Merchants

Mutual Influences between Portugal and China

Benjamim Videira Pires*

Luso-Chinese faience from the Rato Workshop

People from different ethnic groups and different cultures influence each other most readily in the areas which are most closely connected to and useful for everyday life. Primarily these areas are commerce, technology, science, the arts and in order of decreasing importance, social-political movements and finally, religion. This is not to say, however, that it is these environmental factors, in particular the economy, which give rise to religious expression, but rather that they have an external influence.

The Portuguese introduced new foods into China because their diet was not so heavily dependant on rice, especially the insipid steamed rice which is the basis for daily meals in China. The Chinese owe to us the introduction of corn, peanuts (now used extensively both in crude form and in several processed forms such as oil, cakes, butter), sweet potato, yam, tomato, lettuce, cabbage, water-cress (still called "Portuguese greens" in Chinese), okra, mandioc, fruits such as papaya, custard-apple, guava, pineapple, several kinds of bean, apéritifs such as olives, drinks such as wine, coffee, milk and lactic products (cheese and butter) and the famous "Portuguese chicken".

In addition to this list, we ought to mention apples, bay, cashew nuts, three kinds of banana, malaguetta pepper, chocolate, figs, grapes (which only grow in central and northern China), mint onion, three kinds of pumpkin, three kinds of saffron, two kinds of tobacco, water-melon and so on. Some of these products were brought from America and Africa.

Decorative trees and shrubs were grown in the gardens and kitchen gardens of Macau and Lapa, along with medicinal herbs for domestic consumption. It was Portuguese missionaries who introduced specific medicines such as quinine and ipecacuanha to the Celestial Empire. The need to provide Macau with food supplies meant that in neighbouring provinces such as Zhongsan, Cantonese farmers grew crops which were to the Portuguese taste and this habit gradually spread to other parts of China.

An important aspect of Portuguese Jesuit trading was the search for specific medicines and drugs, Western medicine being a major study within the order. Father Luís de Almeida, SJ, (responsible for introducing European medicine and surgery into Japan) traded, studied theology and was ordained as a priest in Macau. Father Cristóvão Ferreira, SJ, the author of serveral medical texts written in Japanese, also lived in Macau for a while. On several occasions, doctors from Macau treated the emperor and his court in Peking. The "Apothecaries" or pharmacies in the College of the Mother of God (St. Paul's) and the S. Rafael Hospital became famous.

It was the Portuguese who brought snuff from Brasil, thus giving rise to the production of exquisite little glass bottles, delicately decorated and so highly valued by collectors, (Luís Gonzaga Gomes had an ebony showcase containing over three hundred of these rare flasks which he sold off at a very low price shortly before his death).

From Macau, large quantities of porcelain, cloisonné, ivory, laquer, Chinese silks and other cloths were exported to Brazil and Europe. There are Chinese paintings, tiles, religious clothing, vases, statuettes and wood carvings preserved in the Regal Chamber of the Escorial Monastery, the Library of Coimbra University, several museums (ie. in Machado de Castro), in churches in Portugal and Brazil, but most importantly in the houses of Vice-Roys, Governors and other noble families.

The impact of orientalism on the traditional Portuguese social system can be measured by the Chinese influence on XⅦth century Portuguese ceramics and glazed tiles. The Rato Workshop in Lisbon and workshops in Viana do Castelo and Caldas de Rainha began to produce pieces "in the Chinese style". This influence can still be seen in the blue and white porcelain manufactured in Macau with the Portuguese coat of arms, in religious apparel and in many other items for both religious and everday use.

