Imagining China: The View from Europe, 1550-1700

How did early modern Europeans imagine China? As knowledge from trade and travel about this vast kingdom to the East moved slowly westward, the fantastical picture of China derived from such medieval travelers as Marco Polo and John Mandeville began to take on greater accuracy. But China remained vividly present in the European imagination as a land of curiosities; as a kingdom of exemplary civility among non-Christian peoples; as an empire of unimaginable antiquity but also of dynamic contemporary change; and above all, as the source of priceless commodities, both natural and artificial, that might bring good health and great fortune if only they could be acquired.

Matteo Ricci - founder of the Jesuit China mission, knowledgeable interpreter of Chinese culture for Europeans, collaborator in the creation of the first Chinese translations of European scientific works, and author of the first book written in Chinese by a European. Ricci’s Jiaoyou lun or Essay on Friendship (1595) is a collection of the best European ideas about friendship culled from the classics and Church authors, all composed in Chinese with a beautiful classical style.  Before it was published, Ricci presented it as a gift to a cousin of the emperor who had befriended him; and the little work subsequently became so popular in China that it was officially incorporated into the first Qing imperial library in 1725. The original Latin commonplace book from which Ricci culled much of the material is on display with a facsimile of Ricci’s Chinese manuscript.

In order to emphasize this theme of intercultural friendship that emerged in the period, Imagining China coincides with the release of the first English translation of the Essay on Friendship from Columbia University Press, edited and translated by curator Timothy Billings.

The Folger Consort's opening concert of the 2009-10 season is a unique intercultural program combining Italian Renaissance music with classical Chinese music on traditional instruments to accompany readings of selected passages from Ricci’s beloved essay.