Unsung Trailblazers of China-West
Matthew Y Chen
year marks the 300th
anniversary of the publication of the first grammar of Chinese in a European
vernacular, Arte de la lengua mandarina [Grammar
of the Mandarin language] (Canton, 1703). To commemorate this landmark event
in the history of western sinology, the Beijing Foreign Studies University, in
conjunction with Peking University, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, is sponsoring an International Conference on Western Chinese
Studies (September 12–14, 2003, Beijing). It is an opportune time to pay
tribute to the relatively obscure author of this groundbreaking work, Francisco
Varo, and other unsung trailblazers of China-West cultural encounter.
the earliest days of Sino- European contacts in the 16th
the Jesuits took the central stage and played a leading role. But, away from the
limelight, there were other significant players, notably Augustinians ,
Dominicans , Franciscans and the Missions Étrangères de Paris. In
this article I will limit myself mainly to Francisco Varo and his fellow
Dominicans. First, a few words about the Dominican Order. Officially known as
Order of Preachers, it was founded in 1216 by St. Dominic of Guzman
(1170–1221). Within decades of its foundation, the order had established
itself at major universities of Europe, including Paris, Bologna, and Oxford.
Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274), a favorite son of this religious organization,
epitomized medieval Christian thinking, and has exercised a profound and lasting
influence on catholic philosophy and theology. In 1582 the Dominicans launched a
new province for the express purpose of preaching the Christian faith to the
‘most august kingdom of China’.1
Soon after they set foot on the Philippines, the Dominicans founded the
University of Sto. Tomás in 1619, almost three hundred years before 上海震旦大學
(Aurora), the first catholic university in China, came into
existence in 1903.
Francisco Varo (1627–1687) was born in Seville, Spain. At the tender age of 15, he joined the Dominican Order, and devoted his entire adult life to missionary work in China (1649– 87). Varo’s long forgotten Arte de la lengua mandarina [Grammar of the Mandarin Language]2 has now been translated into English and made widely available by Coblin and Levi (2000). To put Varo in historical context, here are, in chronological order, some of the most notable early grammars of Chinese:3
de la Lengua Mandarina, by Francisco Varo. Canton
(xylographic edition). (Completed in 1682)
Sinica by Joshua Marshman. Serampore: Mission Press.
Grammar of the Chinese Language, by Robert Morrison.
Serampore: Mission Press.
de la grammaire chinoise, by Jean-Pierre Abel- Rémusat.
Paris: Imprimerie Royale.
linguae sinicae, by Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare.
Malacca. (Completed in 1729).
nouvelle de la langue chinoise, by Stanislas Julien.
Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
Grammatik, by Georg von der Gabelentz. Leipzig:
1898. 《馬氏文通》, by
surprisingly, the earliest grammars (Varo , Prémare , Marshman, Morrison)
are compiled by missionaries, designed primarily for pedagogical purposes. In
particular, Marshman and Morrison are best described as textbooks rather than
real grammars. In Peyraube’s words, Abel-Rémusat’s Éléments
represents “the first attempt
at a logical synthesis and well-reasoned construction of the Chinese language”
(Peyraube 2001:345), and heralded the dawning of (secular) academic sinology.
is not the place for a critical assessment of Varo’s Arte,
for which I refer the reader to Breitenbach’s doctoral dissertation (1996). I
wish only to highlight some of the innovative elements in this pioneering work.
Phonologically speaking, Chinese as a tonal language presented a novel challenge
to European descriptivists. Matteo Ricci 利馬竇
and his fellow Jesuits compiled dictionaries, and developed a notational system
for transcribing Chinese sounds (including tone marks). Nicolas Trigault’s 金尼閣
in particular, fleshed out the phonological system of late Ming ‘guanhua’
using European alphabets. But they provided only scant
information on the phonetics of tone, and were completely silent on how tones
change in connected speech (a phenomenon known as ‘tone sandhi’ or 連讀變調)4.
