A CHINA DE DOMINGO FERNÁNDEZ DE NAVARRETE閔明我（那瓦雷得）對中國的看法
Manel Ollé analyzes the image of China constructed by the Spanish Dominican Domingo Fernández de Navarrete (c. 1610–1680) in his *Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la monarchia de China* (1676). The article argues that the *Tratados* should not be read as mere compilations or...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
October 2008
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40028/3635 |
| Summary: | Manel Ollé analyzes the image of China constructed by the Spanish Dominican Domingo Fernández de Navarrete (c. 1610–1680) in his *Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la monarchia de China* (1676). The article argues that the *Tratados* should not be read as mere compilations or proto-ethnographic manuals devoid of intention, but rather as an argumentative device embedded within the "Rites Controversy," which pitted Jesuit missionary policies against those of Dominicans, Franciscans, and certain dissidents.
The author employs a contextual and hermeneutic reading of the text—articulating its missionary, political, and intellectual framework with the literate culture of Baroque Spain—to demonstrate how the informative ambition (based on the author’s observations in China and extensive translation and selection of materials) is converted into material for serious debate. Among the central findings, the productive tension stands out between an idealized China, associated with "good governance" and moral philosophers, and the desolate picture of the Spanish present, marked by the imperial failure of Philip IV’s reign. Thus, Ollé concludes that the work simultaneously functions as a theological defense and as a mirror of Iberian political practices and anxieties, while also exerting a lasting influence on the European reception of thought about China. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |