This year marks the 300th anniversary of the publication of the first grammar of Chinese in a European vernacular, Arte de la lengua mandarina [Grammar of the Mandarin language]
(Canton, 1703). To commemorate this landmark event in the history of western sinology, the Beijing Foreign Studies University, in conjunction with Peking University, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is sponsoring an International Conference on Western Chinese Studies (September 12–14, 2003, Beijing). It is an opportune time to pay tribute to the relatively obscure author of this groundbreaking work, Francisco Varo, and other unsung trailblazers of China-West cultural encounter.
From the earliest days of Sino- European contacts in the 16th century, the Jesuits took the central stage and played a leading role. But, away from the limelight, there were other significant players, notably Augustinians , Dominicans , Franciscans and the Missions Étrangères de Paris. In this article I will limit myself mainly to Francisco Varo and his fellow Dominicans. First, a few words about the Dominican Order. Officially known as Order of Preachers, it was founded in 1216 by St. Dominic of Guzman (1170–1221). Within decades of its foundation, the order had established itself at major universities of Europe, including Paris, Bologna, and Oxford. Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274), a favorite son of this religious organization, epitomized medieval Christian thinking, and has exercised a profound and lasting influence on catholic philosophy and theology.
In 1582 the Dominicans launched a new province for the express purpose of preaching the Christian faith to the ‘most august kingdom of China’.1 Soon after they set foot on the Philippines, the Dominicans founded the University of Sto. Tomás in 1619, almost three hundred years before 上海震旦大學 (Aurora), the first catholic university in China, came into existence in 1903.
Francisco Varo (1627–1687) was born in Seville, Spain. At the tender age of 15, he joined the Dominican Order, and devoted his entire adult life to missionary work in China (1649– 87).
Varo’s long forgotten Arte de la lengua mandarina [Grammar of the Mandarin Language]2 has now been translated into English and made widely available by Coblin and Levi (2000). To put Varo in historical context, here are, in chronological order, some of the most notable early grammars of Chinese:3
1703. Arte de la Lengua Mandarina, by Francisco Varo. Canton (xylographic edition).
(Completed in 1682)
1814. Clavis Sinica by Joshua Marshman. Serampore: Mission Press.
1815. A Grammar of the Chinese Language, by Robert Morrison.
Serampore: Mission Press.
1822. Éléments de la grammaire chinoise, by Jean-Pierre Abel- Rémusat.
Paris: Imprimerie Royale.
1831. Notitia linguae sinicae, by Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare.
Malacca. (Completed in 1729).
1870. Syntaxe nouvelle de la langue chinoise, by Stanislas Julien.
Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
1881. Chinesische Grammatik, by Georg von der Gabelentz. Leipzig:
Weigel.
1898. 《馬氏文通》, by 馬建忠 Beijing.
Not surprisingly, the earliest grammars (Varo , Prémare , Marshman, Morrison) are compiled by missionaries, designed primarily for pedagogical purposes. In particular, Marshman and Morrison are best described as textbooks rather than real grammars. In Peyraube’s words, Abel-Rémusat’s Éléments represents “the first attempt at a logical synthesis and well-reasoned construction of the Chinese language” (Peyraube 2001:345), and heralded the dawning of (secular) academic sinology.
This is not the place for a critical assessment of Varo’s Arte, for which I refer the reader to Breitenbach’s doctoral dissertation (1996). I wish only to highlight some of the innovative elements in this pioneering work. Phonologically speaking, Chinese as a tonal language presented a novel challenge to European descriptivists. Matteo Ricci 利馬竇 (1552–1610) and his fellow Jesuits compiled dictionaries, and developed a notational system for transcribing Chinese sounds (including tone marks). Nicolas Trigault’s 金尼閣 (1577–1628) 《西儒耳目資》 (1626), in particular, fleshed out the phonological system of late Ming ‘guanhua’ 官 話 using European alphabets. But they provided only scant information on the phonetics of tone, and were completely silent on how tones change in connected speech (a phenomenon known as ‘tone sandhi’ or 連讀變 調)4. Varo was the first among European sinologists to give a detailed description of the phonetics of tone, formulate precise rules of tone sandhi, and make astute observations on the relationship between tone, syllable structure and compounding (複 音 辭 ) as a strategy to avoid lexical ambiguity. Furthermore, he offered plausible phonetic explanations for the subtle tonal behavior he observed. If some of his phonetic speculations proved to be factually incorrect, they nevertheless evince a keen and inquisitive mind that exerted itself mightily to explain novel linguistic phenomena by means of physiological mechanism of speech articulation as a 17th century man understood it.5
Naturally, the significance of Varo’s grammar lies chiefly in its place in the history of linguistic thought, esp. from a cross-cultural perspective. Varo’s Arte instantiates the first systematic rapprochement between Western linguistic categories and an ‘alien’ language like Chinese, which lacks the characteristic morphological and syntactic features of European languages. It is difficult for us to imagine the daunting task of grappling with an alien tongue without the familiar ‘handles’ of Latin or Spanish. Judging by today’s standards, Varo did little more than forcing Chinese syntax into the straitjacket of Latinbased grammatical categories such as parts of speech, subject-predicateobject, case, tense, aspect, and so forth. While this obvious criticism is well justified, one should bear in mind the historical context in which Varo labored. In contrast to lexicography, etymology, phonology and stylistics, which have flourished since Classical times in China, ‘reflections about grammar have been practically nonexistent’ in Chinese tradition (Peyraube 2001:341). In the absence of indigenous models, Varo made use of the prevailing taxonomy and conceptual framework at the time, namely that of Elio Antonio de Nebrija (1441–1522), whose intellectual debt he acknowledged by name.6 In truth, this practice is not very different from 馬建忠 two hundred years later, or latter day grammarians, influenced variously by Otto Jespersen, Henry Sweet, or Noam Chomsky and other contemporary theorists.
