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Prester John and Europe's Discovery of East Asia

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Prester John and Europe's Discovery of East Asia East Asian History NUMBER 11 . JUNE 1996 THE CO TINUATION OF Papers on Far Eastern History Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University Editor Geremie R. Barme Assistant Editor Helen Lo Editorial Board Mark Elvin (Convenor) John Clark Andrew Fraser Helen Hardacre Colin Jeffcott W. J. F. Jenner Lo Hui-min Gavan McCormack David Marr Tessa Morris-Suzuki Michael Underdown Production and Design Helen Lo Business Manager Marion Weeks Printed by Goanna Print, Fyshwick, ACT This is the eleventh issue of East Asian History in the series previously entitled Papers on Far Eastern Hist01J'. The journal is published twice a year. Contributions to The Editor, East Asian History Division of Pacific and Asian History Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Phone +61 26249 3140 Fax +61 26249 5525 Subscription Enquiries to Subscriptions, East Asian History, at the above address Annual Subscription Australia A$45 Overseas US$45 (for two issues) iii CONTENTS 1 The George Ernest Morrison Lectures in Ethnology -An Introduction The Editors 3 The Revolutionary Tradition in China C. P. Fitzgerald 17 The Chinese Civil Service Otto P. N. Berkelhach van der Sp renkel 33 The Narrow Lane. Some Observations on the Recluse in Traditional Chinese Society A. R. Davis 45 Buddha's Word in China I w. deJong 59 Prester John and Europe's Discovery of East Asia Ig or de Rachewiltz 75 On the Art of Ruling a Big Country-Views of Three Chinese Emperors Liu TS 'un-yan 91 The Tradition and Prototypes of the China-Watcher La Hui-min 111 The Garden of Perfect Brightness, a Life in Ruins Geremie R. Barme 159 Appendix: The George Ernest Morrison Lectures in Ethnology iv Cover calligraphy Yan Zhenqing :M����, Tang calligrapher and statesman Cover picture G. E. Morrison with his two 'adopted' children, sons of his head servant, photographed in 1905 in the front courtyard of his house at 98 Wang-fu-ching Ta-chieh, Peking PRESTER JOHN AND EUROPE'S DISCOVERY OF EAST ASIA* Igor de Rachewiltz Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: I am deeply honoured to have * The 32nd George Ernest Morrison Lecture been asked by the Australian National University to deliver this Thirty-Second in Ethnology, delivered by Dr de Rachewiltz, Senior Fellow in the Department of Far East­ George Ernest Morrison Lecture. ern History, Institute of Advanced Studies, It is only proper that I should begin by paying tribute to the remarkable Australian National University, on 3 Novem­ man in whose memory these lectures are given. ber 1971, and first published by the ANU in Mo T'ai-fu �A�, as Dr Morrison was called in Peking, was a man of 1972 [-Ed] wide-ranging interests and accomplishments: he was a physician, journalist, The text has not been updated or revised political adviser, bibliophile, and a great traveller. For many years, with his except for the correction of obvious mistakes almost legendary despatches, he kept the world informed of what was and the addition (in the footnotes) of a num­ ber of bibliographical references. [-I. de R.l happening, or going to happen, in China, a country he had adopted with tremendous enthusiasm. In this period he was certainly one of the major and ! Many problems concerning the origin and development of the Prester John legend most effective links between the Eastern and the Western world. But then have been touched only cursorily or not at Morrison's China-the China of the end of the nineteenth-beginning of the all in the text because of their controversial twentieth century-belongs to an Asian world which science, gunboats, the nature and complexity. For further investig­ telegraph and the printing press were revealing with almost uncanny rapidity ation, references to specialised studies have been given in the notes whenever posssible. to our bewildered grandfathers. So rapidly, in fact, that the exotic and unfathomable East dear to mid-nineteenth-century writers had in Morrison's time already lost much of its mystery. Now, fifty years later, further travels, explorations, wars, and scholarly research have disposed of most of Europe's old and cherished myths about Asia. Asia may still be an enigma, but is no longer a fable. Tonight I want to transport you for a while back to a period when the Asian continent was still largely unknown to westerners, when in fact it was still regarded by our forefathers as a land inhabited by strange beasts and even stranger men. From this period I intend to concentrate on one of the fables about Asia relayed in Western Europe, the story of Prester John, showing how the legend came to be in part responsible for Europe's discov­ ery of Asia in the late Middle Ages.! 59 60 IGOR DE RACHEWILTZ 2 There is a vast literature on Prester John. I have chosen the story of Prester John not without misgivings, because For a detailed study of the subject the it has already been told many times, and no doubt most of you are familiar following works are indispensable: G. with it, or with some versions of it. Better known, however, is the later Oppert, DerPresbyter Jo hannes in Sage und Geschichte(Berlin, 1870); F. Zarncke, "Ueber development of the legend, the one popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth eine neue, bisher nicht bekannt gewesene centuries, which placed the kingdom of Prester John in Ethiopia. I think most lateinische Redaction des Briefes des Priester people who have heard about Prester John regard him in fact as a semi­ Johannes," in Berichte uber die Verhand­ legendary African ruler rather than an Oriental potentate. I shall not go into lungen der koniglich siichsischen Gesell­ schaJt der WissenschaJt en zu Leipzig. this later development of the story, but I shall discuss only the original Asiatic Philologisch-historische Klasse, vo!'29 Prester John in relation to those events that led to the great geographical (Leipzig, 1877), pp.I11-56; and, by the same discoveries of the thirteenth century, highlighting, in particular, those points author, "Der Priester Johannes," in Abhand­ which in my opinion have not received sufficient attention in the past. 2 lungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der kOniglich siichsischen GesellschaJt der First, a few words about the background of the legend. WissenschaJt en, vo!.7 (Leipzig, 1879), In classical antiquity and right into the Middle Ages the lands of Further pp.947-1028; vo!.8 (Leipzig, 1883), pp.128- Asia were known to the West through a small number of geographical works 54 and 180-4; C. Marinescu "Le Pretre Jean. Son pays. Explication de son nom," in Bulletin based on frequently unreliable information, mainly obtained from traders, as de la section historique de l'Academie well as through a sizeable body of imaginative literature, such as the roumaine 10 (923): 73-112; and, by the Alexander Romance, with its precursors and derivatives, of far greater same author, "Encore une fois Ie probleme popular appeal. Most of the ancient legends about the people and the flora du Pretre Jean," in Bulletin de la section historique de l'Academie roumaine 26 and fauna of Asia seem to be of Asiatic origin, many of them probably (945): 202-22; E. Denison Ross, "Prester originating in Central Asia and in India. Long before Alexander's expedition John and the Empire of Ethiopia," in Tra vels they had spread with trade among the Greek colonists of Asia Minor, and and travellers in the Middle Ages, ed. A. P. thence had reached the other peoples of the Mediterranean world.3 Newton (London & New York, 1926), pp.174-94; F. Fleuret, "La lettre de Pretre­ Now, the image conveyed by these stories was not only one of remote Jean, pseudo-roi d'Abyssinie," in Mercure countries inhabited by wondrous creatures and magic trees and mountains, de Fra nce 268 (936): 298-309; L Olschki, but also, and pre-eminently, one of very rich, indeed fabulously rich lands. "Der Brief des Presbyters Johannes," in Of course, since antiquity India and China had been supplying the West, Historische ZeitschriJt144 (931): 1-14; and, by the same author, Storia letteraria delle through various intermediaries, with gems, amber, silk, precious woods, scopertegeografiche(Firenze, 1937), pp.194- spices and other rare products, their value being further enhanced by the 214; and Marco Polo's Asia, tr. by J. A. Scott shrewd merchants' tales, and this accounts to a large extent for the universal (Berkeley Los Angeles, 1960), pp.381-97; & belief that Asia was a country of immense riches. Herodotus (Bk. III, 106), R. Hennig, Te rrae incognitae, 2nd ed. (Leiden, 1956), vol.2, ppA38-64, vo!.3, after having described the Indians' ingenious way of getting gold by stealing pp. 11-23 etpassim, volA, pp.12-14 etpassim; it from gold-digging ants, says: "It is as though the remotest parts of the P. Pelliot, Mela nges sur l'epoque des Crois­ inhabited world had been given the best of everything, just as Greece was ades, extr. from Memoires de I 'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, vol.44 (Paris, 1951), p.24 etpassim; Hambis, "La legende L /Prester John, tr. by R. E. F. Smith (Cambridge: /unpublished papers in the libraryof the Musee du Pretre Jean," in La-Tour-Saint-jacques 8 Cambridge University Press, 1987); and A. Guimet in Paris. (957): 31-46; J. Richard, "L'Extreme-Orient Klopprogge, Ursprung und Auspriigung des legendaire au Moyen Age: Roi David et 3 See D. F. Lach, Asia in themaking oJEurope, abendliindischen Mongolenbildes im Pretre Jean," in Annates d'Ethiopie2 0957}'. J 3 vol. 1: The century oj discovery (Chicago & Jahrhundert.
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