Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:15:53.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Comparative History of a Genre: The production and circulation of books on travel and ethnographies in early modern Europe and China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2015

JOAN-PAU RUBIÉS  and
MANEL OLLÉ
JOAN-PAU RUBIÉS
Affiliation:
ICREA-Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Email: joan-pau.rubies@upf.edu
MANEL OLLÉ
Affiliation:
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain Email: manel.olle@upf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contrary to the long-standing idea of a scientific failure in early modern China as compared to Europe, some recent work has emphasized the existence of a tradition of ‘evidential’ research in the natural sciences, antiquarianism, and geography, especially during the Sung, Ming, and Qing periods. This article seeks to develop this new perspective by offering a comparative history of the genres of travel writing and ethnography in early modern Europe and Ming/early Qing China. We argue that there were qualitative as well as quantitative differences in the way that these genres functioned in each cultural area. Even when we find apparent similarities, we note different chronological rhythms and a different position of these genres of travel writing within a wider cultural field—what we might term their ‘cultural relevance’. The specific nature of Chinese state imperialism—or, conversely, the particular nature of European overseas colonialism—played a role in determining the type of ethnographic approach that came to predominate in each cultural area. These parallels and differences suggest a fresh perspective on the cultural origins of the ‘great divergence’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 259 - 309
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Originally presented at the British Academy conference, ‘The Production and Circulation of Printed Books in the Occident and Orient, from the Accession of the Tang Dynasty (circa 618) to the First Industrial Revolution’, London, February 2013. We are grateful to Patrick O'Brien, Ashley Millar, and two anonymous readers for their comments.

References

1 Benjamin, Elman (2005), On Their Own Terms. Science in China, 1500–1900 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar. This represents a revisionist perspective on the idea of a static Chinese science, and builds upon the research by Joseph Needham and Nathan Sivin. However, in a groundbreaking essay comparing early modern antiquarianisms, Peter Miller notes that the evidential focus of kaozheng xue discussed by Elman was more textual than was the norm with European antiquarianism in the same period. Miller, Peter N. (2012), ‘Comparing antiquarianisms: a view from Europe’, in Miller, P.N. and Louis, F. (eds) Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500–1800 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), p. 130CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It is also worth noting that, well before the age of Western industrial imperialism, the negative assessment of Chinese natural (as opposed to moral) science goes back to Jesuit observers and to the Enlightenment writers who read them. See Michael, Adas (1989), Machines as Measure of Men: science, technology and ideologies of Western dominance (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press), pp. 69–95Google Scholar. A more nuanced view is to be found in Millar Ashley (forthcoming) Faithful Witnesses? British and French perspectives on China's political economy during the Enlightenment (Montreal and Kingston: MQUP).

2 Nicolas, Standaert (2003), ‘The transmission of Renaissance culture in seventeenth-century China’, Renaissance Studies, 17, pp. 367–391Google Scholar.

3 One possible exception is the Mongol creation of a comprehensive national geography decreed by Qubilai Khan in 1286, apparently under the advice of the Persian astronomer, Jamal al-Din, which led to the Da-Yuan da yitongzhi [Great All-Under-One-Rule Gazetteer of the Great Yuan] of 1291 and offered a survey of the newly conquered provinces. See Achim, Mittag (2012), ‘Chinese official historical writing under the Ming and Qing’, in Rabasa, J., E, Tortarolo. and D, Woolf. (eds) The Oxford History of Historical Writing (Oxford: Oxford University Press), Vol. 3, p. 33CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The impact of Muslim astronomers and geographers under the Yuan offers an interesting parallel to the later Manchu employment of European Jesuits for cartographic surveys and calendar reform.

4 Laura, Hostetler (2001), Qing Colonial Enterprise: ethnography and cartography in Early modern China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)Google Scholar; Emma Jinhua, Teng (2004), Taiwan's Imagined Geography: Chinese colonial travel writing and pictures 1683–1895 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar; Perdue, Peter C. (2005), China Marches West: the Qing conquest of central Eurasia (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)Google Scholar; Shin, Leo K. (2006), The Making of the Chinese State: ethnicity and expansion on the Ming borderlands (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also, for the Yuan period and in relation to the work of Wang Dayuan, see Roderich, Ptak (1995), ‘Images of maritime Asia in two Yuan texts: Daoyi Zhilue and Yiyu Zhi’, Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, 25, pp. 47–75Google Scholar.

5 Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise, pp. 2–3.

6 See Shin, Leo K. (2012), ‘Thinking about “non-Chinese” in Ming China’, in Miller and Louis (eds) Antiquarianism, pp. 289–309Google Scholar.

7 We have written about this in the past, in particular in Joan-Pau, Rubiés (2000), ‘Travel writing as a genre: facts, fictions and the invention of a scientific discourse in early modern Europe’, Journeys. The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, 1, pp. 5–33Google Scholar, and Rubiés, J.P. (2002), ‘Travel writing and ethnography’, in Hulme, P. and Youngs, T. (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 242–260CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 MS Arundel 12 is discussed by Marianne, O'Doherty (2009), ‘The viaggio in Inghilterra of a viaggio in Oriente: Odorico da Pordenone's Itinerarium from Italy to England’, Italian Studies, 64, pp. 198–220Google Scholar.

9 de Almesto, Pedrarías (2012), Relación de la Jornada de Omagua y El Dorado, Carlos, Baraibar (ed.) (New York: Idea), p. 122Google Scholar.

10 Roger, Fry (ed.) (1995; 1st ed. 1913), Dürer's Record of Journeys to Venice and the Low Countries (New York: Dover).Google Scholar

11 On this topic, see also Daniel, Carey, ‘Continental Travel and Journeys Beyond Europe in the Early Modern Period: an overlooked connection’, Hakluyt Society Annual Lecture, London, 2009Google Scholar.

12 On the humanist art of travel (ars apodemica) see Justin, Stagl (1996), A History of Curiosity: the theory of travel 1500–1800 (Chur: Harwood Academic Press)Google Scholar; also Joan-Pau, Rubiés (1996), ‘Instructions for travellers: teaching the eye to see’, History and Anthropology, 9, pp. 139–190Google Scholar.

13 Jean-Baptiste, Labat, Nouveau voyage aux iles de l'Amerique (6 vols, Paris, 1722)Google Scholar. Jean-Baptiste, Labat, Voyages en Espagne et en Italie (Paris, 1730)Google Scholar. Labat also wrote about Africa, but his books on the continent were derivative.

14 Joan-Pau, Rubiés (1993), ‘New worlds and Renaissance ethnology’, History and Anthropology, 6, pp. 157–197Google Scholar.

15 Geoffrey, Atkinson (1935), Les Nouevaux Horizons de la Renaissance Française (Geneva: Slatkine), p. 10Google Scholar.

16 For a classic discussion, see Elliott, John H. (1970), The Old World and the New, 1492–1650 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 7–26Google Scholar; For a revisionist perspective, see Rubiés, J.P. (2006), ‘Travel writing and humanistic culture: a blunted impact?’, The Journal of Early Modern History, Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts, 10, pp. 131–168Google Scholar.

17 Marshall, P.J. and Williams, G. (1982), The Great Map of Mankind: perceptions of new worlds in the age of the Enlightenment (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar

18 Atkinson, Nouveaux Horizons, pp. 3–12.

19 John, Harrison and Peter, Laslett (1965), The Library of John Locke (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society Publications), p. 27Google Scholar. This reconstruction, however, is not exhaustive, as Locke is known to have owned and read many other books not in the catalogue.

20 Michiel van, Groesen (2008), The Representations of the Overseas World in the De Bry Collection of Voyages 1590–1634 (Brill: Leiden).Google Scholar

21 Van Groesen, Representations, pp. 346–352. As he notes, the elite and popular series must be seen as complementary rather than rival projects.

22 Jean de, Léry (1994), Histoire d'un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil, Lestringant, F. (ed.) (Paris: Librairie Générale Française), p. 93Google Scholar. The first edition (1578) had five original images but promised more if the book sold well. However, two years later the second edition (1580) only reproduced the former five images, plus three pirated from another book.

23 Michel de, Montaigne (2003), The Complete Works, translated by Frame, Donald (London: Everyman), ‘Of cannibals’, pp. 182–193Google Scholar.

24 Parts of the journal were written in Italian and parts in French; some portions were dictated to his secretary, with whom he apparently shared his thoughts. We have used Montaigne, M. de (1983), Journal de voyage, Fausta, Garavini (ed.) (Paris: Gallimard).Google Scholar A valuable reading is to be found in Wes, Williams (1999), ‘Rubbing up against others: Montaigne on pilgrimage’, in Elsner, J. and Rubiés, J.P. (eds) Voyages and Visions. Towards a cultural history of travel (London: Reaktion Books), pp. 101–123Google Scholar.

25 Montaigne, Journal, p. 101.

26 Consider, for example, his essay on ‘Can the Law of Nature be known from the general consent of men?’, in his ‘Essays on the Law of Nature’ (1663–1664): see John, Locke (1997), Political Essays, Mark, Goldie (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 106–116Google Scholar. For a discussion, see Daniel, Carey (2006) ‘Travel, geography and the problem of belief: Locke as a reader of travel literature’, in Rudolph, J. (ed.) History and Nation (Lewsburg Pennsylvania: Bucknell Univerity Press), pp. 97–136Google Scholar; Ann, Talbot (2010), ‘The Great Ocean of Knowledge’: the influence of travel literature on the work of John Locke (Leiden: Brill).Google Scholar

27 Discussed by Teng, Taiwan's Imagined Geography, pp. 261–280.

28 Pengcheng, Gong 龔鵬程 (2001), You de jingshen wenhua shilun 游的精神文化史論 (Shijiazhuang Shi: Hebei jiaoyou chubanshe), pp. 37–60Google Scholar.

29 Tong, Kwok Siu 郭少棠 (2005), Lü xing: kua wenhua xiangxiang 旅行:跨文化想像 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe).Google Scholar

30 Tong, Xiao 萧统 (1977), Wenxuan 文选 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju), juan 11, 22, pp. 26–27Google Scholar

31 Peiyi, Wu (1992), The Confucian's Progress: autobiographical writings in traditional China (Princeton: Princeton University Press), p. 7Google Scholar.

32 Edouard, Chavannes (1897–1898), ‘Voyageurs Chinois vers les Khitan et les Joutchen’, Journal Asiatique, IX (1897), pp. 377–442Google Scholar, and XI (1898), pp. 361–439.

33 Herbert, Franke (1983), ‘Sung embassies: some general observations’, in Morris, Rossabi (ed.) China Among Equals: the middle kingdom and its neighbours, 10th–14th centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 116–148Google Scholar.

34 Hargett, James M. (1989), On the Road in Twelfth Century China: the travel diaries of Fan Chengda (1126–1193) (Stuttgart: Steiner-Verl. Wiesbaden), pp. 52–56Google Scholar.

35 Strassberg, Richard E. (1994), Inscribed Landscapes: travel writing from imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 45–50Google Scholar.

36 You, Lu (2007), Grand Canal, Great River. The travel diary of a twelfth-century Chinese poet, translated with a commentary by Watson, Philip (London: Frances Lincoln).Google Scholar

37 Timothy, Brook (1998), The Confusions of Pleasure: commerce and culture in Ming China (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 129–137Google Scholar.

38 Timothy, Brook (1982), ‘Guides for vexed travelers: route books in the Ming and Qing’, Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i, 4:5, pp. 32–41Google Scholar.

39 Julian, Ward (2000), Xu Xiake (1587–1641). The art of travel writing (London: Curzon), p. 21Google Scholar.

40 Ping-ti, Ho (1962), The Ladder of Imperial Success: aspects of social mobility 1368–1911 (New York: Columbia University Press), p. 224Google Scholar; Elman, Benjamin A. (2000), A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. xx–xxviGoogle Scholar.

41 Craig, Clunas (1991), Superfluous Things: material culture and social status in early modern China (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press), pp. 8–39Google Scholar.

