Early books on China:

Over the 17^th and 18^th centuries, some hundreds of missionary priests made the hazardous voyage to China, from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, usually landing first in India in missionary sites such a Goa, then often Malacca and Siam. Not all survived the journey. Most eventually headed for the Portuguese enclave at Macao and variously had success in penetrating the inner parts of the Chinese empire. Peking and the Imperial Court was the prize, and the most successful, Ricci, Martini, Schall, Verbiest, won the acceptance, and often close friendship and respect of the Emperor, particularly of the great Kangxi Emperor who ruled from 1661 until 1722. Many travelled back to Europe and often back to China again, and published their accounts, both of their travels and their observations of the Chinese and their Empire. These had a profound effect on the development of European thought and views of the wider world as the Enlightenment developed.

The Jesuits were at the forefront of this missionary venture, and one of the most successful was Ferdinand Verbiest. He was close to the Kangxi Emperor, and sent back a request to France for more missionaries, both to satisfy the desire of the Emperor for more expertise in teaching mathematics and astronomy, and from the French point of view, to bolster up the French Christian mission in the face of continuing influence of missionaries from Portugal, Spain and Italy. Louis XIV responded, and in 1685, six Jesuit fathers set off from Brest. They reached Siam, stayed there for a time, then five continued on to China, landing at Ningbo, then obtaining Court acceptance to travel inland from Hangzhou up the Grand Canal to Peking. Over the next years, right through to the early 18^th C, these five carried out their missionary duties, taught the sciences, learned the language, translated, wrote mathematical and astronomical treatises in the Manchu language, and in a couple of cases, ended up acting as diplomats for the Emperor in dealing with the Russians, and other tribes and societies in the hinterlands.  Most returned to Europe at various times, some made a second journey and two of them eventually died in Peking.

They wrote accounts of their extraordinary experiences, and two, Joachim Bouvet and Louis Le Comte wrote books that had a significant influence on the view of China from Europe, both in terms of geopolitics and culture. There were as well, many pamphlets and letters circulated and published. The books are very readable, illustrated, in a couple of cases with now famous images of the Chinese court, and Verbiest’s observatory, and carrying images of the Kangxi Emperor.

An account of the five fathers and their publications, plus the sixth who stayed in Siam, and a further one recruited at the same time, Philippe Avril, who tried to find an inland route through Russia, can be read here, with a couple of the books described being those in my own collection.