Western gardens began to cultivate lilies, tea-roses, rushes, peonies (the symbol of wealth), chrysanthemums (the imperial emblem of Japan when it is yellow with sixteen petals, like the rising sun) and camellias (named after the Moravian Jesuit, Kamel). (1)

Tea was exported from Macau through Malacca and then Manila to India and the West. In Portuguese the word "chá" comes from the Cantonese pronunciation of the word, while "the" and "tea" are derivatives of the Fukinese dialect. Other goods for export were cinnamon, sago, rhubarb, camphor, turtle, coral, fans (in Portuguese the word "leque" meaning fan comes from the Portuguese word given to the Ryukyu Islands "Léquias"), rush mats, blue and yellow cottons, gold and silver, rattan, ginger, amber, mother-of-pearl from the Philippines, rubies, pearls, seed-pearls, sandalwood from Timor and slaves from Mozambique. Magnificent cannons were also exported (in particular the one from the Bocarro foundry, now in S. Jorge Castle in Lisbon), along with muskets and ammunition from the Chunambeiro foundry, and also ships. (2)

In a memorandum to the emperor written in 1621, Li-Chih-Tsao advised that artillerymen should be brought from Macau as soon as possible, following the Chinese' first defeat against the Manchus in 1619. Three cannons and several muskets were sent, along with thirty artillerymen to instruct them in the use of the weapons. They did not return to Macau until 1624. In fact, bamboo muskets, identical to the Portuguese ones, were produced throughout China and Japan.

In 1629, a Chinese military expedition was sent to Macau where they were provided with ten cannons. Captain Gonçalo Teixeira Correia and other artillerymen were also sent and Father João Rodrigues accompanied them as their interpreter and chaplain. The results were stunning. The Manchus fled on receiving news of the Portuguese artillerymen but only twenty Chinese could be found to learn the art of casting and handling the cannons.

Gradually, muskets (niao-chung) and cannons began to be produced in China: three hundred in Canton Province in 1630, and one hundred and seven in Peking. However, the enemy Manchu also learned how to cast cannons, and by 1640 they already had sixty. One copper cannon cost twenty taels of silver, while an iron cannon cost nine taels. (3)Other Jesuit Fathers involved in the production of cannons were Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest.

In the field of technology, the Portuguese missionaries Sabatino de Ursis and Miguel Bento carried out important projects in hydraulic engineering. Bento built a miniature village in the gardens of the Imperial Summer Palace outside Peking. In this village there was a mill for grinding rice, little streams, waterfalls and other water tricks which the emperor could turn on in front of an enthusiastic court. However, the Emperor took the most delight in a marvellous water clock which decorated the landing of the huge staircase in the Hai Yen Tang. In turn, the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac - the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the cock, the dog and the pig - spurted water for a whole hour and at mid-day water spouted from the mouths of all twelve animals simultaneously. This master-piece had taken Father Bento a considerable amount of time to produce. (4)

The Chinese gave the Portuguese the compass, the axial rudder, multiple masts, gun-powder and the lorcha which the Portuguese then adapted so that the hulk and sails were Western.

The art of cartography began in China under the auspices of Mateus Ricci and the Portuguese Jesuits who travelled throughout the Empire in order to chart their maps. The famed identification of Grand Cathay with China was also proved by Brother Bento de Góis' journey lasting from 1602 until 1605. He travelled through Agra, Lahore, Kabul, Yarkand and Suchow (at the far end of the Great Wall) where he met the Jesuit candidate sent by Ricci, João Fernandes, otherwise known as "Ciomim-li".

Prior to the supression of the Jesuits, they translated many Western books into classical Chinese. Amongst these was the philosophical work Os Conimbricenses by Pedro da Fonseca and a Latin grammar by Father Manuel Álvares. Father Álvaro Semedo also published a large Portuguese/Chinese and Chinese/Portuguese dictionary which the rector of St. Joseph's Seminary, Dr. Carvalho, tried to send to the Geographical Society in Lisbon. It would be interesting to know where this work is today, and also the many others which were lost because their Jesuit owners were thrown out and their libraries dismantled.

Linguistic exchange is another area which is now being studied by specialists. The Makista Creole, which was spoken by the women and servants during the XⅧth and XⅨth centuries in all Portuguese houses left little in terms of written documentation. Those which exist are few and far between and they have never been compiled into a critical edition. The magazine Ta-Ssi-Yang-Kuo, edited by Marques Pereira and later by Francisco Rego and Graciete Batalha, published some interesting articles on this literature. Graciete Batalha also studied and published the origin of over seven hundred words used in the old Macau patois. However, it could be said that with the present development of Portuguese education in the territory, the local patois is gradually disappearing although there are still many phonetic, grammatical and syntactic mistakes which persist. I have a list of around three thousand terms of Portuguese origin which are still used in Malacca and which can be used to express practically anything.

