Europeans in Medieval China

Numerous Europeans are known to have been in Medieval China during the second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century (from 1246 to around 1350), at a time when the Mongol Empire ruled over a large part of Eurasia and connected Europe with their Chinese dominion of the Yuan Dynasty. Initially, Europeans in the east were captives made by the Mongols in Europe. They were essentially located in eastern Central Asia, as far as the Mongol capital of Karakorum. As contacts however, European missionaries and merchants started to travel far and wide in the Mongol realm under the ‘’Pax Mongolica’’. It is thought that thousands of them lived in medieval China under Mongol rule. [Roux, p.465]

Before that time, instances of Europeans going to China, or of Chinese going to Europe are virtually unknown. [Roux, p.465] The closest cases are those of the Chinese general Ban Chao's exploration of the West in the 1st century CE and his dispatch of one of his officers Gan Ying to Rome, instances of Roman embassies to China in the 3-4th century, and the European invasions of the Huns under Attila in the 5th century.

European captives in Central Asia

In 1253, the Franciscan monk Guillaume de Rubrouck reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. He described German prisoners who had been enslaved in iron mines. In Karakorum, the Mongol capital, he met with a Parisian, Guillaume de Buchier, who used to have shop near the Pont-Neuf, and a woman named Pâquette, from the French city of Metz, both of them having been captured in Hungary during the Mongol invasions there. Hungarians and Russians are also mentioned. It is also known that 30,000 Alans formed the guard of the Mongol court in Pekin. [Roux, p.465]

European merchants in China

The Polo brothers first arrived in China in 1261, and are the first known merchants to have visited China. Marco Polo is the best known of the European merchants who lived and worked in Mongol China. The Florentine Balducci Pegolotti compiled a guide about trade in China, based on the accounts of several merchants who were already knowledgeable of the country. Another merchant, Petro de Lucalongo is known to have accompanied the monk John of Montecorvino to Khanbaliq in 1305. A Lombardian chirurgian is known to have reached the city in 1303, as well as a few others.

In Zaytun, the first harbour of China, there was a small Genoese colony, mentioned in 1326 by André de Pérouse. The most famous Italian resident of the city was Andolo de Savignone, who was sent to the West by the Khan in 1336 in an embassy to request “100 horses and other treasures”. Following Savignone’s embassy, an ambassador was dispatched to China with one superb horse, which was later the object of Chinese poems and paintings. [Roux, p.467]

Venetians also were present in China. John of Montecorvino had one of them bring a letter to the west in 1305. In 1339 a Venetian named Giovanni Loredano is recorded to have returned to Venice from China. A tombstone was discovered in Yangzhou in the name of Catherine de Villioni, daughter of Dominici, where she died in 1342. [Roux, p.467]

European missionaries in China

Giovanni da Pian del Carpine was the first Christian monk to reach as far as Karakorum in 1246. Catholic missionaries soon established a considerable presence in China, due to the high religious tolerance of the Mongols. John of Montecorvino converted to Catholicism the Ongut ruler Korguz before his assassination. He translated the New Testament in the Mongol tongue, and converted 6,000 people (probably Alans, Turks and Mongols rather than Chinese). He was joined by three bishops (Andre de Perouse, Gerard Albuini and Peregrino de Castello) and ordained arshibishop of Peking by Pope Clement V in 1311. [Roux, p.468] Following the death of John of Montecorvino, John of Marignolli was dispatched to Peking to become the new archibishop from 1342 to 1346.

In 1370, following the ousting of the Mongols from China, and the establishment of the Chinese Ming dynasty, a new mission was sent by the Pope to China formed by the Parisian theologian Guillaume du Pré as the new archibishop and 50 Franciscans. This mission however disappeared without news, apparently eliminated. [Roux, p.469]

Notes

ee also

* Franco-Mongol alliance

References

*Roux, Jean-Paul, ‘’Histoire de l’Empire Mongol’’, Fayard, 1993, ISBN 2213031649