.1 Historical Background: The Age of Discovery

Portugal’s engagement with China must be understood against the backdrop of its extraordinary maritime expansion. A small kingdom on the western edge of Europe, Portugal had been an independent state since the twelfth century, with one of the oldest stable borders on the continent. Its meagre territory and limited resources drove it seaward. Under the visionary leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator (Infante Dom Henrique, 1394–1460), who established a navigation school at Sagres on the Atlantic coast, Portugal systematically explored the African littoral, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and opened the sea route to India. By 1498, Vasco da Gama had reached Calicut; by 1511, the Portuguese had taken Malacca, the strategic gateway to the South China Sea.

In 1513, the Portuguese trader Jorge Álvares reached the island of Tunmen (屯门) off the coast of Guangdong, erecting a rudimentary shelter for Portuguese sailors — the first recorded European footfall on Chinese soil via the maritime route. In 1517, Fernão Peres de Andrade and the royal envoy Tomé Pires were permitted to enter the city of Guangzhou. The encounter between Western Europe and the Ming Empire had begun.

1.2 Early Travelogue Sinology

The Portuguese who arrived in China during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came in many capacities — as diplomats, merchants, soldiers, adventurers, and missionaries. Their accounts of China, transmitted back to Europe in a rich variety of literary forms (letters, reports, chronicles, travel narratives, even epic poetry), constitute the earliest body of European writing based on direct contact with the Ming and early Qing empires. Zhang Xiping has termed this corpus “travelogue sinology” to distinguish it from the more systematic “missionary sinology” that followed.

The Letters of the Guangzhou Captives (Cartas dos Cativos de Cantão): Among the earliest documents are two long letters written by Portuguese prisoners held in Guangzhou — Cristóvão Vieira (1534) and Vasco Calvo (1536) — who had been members of the ill-fated Pires embassy. Vieira’s letter, in fifty-seven paragraphs, provides detailed descriptions of Chinese geography, judicial administration, commerce, military organisation, and daily life in Guangdong province. Despite the distortions of a captive’s perspective — Vieira underestimated Chinese military strength and hoped for a Portuguese military expedition — the letters represent the first extended eyewitness accounts of China by any European residing there for a prolonged period.

The “China Report” (Informação da China, 1548): Attributed to Francis Xavier, this document was compiled from information gathered from Portuguese merchants on Shangchuan Island. Though Xavier himself never entered China, his report introduced European readers to aspects of Chinese education, writing, and printing.

Galeote Pereira’s Algumas Coisas Sabidas da China (c. 1555): Pereira, a nobleman who had spent six years as a prisoner in Fujian, produced what scholars regard as a turning point in Portuguese perceptions of China. In eighty-one paragraphs, he described the thirteen provinces of the Ming Empire, the judicial system, local customs, and economic life with an admiring tone that was unusual for the time. His observation that “these people, though heathen, have virtues that surpass our own” marked a new willingness to view China as a civilisation of comparable stature.

Fernão Mendes Pinto and the Peregrinação (1614): No discussion of Portuguese travelogue sinology can omit Pinto, whose sprawling autobiographical narrative of twenty-one years in Asia is at once the most celebrated and most controversial work of the genre. Of its 226 chapters, eighty-nine deal with China — a full third of the book. Pinto described being taken as a captive from Guangdong to Beijing, traversing rivers, cities, and villages, and providing an extraordinarily vivid (if frequently embellished) portrait of sixteenth-century China. His depiction of Beijing as an urban utopia — surpassing all other cities he had known — contributed powerfully to the European idealisation of China. The work was translated into Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian, English, and French, with some 170 editions and abridgments to date.

João de Barros and the Décadas da Ásia: Barros, the most distinguished Portuguese historian of the age, never visited Asia, yet his monumental chronicle, based on first-hand materials collected through his position as Factor of the India House, provided the first formal introduction of the Great Wall to European readers. His third Década (1563) contains extensive discussions of China, based in part on a Chinese map brought to Lisbon.

1.3 Missionary Sinology and the Jesuit Enterprise

The transition from travelogue to missionary sinology was gradual, but its significance for the development of Western sinology can hardly be overstated. As the sinologist Mo Dongyin observed, “From the sixteenth century onward, when Jesuit missionaries arrived in the East, the study of Eastern culture moved from the realm of casual observation into the domain of systematic research.”