In Macau the Portuguese have been present for longer. Makista Creole with terms common to India, Malaysai, Indonesia and Japan, must be much richer than the feeble relics which remain of it. Is it not true that José dos Santos Ferreira expresses himself in the gentle patois of his forefathers?

A list has still to be made of Portuguese words and expressions introduced into Chinese. In Shanghai thirty words are used. In Canton there are obviously many more because of the closer connections between the two peoples. Similarly, many words and phrases were introduced into Portuguese from Chinese. A typical example is the Portuguese repetition of the principal verb in a question as an affirmative answer rather than simply using "yes".

The system used in the Far East (mainly in China and Vietnam) of giving the days of the week numbers was influenced by Portuguese (in Portuguese, days are described by numbers). The best book to consult on this is Li Ching, Arquivo do Centro Cultural Português, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, 1972 (vol IV, pp. 711 on).

Mathematics and Astronomy drew together the cultures of China and Europe. The Jesuit missionaries in the Portuguese Missions of the Orient took with them more advanced knowledge regarding geometry and algebra. The Jesuit "Court Fathers" held the presidency of the Mathematics Tribunal for over one hundred and fifty years. The Jesuits also took more sophisticated techniques for manufacturing astronomical instruments. Nevertheless, they were unable to present a united front on the question of whether the universe was geocentric or heliocentric. Whilst some of the second generation missionaries such as the Swiss Johan Terrenz Schreck and the Bohemian Wenceslau Kirwitzer were enthusiastic followers of the Copernican theory, news of Galileo's condemnation in 1632 altered this bias and Ptolemy's theory regained popularity. Sabatino de Ursis (who died and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral in Macau) had explained this theory in precise Chinese as early as 1611.

On their side, the Chinese scientists of the old empire had, over the centuries, developed cosmic and astronomical theories which were more advanced than many Jesuits thought. Even Ricci failed to understand Hsuan Yeh's theory which was basically correct in comparison with Artistotelean doctrine. Hsuan Yeh claimed that celestial bodies floated through space. Schreck, in his book A Brief Description of the Measurements of the Heavens, published in Chinese in 1628, explained the discovery of solar blots or patches with use of the telescope but he did not mention the fact that the Chinese were already aware of the dark blue patches on the sun. In fact, they had known about them for six centuries prior to the Jesuit discovery. This omission may have been due to the fact that Schreck arrived in China at a point when culture, suffering from the moribund Ming Dynasty, was in decline and the ancient scientific discoveries were not so evident.

In spite of the shortcomings on both sides, the encounter between the Chinese scholars and the Jesuit scientists was recognized in 1635 with the appearance of the noteworthy joint agreement on scientific knowledge established by Hsu Kuang-Chi, Li Chih-Tsao, Li Thien-Ching and the Jesuits Schreck, Schall von Bell, Rho and Longobardi. (5)

A competent study of various aspects of mixed marriages has been produced by Dr. Almerindo Lessa in his A História de os Homens da Primeira Repúblca Democrática do Oriente (The History of the Men in the First Democratic Republic of the East) (Macau, Imprensa Nacional, 1974).

The Peking Observatory from an engraving produced in Peking in 1688 (taken from Jesuítas Portugueses Astronónomos na China 1583-1805 by Francisco Rodrigues, Oporto, 1925).

Because of this, the expression "sons of Macau" included, logically, everyone born in Macau regardless of whether they were Chinese or Portuguese. Thus, in the report on the sixty-one martyrs of the mission to Japan in 1640, there is a precise reference to four "Chinese sons of Macau", Pero Vaz, Miguel de Aráujo, Domingos da Cunha and Domingos Fernandes. Nowadays there are thousands of Chinese who are totally integrated into Portuguese society and who send their children to Portuguese schools and universities.

The Chinese in Macau are increasingly interested in learning Portuguese and adopting Portuguese nationality now that compulsory military service has been stopped. The numbers now stand at somewhere around one hundred thousand.

