The UC Santa Barbara Undergraduate Journal of History

This article investigates the interactions between European and Chinese scholars during Jesuit missions in the sixteenth century, focusing on how both cultures resisted and adapted the new knowledge being presented to them, resulting in a dynamic exchange between two schools of thought. By observing both Chinese and Jesuit primary sources through this lens of academic interchange, this piece presents a new angle of the Jesuit settlements beyond the traditionally Eurocentric perspective that minimized Chinese agency and contributions to the Western world. Through accounts from missionaries, such as Matteo Ricci, it is evident that Jesuit scholars understood Chinese officials would likely be uneased by the presence of Catholic foreigners and resistant to interrupt centuries of spiritual tradition, forcing the Jesuits to barter new academic intellect to remain in the established empire. While the impact of the Jesuit’s in China has been historically highly documented, as seen in translations of European works and accounts from the Jesuits sent back to Europe, reciprocal Eastern influence on Western scholarship is much more obscured. However, this essay highlights several documented occurrences, such as Michael Boym’s Medicus Sinicus and journals sent to Europe by Jesuit scholars containing Chinese intellect, revealing that both sides learned from one another. While both Jesuit and Chinese scholars resisted to admit one another’s influence, this piece demonstrates how the Jesuit missions to China can be used as a source of cultural interaction and agency for both parties, allowing for a complex and globalized exchange of knowledge.