42 Frederick, Wakeman Jr., (1972), ‘The price of autonomy: intellectuals in Ming and Ch'ing politics’, Daedalus, 101, pp. 35–70, here p. 44Google Scholar.

43 Ward, Xu Xiake, p. 24.

44 Strassberg, Inscribed Landscapes, p. 139.

45 Brook, Confusions of Pleasure, pp. 129–171. Also Brokaw, Cynthia J. and Kai-Wing, Chow (eds) (2005), Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China (Oakland: University of California Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Lucille, Chia (2003), Printing for Profit: the commercial publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th centuries) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar

47 Timothy, Brook (2005), The Chinese State in Ming Society (Routledge: London), p. 15Google Scholar.

48 Bol, Peter K. (2001), ‘The rise of local history: history, geography, and culture in southern Song and Yuan Wuzhou’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 61, pp. 37–76Google Scholar.

49 Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise, p. 634.

50 On visual representations in late-Ming culture, see Meng-ching, Ma 馬孟晶 (2002), ‘Emuzhiwan: cong Xixiangji banhua chatu lun wan Ming chuban wenhua dui shijuexing zhi guanzhu’, 耳目之玩：從《西廂記》版畫插圖論晚明出版文化對視覺性之關注 in Guoli Taiwan daxue Meishushi yanjiu jikan 國立台灣大學美術史研究集刊, no. 13, pp. 202–276Google Scholar.

51 About the publication of these encyclopedias, see Huifang, Wu 吳蕙芳 (2001), Wanbao chuanshu: Ming-Qing shiqi de minjian shenghuo shilu 萬寶全書：明清時期的民間生活實錄 (Taipei: National Cheng-chi University), pp. 641–659Google Scholar.

52 See Jin, Shen 沈津 (1996), ‘Mingdai fangke tushu zhi liutong yu jiage’, 明代坊刻圖書之流通與價格 in Guojia tushuguan guankan國家圖書館館刊, Vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 101–118Google Scholar.

53 Dorothy, Ko (1994), Teachers of Inner Chambers: women and culture in seventeenth-century China (Stanford: Stanford University Press), pp. 34–41Google Scholar.

54 Tadao, Sakai (1970), ‘Confucianism and popular educational works’, in William, De Bary (ed.) Self and Society in Ming Thought (New York: Columbia University Press), pp. 338–341Google Scholar.

55 Clunas, Superfluous Things, pp. 8–39.

56 Kai-wing, Chow (2011), ‘The merging of shi and shang in travel: production of knowledge in late Ming books’, Frontiers of History in China, 6, pp. 163–182Google Scholar.

57 Yuming, He (2011), ‘The book and the barbarian in Ming China and beyond: the Luo Ching Lu, or “record of naked creatures”’, Asia Major, 24, pp. 43–78Google Scholar.

58 Wenjiang, Ding 丁文江 (ed.) (1928), Xu Xiake youji 徐霞客游记 (The Travel Notes of Xu Xiake) (Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan)Google Scholar; Qichao, Liang 梁啟超, (2007; 1st ed. 1929), Zhongguo jin sanbainian xueshu shi 中国近三百年学 术史 (Intellectual History of China in the Last Three Hundred Years) (Beijing: Zhongguo Huaqiao Chubanshe)Google Scholar.

59 The rediscovery in the 1970s in the Beijing Library of the complete manuscripts of Xu Xiake's traveloges in Ji Mengliang's copy has created the opportunity for a new wave of editions and analysis which have contributed to the further canonization of the author. In 1980 Zhu Shaotang and Wu Yingshou carried on the reorganization and editing of the text, and so far three volumes have appeared (Xu Xiake youji 徐霞客游记, Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1980). Note also the translated anthologies in English: Chi, Li (1974), The Travel Diaries of Hsu Hsia-k'o (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press of Hong Kong);Google Scholar and in French: Xiake, Xu (1993), Randonnés aux sites sublimes, traduït du chinois, presenté et annoté par Jacques Dars (Paris: Gallimard).Google Scholar Julian Ward also published an analysis of Xu Xiake's travel writing—with some translated excerpts—that emphasizes his literary values: Julian, Ward (2001), Xu Xiake (1587–1641): the art of travel writing (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press).Google Scholar

