Name______________________________________ Period_______

WHAT WAS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MING & QING DYNASTIES AND EUROPEANS?

Directions: Answer the questions that accompany the following sources.

1

2.Matteo Ricci and the Jesuits in China

Before the 16th century, some Europeans, like Marco Polo, ventured to China and returned to Europe to tell the tale, but mostly, contact between Western Europe and East Asia took place through traders from the Middle East. In the 1500s, a new era of exploration and trade began.

In 1514, the Portuguese were the first Western European people to make regular direct contact with the Chinese. Though the Chinese were at first outraged by what they saw as the Europeans’ barbaric and uncivilized manners, they eventually allowed the Portuguese to dock their boats outside of and eventually to live in a port called Macao. From their base in Macao, the Portuguese traded in China and southeast Asia.

Source: Adapted from Asia for Educators, “Key Points in Developments in East Asia, 1450-1750. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_ming.ht

2a. Before the Portuguese started trading with the Chinese, how did Europeans usually come into contact with goods and ideas from East Asia?

2b. How did the Chinese first react to the Portuguese?

3. In addition to traders, Christian missionaries named Jesuits came to China. Jesuits are an order of Catholic monks belonging to a group called the Society of Jesus that was founded by Ignatius Loyola in

a. List 2 things you see in this image.

b. Based on this image what do you think is the relationship between Christian Missionaries and the Ming Dynasty?

1540 and still exist today. Jesuits were, and still are, known for their dedication to education and for their attempts to spread Christianity around the world and convert people to the faith. As they would in other places, Jesuit missionaries brought their religion to the Chinese. Having learned about Confucianism, the Christians tried explaining their faith through a Chinese lens. Chinese officials were more impressed by some of the scientific achievements that the Europeans brought with them than with their religious philosophies.

The Jesuits, led by a man named Matteo Ricci, demonstrated their ability to predict solar eclipses which were important in Chinese culture, they also showed off inventions like the clock, prism, eyeglasses, and musical instruments. Most of these “European inventions” were derived from earlier Chinese and Middle Eastern breakthroughs that reached Europe through trade. In some cases, the Portuguese presented the Ming and Qing officials with innovations of technology that started centuries before in China. Matteo Ricci learned to speak and write classical Chinese and was the first European allowed into the emperor’s Forbidden City. The Portuguese in return learned a great deal from their Chinese hosts and brought their observations of Chinese culture back to Europe which spurred more interest in travel to and trade with East Asia.

Initially, the Christian missionaries were successful. At the height of their activities during the early Qing dynasty, several hundred court officials and around 300,000 regular Chinese people had converted. This did not last long. In the mid 1700s emperors started to suppress Christian activities in China.

This passage was adapted by New Visions from the Matteo Ricci in New World Encyclopedia which is published under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 licens

3a.Who are the Jesuits? What were their goals in China?

3b.What did the Chinese want from the Europeans?

3c.What evidence is there of cultural diffusion between the Chinese and the Portuguese? What impact might this have on their cultures?

4. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), The Tribute System and the Arrival of Europeans

Matteo Ricci, Ming court, scientific subjects, Ming China, Chinese capital

The early Ming emperors worked hard to reestablish China's preeminence in East Asia. Ever since the Han dynasty, Chinese had viewed their emperor as properly everyone’s overlord, and the rulers of non-Chinese tribes, regions, and states as properly his vassals. Foreign rulers were expected to honor and observe the Chinese ritual calendar, to accept nominal appointments as members of the Chinese nobility or military establishment, and to send periodic tribute missions to the Chinese capital. All foreign envoys received valuable gifts in acknowledgement of the tribute they presented to the emperor, and they were permitted to buy and sell goods at official markets. In this way, copper coins, silk, tea, and porcelain flowed out of China, and horses, spices, and other goods flowed in. On balance, the combined tribute and trade activities were highly advantageous to foreigners—so much so that China limited the size and cargoes of foreign missions and prescribed long intervals between missions.

To preserve the government's monopoly on foreign contacts and keep the Chinese people from being contaminated by foreign customs that the Ming considered barbarian, the Ming rulers prohibited the Chinese from traveling abroad. They also prohibited unauthorized dealings between Chinese and foreigners. These prohibitions were unpopular and unenforceable, and from about the mid-15th century, the Chinese readily collaborated with foreign traders in widespread smuggling. By late Ming times, thousands of Chinese had relocated to various places in Southeast Asia and Japan to conduct trade.

Ming policies on foreign trade shaped the Chinese reception of Europeans, who first appeared in Ming China in 1514. Christian missionaries followed the traders. Jesuits, members of a Roman Catholic religious order, showed respect for Chinese culture and overcame the foreigners’ reputation for lawlessness. The most eminent of the Jesuit missionaries was Matteo Ricci, who acquired a substantial knowledge of the Chinese language and of Confucian learning. During the latter part of the Ming dynasty, the Jesuits established communities in many cities of south and central China and built a church in Beijing under imperial patronage. Jesuits even served as astronomers in the Ming court. Some officials and members of the court became Jesuit converts or sympathizers, and European books on scientific subjects and Christian theology were published in Chinese.

http://www.countriesquest.com/asia/china/history/imperial_china/the_ming_dynasty_1368-1644/the_tribute_system_and_the_arrival_of_eur

What goods were coming into China during the Ming Dynasty?

What goods were being exported by the Ming?

What steps did the Ming Dynasty take to try and keep Chinese people from becoming ‘contaminated” by foreigners?

What shaped Ming Chinese view of Europeans?

Why do you think made Matteo Ricci more acceptable as an “outsider?”