The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500-1800

by David E. Mungello

Book Overview

In the twenty-first century, China has emerged as the leading challenger to U.S. global dominance. China is often seen as a sleeping giant, emerging out of poverty, backwardness, and totalitarianism and moving toward modernization. However, history shows that this vast country is not newly awakening, but rather returning to its previous state of world eminence. With this compelling perspective in mind, D. E. Mungello convincingly shows that contemporary...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847694402
• ISBN13: 9780847694402
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Tao of China, next great encounter

A powerful China is not new, only to restore its Ming glory and historic outstanding as then Europe came out of the Dark Ages and America was barren to be explored and cultivated. Hope the politicians in Washington read this book for a world of peace. Prof. Mungello wrote this comprehensive book on the intercourse of China and West in culture and religion in a highly readable text. Between 1500-1800, China was a powerful country. Catholics dreamed of converting China into a Christian country. However, it was Chinese influence to Europe to bring about Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. He showed that missionaries sent back Tao Te Ching, I Ching and Confucius teaching to the European educated to help bring about the Enlightenment Movement. What would happen when China is Christianized and the West goes Taoist Way? By 1800, China was still in its glorious satisfaction while European Powers underwent industrialization. Britain unable to balance the trade deficit pushed opium and war on China. The 1997 Hong Kong Hand-over concluded the last British Imperial chapter in history. China was at its nadir at 1900 Boxer Movement with eight foreign countries invaded Peking. Napoleon said, "When China wakes, it will shock the world". History affirms the Tao in East and West, strong and weak, grandeur and decline, war and peace. Prof. Mungello presents the readers the historical background to understand the modern China. A number of Westerners see Deng's reform with market economy lead to China rising as a world threat. Reading this book will help open up their horizon. Will US wage war on China in the billions of dollar trade deficit as their British cousins did in 19th Century? Trump trade war, Covid19 blame game, national security scare will lead to war or peace with China?

A great first book for a young reader

David E. Mungello is a historian known for his research on the Jesuits missionaries in China in 16-17th centuries, some of which he summarized 20 years ago in his more scholarly book, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. That one is a great book, if you are interested in the subject and have enough patience to read it, but reading that book alone gives you a feeling of incompleteness: it focuses on the period from 1582 (Ricci's arrival to China) to 1700 (condemnation of Figurists by Sorbonne), and tries not to go out of scope, discussing things that happened before or after. Of course, if you are interested in the subject, it makes you go look for other books - which are provided in the ample bibliography. In "The Great Encounter", Professor Mungello tried to cover a period twice as long in a space half as much. That was made possible by writing the book in a different format: not a monograph loaded with inline references and provided with a Chinese-character glossary at the end, and targeting readers such as history grad students, but a book written in a more popular style, perhaps with a bright high school student or a college freshman as a reader in mind. This is something that can well serve as a first book on the topic for someone who'd never heard the name of Matteo Ricci or the Kangxi Emperor before. (And yes, in the intro he gives a lovely explanation why one should say "the Kangxi Emperor" and not "Emperor Kangxi"). About half of the material in this think book seems to have been based from "Curious Land" (with the material greatly condensed and made much more accessible), and the rest is new (partly based on the author's other scholarly works as well), and gives the reader "the rest of the story" - from the first landing of the Portuguese in south China in 1514 to the Macartney Embassy in 1792-94. And many of the things added in this book are quite fascinating too, from Yu the Great being presented as a model to Paul I of Russia (p. 97) to the sad story of Matteo Ripa's Chinese seminarians in Naples. The new illustrations, extracted primarily from all kinds of Chinese works of the period, are also quite interesting. With all that, the book's style as a popular account would make it somewhat "deficient" for a reader who looks for more details: e.g., instead of inline references, there is just a general "list of works consulted" at the end of each chapter; and there are no Chinese characters given for Chinese name, even in those cases when the person or place mentioned would be very obscure in European-language sources. And, as it is necessarily the case with a book this small, any reader with a particular special interest that *could* be thought as related to the book's topic (e.g.: China vs. Russia in the Amur/Heilongjiang Basin in 1650-1690; French Jesuit cartographers in China ca. 1700; the "Southern Ming" Yongli Emperor's court asking for Pope's help; early contacts between Europe and Tibet) may be su

The Tao of China rising !

Prof. Mungello wrote this comprehensive book on the intercourse of China and West in culture and religion in a highly readable text. Between 1500-1800, China was a powerful country. Catholics dreamed of converting China into a Christian country. However, it was Chinese influence to Europe to bring about Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. He showed that missionaries sent back Tao Te Ching, I Ching and Confucius teaching to the European educated to help bring about the Enlightenment Movement. What would happen when China is Christianized and the West goes Taoist Way? By 1800, China was still in its glorious satisfaction while European Powers underwent industrialization. Britain unable to balance the trade deficit pushed opium and war on China. The 1997 Hong Kong Hand-over concluded the last British Imperial chapter in history. China was at its nadir at 1900 Boxer Movement with eight foreign countries invaded Peking. Napoleon said, "When China wakes, it will shock the world". History affirms the Tao in East and West, strong and weak, grandeur and decline, war and peace. Prof. Mungello presents the readers the historical background to understand the modern China. A number of Westerners see Deng's reform with market economy lead to China rising as a world threat. Reading this book will help open up their horizon. Will US wage war on China in the billions of dollar trade deficit as their British cousins did in 19th Century?

Must for whoever that are interested in Chinese studies

Dr. Mungello has done a great job in presenting how the (Far) West met with Chinese culture over the period of 1500-1800. This book was written in easy and non-technical language. As a Chinese that has learnt Chinese history all through my school years, I am intrigued to read simialar materials presented from a Western perspective in simple English. Dr. Mungello noted that the Chinese in Song Dynasty mistook the picture of Virgin Mary as Guanyin (Chinese Goddess of the sea). A three-story high statue given by Portuguese to Macau, China shortly before 1999 was meant to be Guanyin but it certainly looks like Virgin Mary. What went around has come around:) Thanks for writing such a good book and I enjoyed it very much.

Not too shabby

I think Mungello has done a wonderful job in reconstructing the meeting between China and the Western world.

Good introductory book

University Profs take note: Although I had to read this book because I was in the author's class at Baylor, it really is a good introductory book. Dr. Mungello is one of the world's top Sinologists and did his graduate work at the U. of California at Berkeley and I am privelaged to be one of his students. Half of the book is focused at the West meeting China, and the other half is China meeting the West. It answers the questions: What did the West reject and accept from China? What did China accept and reject from the West?