Macau's architecture is a mixture of East and West. The old tea salons on Rua Nova de EI-Rei (now Avenida do Cinco de Outubro), the old pawn-brokers built like forts, the 'opium dens' down in the Inner Harbour and typical Chinese houses coexisted quite peacefully with essentially Mediterranean styles of urban structures built round squares, yards filled with European trees, open spaces and alleyways, cobbled streets and back-breaking steps reminiscent of Lisbon or Oporto. It is unfortunate that now we are presented with such uncharacteristic speed in the present development of the City.

While the Portuguese colonized Macau and the Islands and established active communities in Shanghai, Canton and Fuchow, the settlement of Brazil during the reign of D. João VI, on the initiative of the Count of Linhares in around 1816, was done by means of the Chinese. It was they who introduced the cultivation of tea in the Botanic Gardens and the former Jesuit mission of Santa Cruz in Rio de Janeiro. The tea plantations took up acres and acres of stony plain similar to their habitat in China. On each side of the road there were orange trees, rose bushes and hedges of pretty flowers. Moreover, the king had ordered Chinese gateways to be built and cabins for the plantation workers "so that the China in Santa Cruz was really a delightful walk". Pictures and accounts of this little colony have been preserved in the works of the German sketcher Rugendas, the water colour artist Tomás Ender and by Maria Graham in her Diary of a Trip to Brazil (1821-1823). The community faded away, however, with the death of the founders and English opposition to the project, as they were presumably afraid of competition to their tea exports from Ceylon. (9)

It is worth noting Edgar Quinet's observation that "The Lusiads is the poem which brings the West and the East together". Camões, "the most complete Renaissance artist", lauded the Portuguese and their encounters with China's culture, combining the epic, tragic concept of life - the most noticable point of comparison between Chinese and Western art- with the lyricism and mysticism of man in harmony with nature.

"The greatest influence we have had from Western literature", writes Junichiro Tanizaki, "was for love to be freed". Although China does not have the epic, it is rich in romance and drama which also express the fullness of life. Oriental poetry maintains a classical calm for it does not reach an ecstatic point but dies away before it reaches the proportions of an epic. The song "Sôbolos Rio" was written after Camões was shipwrecked on the reefs in the China Seas and is one of the poet's most mystical moments.

This article would not be complete without taking a look at how the two cultures have influenced each other in the fields of clothing, sewing, games and other pastimes although each one of these covers an extremely vast area.

In Três Jogos Populares de Macau - Chonca, Talu, Bafá, Ana Maria Amaro shows that talu is really Portuguese billiards, introduced by the Jesuits in 1712 and played until this century. Chinese children still play popular Portuguese street games and the kites which are flown in the gentle Autumn breezes from the tops of mountains are another joyful point in common shared by both Portuguese and Chinese children.

As for clothes, there is the evolution of the cheong-sam or long tunic which Eça de Queiroz so liked and the quipao, influenced by foreign styles of cutting (Paris and New York) which dated from the reign of Emperor K'ien-Lông (1786-1795). On the other hand, the tuen-sam (short tunic or trousers) has contributed to the present use of jeans and other trousers by women. Of course, all of these manifestations have spread even more widely due to the influence of the media. (7)

Playing cards probably originated in India and were brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs at the end of the Middle Ages. From there, they spread throughout Europe. The Portuguese brought them to China and Japan and they are mentioned in the life of St. Francis Xavier. The most popular card games in Macau are bridge and poker. In the casinos, baccarat and "trente-et-quarante" are popular. However, there are over three hundred kinds of card games, some of them found only in Macau.

Mah-jong was probably invented in the Sung Dynasty (960 - 1279), but it was only about fifty years ago that the Portuguese adopted this game. Since then the Portuguese have slightly varied the game by introducing marvels and flowers into the groupings.

It would take more than a hefty tome to give an in-depth analysis of how Western and Chinese cultures have influenced each other in Macau. Religion was one area of influence, although not particularly outstanding. Other areas, in particular social and political doctrines, changed the traditional régimes of China as time went by, and especially after the revolt of the Protestant nations and France's revolutionary commercialism and' "philosophism". There is not enough space to examine the history of the Celestial Empire from the times of the Manchu autocrats and rigid Confucionist bureaucracy to the T'ai P'eng revolt (the biggest civil war ever, 1850-1864), the 4th of May Movement (1919) and Mao Tse Tung's Agrarian Communism. We had no involvement in this development, although there were Western elements in the last three revolutions.