Varo was the first among European sinologists to give a detailed description of
the phonetics of tone, formulate precise rules of tone sandhi, and make astute
observations on the relationship between tone, syllable structure and
as a strategy to avoid lexical ambiguity. Furthermore, he offered plausible
phonetic explanations for the subtle tonal behavior he observed. If some of his
phonetic speculations proved to be factually incorrect, they nevertheless evince
a keen and inquisitive mind that exerted itself mightily to explain novel
linguistic phenomena by means of physiological mechanism of speech articulation
as a 17th
century man understood it.5
the significance of Varo’s grammar lies chiefly in its place in the history of
linguistic thought, esp. from a cross-cultural perspective. Varo’s Arte
the first systematic rapprochement between Western linguistic categories and an
‘alien’ language like Chinese, which lacks the characteristic morphological
and syntactic features of European languages. It is difficult for us to imagine
the daunting task of grappling with an alien tongue without the familiar
‘handles’ of Latin or Spanish. Judging by today’s standards, Varo did
little more than forcing Chinese syntax into the straitjacket of Latinbased
grammatical categories such as parts of speech, subject-predicateobject, case,
tense, aspect, and so forth. While this obvious criticism is well justified, one
should bear in mind the historical context in which Varo labored. In contrast to
lexicography, etymology, phonology and stylistics, which have flourished since
Classical times in China, ‘reflections about grammar have been practically
nonexistent’ in Chinese tradition (Peyraube 2001:341). In the absence of
indigenous models, Varo made use of the prevailing taxonomy and conceptual
framework at the time, namely that of Elio Antonio de Nebrija (1441–1522),
whose intellectual debt he acknowledged by name.6
In truth, this practice is not very different from 馬建忠
hundred years later, or latter day grammarians, influenced variously by Otto
Jespersen, Henry Sweet, or Noam Chomsky and other contemporary theorists. What
the modern linguist Zhu Dexi 朱德熙 (1982)
said of馬建忠 fits Varo as well, only a
Mr. Ma’s Wentong is often criticized for aping Latin grammar. In fact, as the first book to systematically investigate Chinese syntax, its scope and level of sophistication far exceed our expectations. We must not be too harsh on Mr. Ma. — Tr. MC
Varo’s Arte is only the first Chinese grammar to appear in print. Varo's confrères in the Dominican order have left for posterity at
least 30 grammars, and 57 dictionaries or
'vocabularios'. Some of the pre-1900 Dominican grammars are listed
below. Since the time of completion / publication of these grammars are unknown,
I have included the authors'
dates of birth and death for reference.
Arte de la lengua china, (also cited as Lingua sinica ad certam revocata
methodum) by Juan Cobo (?–1592).
Arte de la lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva (?–1607).
Gramática española-mandarina, by Juan Bautista de Morales (1597–1664).
Gramática española-china, by Francisco Diez (1606–1646).
Arte de la lengua chinchea,7 by Victorio Ricci8 (1621–1685).
Gramática española-china del
dialecto de Amoy, by Francisco Márquez (?–1706).
Arte de lengua china, by Francisco Frias (?–1706).
Arte de la lengua mandarina, by Juan de la Cruz (1645–1721).
Gramática y vocabulario españolchinos, by Francisco González de San Pedro (?–1730).
Arte sínico de Fogan, by Esteban Jordá
Gramática española-china, by Felipe Ontoria (1861–1892).
of these grammars have languished unedited for years in the archives, some have
been lost for ever, and all of them remain unknown except to a handful of
specialists. Victorio Ricci’s Arte
de la lengua chinchea and Márquez’s Gramática
española-china del dialecto de Amoy must be among the oldest grammars
of any local dialect. More importantly, it is worth noting that several of these
grammars predate that of Varo, in some cases by nearly a century. Citing an
unpublished 1602 source,10
González (1966, p. 387) asserts that Cobo’s Lingua sinica is
the first grammar of Chinese ever written by a foreigner.11
González also quotes (p.15) Varo as saying that Morales wrote a grammar
of Chinese shortly after he landed on Chinese soil (in 1633). As for Diez, he
apparently began his Gramática around
1640– 41 in the Philippines (p.35). The existence of some early grammar or
grammars predating Varo is not in doubt. In his Arte Varo alluded on
several occasions to an earlier grammar or grammars. For instance, speaking on
the difficulties beginners encountered in learning Chinese, he stated:
this inconvenience, the priests of St. Dominic compiled a grammar as soon as
they could; and the present grammar adheres to that former one in its basic
rules. (Varo 1703, p.83 [2000, p.181]).
contrast, the first Jesuit grammar (by Prémare, completed in 1726) did
not appear until 1831. This comes as somewhat of a surprise, given the
extraordinary breadth of Jesuit scholarship in all fields of sinology.
