China And France: Walking Between Imagination And Reality

From the middle of the thirteenth century, the history of China-EU exchanges was slowly started, groups of European missionaries, explorers, traders came to China one after another. The missionaries as a well-educated group with extensive knowledge, many of them wrote a lot of travel notes, books and reports. In their writings, they left us a lot of content about chinese political system and legal system. The missionaries introduced the Chinese civilization to Europe, at the same time gradually make the ancient Chinese law into the perspective of European people.In China, exploring the Chinese law from the European Perspective is not a new thing, although there are many legal history, jurisprudence and legal culture scholars have done lots of researches from different approaches and methods in this area, but their studies also have a lot of limitations in research methods and perspectives. My study is an attempt to break through these limitations, combing the texts from the thirteenth century to the Enlightenment from a historical dimension, using the anthropological "other" theory, the theory of cultural interpretation of law and the cross-cultural research methods as tools to analyze those texts.The first chapter is about the Chinese law in European perspectives in thirteenth century. About 1250, Father Jean de Plan Carpin and William of Rubruk have arrived in Mongolia, they not only brought back the first knowledge bout China for the European people in the late Middle Ages, but also opened a new window for the Europeans to understand the Chinese law. Marco Polo came to China around 1275, although there was only some sporadic episodes about the legal system on the Yuan Dynasty left in his travelogue, but it also had a tremendous influence in Europe in that era.The second chapter is about the Chinese law in European perspective in the era of Geographical Discovery. In mid-sixteenth century, a large number of European observers, such as Galiote Pereira, Frei Gaspar da Cruz, Fernao Mendes Pinto, arrived before the door of ancient China. From the outside, they saw the Chinese learned judge, justice of the trial, cruel punishment and good social relief system; although all these things are not so clear for them, the ancient Chinese law began to show its outline before the Europeans.In the third chapter is about the Chinese law in the perspective of Father Juan Gonzales de Mendoza. In "The History of the great and might Kingdom of China and the situation there of", Father Mendoza created a perfect image of the Chinese Empire:the honest judges, the superior system of justice, the garden-like beautiful prison and the perfect charity system. A perfect legal system has represented in front of the European people.The fourth chapter discusses the Chinese law in the eyes of Matteo Ricci. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Catholic missionary has made enormous development in China. In 1601, Matteo Ricci entered Beijing, this is a memorable moment in the Catholic missionary history in China. Ricci is the first European truly entered into the society of ancient China, and he is also the first European truly understanding the Chinese law in-depth.The fifth chapter is about Chinese law in the view of Father Alvaro Semedo. As a proficient in Chinese language, Fathrer Semedo entered into China in mid-seventeenth century. Different from Ricci's "top line" strategy, Semedo have a more realistic understanding about Chinese law because of his extensive travel experiences in china. His point of view, in many ways, even more comprehensive and profound than that of Ricci, In this sense, we say that he discovered the true Chinese law.Chapter VI is about Chinese law in the view of Father Domingo Fernandes de Navarrete and Father Louis le Comte. Under the rule of Emperor Shunzhi and Kangxi in Qing dynasty, the development of Catholicism in China reached the peak period. Father Domingo Fernandes arrived in china During this period, in his eyes, the excellent Chinese judges, the benevolent Chinese emperor, the serious marriage laws of China and the "well-managed" Chinese prisons, making the Chinese law full of virtues. As the "Mathematician of the King", Father Louis le Comte came to China late in the seventeenth century. In his point of view, although Chinese law has an aspect of cruel punishment and corruption, the Chinese monarchy is the most "perfect" political system in the word, and Chinese law "fit the Chinese traditional spirit and character perfectly".