Description
Book SynopsisEncountering China addresses the responses of early modern travelers to China who, awed by the wealth and sophistication of the society they encountered, attempted primarily to build bridges, to explore similarities, and to emulate the Chinese, though they were also critical of some local traditions and practices. Contributors engage critically with travelogues, treating them not just as occasional sources of historical information but as primary, literary texts deeply revelatory of the world they describe. Contributors reach back to the earliest European writings available on China in an effort to broaden and nuance our understanding of European contact with the Middle Kingdom in the early modern period. While the primary focus of these essays is the external gaze – European sources about China – contributors also tease out aspects of the Chinese world-view of the time, thus generating a conversation between Chinese literary and historical texts and European ones.
Table of ContentsContents Introduction by Rachana Sachdev Part 1 European Responses to Child Abandonment, Sale of Children and Social Welfare Policies in Ming China by Rachana Sachdev Of Golden Lilies and Gentlewomen: Constructions of Chinese Women in Early Modern European Travel Narratives by Qingjun Li Part 2 Earlier Moderns: The Novel Form as National Development in China and Europe By Daniel Dooghan “A Strong Resemblance”: Samuel Richardson, Chinese Talent-Beauty Novels, and a Secret Origin of “World Literature” By Ning Ma Part 3 “'Magicians, Enchanters, and Professional Crooks’: Early Modern Understandings of Daoism” By Ronnie Littlejohn Buddhism and Idolatry By Terry Logan Mazurak Bibliography Index About the Contributors
