Biedermann, Zoltan;
(2017)
Imperial reflections: China, Rome and the spatial logics of history in the Ásia of João de Barros.
In: Couto, D and Lachaud, F, (eds.)
Empires en marche. Rencontres entre la Chine et l'Occident à l'âge modern (XVIe-XIXe siècles).
(pp. 23-47).
École française d'Extrême-Orient: Paris, France.
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Abstract
The present article explores how the idea of empire was consolidated in Portugal during the second quarter of the sixteenth century in the context of the country’s contacts with China. It looks into a textual mirror construed by one of Portugal’s leading humanists, João de Barros (ca. 1496–1570), with the original aim of allowing the Portuguese elite to gaze at itself. The textual surface under analysis facilitated, as one might expect, the juxtaposition of the western and eastern extremities of Eurasia in the imperial imagination of its day. But it also allowed, perhaps more intriguingly, for the reflection of things across time. Barros’ China became a distant mirror capable of placing not only Portugal in the presence of the Middle Kingdom, but also the Middle Kingdom in the presence of Rome, hence putting, through a subtly dissimulated twist, Renaissance Portugal at the heart of the quest for universal empire. The first part of this article explores the backdrop against which Barros worked, with a brief analysis of the so-called “letters of the captives of Guangzhou,” one of the earliest Portuguese sources on China. The second part takes a glance at the classicist turn in Portuguese court culture under John III. The third part offers a close reading of Barros’ description of the Middle Kingdom and proposes an evaluation of its textual strategy in connection with the cultural conventions of the High Renaissance and the mapping of global space within that specific episteme.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | Imperial reflections: China, Rome and the spatial logics of history in the Ásia of João de Barros |
| ISBN-13: | 9782855391489 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://publications.efeo.fr/fr/livres/888_empires... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > SELCS |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1556461 |
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