I. Zheng He and His Seven Voyages to Foreign Countries

In 1402, after Emperor Cheng Zu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) ascended the throne, he dispatched Zheng He and Wang Jinghong to lead a giant fleet to the Western Sea (today's Southeast Asia), carrying members of soldiers and large quantity of goods. The fleet reached the countries of Southeast Asia, east Africa and Arabia, initiating a feat in the history of navigation and regarded as an unprecedented great historical period in Chinese history of trade and cultural exchanges.

From 1405 to 1433, Zheng He led his fleet to voyage to the Western Sea for seven times. The number of ships of his fleet was from 40 to 63 each time, taking many soldiers and sailors on the voyage, with a total party over 27,000 people. Their ships navigated the wide sea area from Ryukyu Islands, the Philippine Islands and Maluku Sea to the Mozambican Channel and the costal areas of South Africa, developing mutual trade, exchanging culture and technologies, communicating traffic on the sea and promoting social and economic development in such countries and areas. The mighty fleet voyaged on the Indian Ocean, not only astonishing the Arabian navigators, but also amazing the Venice businessmen coming and going between Hormuz and Aden, hence providing a new enlightenment to the European navigation. Zheng He's voyages are 87 years earlier than that of Columbus, 93 years earlier than that of Gama, and 116 years earlier than that of Magellan.

Chinese treasure ships carried a great deal of special Chinese products to foreign countries. As to craftwork, there were brocade, gauze, and skein; as to china, there were newly developed celadon, Xiulihong, as well as the enamelware with Chinese characteristics. By the way, during the Tang Dynasty Chinese people had grasped the technology of sintering glass, but only after Zheng He's voyage, Chinese had grasped the technology of adding borax in glass to resist heat. The Arabian glass artisan came to China with Zheng He's fleet and imparted the new technology to sinter new kinds of glass vessel resistant to sudden changes of temperature. Since then, this kind of glass was produced in large quantities in China and became a common utensil.

Zheng He also brought back building materials, fuels and exotic articles. It was at this time that the so-called kylin and Fulu (African giraffe and zebra) became decorative animals for the Chinese imperial garden. After coming back, Zheng He's subordinates wrote the books as Travel Notes of Foreign Countries, Chorography of Western Countries, etc., introducing the geographic and natural conditions, local customs, as well as production and living of those foreign countries and regions, widening Chinese people's vision and enlarging their knowledge on foreign countries.

II. Religion and Culture

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the colonizers of Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, and Britain made colonial invasions in southeast costal areas of China successively. In 1557, Portugal grabbed China's Macao and established Jesuitical schools. In the first half of the 17th century, Spain and the Netherlands rivaled to occupy Taiwan, and until 1662, Zheng Chenggong reoccupied Taiwan from the Netherlanders. Following Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, Britain cannonaded Hu Men, menacing Chinese Qing government to open trade, and finally established its chamber of commerce in Xiamen. Since then on, the Qing government ended its policy of seaports closing. Two years later, the Qing government established customs in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangnan provinces, governing foreign trade and opening the periodical trade with European countries.

The first person who attempted to introduce Christianity into China was one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, St. Francis Xavier, who failed his attempt and died in 1552 in an island about 30 sea miles from Guangzhou. It is Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), an Italian, introduced Jesus into China. Being one of the first missionaries entered Beijing, capital of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Matteo Ricci came to China in 1582 and brought great influence to Chinese super class, culture and academic circles at that time and later missionary causes of the Society of Jesus. By means of making friends with scholar-bureaucrats, studying Confucian sutras, writing books and propagandizing Catholicism and western science, Matteo Ricci sermonized to the public. He complied with the condition of society, respected the customs of Chinese, and enabled the tenets easy for the folks to accept. His book The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven combined Confucianism and tenets of Catholicism and enjoyed wide influence in scholar-bureaucrats and talents in Ming Dynasty. Some people read all through the night when get the book and determined to receive baptism. Matteo Ricci altogether had 2,500 Christian disciples. By the time Matteo Ricci passed away in 1610, Roman Catholicism had set up churches in Shaozhou, Nanchang, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, etc. Directly influenced by Matteo Ricci, some forerunners of Chinese morden science, such as Xiu Guanqi, Li Zhizao and Yang Tingxu, received baptism and followed Catholicism. Important western scientific literatures such as Elements (written by Euclid) and Tongwen Zhisuan were dictated by Matteo Ricci and took down by Xu Guangqi and Li Zhizao. Matteo Rici played a positive role on introducing modern western science into China.

Johann Adam Schall von Bell of Germany was the most famous missionary in the middle of 17th century in China. He came to China in 1622 together with French missionary Nicolas Trigault, to study Chinese in Beijing and then came to Xi'an for sermonizing. When Qing's army entered Beijing in 1644, Johann Adam Schall von Bell was appointed by the new dynasty to calculate astronomical phenomenon, modify calendar system according to western means. In the rein of Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722), Johann Adam Schall von Bell was questioned by Ministry of Rites for three major crimes, namely, rebellion with other missionaries, confusing people's mind, and making ridiculous calendar system, because the then premier Ao Bai was not getting along well with the western missionaries. In 1666, Johann Adam Schall von Bell died of illness in South Chamber of Xuanwu Men Papistic Church. He had been sermonizing in China for 44 years. Later, France also sent missionaries to China, who mastered chronometer, calendar system calculation and geography and had links with the French Academy of Science. Therefore, missionaries played an active role in enhancing science development in China.

For the purpose of sermonizing and developing disciples by means of spreading European science and technology, western missionaries spread the European civilization and customs. At early stages, they respected the Chinese culture and customs, and tried to learn the Chinese society and history, and even subjected to Chinese national condition to get integration with the traditional Confucianism. Later, as the Roman Pope interfered with the missionary form in China, Emperor Kangxi ordered a number of bans to deter the activities of Catholicism, which led to the dismissal of Society of Jesus in 1785, added a full stop to its two-century history in China.

Since the western missionaries lived in China for long time and exposed to Chinese culture fully, they could provide true information of China to their motherlands, which stimulated the development of European Enlightenment Movement, leading to the bilateral understanding, exchanging and incorporation of the Sino-Western cultures under the new historical background.

III. Cultural and Literary Activities

When western missionaries came to China, first they had to learn Chinese, which led to the prosperity of dictionary compiling and the development of Latin-Pinyin of Chinese characters. The first Sino-Western dictionary, called Hua Yu Yun Bian (Chinese Pronunciation Compilation), was compiled by geographer Lada of Austin Society of Spain in 1576 in Spanish based on dialect of southern Fujian Province. Later Guo Jujing and Matteo Ricci co-compiled Western Letter- Pinyin Chinese Dictionary, based on the pronunciation of Chinese by Latin letters. In 1680s, Matteo Ricci and Luo Mingjian co-authored Puhua Zidian (Portugal-Chinese Dictionary), also named General Meaning of Chinese Characters written on Chinese paper. This dictionary was found in the archives of Rome Society of Jesus in 1934.

To fulfill the foreign exchange requirement, the Qing (1644-1911) government established Western schools in 1729, recruiting students of Manchu nationality to learn Latin. In 1748, the Huitong Siyi Hall was established, specializing in foreign language translation. It compiled 98 volumes of Huayi Yiyu (Chinese-foreign Language Translation), which collected 34 kinds of various languages.

The western paintings introduced in during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) were mainly religious paintings, some were painted by missionaries and others were brought in from Europe. Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell respectively brought pictures on the holy Jesus figures and the birth of Jesus to the Palace. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, missionaries such as Buglio, Ferdinand Verbiest, and MatthieuRipa were famous for their western paintings. They painted by means of scenography. And during Emperor Qianlong's reign (1711-1799) there were even missionaries served as painters in Ruyi Hall in Palace. For example, Italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione specialized in horse drawing, as well as flowers and figures. Sichelbart, Bohemian student of Castiglione, was also famous for horse drawing. Wang Zhicheng was good at figure and history painting, and ordered by the emperor, his painting varies from mountains and water, to flower and birds, and to pavilions. Italian Panzi painted the Virgin Mary. Roman Jean Damascene was one of the four authors of the painting Qianlong Battle Achievements. French Louis obe potrot, master of Manchu language and Chinese, translated Old Bible. He was also a missionary of Society of Jesus served in Palace as painter. Their works have been housed by the Palace Museum.

In 1765, the government of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) recruited missionaries in Beijing to paint the Victory of Pacification of Junggar and Hui Nationality, which consisted of 16 breadths. The painting upon completion was send to Frence to make into copperplate versions. Each breadth was made 100 copies, monitored by Marini, the director of Paris Royal Painting College. The painting was sent back to China in 1774 upon completion. Later, western missionaries served in palace had cooperated to paint Pacification of Jinchuan Painting, Tainwan War Painting, Gurkhas at War, Annan Nation at War and so on, which were large scale paintings and printed by home-made copperplate.

During the reigns of Emperor Kanxi and Emperor Qianlong, the western painters were recognized by the palace and led active creations lives. Chinese painting academies have been greatly influenced by western art. Many painters absorbed western techniques and created new painting schools combining Chinese and western styles. These schools were represented by famous painters like Jiao Bingzhen, Leng Mei, Tang Dai, Chen Mei, Luo Fuman, and Men Yingzhao, etc.

The western music spread to Macao and backland by missionaries. First was the grand organ used in church, which was several hundreds of reed pipes in a large wooden tank, and made sounds powered by windbag, similar to today's pipe organ. Matteo Ricci had presented such an organ to the emperor. What missionaries introduced into China was limited religious music and orchestral instruments. Missionary Thoma Pereira was an expert on swing and music theory, who wrote Lulu Zuanyao (brief of music swing) and co-authored Lulu Zhengyi Xubian (continuation of music swing), talking about western music and explaining the usage of staff. He also gave lectures to several princes on western music theory. In 1699 he organized a small western band, including instruments like fiddle, flute, heptachord, clarion, ancient piano and timpano etc. He acted as musician when performing. He was also a skillful craftsman and could make pipe organs by himself. A clock made by him had stirred Beijing then, which could play Chinese music by connecting a Chinese gong with gear,.

In 1741, during the rein of Emperor Qianlong, missionaries in Beijing such as Teodoricus Pedrini, Wei Jijin and Bohemian Lu Zhongxian were also masters of music. The melody composed by Teodoricus Pedrini could be perfectly played by Wei Jijin and Lu Zhongxian immediately with western instruments, in no need of rehearsal. In 1742, Teodoricus Pedrini and Lu Zhongxian co-authored 16 pieces of melody and songs for palace shows. In addition, Italian missionaries had been praised by the Qing Emperor Hongli and organized a band to play the opera Cecchina in 1760, which was composed by Italian opera writer Puccini and popular in Rome and trans-Europe at that period.