Richard Henry Major - The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof Volume I

The Hakluet Society

MENDOZAS HISTORIE OF THE
KINGDOME OF CHINA,

Vol. I,

M.DCCC.I.III.

COMPLIED BY THE PADRE

JUAN GONZALEZ DE MENDOZA.

AND NOW REPRINTED FROM THE EARLY TRANSLATION OF R, PARKE.

EDITED BY

SIR GEORGE T. STAUNTON, BART,

WITH AN INDRODUCTION

BY

R. H. MAJOR, ESQ.,

OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
SECRETARY OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

M.Dccc.LIII

SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S, F.R.S., Corr. Mem. Inst. Fr.,

Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, &c, &c, PRESIDEST.

R EAR -A DMIRAL S IR FRANCIS BEAUFORT, K.C.B., F.R.S.

C APTAIN BECHER, R.N.

CHARLES T. BEKE, ESQ., Phil. D., F.A.S.

WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY, Esq.

BOLTON CORNEY, Esq., M.R.S.L.

THE RIGHT REV. LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVIDS.

RT. HON. SIR DAVID DUNDAS

SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.

JOHN FORSTER, ESQ.

R. W, GREY, ESQ., M.P

JOHN HOLMES, ESQ.

JOHN WINTER JONES, ESQ.

SIR CHARLES LEMON, BART., M.P., F.R.S.

P. LEVESQUB. ESQ., F.A.S.

SIR JOHN RICHARDSON, M.D.

THE EARL SOMERS.

SIR GEORGE T. STAUNTON, BART. F.R.S.

R.H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.R.G.S., HONORARY SECRETARY.

I N presenting to the members of the Hakluyt Society a reprint of the cotemporary English translation by Parke of Mendozas interesting and now rare account of China, the editor thinks it due to his readers that some explanation should be given of the circumstances under which the original work was compiled, and that at the same time it should be shown what previous accounts had reached Europe respecting that remarkable country. The interest of the narrative itself, abounding as it does with minute and curious details of the manners and customs of so peculiar a race as the Chinese, requires no vindication: it will speak for itself. It will nevertheless interest those who appreciate the objects of the Society, to know, that the present translation was made at Hakluyts own suggestion, shortly after the appearance of Mendozas original work in Spanish.

It is the leading purpose of the Hakluyt Society to deal with the Archology of Geography, and more especially so in connexion with the progress made by our own English ancestors in the advancement of that important science. In pursuance of that object, therefore, Mendozas account of China has been selected for re-publication, as being the earliest detailed account of that country ever published in the English language. We say detailed account, because we must not omit to mention that it was preceded by a short but interesting document, published by Richard Eden in his History of Travayle in the West and East Indies, entitled Reportes of the Province of China, of the history and contents of which we shall hereafter speak in its proper place. While, however, in the selection for re-publication, respect is paid to the earliest narratives which appeared in our own tongue, the readers appreciation of the subject is best secured by an introductory notice of all the antecedent descriptions which may at intervals have appeared in other languages. This plan is more especially desirable with respect to those earlier glimmerings of information which Europe obtained respecting a country so removed from the civilized world, by its geographical position and ethnological peculiarities, as China, yet so marvellously in advance of it at the times of which we speak, both in its intellectual and moral developments. In such notice, meanwhile, we propose to pass by all discussion as to the much disputed question of the position of the Thin of Eratosthenes, Strabo, and the Periplus of the Erythran Sea, or of the application of Marinuss Serica, as preserved to us by Ptolemy, to the kingdom of China. Upon these more uncertain data we shall dwell no longer than to state, that our own impression agrees with that of Vossius, that China is the country referred to, and that the Seres of Ammianus Marcellinus, corresponding as they so closely do in character with the modern Chinese, were intended to represent that people. That the Romans possessed some knowledge of China, would seem to be shown by a discovery made by the learned De Guignes, of a statement in a Chinese historical work, that in the year of our Lord 166, an embassy, said to have come by sea, arrived from An-thon (Antoninus) to the Emperor Yan-hi; and the use of the serica vestis, alluded to by Horace and Propertius, would appear to confirm the impression, provided only that silk, and not muslin, were the commodity really alluded to.

On these less certain points, however, we are, as we have said, unwilling to dwell. We pass on therefore to the mention of more explicit and unquestionable record. First of these is the narrative given in an Arabic manuscript, written about the year 1173, describing the observations of two Arab merchants, who, from the style of the documents, were evidently in China a couple of centuries earlier. Their respective dates, indeed, are concluded to be 851 and 867. This curious and valuable manuscript, discovered by the learned M. Eusbe Renaudot in the Comte de Seignelays library, was translated by him into French, and published at Paris in 1718. A translation appeared in English in 1733. Although thus concealed from the acquaintance of Europeans till this comparatively recent date, it rightly takes its place here as comprising the two earliest accounts of China, of which we have as yet received any information. Though adulterated with some few exaggerations, and statements manifestly fabulous, they contain so many curious particulars, which even now, from the permanence of institutions and manners in China, may be considered as accurate, that no doubt can be entertained of their genuineness, or of the intelligence of the narrators.

The two narratives were written consecutively, one of them forming a sort of comment or supplement to the other.