60 See Stevan, Harrell (ed.) (1995), Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers (Seattle: University of Washington Press)Google Scholar. Harrell's introduction to this edited collection, a theoretical essay on the civilizing projects that framed much of Chinese writing on the frontiers, has played a seminal role in the wave of new approaches to the ethnographic dimension of late Ming and early Qing travel writing. Recently, several scholars have analysed Ming and Qing writing about frontier peoples: Emma Teng on Taiwan; Steven B. Miles, Laura Hostetler, Leo Shin, and Norma Diamond on Guanxi and Guizhou; Peter Perdue and J.L. Newby on Xinjiang and Mongolia; and Roderich Ptak on Maritime Asia (see also note 4 above). For a discussion, see Miles, Steven B. (2006), ‘Strange encounters on the Cantonese frontier: region and gender in Kuang Lu's (1604–1650) Chiya’, Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in Early and Imperial China, 8, pp. 115–155CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Tingyang, Zhao 赵汀阳 (2005), The Tianxia System: a philosophy for the world institution 天下体系：世界制度哲学导论 (Nanjing: Jiangsu jiayou chubanshe)Google Scholar.

62 Gungwu, Wang (1984), Community and Nation: essays on Southeast Asia and the Chinese selected by Anthony Reid (Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books), pp. 31–34Google Scholar.

63 Joan-Pau, Rubiés (2011), ‘The concept of a gentile civilization in missionary discourse and its European reception: Mexico, Peru and China in the Repúblicas del Mundo by Jerónimo Román’, in Charlotte, de Castelnau, Marie-Lucie, Copete, Aliocha, Maldavski and Ines, Županov (eds) Missions d’évangélisation et circulation des savoirs XVIe-XVIIIe siècles (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez), pp. 311–350Google Scholar.

64 Zhou, Xing (1995), ‘Eurocentrism versus the idea of Zhonghua’, in Daiyun, Yue and Alain, Le Pichon (eds) La Licorne et le dragon (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe), pp. 161–163Google Scholar.

65 Morris, Rossabi (1983), ‘A translation of Ch'en Ch'eng's Hsi-Yü Fan-Kuo Chih’, Ming Studies 17, pp. 49–59Google Scholar; Hecker, Felicia J. (1993), ‘A fifteenth-century Chinese diplomat in Herat’, Journal of the Royal Asian Society, 3rd series, 3, pp. 85–98Google Scholar. Zhen Zheng's (or Ch'en Ch'eng's) report on Herat became a classic, and was never replaced by a fresher account of Khorasan. For a comparative analysis, see Joan-Pau, Rubiés (2009), ‘Late medieval ambassadors and the practice of cross-cultural encounters’, in Palmira, Brummett (ed.) The ‘Book’ of Travels: genre, ethnology, pilgrimage 1250–1700 (Leiden: Brill), pp. 37–112Google Scholar; see especially pp. 101–106.

66 Teng, Taiwan's Imagined Geography, p. 9.

67 Dru, Gladney (1994), ‘Representing nationality in China: refiguring majority/minority identities’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 53:1, p. 70.Google Scholar