What remains today of the ancient civilization of China, of the early Chou, Hon, Tang and Ming dynasties. We can see magnificent works of art in their museums, mostly in Peking and Taipei, and national monuments throughout the huge expanse of land which now more than ever before is subject to state control. We must think of these people, not in the Communist sense of an anonymous mass of people, but rather as a quarter of the earth's population. We have over a billion conscientious human beings with a great history and the potential for giving new life, hope and future to their motherland and also of making a tremendous contribution to the progress of the world.

This article is taken from a book by the author, Os Extremos Conciliam-se, and was originally published under the chapter-heading "Influências mútuas sino-lusas a luso-chinesas", page 91, Ed. ICM. The title has been slightly altered and a few changes made in the original text.

NOTES

(1)José Frèches: "Arts Asiatiques mis au gout Européen: Le Cas Portugais" in Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português, Paris, 1976, vol X. pp. 493-505. In the North of Portugal and in Galicia, parks and gardens are full of camellias and mimosas. For artistic representations (especially tapestries and tiles) see Nuno de Castro: A Porcelana Chinesa e os Brazões do Império,, Civilização, Oporto; Helder Carita e Homem Cardoso: Oriente e Ocidente nos Interiores em Portugal, Civil, Oporto. 1986: François et Nicole Hervouet, Yves Bruneau: La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Flammarion, Paris, 1986; Art Treasures of Portugal, Reader's Digest, 1976.

(2)J. M. Braga: "Macau e a China" in Religião e Pátria, 1958, No115, pp.343-5; idem, Hong Kong and Macau - A Record of Good Fellowship, Hong Kong, revised ed. 1960, p. 60 on.

(3)B. Videira Pires, SJ: A Viagem de Comércio Macau-Manila nos Séculos XVI-XIX, Macau, Imprensa Nacional, 1970, pp. 29 and 92, 2nd ed. 1987 pub. by the Serviços de Marinha, Macau; idem: Arquivos de Macau, vol 1,1982, p.235; idem: "Macau e o Brasil" in Jornal de Macau, 6th December, 1982, p.2: Albert Chan: The Glory and Fall of the Ming Dynasty, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1982, pp. 52-65 and 345-7; Enciclopédia "Verbo", vol 5 entry under "China".

(4)Jésuites de /'Assistance de France, 1957, No4.

(5)Pasquale D'Elia, SJ: Galileo in China, Cambridge, Mass., pp.28-32; J. Needham: Chinese Astronomy and the Jesuit Mission: An Encounter of Cultures, pp.2-3. 8-11; F. A. Rouleau, SJ; Ciência e Civilização na China, vol 3; J. Needham "Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth". Cambridge, 1959 in Archivum Historicum, SJ, XXX, 1961, pp. 299-303; Francisco Rodrigues: Jesuítas Astrónomos na China, Lisbon, 1935.

(6)B. Videira Pires, SJ: Embaixada Mártir, Macau 1965, p.92; Father Manuel Teixeira "Prelúdio de Macau, III - Miscigenação Luso-chinesa" in Boletim Eclesiástico, No718, July/August, 1986, p.84.

(7)Ana Maria Amaro: Três Jogos Populares de Macau, Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1984, pp.8, 63-4, 67; "A Evolução do Quipao" in Gazeta Macaense, 19-5-84, p.4.

(8)Werner Eichborn: Chinese Civilization, Praeger Pubes, N. Y., pp. 323-332.

(9)See Carlos Francisco Moura in Boletim do Institute de Luís de Camões, vol 3, 1971, No2, pp.185-191.

Translated from the Portuguese by Marie Imelda Macleod

*Graduate in Philosophy and Portuguese Literature (Lisbon University); orientalist and researcher of the history of the Portuguese in the Orient and the Jesuit Missions to Asia; Governor of the International Association of Historians of Asia.

* Author of serveral work written in Makista creole.

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