Sacred Orientalism: A Particular Mode of Missionary Ethnographic Thinking and Poetics on Juan González de Mendoza’s Chinese Ethnography
Mendoza’s History of the Great Empire of China constitutes a notable contribution to the history of the literary relationship between China and Spain. First published in Rome in 1585, the work has exerted a profound influence on international scholarship over the past four centuries. From the perspe...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Religions
Year: 2024, Volume: 15, Issue: 12 |
| Further subjects: | B
Sixteenth Century
B China B missionary ethnography B Sacred Orientalism B Orientalism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Mendoza’s History of the Great Empire of China constitutes a notable contribution to the history of the literary relationship between China and Spain. First published in Rome in 1585, the work has exerted a profound influence on international scholarship over the past four centuries. From the perspective of the evolution of Western perceptions of China, contemporary scholars have primarily assessed this text on the basis of Mendoza’s elevation of Europe’s admiration of China from a material to a spiritual dimension. This paper introduces a new perspective on Mendoza’s significant contribution to the field of Chinese studies. Not only is his work a valuable source of information about China, but it is also a pioneering form of missionary ethnographic writing. This approach, here termed as ‘Sacred Orientalism’, served to elevate Europe’s idealised and sacred imagination of China to new heights. This paper demonstrates, among other things, how Mendoza used his two main reference works, Cruz and Rada, to reach such Sacred Orientalism. Furthermore, this paper also examines the factors that led to the emergence and acceptance of this distinctive mode of writing about China in 16th-century Europe. |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel15121462 |
