A Botanical Exchange: The Emperor Likes Flowers
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2011
- Journal Title:
- Chinese Cross Currents
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 2
- Language:
- Abstract:
One of the most famous maps of China was drawn by Michael Boym, SJ (卜弥格 Bu Mige, 1612–1659). The map is also the first one produced (c. 1652) by the Jesuit missionaries who sought to acquaint Europeans with their knowledge of the country’s territorial divisions and some of its minerals and plants. Hence, one finds on Boym’s map depictions of rhubarb (大黄 ta huang) and ginger (姜 jiang).(1) Martino Martini, SJ (魏匡国 Wei Kuangguo, 1614–1661) included a description of the ginseng plant (人参 renshen) in his Novus Atlas Sinsis [sic], and the Plinus Indicus (c.1618–1630) contains a detailed record of the herbs and plants Johann Schreck (Terrenz), SJ (邓玉函 Deng Yuhan, 1576–1630), had observed, with illustrations of them rendered in their natural colors, and their identifying names in Chinese characters (Figure 1).(2) To this may be added the seventeen colored illustrations of plants in Boym’s botanical geography of China, the Flora Sinensis (1656), the remarks on Chinese plants recorded by Louis Le Comte, SJ (李明 Li Ming, 1655–1728) and those found in the Lettres édifiantes.(3)Thus, while the missionaries were disseminating knowledge about Chinese herbs and plants in Europe, the Chinese were observing the exotic specimens the Portuguese had imported to their colony at Macau.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Publisher URL:
- Page Range:
- 66–77
- ISSN:
- 1810-147X