China and Europe

The thirteen essays in this book are up-to-date scholarly reflections on issues related to the mutual understanding and influence between China and Europe during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The essays touch on the various religious, intellectual, scientific and artistic aspects of the encounter and show that there had been significant interactions of different degrees of success. On religious and intellectual aspects, it is shown that the European understanding of Chinese thought in general and Confucianism in particular was superficial and self-serving. The transfer of science and technology had been more successful, though not without its problems, and the question of how "influence" should be understood is raised. In the realm of art, however, it appears that significant mutual influences occurred. All told, the essays suggest a general conclusion that the higher the position a branch of knowledge occupies in the value hierarchy of a culture, the more difficult it is for the knowledge to become admitted and integrated into the other culture's value system.

The papers are results of intense studies by respected scholars from Europe, the United States of America, Korea and China and provide a comprehensive summary of modern interpretations of early Sino-European cultural interactions.