Methodology and Historiography 17/08/2007 09:04:00
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Methodology and Historiography 17/08/2007 09:04:00 I. Western History of the Orient. Medieval -> 16th C A. Marco Polo’s The Travels. Description of the world. Allegedly dictated to a man named Rustacello while Polo was in jail. Polo’s travels in Asia. Lived and worked in China as an agent for Kublai Kahn. Coolridge (poet) writes about Kuhblai Khan. As such the two great stereotypes about the orient are power and sensuality and sexuality. Had verifiable fact, random facts acting as statistics, fiction, and things made up. First work by westerner to look at China from inside. B. William of Rubrick. First real westerner. Sent by Louis of France to get Kahn to join Christian crusade against Islam. 1. Cataians. Mythical name for Chinese. Syris from Romans. Silk people. “Small race who, when speak, speak and breathe heavily through the nose.” Westerners imagine the slants of eyes. Excellent craftsmen in every skills. Can use herbs and diagnose from pulse, but don’t use urine samples and know nothing about urine. All fathers’ sons take up craft. Everyday currency is paper. Obsession with paper money and with the ornate written language. Description of “Orientals” were not unbiased. 2. Legend of the Far East begins with stereotypes. Good craftsmen, but dark hidden side that recurs through history. B. Historical Marco Polo. What was he writing about? In theory, the far east, but perhaps not. Current text comes from over 80 ancient manuscripts, none of which are the original. Don’t know the original language in which the travels were recorded, but we think maybe Lombardi or Venetian. Possibly translated into an Italianate French, and then into Latin. French and Italians didn’t begin speaking French and Italian until the late 19th C. We only know Polo really existed because of his last will and testament. 1. Tatars. Peter the Tartar was referenced in Polo’s will. This is how we know he was real, but we don’t necessarily know if his travels are real. Have to read the text itself to see if it’s real. Text is written in the 3rd person. Rustacello wrote Authurian romances and was in theory in prison with Polo. Both people’s home city-states were at war in Genoa where they were imprisoned. 2. Catapults and Chinese Source. Polo talks about manganles and trebuchets and weapons of China. Chinese sources seem to validate an attack on this city on the South bank of the Huan river. using said weapons. The Chinese sources say that Kahn sent to the west for engineers to hurl stones. Problem is that Chinese sources record the end of the siege a year before Polo could’ve reached said city. 3. Columbus and Polo. Most famous reader of Marco Polo is Christopher Columbus. From the same geographical area. Not much world history floating about in Europe, so Polo’s account, despite how fantastic, were depended on. Columbus was not just looking for India, but unicorns and hippogriffs, which could be found in Cathay. II. China and West 15-16 Century A. Shakespeare. Writes of China, but is condescending. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream has an entry about a Chinese garden very different from Western gardens. The Chinese garden is an invention of the English imagination. English gardens are square with white picket fences with a rotunda in the center and very ordered. Anything different was considered a “Chinese garden.” The idea, in Shakespeare’s imagination, was exotic (mentions birds and trees). Chinese lovers sing a duet to each other. Six monkeys come out of the woods to do a dance. There are lots of references to six. Pedestals, porcelain vases. Shakespeare reconciles odds between East and West. People were fascinated, but unwilling to judge it. Took between 4 and 5 years to reach China from the West. Distance was another world. Only historiography could judge China. III.The Orient with the 17th C A. Jesuit Missionaries. First significant contact with the West. Heavy emphasis on schooling. Almost argue that anything important is recorded somewhere by the Jesuits. Franciscans want to destroy pagan idolatry. Jesuit approach to missionary evangelism was to find associations between G-d and cultural aspects. B. Matteo Ricci & Mandarins. Made a global map that he tried to convert with. World map with China in the middle to show superior map skills of the West. Wrote a book of friendship to show the Chinese how moral Westerners are. Translated introductory chapters to Euclid’s Geometry. While Europe was splitting itself over Catholicism and Protestantism and religious orders. China, however, was united under one system of thought: Confucianism. Praised foot binding to keep women in their place. Suggested that learning Mandarin was calming of people. Excellent bureaucracy ran the country. Introduces hierarchy. China being better 1. Christianity and Confucianism. Confucianism was twisted by the Jesuits to fit with Christianity. Mao talked used the twisted Confucianism. Mandarins were akin to the Jesuits (pursuit of education). 2. Buddhism. The reason that the Chinese didn’t accept Christianity. “A mass of superstitions.” Judgment of China by siding with minority – the mandarins – and ignoring the majority’s Buddhism. C. Robato Nobili and the Brahmans. Next great missionary to the East, but focused on India. Like Richi identifies with a group of people: the Brahmans. Intellectually top. Serves as an ideal by which European society can be critiqued. IV. Enlightenment. 17th C-French Revolution. A. China is superior to the West. We find this idea in the thought of Voltaire. Probably greatest man of letters in the end of 17th C. Anti-clerical but very humane and tolerant thinker. Leibnitz was probably greatest intellectual thinker. Genius. Both thought that natural religion of China was superior to anything that people had. Confucianism lacked the superstitious pieces of Catholicism. Buddhism was denounced. Thought ideograms were superior to Latin alphabet and lead for greater cognition. In the I Ching calculus and the spoken language of creation from Eden had been discovered. B. China is inferior to the West. DeFoe said their buildings didn’t compare to the West, neither did their art. Infinite variety is a big deal to the people who put down the East. Very critical of military skill of Asians. Very much thought that people of the West were more skilled. C. During this period for the first time the first great maps of China are made. 17th and 18th C. Good to know where China is and where Chinese are not. Comparison depends on the existence of distance. Polo and Richi blurred lines between East and West. Maps allowed for very clear differences. Spiritual difference was replaced with mathematical distance of space. Different space. V. 19th Century A. People from the East came to reside often in the European culture to study. Chinese and Indians came to Oxford and Cambridge, and were among the Europeans. Herder proposed that peoples, like animals were different species. The essence of a people was not to be found in persons, but in artifacts. This, instead of breaking down stereotypes, continued them. The definition of languages as changing cultures reinforced said stereotypes. They speak differently, so they are different. B. Academic Far East 1. Philology/Languages. Herder argued that instead of the elite determining a culture, it was the language because languages are shared by all. One person doesn’t create language, not even a genius. Strange democracy in looking at the language as the archetype for a culture. Chance participation of all. Great era of creation of myths and folktales. The Grim Brothers were philologists. Greatest of those were best at writing myth. Perrot, Andersen, etc. Languages, like plants, unfold in time showing the riches of language and culture. 2. Sanskrit v. Chinese. Scholars studied these as origins of eastern languages and cultures. Sanskrit marked the height of ancient, if not all world culture. Before Voltaire Hebrew culture, via Christianity, had been the height of Western culture. Sanskirt had amazing grammar, and there were not prefixes or suffixes, entirely different words. This makes it hard to learn, but the being of the word had to change. Chinese was lowest point because of stacking ideograms. Thought to be unsophisticated and accounted for reason China was so “backward” in eyes of British. 3. Species. To Gobineau species was flesh and blood. The blood of Chinese made them a different species. They didn’t just not speak English, but were also a “yellow” people and Indians were “brown” people. The 19th C is much harsher on the Far East than everyone else. In the 18th C they are white. C. Birth of History. Drew upon all different currents that had come before. Drew on hierarchy, evolution, and destiny. Richi tried to find similarities between cultures. History didn’t pay much attention to religion. All peoples can be compared on three points. Comparing suggests you have something in common. 1. Labor. Where are people in labor terms? Capitalists? On their way to socialism? 2. Life. Abstract biological concept. Chinese defined selves in terms of religion. Unfavorable comparison between us (living beings) and Chinese (metaphysical) way of thinking. 3. Language. See above. Enabled one to express oneself. Chinese failed to express abstract concepts but Sanskrit could. Modern Academic Historiography. Continued to look. 95% of books on Far East elaborate three Ls. All three have to be spoken in terms of geopgraphy; break down into countries to talk about life, labor, and language. Divisions from colonialism are used to break down, too. Biological definition of race defines people. These (western) ideas are bad. Battles of 20th C are always fought in Western terms, without regard for the culture of the East.