68 Louisa, Schein (1997), ‘Gender and internal orientalism in China’, Modern China, 23, pp. 69–98Google Scholar.

69 Alternatively, it might have been commissioned by his father, Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, and inherited by Luis upon the governor's dramatic death at the hands of his Chinese crew in October 1593. For a description, see Boxer, Charles R. (1950), ‘ A late sixteenth century manila MS’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (New Series), 82, pp. 37–49Google Scholar. Professor Charles R. Boxer purchased the manuscript volume at an auction of Lord Ilchester's library at Holland House in 1947. It is now owned by the Lilly Library at Indiana University (Boxer Mss II). In 2009 it was digitized and published on the internet (Lilly Library: http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/general/VAB8326, [accessed 9 June 2015]). It has recently been suggested that the codex was taken to the court of Philip III in Spain in 1605 by the pilot and general procurator of the islands, Hernando de los Ríos Coronel, who had been closely connected to the two Dasmariñases: see Crossley, John N. (2014), ‘The early history of the Boxer Codex’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 24, pp. 115–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 John N. Crossley has recently argued that the illustrations in the Boxer Codex were influenced by a sixteenth-century Book of Hours recently discovered at the University of Santo Tomás in Manila. He also surmises that this Book of Hours may have belonged to the wife of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, who died before he left Spain: Crossley, John N. (2013), ‘The religiosity of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, governor-general of the Philippines, 1590–1593’, Philippiniana Sacra, 48:144, pp. 241–252Google Scholar.

71 Kaijian, Tang 汤开建 (2001), ‘Zhongguo xiancun zui zao de ouzhou ren xingxiang ziliao: Dongyi tuxian 中国现存最早的欧洲人形象资料:东夷图像’, Gugong bowuyuan yuankang 故宫博物院院刊 (National Palace Museum, Academy of Sciences) 1, pp.26–32Google Scholar.

72 Yuming, He (2014), ‘The entry of Yaxiya/Asia: the (re)construction of global geography in early modern China’, in Rujivacharakul, V., Hahn, H.H., Oshima, K.T. and Christensen, P. (eds) Architecturalized Asia: mapping a continent through history (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press), pp. 78–79Google Scholar. As He notes, many details of this description—these black devils only eat raw food, including human flesh; they are strong, fearless and loyal to their masters; they understand commands but do not speak the ‘human’ language—point towards an animal nature.

73 Yu-chung, Lee 李毓中 (2009), ‘Lijie yu xiangxiang: Huaren, putaoyaren yu xibanyaren jiangou de shiliu shiji dongya shijie chutan 理解与想像：华人，葡萄牙人与西班牙人建构的十六世纪东亚世界初探’, in Ming Qing shiqi de zhongguo yu Xibanya guoji xueshu yantanhui lunwenji 明清时期的中国与西班牙国际学术研讨会论文集, Xiangyu, Li 李向五 (ed.) (Macao: Aomen lijiang xueyuan Zhongxi wenhua yanjiusuo chubanshe)Google Scholar.

74 An example of this revisionism is the popular synthesis by Dominique, Lelièvre (2004), Voyageurs Chinois. À la découverte du Monde (Geneva: Olizane)Google Scholar.

75 Jean-Marc, Besse (2003), Les grandeurs de la Terre. Aspects du savoir géographique à la Renaissance (Lyon: ENS Éditions)Google Scholar.

76 See, in this respect, Teng's excellent analysis of Qing travel narratives dealing with Taiwan. As she notes, the genre was clearly connected to a multi-ethnic imperialist project which assumed that the best thing for the natives would be to become ‘civilized’ (as well as providers of tribute and services), usually by adopting Chinese customs. However, the genre also included a certain element of self-refection that could, at times, question the universality of Chinese norms. See Teng, Taiwan's Imagined Geography, pp. 20–21.

77 Brook, Confusions of Pleasure, p. 120. The minister responsible was Liu Daxia, in a peculiar moment of extreme anti-maritime feeling.

78 Carlo, Ginzburg (1980), The Cheese and the Worms. The cosmos of a sixteenth-century miller (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul), pp. 41–49Google Scholar; Charles, Moseley (1974), ‘The metamorphoses of Sir John Mandeville’, Yearbook of English Studies, 4, pp. 5–25Google Scholar.

79 We expand this argument in Joan-Pau, Rubiés (2012), ‘From the history of travayle to the history of travel collections: the rise of an early modern genre’, in Carey, D. and Jowitt, C. (eds) Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe (Farnham: Ashgate/Hakluyt Society Extra Series), pp. 25–41Google Scholar.

80 Compare Joanna, Waley-Cohen (1999), The Sextants of Beijing (New York: Norton), pp. 105–114Google Scholar, with the sober assessment in Elman, On Their Own Terms, pp. 107–221.

81 Ibid., pp. 220–221.