Breitenbach (2000) attributes this to the oral tradition of language pedagogy
that prevailed among the Jesuits.
long succession of descriptive grammars is in keeping with the Dominican
tradition of developing linguistic tools to serve their missionary goals. Thus
when they set foot in the New World, they immediately went about writing
grammars for the American Indian languages. One eminent linguist from the ranks
of this religious order, Domingo de Santo Tomás (1499– 1570), wrote the
first grammar of the newly discovered Americas, Gramática o arte de la lengua
general de los indios de los reynos del Perú, and compiled the first dictionary Lexicón
o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Perú (both
published in 1560, Valladolid), thereby earning himself recognition as the
father of American philology. Likewise, when the Dominicans landed in the
Philippines, they produced, in short order, the first grammar of Tagalog, Arte
y reglas de la lengua Tagala in
1610, by Francisco Blancas de San José.12
It goes without saying that the driving force behind the
missionaryscholars was first and foremost their desire to win over the hearts
and minds of the Chinese for the Christian religion. To this end, they produced
catechisms, learned tracts and other literature of a religious nature in the
Chinese language. Of this genre of religious literature, Matteo Ricci’s 《天主實義》 [The True Meaning of God] occupies a deservedly prominent
place of honour. What is less well known is the fact that soon after their
arrival in the Philippines (in 1587), the Dominican friars were entrusted with
the care of the local Chinese immigrants in Manila, learned the Chinese
language, and published a number of religious tracts in this language. The
earliest of these are listed below, together with two influential books by the
Jesuits Michele Ruggieri 羅明堅 (1543–1607) and Matteo Ricci for comparison.
1584. 《天主實錄》by Michele
1593. 《辯正教真傳實錄》, by Juan Cobo, Manila.13
Christiana en letra y lengua china, by Miguel Benavides.14 Manila.
1603. 《天主實義》, by Matteo Ricci. Beijing.
1606 .《新刊僚氏正教便覽》 Memorial de la vida christiana en
lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva. Manila.
significance of these early tracts is fourfold. First of all, as soon as the
Dominicans found a permanent residence in the Philippines, they established a
printing press in Manila, with the help of the local Chinese craftsmen. All
three of their earliest works (Cobo 1593, Benavides 1593?, Nieva 1606) were
produced by means of wood block printing. They represent the earliest incunabula
Second, unlike the other early catechisms, Benavides’ Doctrina
composed in the Hokkien (southern Min, 閩南)
dialect. As such, it constitutes a rare source of information on the
pronunciation, vocaulary and syntax of Hokkien spoken in Late Ming.16 More importantly, these tracts
represent the earliest attempts of Christian missionaries to present to the
Chinese readers not only the Christian faith but also a western worldview and
belief/value system. Finally, it is remarkable that, despite its title, only
three out of nine chapters of Cobo’s 《辯正教真傳實錄》pertain
to Christian theology proper, the remaining six chapters are concerned with
‘secular’ subjects such as astronomy and natural history. Chapter 4 is
dovoted to geography. The universe Cobo depicted remains the Ptolemaic
geocentric system — half a century after De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium of
Copernicus (1543). More interesting, he used various types of observations and
empirical evidence to demonstrate that the planet we inhabit is round —
contrary to the Chinese belief of a spherical heaven and square earth (天圓地方).
One of these demonstrations derives from the round shadow cast by the earth on
the moon in an eclipse. Chapters 5–9 are devoted to a description of the flora
and fauna. Thus, it was Juan Cobo that has the distinction of being the first to
introduce European philosophy and science to China, at least in print.17
Why Cobo devoted such a disproportionate amount of space in his Apología
science and natural history is a question I will return to below.
the broader cultural sphere, the early Dominicans broke new grounds as well.
Here I will single out a few notable examples.
em que se cõtam muito por estêso as cousas da China,
by Gaspar da Cruz. Evora.
sim po cam 明心寶鑑, by Juan Cobo. Manila.
de la Fe, en lengua y letra China 《格物窮理便覽》, by Tomás Mayor. Manila.
n.d. Tien Kai [天階
Escala del cielo, by Domingo Coronado
históricos, políticos, éthicos, y religiosos de la monarchía
de China, by Domingo Fernández Navarrete. Madrid.
da Cruz’s Tractado
Portuguese) is the first European book written on China since the earliest
sustained East-West contact that began in the 16th century. Apparently it soon
fell into oblivion18 — except as a source of later works, including Bernardino
de Escalante’s Discursos de la navegación que los Portugueses hazen
a los Reinos y Provincias del Oriente, y de la noticia q se tiene de las
grandezas del Reino de la China (Sevilla, 1577), and Ioan González de
Mendoça’s Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y
costumbres del gran Reyno de la China (Rome, 1585). Escalante never set foot
on China, and pieced together his Discursos from published
‘relaciones’ or reports and what he could glean from Portuguese sailors and
Chinese migrants that settled in Portugal (cf. Sanz, p.44).19
Historia proved to be a bestseller of his time. It was promptly
translated into Italian (1586), French (1588), and English (1588).20
|The title-page of the first European book on China. The Tractado of Gaspar da Cruz, Evora, 1569.|
sim po cam 《明心寶鑑》 (1592)
and Mayor’s Símbolo
de la Fe 《格物窮理便覽》 (1607)
are mirror images: the former being the first translation of a Chinese book into
an European vernacular, the latter in reverse. 《明心寶鑑》,
compiled by the Ming scholar 范立本
in 1393 (date of preface), is an anthology of aphorisms and
proverbs (in a tradition similar to ‘ catena ’
or ‘florilegium’ in the West). This book was presented by Miguel
to the future King Philip III of Spain in 1595. The dedicatory note is worth
quoting in part:22
|The frontispiece of Beng Sim Po Cam 《明心寶鑑》 the first Chinese book translated into an European vernacular, by Juan Cobo, 1592.|
religión de Santo Domingo ofrece a V.A., como en parias, las primicias de
la riqueza de aquel grande reino de la China. Juzgan los chinos por sus grandes
y verdaderas riquezas, no el oro, ni la plata, ni las sedas, sino los libros, y
la sabiduría, y las virtudes y el gobierno justo de su república:
esto estiman, esto engrandecen, de esto se glorian y de esto tratan en sus
conversaciones la gente bien compuesta (que es mucha). Ofrece, pues, a V.A. la
religión de Santo Domingo este libro chino, traducido en lengua
castellana... El primer libro que en el mundo se ha traducido de lengua y letras
chinas en otra lengua y letras es este...
order of St. Dominic presents in homageto your Royal Highness, the first fruits
of the wealth of that great kingdom of China. The Chinese take to be their great
and true wealth not gold, nor silver, nor silk, but books, wisdom, virtues and
just government of their country: this is what the well-bred people (of whom
there are many) esteem, aggrandize, take pride in, and talk about. The Order of
St. Dominic, therefore, presents to your Royal Highness this Chinese book,
translated into the Castillian language... The first book ever translated from
the Chinese language and characters into a foreign language and alphabets any
where in the world is none other than this one...’ —Tr. MC
del Símbolo de la Fe (1583, Salamanca) was written by
the Dominican Fray Luis de Granada (1504–1588), the preeminent essayist of the
Spanish Golden Century. Its Chinese translation appeared in 1607, thus predating
by one year Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi’s 徐光啟
of Euclid’s Elements
《幾何原本》 (1608). It is of some interest to note that Símbolo
de la Fe is encyclopedic in nature, embracing
subject matters ranging from astronomy to zoology, from an investigation into
the human mind (‘del anima intelectiva’) to the digestive system. The
all-embracing list of contents may seem at odds with the title and apologetic
nature of ‘Introduction to the Symbol of Faith’. In fact, Símbolo
de la Fe expands on a leitmotif in natural theology, i.e. that the universe
of creation is nothing but a reflection of God, an open book in which man can
catch a glimpse of the creator. This basic tenet finds an eloquent expression in
chapter 2 of the Símbolo ( p.145f):
es, Señor, todo este mundo visible sino un espejo que pusistes delante de
nuestros ojos para que en él contemplásemos vuestra hermosura? ...
¿qué es todo este mundo visible sino un grande y maravilloso libro
que vos, Señor, escribistes y ofrecistes a los ojos de todas las naciones
del mundo, así de griegos como de bárbaros, así de sabios
como de ignorantes, para que en él estudiasen todos, y conociesen quién
vos érades? ¿Qué serán luego todas las criaturas
deste mundo, tan hermosas y tan acabadas sino unas como letras quebradas y
iluminadas, que declaran bien el primor y la sabiduría de su autor?’
is, Lord, the whole visible world if not a mirror that you set before our eyes
so that we can contemplate in it your beauty?... What is this entire visible
world if not a big and wondrous book that you, Lord, have written and offered to
the eyes of all nations of the world, Greek or heathen, learned or ignorant, so
that in it all may inquire and understand who you are? What then are all the
creatures of this world, so beautiful and perfect if not as though they were
richly illuminated letters23
that proclaim the elegance and wisdom of its author?’
is no question that the Símbolo
de la Fe is the subtext of extended paragraphs
and chapters of Juan Cobo’s Apología or 《辯正教真傳實錄》
which explains the prominent place it accorded to such ‘mundane’ matters as
cosmography and natural history. This God-through-nature approach is very much
in keeping with the Dominican tradition initiated by such leading medieval
thinkers as St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas. It is this tradition
that informed the earliest Dominican missionaries in China like Juan Cobo, Tomás
Mayor and Domingo Coronado, author of 天階.24
Whether Cobo exerted any influence on the Jesuit missionary approach is a matter
of conjecture. In commenting on Cobo’s 《辯正教真傳實錄》,
the historian of science, Liu Dun 劉鈍 writes:
‘...Cobo’s was the first book to appear in China, in Chinese, with any
scientific content, and therefore it is worth further studying the possible
influence of Cobo’s work on Matteo Ricci’s proselytization methods in
China.’ (Liu 1998, p.4). Perhaps a more promising line of inquiry may be to
ascertain whether the kind of natural theology, of which Luis de Granada is a
major exponent, was very much part of the Zeitgeist that informed Matteo
Ricci’s formative years.
|Illustration from Juan Cobo’s《辯正教真傳實錄》(1593), the first book to introduce Western science to
China. It shows the round shadow cast by the earth on the moon in an
eclipse — as a proof of a spherical earth.
all the early Dominican authors on China, Navarrete exerted most impact on his
been translated into English, German, French, and Italian, and attracted the
attention of Bossuet, Leibniz, Quesnay, Voltaire, Locke (cf. Cummins 1962,
1993). Navarrete and his confrères played a pivotal role in the famous
Chinese Rites controversy or 禮儀之爭,
a cause célèbre that,
according to Cummins (1993, p.7), lasted 350 years, involved 9 popes , 2
emperors, 3 kings, the Roman & Spanish Inquisitions, the Propaganda Fide,
Sorbonne, and some of the best minds of Europe. Cummins (1993, p.226) cites the
Jesuit Henri Bernard-Maitre as saying that ‘it was almost exclusively due to
Navarrete that Europe came to learn of the Rites Controversy in East Asia.’
is considerable renewed interest in this matter, not as an arcane theological
debate mainly of historical import, rather as a prism through which we can see
refracted the many hues of ideologies and attitudes when religions come into
contact and conflict, ranging from the exclusivist ‘extra
ecclesiam nulla salus’ [no salvation outside the church]
through inclusivism (Christianity teaches the full truth, and is the fulfillment
of what other religions have only dimly glimpsed), to pluralism (all religions
are equally valid paths to salvations), and relativism (no unique or absolute
truth). Clearly, these religious isms have broader cultural resonances.