What the modern linguist Zhu Dexi 朱 德熙 (1982) said of 馬 建忠 fits Varo as well, only a fortiori:
《馬氏文通》往往因其模仿拉丁語法而為人詬病。其實作為第一系統地研究漢語語法的書 能有如此的水平和規模，已經大大出人意表，我們不應苛求馬氏了
Mr. Ma’s Wentong is often criticized for aping Latin grammar. In fact, as the first book to systematically investigate Chinese syntax, its scope and level of sophistication far exceed our expectations. We must not be too harsh on Mr. Ma. — Tr. MC
Actually, Varo’s Arte is only the first Chinese grammar to appear in print. Varo's confrères in the Dominican order have left for posterity at least 30 grammars, and 57 dictionaries or 'vocabularios'. Some of the pre-1900 Dominican grammars are listed below. Since the time of completion / publication of these grammars are unknown, I have included the authors' dates of birth and death for reference.
Arte de la lengua china, (also cited as Lingua sinica ad certam revocata methodum) by Juan Cobo (?–1592).
Arte de la lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva (?–1607).
Gramática española-mandarina, by Juan Bautista de Morales (1597–
1664).
Gramática española-china, by Francisco Diez (1606–1646).
Arte de la lengua chinchea,7by Victorio Ricci8 (1621–1685).
Gramática española-china del dialecto de Amoy, by Francisco Márquez (?–
1706).
Arte de lengua china, by Francisco Frias (?–1706).
Arte de la lengua mandarina, by Juan de la Cruz (1645–1721).
Gramática y vocabulario españolchinos, by Francisco González de San Pedro (?–1730).
Arte sínico de Fogan, by Esteban Jordá (1803–55)9 .
Gramática española-china, by Felipe Ontoria (1861–1892).
Most of these grammars have languished unedited for years in the archives, some have been lost for ever, and all of them remain unknown except to a handful of specialists. Victorio Ricci’s Arte de la lengua chinchea and Márquez’s Gramática española-china del dialecto de Amoy must be among the oldest grammars of any local dialect. More importantly, it is worth noting that several of these grammars predate that of Varo, in some cases by nearly a century. Citing an unpublished 1602 source,10 González (1966, p. 387) asserts that Cobo’s Lingua sinica is the first grammar of Chinese ever written by a foreigner.11 González also quotes (p.15) Varo as saying that Morales wrote a grammar of Chinese shortly after he landed on Chinese soil (in 1633). As for Diez, he apparently began his Gramática around 1640– 41 in the Philippines (p.35). The existence of some early grammar or grammars predating Varo is not in doubt. In his Arte Varo alluded on several occasions to an earlier grammar or grammars. For instance, speaking on the difficulties beginners encountered in learning Chinese, he stated:
Knowing this inconvenience, the priests of St. Dominic compiled a grammar as soon as they could; and the present grammar adheres to that former one in its basic rules. (Varo 1703, p.83 [2000, p.181]).
In contrast, the first Jesuit grammar (by Prémare, completed in 1726) did not appear until 1831.
This comes as somewhat of a surprise, given the extraordinary breadth of Jesuit scholarship in all fields of sinology. Breitenbach (2000) attributes this to the oral tradition of language pedagogy that prevailed among the Jesuits.
