From Ricci’s World Map to Schall’s translation of De Re Metallica: Western learning and China’s search for silver in the Late Ming period (1583–1644)
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2018
- Journal Title:
- Crossroads
- Volume:
- 17/18
- Language:
- Abstract:
From the second half of the sixteenth century onward, western ships brought three important phenomena to China: western religion via Jesuit missionaries, western knowledge through books on science and technology, as well as western-style money as Spanish silver coins mined from rich deposits of Latin America. Careful Chinese observers from the beginning realised possible connections among these three phenomena, and at first suspected Matteo Ricci and other early Jesuit missionaries to be masters of alchemy well versed in “arts of yellow and white”, that magically transformed base metals into gold and silver. Such assumptions were firstly fuelled by observation that Jesuits clearly lacked a visible source of money but were never short of it. Secondly, it was observed that Portuguese took mercury away from Guangdong and returned with shiploads of silver. Suspicions about alchemist creation of precious metals by Jesuit missionaries could not be confirmed, however, and instead it became clear that much foreign silver entered China through the Spanish Philippines, which gave rise to new speculations. Chinese ships set out to grasp control of a legendary mountain in Luzon, where golden and silver beans were said to grow, from which western coins were thought to be produced. The endeavour failed, leading to a bloody massacre against the Chinese population of Luzon at the hands of the Spaniards. Around the same time the Kunyu wanguo quantu, Ricci’s most detailed world map, displayed the mines of South America for the first time in China. In following decades, through numerous domestic Chinese publications but also through Aleni’s geographic work Zhifang waiji, overseas origin of silver coins beyond Luzon was clarified and more detailed knowledge about the New World became available. This awareness arose at a time of crisis that terminated the Ming dynasty, however, so the aim of gaining control over the vaguely known silver deposits vanished. Instead, the idea became to increase domestic silver production and thus state revenue through the application of superior western mining and smelting methods, which brought about new hope and initiation of the Kunyu gezhi translation project led by Adam Schall von Bell. After a concerted effort of two years, the emperor ordered the completed book to be distributed to all mining regions in order to reform the Chinese mining industry. This order exerted no influence, however, because the onslaught of Li Zicheng’s rebel army and subsequent Manchu conquest preceded its execution. …
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Publisher URL:
- Page Range:
- 93–138
- ISSN:
- 2190-8796