The Jesuit position on this matter is well articulated, richly documented and
amply represented in the literature — to the point of virtually drowning out
all dissenting voices. In order to reconstruct the intellectual debate — minus
the fratricidal feuds, political rivalries and curial intrigues — we need to
revisit the underlying philosophical and theological arguments. In this regard,
the early Dominicans have left valuable documents. Unfortunately, few of these
tracts are widely known, and only two of them, namely Navarrete’s Controversias
(1679) and Alexandre’s Apologie (1700) are even published at all.
In my recent visit to the Provincial Archives of Avila, Spain, I was able to
examine a fair sample of 16–17th
century documents. Among the unpublished manuscripts, I single out three, all
written by Francisco Varo.26 Varo’s manuscripts are fairly
extensive. For instance, the 1681 Tratado en que se ponen los fundamentos
to 327 folios (recto and verso, or 654 pages). A close study of these sources
can no doubt shed new light on the intellectual issues surrounding the first
serious clash between Chinese and European world views.
sobre los ritos chinos, by Francisco Varo. Ms.
y declaraciones de la verdad de algunas cosas...,
by Francisco Varo. Ms.
antiguas y modernas de la mission de la gran China,
by Domingo Fernández Navarrete. Madrid.
en que se ponen los fundamentos que los PP. misioneros dominicos de China tienen
para prohibir a sus neófitos cristianos algunas ceremonias en honor de
Confucio, by Francisco Varo. Ms.
des Dominicains missionnaires de la Chine,
by Noël Alexandre. Cologne.
way of conclusion, it is fair to say that while the Dominican missionaries have
had an auspicious beginning as cultural emissaries in China, their efforts have
declined some what in the subsequent periods. Over the last four and half
centuries or so, the totality of the Dominican contribution to Western sinology
pales in comparison to that of the Jesuits. In terms of scope and instant
popularity, there is nothing in the Dominican scholarship that remotely
approaches, for instance, Jean- Baptiste Du Halde’s Description géographique,
historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de
la Tartarie chinoise (1735, 4 vols), or Lettres
édifiantes et curieuses des Missions étrangères par
quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus (1702–1776,
34 vols.), or its sequel Mémoires concernant l’Histoire, les
Sciences, les Arts, les Moeurs, les Usages, etc., des Chinois (1776–1791,
15 vols.). In terms of originality and lasting impact, Matteo Ricci’s 《天主實義》
stands head and shoulders above the rest. Ricci’s
predecessors like Michele Ruggieri and Juan Cobo presented the Christian beliefs
and values from an essentially Euro-centric perspective. In contrast, Ricci took
the unprecedented step of attempting to meld Christianity with Chinese culture,
in the process radically re-inventing Confucianism.27
Just as St. Thomas Aquinas baptized Aristotle, Ricci sought to christen
Confucius and, simultaneously, sinicize Christianity. It was an act of
imaginative daring — or, some may say, hermeneutic adventurism. Whichever it
may be, Ricci has profoundly changed the way we think and talk about
said that, we should not let the dazzling achievements of some to blind us to
the contributions of the others. As we look back at the dawn of modern East-West
cultural contact, let us remember the early Dominican friars who blazed the
trail in many spheres of Western sinology.
I am grateful to Frs. Bonifacio Solís and Donato González for
facilitating my access to the Dominican Archivo de la Provincia, Avila, Spain.
Dr. Alicia Relinque, visiting Professor at the City University of Hong Kong
(2003), has been very helpful with library research at the Biblioteca Nacional
Benavides, Miguel (et al.). 1583? . Doctrina christiana en letra y lengua china. Manila. Facsimile version, with Spanish translation by Antonio Domínguez, and a historicobibliographical essay by Jesus Gayo Aragon. Manila. 1951.