The critical institutional nexus was Macau. Established as a permanent Portuguese settlement in 1557, Macau became the mandatory staging post for all Jesuit missionaries entering China. The College of São Paulo, founded in 1594, made Chinese language instruction compulsory for all students and faculty. Both the Qing court under the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors and the Jesuits themselves mandated that missionaries spend at least two years studying Chinese in Macau before proceeding to the mainland. Between 1594 and 1805, some two hundred Jesuit missionaries passed through the College of São Paulo, including almost all the major figures of early missionary sinology: Michele Ruggieri, Matteo Ricci, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, Ferdinand Verbiest, Tomás Pereira, and many others.

Among the Portuguese Jesuits who made particularly significant contributions, several deserve special mention:

Álvaro Semedo (曾德昭, 1585–1658) lived in China for twenty-two years and was the first European to see the Nestorian Stele in Xi’an. His Relação da Grande Monarquia da China (1638), published in Portuguese in Madrid in 1641 and quickly translated into Italian, French, and other languages, was the first full-length account of China published by a Jesuit after Ricci. It provided detailed descriptions of Ming governance, Confucian philosophy, and the Chinese language, including an early analysis of Chinese character formation (pictographic, ideographic, and phonosemantic principles). Semedo was among the first to introduce the Yijing (Book of Changes) to Western readers.

Gabriel de Magalhães (安文思, 1609–1677), a descendant of the navigator Magellan, lived in China for thirty-seven years. His Nova Relação da China (published posthumously in French in 1688 as Nouvelle Relation de la Chine) identified twelve areas in which China excelled — from the vastness of its territory to the influence of Confucius — and was praised as one of the most important seventeenth-century works on China.

The Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary (1584–1588): Compiled jointly by Ruggieri and Ricci during their time in Macau, this was the first bilingual dictionary between a European language and Chinese, predating the International Phonetic Alphabet by 305 years. Its romanisation system was a milestone in the history of Chinese linguistics.

1.4 Modern Portuguese Sinology

After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773 and the subsequent decline of missionary activity, Portuguese sinology entered a period of relative dormancy. The modern revival has been centred on three main poles: the University of Minho, the University of Lisbon, and the University of Aveiro, as well as the Instituto Português do Oriente (IPOR) in Macau. Portugal’s unique historical relationship with Macau (administered until 1999) has ensured a continuous, if sometimes attenuated, engagement with Chinese language and culture. The establishment of the Confucius Institute at the University of Lisbon in 2008 and at the University of Minho in 2006 has provided institutional support for a new generation of scholars. Contemporary Portuguese sinology tends to focus on Luso-Chinese historical relations, comparative literature, and translation studies, drawing on the extraordinarily rich archival holdings in Lisbon and Macau.

II. Spain: Missionaries, the Philippines, and the “Golden Age”

2.1 Francis Xavier and the “Adaptation” Strategy

The history of Spanish sinology begins with the Navarrese Jesuit Francis Xavier (1506–1552), co-founder of the Society of Jesus. Xavier’s decade of missionary work across India, Southeast Asia, and Japan led him to a momentous conclusion: that China was the civilisational fountainhead of the entire East Asian world, and that its conversion to Christianity would trigger the Christianisation of the region. He arrived on Shangchuan Island off the coast of Guangdong in September 1552, began studying Chinese, and even composed a catechism in the language — making him one of the earliest Europeans to engage with Chinese as a subject of study. He died on the island that December, but his legacy was immense. His advocacy of an “adaptation” strategy (shiying celüe 适应策略) — learning local languages, respecting indigenous customs, and using Western science as a means of gaining influence — became the dominant model of Catholic missionary work in East Asia for the next two centuries.

2.2 Martín de Rada: “The First Western Sinologist”

If Xavier was the pioneer, the Augustinian friar Martín de Rada (1535–1578) deserves the title, often bestowed upon him by modern scholars, of “the first Western sinologist.” After arriving in the Philippines in 1565, Rada began learning Chinese from Chinese residents of the islands and produced Arte y Vocabulario de la Lengua China — the first European study of Chinese linguistics. In 1574, he visited Fujian for over two months, collecting more than a hundred Chinese books, which he subsequently had translated into Spanish by literate Chinese in Manila. His China Travel Notes (Las Cosas que los Padres Fr. Martín de Rada… Vieron y Entendieron en aquel Reino) was the first work by a Westerner to convey a relatively accurate picture of Chinese history, geography, and social conditions. His identification of “Cathay” with “China” — i.e., that the legendary medieval land described by Marco Polo was the same country reached by the new maritime routes — was a significant contribution to world geography.

