A DESCRIÇÃO DA CHINA DE FR. JACINTO DE DEUS雅森多‧德‧帝烏斯修士對中國的描述
The article analyzes the "Descrição da China" attributed to the Franciscan friar Jacinto de Deus, offering a historical-cultural reading of how the missionary constructs a "portrait" of China in the context of Catholic expansion in the Far East. The author argues that the text should not be interpre...
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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/40028/3636 |
| Summary: | The article analyzes the "Descrição da China" attributed to the Franciscan friar Jacinto de Deus, offering a historical-cultural reading of how the missionary constructs a "portrait" of China in the context of Catholic expansion in the Far East. The author argues that the text should not be interpreted merely as factual testimony, but as a device of mediation: it articulates direct observation, rhetorical strategies of legitimation, and European theological-cultural presuppositions, while simultaneously responding to Luso-Castilian political tensions and the specific conditions of the Franciscan presence in Macau.
Methodologically, the study combines documentary criticism and discourse analysis, situating the "Descrição" within a network of circulation of accounts, missionary objectives, and institutional disputes among orders and empires. Through the chronological framing of the Franciscan missions and administrative reforms (custodies and chapters), the author demonstrates how writing about China also operates as an instrument of the mission's internal organization.
Among the main results, the identification of recurrent themes stands out (government, customs, religion, and social practices), treated according to Western categories but reconfigured by a local experience marked by Jesuit and colonial mediations. The conclusion is that Jacinto de Deus's text is simultaneously a source for Luso-European intellectual history and a revealing document of the intercultural negotiations that traversed Macau in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |