History of the Chinese Empire

Author: [Spanish] Mendezza/He Gaoji
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The "History of the Great Chinese Empire" by the Spanish Mendezza was first published in Rome in 1585. The content is divided into two parts: the first part is a general overview, recording the affairs and history of China; the second part includes the travel accounts of three missionaries in China and their global travels. This famous historical work, despite having many European language translations, still lacks a detailed explanation of the content described and an account of the historical sources cited by Mendezza. After completing the translation of "The Southern Journey in Sixteenth-Century China" by Boxer (published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1990), I translated Mendezza's historical work. Naturally, I discovered the similarities and differences between Mendezza's accounts and those of the Portuguese Krus and the Spanish Rada. This led me to explore the historical materials he cited. First, some chapters by Mendezza are entirely or mostly adopted from the aforementioned two authors, and this category is relatively easy to identify. However, there are often changes in the wording, and sometimes additions are made. Take an example. Krus described the produce of China as follows: "There is a fruit grown in many orchards, which grows on large trees with thick leaves. This fruit is as large as a round plum, slightly larger, and when peeled, it is a special and rare delicacy. No one can eat enough of it, as it makes one crave more, no matter how much one eats, it never causes harm. There is another variety that is smaller, but the larger it is, the better. It is called lychee (Lechias)." This is the earliest record we have in Europe of this special fruit in our southern region. Mendezza adopted this record and rewrote it as: "They (the Chinese) also have a fruit called lychee, which is very delicious. Despite eating it in large quantities, it never harms the body." In many chapters, almost everything is rewritten based on Krus and Rada.