The long succession of descriptive grammars is in keeping with the Dominican tradition of developing linguistic tools to serve their missionary goals. Thus when they set foot in the New World, they immediately went about writing grammars for the American Indian languages. One eminent linguist from the ranks of this religious order, Domingo de Santo Tomás (1499– 1570), wrote the first grammar of the newly discovered Americas, Gramática o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú, and compiled the first dictionary Lexicón o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Perú (both published in 1560, Valladolid), thereby earning himself recognition as the father of American philology. Likewise, when the Dominicans landed in the Philippines, they produced, in short order, the first grammar of Tagalog, Arte y reglas de la lengua Tagala in 1610, by Francisco Blancas de San José.12
It goes without saying that the driving force behind the missionaryscholars was first and foremost their desire to win over the hearts and minds of the Chinese for the Christian religion. To this end, they produced catechisms, learned tracts and other literature of a religious nature in the Chinese language. Of this genre of religious literature, Matteo Ricci’s 《天主實義》 [The True Meaning of God] occupies a deservedly prominent place of honour. What is less well known is the fact that soon after their arrival in the Philippines (in 1587), the Dominican friars were entrusted with the care of the local Chinese immigrants in Manila, learned the Chinese language, and published a number of religious tracts in this language. The earliest of these are listed below, together with two influential books by the Jesuits Michele Ruggieri 羅 明 堅 (1543–1607) and Matteo Ricci for comparison.
1584. 《天主實錄》by Michele Ruggieri.
1593. 《辯正教真傳實錄》, by Juan Cobo, Manila.13
1593? Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china, by Miguel Benavides.14 Manila.
1603. 《天主實義》, by Matteo Ricci. Beijing.
1606 .《新刊僚氏正教便覽》 Memorial de la vida christiana en lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva. Manila.
The significance of these early tracts is fourfold. First of all, as soon as the Dominicans found a permanent residence in the Philippines, they established a printing press in Manila, with the help of the local Chinese craftsmen. All three of their earliest works (Cobo 1593, Benavides 1593?, Nieva 1606) were produced by means of wood block printing. They represent the earliest incunabula philippiniana.15 Second, unlike the other early catechisms, Benavides’ Doctrina is composed in the Hokkien (southern Min, 閩南) dialect. As such, it constitutes a rare source of information on the pronunciation, vocaulary and syntax of Hokkien spoken in Late Ming.16 More importantly, these tracts represent the earliest attempts of Christian missionaries to present to the Chinese readers not only the Christian faith but also a western worldview and belief/value system.
Finally, it is remarkable that, despite its title, only three out of nine chapters of Cobo’s 《辯正教 真傳實錄》pertain to Christian theology proper, the remaining six chapters are concerned with
‘secular’ subjects such as astronomy and natural history. Chapter 4 is dovoted to geography. The universe Cobo depicted remains the Ptolemaic geocentric system — half a century after De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium of Copernicus (1543). More interesting, he used various types of observations and empirical evidence to demonstrate that the planet we inhabit is round — contrary to the Chinese belief of a spherical heaven and square earth (天圓地方). One of these demonstrations derives from the round shadow cast by the earth on the moon in an eclipse.
Chapters 5–9 are devoted to a description of the flora and fauna. Thus, it was Juan Cobo that has the distinction of being the first to introduce European philosophy and science to China, at least in print.17 Why Cobo devoted such a disproportionate amount of space in his Apología or 《辯正教 真傳實錄》to science and natural history is a question I will return to below.
In the broader cultural sphere, the early Dominicans broke new grounds as well. Here I will single out a few notable examples.
1569. Tractado em que se cõtam muito por estêso as cousas da China, by Gaspar da Cruz. Evora.
1592. Beng sim po cam 明心寶鑑, by Juan Cobo. Manila.
1607. Símbolo de la Fe, en lengua y letra China 《格物窮理便覽》, by Tomás Mayor. Manila.
n.d. Tien Kai [天階 ?] or Escala del cielo, by Domingo Coronado (1615–
1665).
1676. Tratados históricos, políticos, éthicos, y religiosos de la monarchía de China, by Domingo Fernández Navarrete. Madrid.
Gaspar da Cruz’s Tractado (in Portuguese) is the first European book written on China since the earliest sustained East-West contact that began in the 16th century. Apparently it soon fell into oblivion18 — except as a source of later works, including Bernardino de Escalante’s Discursos de la navegación que los Portugueses hazen a los Reinos y Provincias del Oriente, y de la noticia q se tiene de las grandezas del Reino de la China (Sevilla, 1577), and Ioan González de Mendoça’s Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran Reyno de la China (Rome, 1585). Escalante never set foot on China, and pieced together his Discursos from published ‘relaciones’ or reports and what he could glean from Portuguese sailors and Chinese migrants that settled in Portugal (cf. Sanz, p.44).19 Mendoça’s Historia proved to be a bestseller of his time. It was promptly translated into Italian (1586), French (1588), and English (1588).20
The title-page of the first European book on China. The Tractado of Gaspar da Cruz, Evora, 1569.
