Europeans in Medieval China
Encyclopedia
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...
and continued approximately two thousand years. This period in Chinese history is referred to as the Chinese Imperial Era that began after the first unification of the seven kingdoms by the Qin (221-206 BC).[1] Imperial period began to decline from the destabilization effect of the European opium trade on Chinese society resulting in the Opium Wars during the final, Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
.[2] Numerous Europeans are known to have been in Medieval China during the second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century (from 1246 to around 1350), at a time when the Mongol Empire
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
ruled over a large part of Eurasia and connected Europe with their Chinese dominion of the Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
. The Europeans were essentially located in eastern Central Asia, as far as the Mongol capital of Karakorum. As contacts however, European missionaries and merchants started to travel far and wide in the Mongol realm under the ‘’Pax Mongolica
Pax Mongolica
The Pax Mongolica is a Latin phrase meaning "Mongol Peace" coined by Western scholars to describe the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural, and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory that the Mongols conquered in the 13th and...
’’. It is thought that thousands of them lived in medieval China under Mongol rule.[3]
Before that time, instances of Europeans going to China, or of Chinese going to Europe are virtually unknown. The closest cases are those of the Chinese general Ban Chao
Ban Chao
Ban Chao , courtesy name Zhongsheng , was born in Xianyang, Shaanxi, and the younger brother of the famous historian, Ban Gu who, with his father Ban Biao, and sister, Ban Zhao, wrote the famous Hanshu, or 'History of the Former Han Dynasty'....
's exploration of the West in the 1st century CE and his dispatch of one of his officers Gan Ying
Gan Ying
Gan Ying , was a Chinese military ambassador who was sent on a mission to Rome in 97 CE by the Chinese general Ban Chao.Although Gan Ying never reached Rome, only travelling to as far as the Parthian coast of the Persian Gulf, he is, at least in the historical records, the Chinese who went the...
to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, instances of Roman embassies to China
Sino-Roman relations
Romano-Chinese relations were essentially indirect throughout the existence of both empires. The Roman Empire and Han China progressively inched closer in the course of the Roman expansion into the Ancient Near East and simultaneous Chinese military incursions into Central Asia...
in the 3-4th century, and the European invasions of the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
under Attila in the 5th century.
European captives in Central Asia
In 1253, the Franciscan monk William of RubruckWilliam of Rubruck
William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer. His account is one of the masterpieces of medieval geographical literature comparable to that of Marco Polo....
reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. He described German prisoners who had been enslaved in iron mines. In Karakorum
Karakorum
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...
, the Mongol capital, he met with a Parisian, Guillaume de Buchier, and a woman named Pâquette, from the French city of Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
, both of them having been captured in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
during the Mongol invasions there. Hungarians and Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
are also mentioned. It is also known that 30,000 Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
formed the guard of the Mongol court in Pekin
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
European merchants in China
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
and his family received an audience with Kublai Kahn, one of the great khanates of the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
and founder of the Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
. The Polo family made a favorable impression on the Khan. They were given maps and ideas of better places to trade. The Polos were also allowed to spend a great deal of time in China (a year), something previously denied to Europeans. Due to the impression made by the Polo family, the Kahn considered inviting European missionaries into his empire.
The Polos were pioneers in China, but others were soon to follow. The Florentine Balducci Pegolotti compiled a guide about trade in China, based on the accounts of several merchants who were already knowledgeable of the country. Another merchant, Petro de Lucalongo, is known to have accompanied the monk John of Montecorvino
John of Montecorvino
John of Montecorvino or Giovanni da Montecorvino in Italian was an Italian Franciscan missionary, traveler and statesman, founder of the earliest Roman Catholic missions in India and China, and archbishop of Peking, and Latin Patriarch of the Orient.-Biography:John was born at Montecorvino...
to Khanbaliq
Khanbaliq
Khanbaliq or Dadu refers to a city which is now Beijing, the current capital of the People's Republic of China...
in 1305. A Lombardian surgeon is known to have reached the city in 1303.
In Zaytun, the first harbour of China, there was a small Genoese colony, mentioned in 1326 by André de Pérouse. The most famous Italian resident of the city was Andolo de Savignone, who was sent to the west by the Khan in 1336 to request “100 horses and other treasures.” Following Savignone’s visit, an ambassador was dispatched to China with one superb horse, which was later the object of Chinese poems and paintings.
Venetians also were present in China. John of Montecorvino had one of them bring a letter to the west in 1305. In 1339 a Venetian named Giovanni Loredano is recorded to have returned to Venice from China. A tombstone was discovered in Yangzhou
Yangzhou
Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across...
in the name of Catherine de Villioni
Katarina Vilioni
Katarina Vilioni was an Italian woman, member of a trader family in Yangzhou, China, during the 14th century. She is known through a tombstone which was discovered among the ramparts of Yangzhou in 1951 by the People's Liberation Army. The tombstone is inscribed in Lombardic Capitals, and explains...
, daughter of Dominici, where she died in 1342.
European missionaries in China
Giovanni da Pian del CarpineGiovanni da Pian del Carpine
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, or John of Plano Carpini or John of Pian de Carpine or Joannes de Plano was one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. He is the author of the earliest important Western account of northern and central Asia, Rus, and other...
was the first Christian monk to reach as far as Karakorum in 1246. Catholic missionaries soon established a considerable presence in China, due to the high religious tolerance of the Mongols. This tolerance was due in no small part to the great tolerance of the Kahn. Kublai was a brilliant political leader and openly encouraged the development of trade and intellectual avocation
Avocation
An avocation is an activity that one engages in as a hobby outside one's main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside of their workplaces were their true passions in life...
. He translated the New Testament in the Mongol tongue, and converted 6,000 people (probably Alans, Turks and Mongols rather than Chinese). John of Montecorvino was joined by three bishops (Andre de Perouse, Gerard Albuini and Peregrino de Castello) and ordained arshibishop of Peking by Pope Clement V in 1311.[5] Following the death of John of Montecorvino, John of Marignolli was dispatched to Peking to become the new archbishop from 1342 to 1346 in an effort to maintain a Christian influence in the region.
In 1370, following the ousting of the Mongols from China, and the establishment of the Chinese Ming dynasty, a new mission was sent by the Pope to China formed by the Parisian theologian Guillaume du Pré as the new archbishop and 50 Franciscans. This mission however disappeared without news, apparently eliminated.[5]
These early missionaries to China faced a great deal of opposition and ultimately paid the price.
In 1253, the Franciscan monk William of Rubruck reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. He described German prisoners who had been enslaved in iron mines. In Karakorum, the Mongol capital, he met with a Parisian, Guillaume de Buchier, and a woman named Pâquette, from the French city of Metz, both of them having been captured in Hungary during the Mongol invasions there. Hungarians and Russians are also mentioned. It is also known that 30,000 Alans formed the guard of the Mongol court in Pekin.[3]
In 1370, following the ousting of the Mongols from China, and the establishment of the Chinese Ming dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
, a new mission was sent by the Pope to China formed by the Parisian theologian Guillaume du Pré as the new archbishop and 50 Franciscans. This mission however disappeared without news, apparently eliminated by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of Ming.