2.3 Juan González de Mendoza and the Historia del Gran Reino de la China

The most influential work of early Spanish sinology — and arguably the most important European book on China published before the eighteenth century — was the Historia de las Cosas más Notables, Ritos y Costumbres del Gran Reyno de la China (Rome, 1585) by Juan González de Mendoza (1545–1618). Mendoza never visited China, but he masterfully synthesised the reports of Rada, Jerónimo Marín, Miguel de Loarca, and other travellers, supplemented by translations of Chinese books, into an encyclopaedia of Chinese civilisation. Published in forty-six editions in eight languages within the remaining fifteen years of the sixteenth century, the Historia was a publishing sensation. It covered Chinese geography, politics, commerce, military affairs, education, printing, gunpowder, and social customs with a thoroughness and accuracy that astonished European readers. G. F. Hudson wrote that “Mendoza’s work touches the essence of life in ancient China, and its publication can be seen as a dividing line, which has provided the European intellectual community with a wealth of knowledge about China and its institutions.” D. F. Lach considered it “so authoritative that it can serve as the starting point and basis of comparison for all Chinese works before the eighteenth century.”

2.4 Juan Cobo and the First Translation from Chinese

In Manila in 1590, the Dominican friar Juan Cobo (1546–1592) translated the Chinese moral primer Mingxin Baojian (《明心宝鉴》) into Spanish — the first book ever translated from Chinese into any Western language. Cobo also wrote the Doctrina Christiana en Lengua China, the second Chinese-language work composed by a European (after Ruggieri’s Shengiao Shilu of 1584), and the Biàn Zhèng Jiào Zhēn Chuán Shílù (辩正教真传实录), which, alongside its discussion of Christian theology, introduced Western scientific and technological knowledge in Chinese — making it the first work of its kind in any language.

2.5 Diego de Pantoja: The “Western Confucian”

Among the Spanish missionaries who truly integrated into Chinese intellectual life, Diego de Pantoja (庞迪我, 1571–1618) stands alone. Arriving in China in 1597, Pantoja joined Matteo Ricci and together they entered Beijing in 1601, presenting the Wanli Emperor with European curiosities — including a harpsichord, which Pantoja taught court eunuchs to play. Pantoja became one of only two Europeans with regular access to the Forbidden City. His Chinese writings — Qike (七克, “Seven Victories over the Self”), Rìguǐ Túfǎ (日晷图法, on sundial construction, co-authored with Sun Yuanhua) — were widely read by Chinese literati, who honoured him as “Pang Gong” (庞公). His measurement of Beijing’s latitude using an astrolabe (40°N, correcting the European maps’ erroneous placement at 50°N) and his confirmation that “Cathay” was indeed “China” were contributions to both sinology and world geography. His detailed report to Bishop Guzmán, Relación de la Entrada de Algunos Padres de la Compañía de Jesús en la China (1602), was translated into French, German, Italian, Latin, and English, and was the most authoritative account of Chinese conditions available in Europe before the publication of Ricci’s De Christiana Expeditione.

2.6 The “Chinese Rites Controversy” and Spanish Sinology

The prolonged “Chinese Rites Controversy” (c. 1630–1742), which pitted Jesuit advocates of cultural accommodation against Dominican and Franciscan critics, was largely initiated by Spanish missionaries. Juan Bautista de Morales (黎玉范, 1597–1664) and Antonio de Santa María Caballero (利安当, 1602–1669) challenged Ricci’s tolerant stance toward Chinese ancestral rites and Confucian ceremonies, arguing that these constituted idolatry incompatible with Christianity. While the controversy had devastating consequences for the Christian mission in China — culminating in the Kangxi Emperor’s prohibition of missionary activity — it also generated an enormous body of scholarly literature on Chinese philosophy, religion, and ritual. Morales produced the Historia Evangélica de China and several Chinese-Spanish dictionaries; Caballero wrote Tiānrú Yìn (天儒印, “The Seal of Heaven and Confucianism”), an early work of comparative philosophy. Francisco Varo (1627–1687) composed the Arte de la Lengua Mandarina, the first Western monograph to systematically analyse Chinese grammar, which had a lasting influence on European linguistics.

