Meeting of Europe and China at the beginning of modern times
- Markus
- Nov 26, 2021
- 4 min read
China's fleet under Emperor Zhu Di The first Western Europeans to sail the world in their ships were the Portuguese, followed by the Spanish, then came the British and the Dutch. Logically all peoples who had direct access to the world's oceans. Interestingly enough, China also had a fleet that was superior in size to any European one, because - and one must not forget - China was one of the most highly developed countries at the time. The Chinese set out to explore the world outside of China. In 1403 AD they built a fleet under the Ming Emperor Zhu Di. In terms of time, this is roughly parallel to the early European Renaissance. The fleet consisted of 300 ships, including 60 treasure ships, the largest wooden ships ever put to sea, with a length of 80 meters and nine masts, other sources speak of 135 meters in length and 50 meters in width.
One of Zheng He's ships compared to Columbus' ship Lars Plougmann / CC BY-SA 2.0 The proud Swedish warship Wasa with its 61 x 47 meters could not keep up with these so-called treasure ships, not to mention the fact that this mega battleship, which was to give Sweden the breakthrough to a great power, came just 1,600 meters after being launched before it sank in the harbor before the horrified eyes of all high-ranking military officials. After all, it is now in a museum in Stockholm, is slowly being crushed by its own weight and at least reminds of the dream of a great power. The Chinese fleet was the largest with the largest ships in the 15th century. 20,000 people are said to have been on board. In the period from 1404 to 1433 the eunuch Zheng He set out several times in the service of the emperor and reached Africa. This fleet only existed for a few decades, then China abandoned the project and returned to self-sufficiency, which took its revenge some 300 years later when Europe had overtaken China and knocked on its door, heavily armed. One thing that is particularly noticeable about China's task of the shipping project is that no power had conquered the fleet, but it was given up of its own free will. This is unusual in that other sea powers have always been brought to their knees by nations that have become more powerful. Portuguese from Spaniards, Spaniards from British, Chinese from nobody. It was simply decided that these expeditions were of no use and would not lead to any knowledge, so the ships were dismantled and made into firewood. A replica of such a treasure ship can be viewed in Nanjing. Perhaps, just like in Stockholm, it reflects a dream. This time from the New Maritime Silk Road. Encounters between Europe and China
Xu Guangxi, born in 1562, was a high official in the Mandarinate, originally he came from a poor background, but through a good education he was able to take the state official examination, which allowed him to rise to the highest offices. Especially in the field of agriculture, he did a lot of research and introduced a number of improvements. It also stands for the Sino-European encounter, as he converted to the Catholic faith through the Italian Jesuit priest Mattheo Ricci.
The Italian Mattheo Ricci was a cultural mediator of two opposing cultures. He did not proselytize with violence, but with what most convinced the Chinese, namely learning. He brought with him a profound scientific education and had more influence through his education than through his sermons. First he learned the Chinese language and dressed like a Buddhist monk, so that the Chinese took him for one of their own after his sinization process. He owes the basics of the transcription of the Chinese language into Latin script, the so-called pinyin, which is still used in a modified form by everyone who deals with Chinese. He built close and long-lasting friendships with high-ranking Chinese officials, including Xu Guangxi, through whom he acquired an in-depth knowledge of Confucianism. All of this happened at the time of the late Ming Dynasty, roughly parallel to the European Baroque. In the late Baroque and Enlightenment periods, European scholars looked to China with admiration. The Chinese form of governance made a great impression on the European philosophers of the Enlightenment: an emperor whose function was to maintain harmony between heaven and earth, who had the mandate that things would remain in order, who could and could not be overthrown had to come from a dynasty, but could possibly come from the people. None of this was known in Europe. The nobility, who determined politics in Europe and enjoyed the highest esteem, were ultimately a caste of warlords and their descendants. In contrast, the soldier in China had one of the lowest positions in society, while the mandarinate, i.e. the administration, consisted of elites who had reached their high positions as philosophers and scribes and through exams through Confucianism.
To this day you can feel that learning is very important in China. In the city of Suzhou, one of the Chinese gardens created there, all of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, is called "The Garden of the Humble Official". In Germany, hardly anyone would call a great garden or a cultural achievement that, because the word official has a predominantly negative connotation. Even thirty years ago, I was irritated when my Chinese friend explained to me that education was given the highest priority in China, with which she wanted to justify her rather cautious appreciation of the craft, which we Europeans, especially us Germans, see quite differently. Centuries-old traditions and institutions form a cultural and institutional framework for the craft that forms the basis of today's engineering. The phrase "handicraft has golden ground" also expresses this appreciation. In contrast, philosophers in the western world lead a marginal, sectoral existence without any weight in political discourse. The proselytization of China did not work. Traditions and traditions that were too old were available to reflect upon. The roots of Chinese identity through cultural solidity go too deep for anything to be easily changed. China opposed the West with its values that can be said to be its own values that are at least equal to those of Europe.