Boxer, C.R. 1953. South China in the Sixteenth Century. London: the Hakluyt Society.
Breitenbach, Sandra. 2000. Introduction to Francisco Varo 1703 , ed. by W. South Coblin & Joseph Levi.
Breitenbach, Sandra. 1996. Die chinesische Grammatik des Dominikaners Francisco Varo (1627–1687): Arte de la Lengua Mandarina (Kanton 1703). Ph.D. dissertation, University of Göttingen.
Chen, Matthew Y. 2000. Tone Sandhi: Patterns across Chinese Dialects. Cambridge University Press.
Chen, Matthew Y. 2003. “Francisco Varo (1627–1687), a pioneer in the history of Chinese linguistics.” Paper presented at the International Conference on Western Chinese Study, Beijing Foreign Studies University, September 12–14. To appear in Journal of Chinese Linguistics.
Chen Qinghao 陳慶浩. 1990. “第一部翻譯成西方文字的中國書 --- 《明心寶鑑》.” 《中外文學》. 21.4: 73–87.
Cobo, Juan. 1593 . 《辯正教真傳實錄》 [Apología de la Verdadera Religion / Testimony of the True Religión], Canton 1583. Facsimile edition, prepared by Fidel Villaroel. University of S. Tomás Press, Manila, 1986. With English and Spanish translations, and introductions by Alberto Santamaría, Antonio Domínguez, and Fidel Villaroel.
Cobo, Juan. 1593 . Beng sim po cam 《明心寶鑑》 Espejo Rico del Claro Corazón. Manila. Facsimile edition, by Carlos Sanz, Madrid: Librería General. 1959.
Cummins, J.S. 1962. The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete 1618-1686. Cambridge: the Hakluyt Society. 2 vols.
Cummins, J.S. 1993. A Question of Rites. Friar Domingo Navarrete and the Jesuits in China. Cambridge: Scolar Press.
Da Cruz, Gaspar. 1569. Tractado em que se cõtam muito por estêso as cousas da China. Evora. English translation in Boxer 1953.
Gayo Aragón, Jesús. 1951. Ensayo histórico-bibliográfico. In Benavides 1593 . University of Sto. Tomas, Manila, p.1-104.
González, José-María. 1964. Historia de las Misiones Dominicanas en China. Vol.1: 1632–1700. Madrid: Juan Bravo.
González, José-María. 1966. Historia de las Misiones Dominicanas en China. Vol.5: Bibliografías. Madrid: Juan Bravo.
Jensen, Lionel M. 1997. Manufacturing Confucianism. Duke University Press.
Jiménez, J.A.C. 1998. “Spanish friars in the Far East: Fray Juan Cobo and his book Shi Lu.” Historia Scientiarum vol. 7–3, pp. 181– 198.
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1 Cf. González 1964, v.1, p.31.
2 The term ‘arte’
in the Spanish original derives from Lat. ‘ars
grammatica’, or the art of grammar.
3 For a historical survey, see González (1966), Peverelli (1986),
Sun Chaofen (1997), Breitenbach (2000), Peyraube (2001).
4 For an overview, see Chen 2000.
5 For a detailed analysis of Varo’s chapter on tone sandhi, see Chen
6 Varo left Europe on his China-bound journey through Mexico in 1646, and
was unlikely to have been acquainted with the
générale et raisonnée,
of Antoine Arnauld and Claude
Lancelot, published in 1660.
7 There is a long debate concerning which locality the name
refers to in the 17th century documents: today’s Quanzhou / Chuanchow
or Zhangzhou / Changchow 漳州?
(1953) devotes an entire appendix (p.313–326) to this question, and concludes
that it was used as a generic term to refer to the Bay of Amoy / Xiamen 廈門
in general. The dialect in question is then the Amoybased
lingua franca of Southern Ming.
8 A relative of Matteo Ricci.
9 I examined a microfilm version of Jordá’s
sinico in the Archivo de la Provincia of Sto.Tomás, Avila,
Spain. Its basic descriptive schema resembles that of Varo.
