Page 19 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

Pic. 6: Title page of the Book on the VOC embassy to emperor Shunzhi by Johan
Nieuhof 1665 20

As we have mentioned, China was a closed country. Only very few tiny coastal
windows were allowed such as Macao, Canton and ports like Zhoushan or Xiamen
from time to time. Like in Japan, no foreigner was allowed to travel around the
country unless a formal tributary mission had been endorsed to visit the Emperor’s
court in Beijing. An exception was made for some Jesuit missionaries whose
knowledge about natural sciences was treasured by Chinese Emperors. Michele
Ruggieri (1543-1607), Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Johann Adam Schall von Bell
(1592-1666) and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) were not only allowed to visit, but
also to live in the Forbidden City, or to work at the Beijing observatory. Ruggieri and
Ricci wrote the first Chinese dictionary in 1588. Two German Jesuits who left Lisbon
in 1618 and reached Macao in 1619 became important advisors to the late Ming and
early Qing emperors. Both – Johann Schreck (born 1576 in Bingen) and Johann Adam
Schall von Bell (born in Cologne) - have spent the rest of their life in Beijing.
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Pic. 7: Adam Schall von Bell and Matteo Ricci, copper engraving, 1667

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