ARTS 2457 China Imagined and Perceived

Week 4 Lecture Notes

Contents

o Orientalism and Sinology

o Film Lin Zexu & Discussion

o De Rachewiltz Papal Envoys to the Great Khans
o

Travels of Marco Polo

o Film: 55 Days at Peking

Orientalism and Sinology

by Simon Leys (Pierre Ryckmans)

Edward Saids main contention is that no production of knowledge in the human sciences can ever ignore or disclaim the authors
involvement as a human subject in his own circumstances. Translated into plain English, this would seem to mean simply that no
scholar can escape his original condition: his own national, cultural, political, and social prejudices are bound to be reflected in his
work. Such a commonsense statement hardly warrants any debate. (p. 97 of reader)
-Question: Is that what Edward Said is saying?

- Sinology () is limited to the study of China and was never intended to take a broader Orient into consideration.
- Sinologists statements are not intended to spread to non-Chinese world
-Chinese themselves are the greatest Sinologists. Sinology is part of Chinas own intellectual enterprise.

My task here is not to write a review of Orientalism (thank God!), but merely to see whether Saids arguments present any
relevance to Chinese studies. (p. 98 of reader, p.96 of original)
Western sinology in its entirety is a mere footnote appended to the huge sinological corpus that Chinese intellectuals
themselves have been building for centuries to this day. Further, it should be noted that today a significant proportion of
leading sinologists in the Western academic world are Chinese: through their teaching and research, they play a decisive role
in Western sinology. (p. 98 of reader, p.97 of original)

Orientalism and Sinology

by Simon Leys (Pierre Ryckmans)

the notion of an other culture is of questionable use, as it seems to end inevitably in self-congratulation,
or hostility and aggression: Why could it not equally well end in admiration, wonderment, increased self-knowledge,
relativisation, and readjustment of ones own values, awareness of the limits of ones own civilization?
...there was never a more powerful antidote to the temptation of Western ethnocentrism than the study of Chinese civilization.
(pp. 98-99 of reader, pp.96-97 of original)

-Western ethnocentrism
- The study of Chinese civilisation challenges western ethnocentrism

we should guard against universities being used by the state

We should question the advisability of too close a relationship between the scholar and the state: You bet we should! On this
point I could not agree more with Said-yet it is hardly an original conclusion. The very concept of the university has rested for
some seven hundred years on the absolute autonomy and freedom of all academic and scholarly activities from any interference
and influence of the political authorities. It is nice to see that Said is now rediscovering such a basic notion; I only deplore that
it took him three hundred pages of twisted, obscure, incoherent, ill-informed, and badly written diatribe to reach at last one sound
and fundamental truism. (p. 99 of reader, p.99 of original)

The Film Lin Zexu

Questions for Discussion
1. What are the intended themes of the film?
2. How are the British and the Chinese depicted differently from western films dealing with the same era,
such as Tai-Pan?
3. Why would a film like this be made in 1959 during the Great Leap Forward?
-Great Leap Forward (; Dyuj
n, 1958-1961)

4. For the Chinese People? Is it the British Imperialists or is it the Qing Court? Whats the implication?

Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz
The Earliest European Impressions of China
oRomans Impressions of China
--The Romans Silk Trade with China along the Silk Road

Note: Ptolomy (c. AD 100 c.170) gave a detailed description of the

Silk Road
--The Romans had no direct connection with China
--Virgil (70 BCE-19 BCE): Need I tell you aboutthe way the
Chinese comb the delicate silk from their leaves? (Georgics, 118-21)
--In the first century AD, the Romans thought of China as a country of
just, frugal, and peace-loving people.

Main routes of the Silk Road

Time period: around 114 BCE 1450s CE

Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz
The Earliest European Impressions of China
oRomans Impressions of India
-- Stories from Roman accounts of India persisted into the European

Middle Ages: gold-digging ant

Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz
The Earliest Chinese Impressions of The West
oThe ChineseClassic of Mountains and Oceans
contains similar stories about the West: headless men etc

oChinese myth of cottoncounterpart of Latin myth of silk

oA. D. 97 Chinese Emperor of Han Dynasty sent an envoy to

Rome to establish direct contact with Rome

Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz
The European Middle Ages (5th-15th Century)

oThe Story of the Magi (p. 27 of original, p. 108 of reader)

-- The reinterpretation of this legend led to the wide-spread belief in the existence of Christian priest-kings ruling in the
Orient. (p. 27 of original, p.108 of reader)

oStories of St. Thomas (p. 28 of original, p. 109 of reader)

oA Nestorian prelate arrives in Rome in 1122 telling tales of miracles in India.
--Nestorianism:

-Nestorian Christians in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907)

oAbout 20 years later (1142?) news arrived from the Levant simultaneously with the tragic news of the fall of the
Christian stronghold of Edessa that a powerful Christian ruler in the East, Prester John, had inflicted severe defeats on
the Moslems. (pp. 30-31 of original, p. 110 of reader)
o--the first reference to Prester John in the West
o-- Yeh-L Ta-Shih Prester John??
o--In 1177 The Pope sent his personal physician on a special mission to the East to locate and establish contact with the legendary

Chritian ruler of the East-Prester John

Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz

The Nestorian Stele in Xian, China

("Stele to the propagation in
China of the luminous religion of Daqin) was a Tang
Chinese Stele erected in 781, documenting 150 years
of early Christianity in China.

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Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz
The European Middle Ages (5th-15th Century)

oThe propaganda about Prester Johns coming to aid them aroused a mood of fervent expectations
among the Christian troops, which later events proved to be disastrous (p. 38 of original, p. 115 of reader)
-- Prophesies did not come true, Prester John and King David failed to materialize
Question: How do we analyze this (the legend of Prester John)?

The Nestorians in Central Asia didnt intend the legend to have such effect on Europe

The leaders of the Crusades used the legends to overcome adverse criticism and lack of co-operation in the Christian
camp, and to urge a definite course of action. (p. 40 of original, p. 116 of reader)

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Papal Envoys to the Great Khans

by I. de Rachewiltz
The European Middle Ages (5th-15th Century)

oWilliam of Rubruck (c. 1220 c. 1293)

- traveled from Constantinople to Karakorum
on a mission to convert the Great Khan to Christianity

- Pax Tartarica (Latin, Tartar Peace)

or Pax Mongolica (Mongol Peace)

- The English book The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck (London, 1990)

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Travels of Marco Polo

Marco Polo (1254-1324): a Venetian Merchant

Marco Polo met the Great Khan in 1275.

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Travels of Marco Polo

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Travels of Marco Polo

Did Marco Polo go to China?

oMarco Polos travel could have happened
--Pax Tatarica/ Pax Mongolica during the Yuan Dynasty (Mongol Dynasty)

oFrances Woods book Did Marco Polo Go to China? (1995)

- Travels of Marco Polo is based on a Persian travelogue
- What are the significant features absent from Marcos book?
oThe significance of this book goes beyond the disputes over its veracity.

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Travels of Marco Polo

How was China depicted in the book?

oThe Polos meeting with the Great Khan (p. 12 of original, p. 123 of reader)
oFirst description of the Great Khan (p. 109 of original, p. 127 of reader)
oThe Great Khans harem (p.120 of the original, p. 133 of reader)
--quantification

oMeasurement of the Great Khans Palace (p. 123 of original, p. 134 of reader)
-more quantification

oMarco Polo Bridge (pp. 171-172 of original, pp. 144-145 of the reader)
oWealth of communities (p.177 of original, 148 of reader)

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