Domingo Fernández Navarrete (1618–1686) produced the most thorough Spanish accounts of Qing China, including the Tratados Históricos, Políticos, Éticos y Religiosos de la Monarquía de China, which was widely read by Enlightenment thinkers including Diderot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Leibniz. Henri Bernard, S.J., wrote that “it is almost impossible for Europe to understand the Rites Controversy in East Asia without reference to Navarrete.”

2.7 Spanish Sinology and Latin America: The “Third Pole”

A distinctive feature of Spanish sinology is its extension to the Americas. Many Spanish missionaries travelled to China via New Spain (Mexico), and their sojourns in the New World created a “third pole” of East-West cultural exchange. José de Acosta (1540–1599), the historian and Dean of the College of Lima, became a founder of sinological studies in the Western Hemisphere. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (1600–1659), Archbishop of Puebla and former viceroy of New Spain, not only transformed Mexico into a forum for the Chinese Rites debate but also wrote the Historia de la Conquista de China por los Tártaros (1670), a perceptive analysis of the fall of the Ming dynasty. The interaction of Iberian, Indigenous American, and Chinese civilisations in the Americas during this period constituted a unique chapter in world cultural history.

2.8 Decline and Modern Revival

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries marked a period of steep decline for Spanish sinology, mirroring the decline of Spanish global power. It was not until the twentieth century that Spanish scholars began to re-engage with Chinese studies. The establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and the People’s Republic of China in 1973 provided a strong impetus. The pioneering work of Luo Huiling at the Complutense University of Madrid, the sinological programs at the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Granada, and the establishment of Confucius Institutes at several Spanish universities (Complutense, Valencia, Barcelona, Granada, among others) have reinvigorated the field. Contemporary Spanish sinology encompasses translation and literary studies, contemporary China studies, and increasing attention to the historical role of Spanish missionaries in the formation of European knowledge about China.

III. The Iberian Legacy

The contributions of Portugal and Spain to the development of European sinology are of the first order. Portuguese navigators opened the maritime route; Portuguese and Spanish missionaries pioneered the study of the Chinese language, the translation of Chinese texts, and the systematic description of Chinese civilisation. The works of Mendoza, Semedo, Pantoja, Navarrete, and Varo became the foundational texts upon which the entire edifice of European sinology was built. Their legacy is not merely antiquarian: the archival collections in Lisbon, Macau, Madrid, Seville, and the Vatican, comprising thousands of manuscripts, letters, dictionaries, grammars, and reports produced by Iberian missionaries, remain an indispensable resource for the study of early modern China and the history of East-West cultural encounter.

Bibliography

Barros, João de. Décadas da Ásia. Lisbon, 1552–1615.

Bernard, Henri, S.J. Aux Portes de la Chine: Les Missionnaires du XVIe Siècle, 1514–1588. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936.

Chen, Matthew. “Unsung Trailblazers of China–West Cultural Encounter.” Ex/Change 8 (2003): 4–9.

Cummins, J. S. A Question of Rites: Friar Domingo Navarrete and the Jesuits in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Hudson, G. F. Europe and China. London: Arnold, 1931.

Lach, Donald F. Asia in the Making of Europe. Vol. 1, Book 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.

Luo Huiling. “Sinology in Spain at the Early Age: First Cultural Communications between Two Countries.” Unpublished manuscript, Complutense University of Madrid.

Mendoza, Juan González de. Historia de las Cosas más Notables, Ritos y Costumbres del Gran Reyno de la China. Rome, 1585. Chinese trans. by He Gaoji. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1998.

Mungello, David E. Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1989.

Pinto, Fernão Mendes. Peregrinação. Lisbon, 1614. Eng. trans.: The Travels of Mendes Pinto. Ed. and trans. Rebecca D. Catz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Semedo, Álvaro. Relação da Grande Monarquia da China. Madrid, 1641.

Zhang Kai. Diego de Pantoja y China. Trans. Luo Huiling. Madrid: Editorial Popular, 2018.

Zhang Kai. Historia de Relaciones Sino-Españolas. Trans. Sun Jiakun and Huang Caizhen. Madrid: Editorial Popular, 2014.

Zhang Xiping 张西平. Xifang Hanxue Shiliu Jiang 西方汉学十六讲 [Sixteen Lectures on Western Sinology]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2011.

References

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