職方外紀

Zhífāng wàijì 職方外紀

Records Beyond the Domain of the Bureau of Operations (i.e. of countries beyond the Zhōulǐ world) by 艾儒略 (Ài Rúlüè / Giulio Aleni, S.J., 1582–1649) — zhuàn 撰

About the work

A 5-juan late-Míng treatise on world geography in Chinese — the foundational Chinese-language treatment of the Renaissance European geographical worldview — composed by the Italian Jesuit Giulio Aleni 艾儒略 and presented at Bĕi-jīng in Tiānqǐ guǐhài (1623). The work draws on Matteo Ricci 利瑪竇’s Wànguó túzhì 萬國圖志 (a world map presented to the Wànlì emperor) and Diego de Pantoja 龐迪我’s translation work, but is substantially Aleni’s own composition rather than a polished pre-existing draft. The work treats the entire known globe under the European late-Renaissance scheme of five continents — Yàxìyà (Asia), Ōuluóbā (Europe), Lìwèiyà (Africa), Yàmòlìjiā (the Americas, divided North and South), and Mòwǎlàníjiā (Magellanica = the southern unknown continent then theorised in European cosmography) — providing for each continent its boundaries, principal countries, customs, and notable cities. Prefaced by a Wànguó quántú (full world map) and concluded with a Sìhǎi zǒngshuō (general account of the four oceans). The work is the most important pre-Qīng Chinese-language exposition of European world geography and the foundation of subsequent Chinese world-geographical literature (including Náng Huáirén [Verbiest]‘s Kūnyú túshuō KR2k0150 of 1672).

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Zhífāng wàijì in five juan is by the Western scholar Ài Rúlüè of Míng. The work was completed in Tiānqǐ guǐhài (1623); on the basis of the Wànguó túzhì presented by the Westerner Lì [Mǎdòu] (Matteo Ricci), and on Páng [Díwǒ]‘s (Diego de Pantoja’s) imperial-commissioned translation, Rúlüè further supplemented and revised it; presumably built on Lì Mǎdòu and Páng Díwǒ’s old text, embellished — but not entirely Rúlüè’s own composition.

What is recorded is all the customs of remote regions, what the yútú of antiquity has not recorded — hence titled Zhífāng wàijì. Its treatment divides the tiānxià into five great continents:

(1) Yàxìyà: from the west at Nàduōlǐyà (Anatolia), 62° from the Fúdǎo (Fortunate Islands / Canary Islands prime meridian); to the east at Yàníyān xiá (Strait of Anián = the supposed strait between America and Asia), 180°; from the south at Guāwā (Java), 12° south of the equator; to the north at Bīnghǎi (the Arctic), 72° north.

(2) Ōuluóbā: from the south at the Mediterranean, 35° N; to the north at the Arctic, 80°+; spanning 11,250 lǐ; from the west at the Western Sea Fortunate Islands at 0°; to the east at the Āběi River (Ob), 92° from the Fortunate Islands; spanning 23,000 lǐ.

(3) Lìwèiyà (Africa): southwest all to the Lìwèiyàhǎi (Atlantic); east to the Xī Hónghǎi (Red Sea); north to the Mediterranean; extreme south 35° S; extreme north 35° N; east-west 78°.

(4) Yàmòlìjiā: divided North-and-South, with a connecting isthmus; south of the isthmus from Mòwǎlàní hǎixiá (Strait of Magellan), 52° S, north to Jiānàdá, 10.5° N; west from 286°, east to 355°. North of the isthmus from Jiānàdá 10.5° N to the Arctic — the latitude not measured; west from 180°, east to the Fortunate Islands at 360°.

(5) Mòwǎlàníjiā (Magellanica) — recently in contact with that country [Spain]; territorial extent and distances not yet ascertained.

Prefaced by the Wànguó quántú and appended with the Sìhǎi zǒngshuō. What is described is mostly strange-and-unusual, beyond exhaustive verification — seems unavoidable to be much exaggerated; but the great-and-small of heaven-and-earth, what is there that does not exist? Recording and preserving it is also enough to broaden seeing-and-hearing.

Abstract

The Zhífāng wàijì is the most important pre-Qīng Chinese-language exposition of European world geography. It was composed by the Italian Jesuit missionary Giulio Aleni 艾儒略 (1582–1649; in Chinese 艾思及 zì Sījí), one of the most distinguished members of the late-Míng Jesuit China mission, the first European to enter the inner imperial precincts of Fújiàn (where he established the Mǐnzhōng mission), and a major writer in the China-Jesuit syncretic-philosophical tradition. The work was presented at Běijīng in Tiānqǐ 3 guǐhài (1623) on the basis of inherited material from Matteo Ricci’s Wànguó túzhì (the world maps presented to Wànlì in 1602 and later revised) and Diego de Pantoja’s translation work, but substantially in Aleni’s own composition.

The work’s principal scholarly value is in being the first Chinese-language treatment of: (i) the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic-Renaissance scheme of a spherical earth divided into five continents (Asia / Europe / Africa / Americas / Magellanica); (ii) European world cartography with the prime meridian at the Canary Islands (“Fúdǎo”); (iii) latitude-and-longitude as the standard Chinese cosmographical reference (replacing the Yǔgòng nine-province scheme); (iv) detailed accounts of Renaissance European cities and institutions (Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris, Madrid, the Holy Roman Empire); (v) the Americas — Aleni’s account is the first sustained Chinese-language treatment of the New World; (vi) the Spanish and Portuguese maritime empires.

The Sìkù compilers, working a century-and-a-half later, retained the work in the wàijì category despite their evident skepticism about much of its content — preserving it as a curiosity (“for broadening seeing-and-hearing”). The work was nevertheless one of the principal early-Qīng sources for Chinese knowledge of the European world, and is foundational for the late-Qīng “Western learning” (Xīxué) tradition.

The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 594.8).

Translations and research

• Bernard Hung-kay Luk, “A Study of Giulio Aleni’s Chih-fang wai chi,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 40.1 (1977): 58–84. The principal English-language critical study.
• Antonella Romano, Impressions de Chine: L’Europe et l’englobement du monde, XVIe–XVIIe siècle (Paris, 2016).
• Tiziana Lippiello and Roman Malek, eds., “Scholar from the West”: Giulio Aleni S.J. (1582–1649) and the Dialogue between Christianity and China (Sankt Augustin: Steyler, 1997).
• Pasquale d’Elia, Galileo in Cina (Rome, 1947).
• Jonathan Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (NY, 1984), comparative on the Ricci-era predecessor map.
• Standard Chinese editions: Xiè Fāng 謝方 ed., Zhí-fāng wài-jì jiào-shì 職方外紀校釋 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá, 2000). The standard modern critical Chinese edition with apparatus.
• Wilkinson §73.5 with bibliography.

Other points of interest

The work is the principal Chinese channel through which the Renaissance-cosmographical worldview entered late-imperial Chinese intellectual culture, and is regularly cited in late-Qīng Yángwù (Western affairs) discussions. The Sìkù compilers’ decision to retain it under their dìlǐ rubric — despite their skeptical stance — is itself an interesting marker of the gradual Qīng-period absorption of European geographical knowledge.

Links

• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6209018 (Aleni)
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1999569 (the work)
• Luk, BSOAS 40.1 (1977)
• Xiè Fāng, Zhífāng wàijì jiàoshì (Zhōnghuá, 2000)
• Wilkinson §73.5