De la propagación de la fe en las Filipinas, by Francisco Montilla, a Franciscan. Cobo’s
sinica is also registered in Quétif-Echard 1721,
v.2:306a–307a. However, P. van der Loon (1966–67, p. 18) notes that “no
other contemporary author makes mention of a grammar or dictionary by Cobo”
and that “such a work may never have been completed.”
11 Jiménez (1998:182) claims Martín de Rada (1535-1578), an
Augustinian, wrote an
Arte y vocabulario de la lengua chinense.
12 The linguistic contribution of the Missions Étrangères de
Paris seems to be quite substantial as well, as documented in a recent
bibliography. See Missions Étrangères de Paris 1997.
13 A modern facsimile edition is now available, prepared by Fidel
Villarroel, with Spanish and English translations and an extensive introduction.
14 This booklet in Chinese characters carries no date, and no Chinese
title. J. Gayo Aragón (1951) pegs the date at 1593, and proclaims
as the first book ever printed in the
Philippines. P. van der Loon (1966-67, p.25) on the other hand, dates it between
1587 and 1607.
15 The Dominicans are also credited with having produced in 1604 the first
typographic (movable types) book in the Philippines,
Ordinationes Generales Provinciae Sanctissimi Rosarii Philippinarum.
See P. van der Loon (1966-67, op. cit., p.25ff).
16 For a philological study of Hokkien based on philippine incunabula, see
P. van der Loon (1966-67), and philological notes by Antonio Domínguez to
Benavides 1593? .
17 See Jiménez 1998, and Liu 1998, esp. introductions by Alberto
Santamaría, Antonio Domínguez and Fidel Villaroel to Cobo 1593
is available in English
translation, as part of Boxer (1953).
19 Gaspar da Cruz himself was allowed to stay in Canton for only one month
in 1556 (see González, 1966, p.12)
20 González (1966, p.12) remarks that Mendoza (Mendoça)
‘borrowed’ extensively from Gaspar da Cruz: ‘El P. Juan González de
Mendoza copia, en gran parte, el libro de P. de la Cruz, en su célebre
Historia de las cosas más notables... de China, 1585. No hay más
que confrontar los dos libros para convencerse de ello.’
21 Incidentally, Benavides (1552–1605) was the first Dominican to
minister to the Chinese in the Philippines (1587– 90), and later Archbishop of
22 From the introduction to the facsimile edition prepared by Sanz 1959.
For a recent paper on
Beng sim po cam, see Chen Q.H. 1990.
23 ‘letras quebradas y iluminadas’, literally ‘broken and illuminated
letters’, refers to the way copyists cut up in two halves an initial letter in
a manuscript for decorative purposes. See Balcells’ footnote 16 on p.146.
24 The full title cited by González (1966, p.70) reads: ‘Escala
del cielo, “en el cual por el conocimiento de las creaturas se da a conocer el
Creador de todas ellas”.’ [Ladder to Heaven: in which by means of the
knowledge of the creatures one attains the knowledge of the Creator of them all]. Little else is known about the content of this work.
25 Navarrete is the subject of a recent book by Cummins (1993). Book VI
(Tratado Sexto) of Navarrete’s
is available in English translation by Cummins
26 Varo’s manuscripts are located in the Provincial Archives of the
Dominican order in Avila.
27 Jensen (1997, p.9) went so far as asserting that Confucius is ‘a
figment of the Western imagination’. He adds: ‘There is as much that is
genuinely Chinese in Confucianism [i.e. as ‘ manufactured ’ by Western
intellectuals] as there was in chinoiserie.’ (p.144)
Matthew Chen has studied in Hong Kong, Rome, and obtained his Ph. D. in
Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972. He has taught
for many years at the University of California, San Diego, before joining CityU
in 1999. He is currently CityU’s Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences and a member of the Core Team of our Centre for Cross- Cultural
Studies. His publications focus mainly on phonology, historical linguistics, and
tonology in particular, with a recent book entitled Tone
Sandhi: Patterns across Chinese Dialects (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000). Holding a degree in philosophy and theology,
he has an abiding interest in the intellectual issues surrounding the early
cultural contacts between China and the West.