Cobo’s Beng sim po cam 《明心寶鑑》 (1592) and Mayor’s Símbolo de la Fe 《 格 物 窮 理 便 覽 》 (1607) are mirror images: the former being the first translation of a Chinese book into an European vernacular, the latter in reverse. 《明心寶鑑》, compiled by the Ming scholar 范立本 in 1393 (date of preface), is an anthology of aphorisms and proverbs (in a tradition similar to ‘ catena ’ or ‘florilegium’ in the West). This book was presented by Miguel Benavides21 to the future King Philip III of Spain in 1595. The dedicatory note is worth quoting in part:22
The frontispiece of Beng Sim Po Cam 《明心寶鑑》 the first Chinese book translated into an European vernacular, by Juan Cobo, 1592.
‘La religión de Santo Domingo ofrece a V.A., como en parias, las primicias de la riqueza de aquel grande reino de la China. Juzgan los chinos por sus grandes y verdaderas riquezas, no el oro, ni la plata, ni las sedas, sino los libros, y la sabiduría, y las virtudes y el gobierno justo de su república:
esto estiman, esto engrandecen, de esto se glorian y de esto tratan en sus conversaciones la gente bien compuesta (que es mucha). Ofrece, pues, a V.A. la religión de Santo Domingo este libro chino, traducido en lengua castellana... El primer libro que en el mundo se ha traducido de lengua y letras chinas en otra lengua y letras es este...
The order of St. Dominic presents in homageto your Royal Highness, the first fruits of the wealth of that great kingdom of China. The Chinese take to be their great and true wealth not gold, nor silver, nor silk, but books, wisdom, virtues and just government of their country: this is what the well-bred people (of whom there are many) esteem, aggrandize, take pride in, and talk about. The Order of St. Dominic, therefore, presents to your Royal Highness this Chinese book, translated into the Castillian language... The first book ever translated from the Chinese language and
characters into a foreign language and alphabets any where in the world is none other than this one...’ —Tr. MC
The original Introducción del Símbolo de la Fe (1583, Salamanca) was written by the Dominican Fray Luis de Granada (1504–1588), the preeminent essayist of the Spanish Golden Century. Its Chinese translation appeared in 1607, thus predating by one year Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi’s 徐光啟 translation of Euclid’s Elements 《幾何原本》 (1608). It is of some interest to note that Símbolo de la Fe is encyclopedic in nature, embracing subject matters ranging from astronomy to zoology, from an investigation into the human mind (‘del anima intelectiva’) to the digestive system. The all-embracing list of contents may seem at odds with the title and apologetic nature of ‘Introduction to the Symbol of Faith’. In fact, Símbolo de la Fe expands on a leitmotif in natural theology, i.e. that the universe of creation is nothing but a reflection of God, an open book in which man can catch a glimpse of the creator. This basic tenet finds an eloquent expression in chapter 2 of the Símbolo ([1989] p.145f):
‘¿Qué es, Señor, todo este mundo visible sino un espejo que pusistes delante de nuestros ojos para que en él contemplásemos vuestra hermosura? ... ¿qué es todo este mundo visible sino un grande y maravilloso libro que vos, Señor, escribistes y ofrecistes a los ojos de todas las naciones del mundo, así de griegos como de bárbaros, así de sabios como de ignorantes, para que en él estudiasen todos, y conociesen quién vos érades? ¿Qué serán luego todas las criaturas deste mundo, tan hermosas y tan acabadas sino unas como letras quebradas y iluminadas, que declaran bien el primor y la sabiduría de su autor?’
‘What is, Lord, the whole visible world if not a mirror that you set before our eyes so that we can contemplate in it your beauty?... What is this entire visible world if not a big and wondrous book that you, Lord, have written and offered to the eyes of all nations of the world, Greek or heathen, learned or ignorant, so that in it all may inquire and understand who you are? What then are all the creatures of this world, so beautiful and perfect if not as though they were richly illuminated letters23 that proclaim the elegance and wisdom of its author?’ —Tr. MC
‘What is, Lord, the whole visible world if not a mirror that you set before our eyes so that we can contemplate in it your beauty?... What is this entire visible world if not a big and wondrous book that you, Lord, have written and offered to the eyes of all nations of the world, Greek or heathen, learned or ignorant, so that in it all may inquire and understand who you are? What then are all the creatures of this world, so beautiful and perfect if not as though they were richly illuminated letters23 that proclaim the elegance and wisdom of its author?’ —Tr. MC