Book contents
- Frontmatter
- DEDICATION AND PREFACE TO SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., ETC, ETC, ETC. PRESIDENT OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
- ERRATA
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Contents
- PRELIMINARY ESSAY. NOTES ON THE INTERCOURSE OF CHINA AND THE WESTERN NATIONS PREVIOUS TO THE DISCOVERT OF THE SEA-ROUTE BY THE CAPE
- SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO PRELIMINARY ESSAY NOTE I. EXTRACT FROM THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRÆAN SEA. (Circa A.D. 80 89.)
- ODORIC OF PORDENONE BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTICES
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS FROM CATHAY AND INDIA INTRODUCTORY NOTICES
- ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE MIRABILIA OF FRIAR JORDANUS. (HAK. SOC. 1863)
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS
- Plate section
PRELIMINARY ESSAY. NOTES ON THE INTERCOURSE OF CHINA AND THE WESTERN NATIONS PREVIOUS TO THE DISCOVERT OF THE SEA-ROUTE BY THE CAPE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- DEDICATION AND PREFACE TO SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., ETC, ETC, ETC. PRESIDENT OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
- ERRATA
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Contents
- PRELIMINARY ESSAY. NOTES ON THE INTERCOURSE OF CHINA AND THE WESTERN NATIONS PREVIOUS TO THE DISCOVERT OF THE SEA-ROUTE BY THE CAPE
- SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES TO PRELIMINARY ESSAY NOTE I. EXTRACT FROM THE PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRÆAN SEA. (Circa A.D. 80 89.)
- ODORIC OF PORDENONE BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTICES
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS FROM CATHAY AND INDIA INTRODUCTORY NOTICES
- ADDITIONAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE MIRABILIA OF FRIAR JORDANUS. (HAK. SOC. 1863)
- LETTERS AND REPORTS OF MISSIONARY FRIARS
- Plate section
Summary
“ On se formeroit des notions peu exaetes sur la Chine, et l'on n'auroit qn'une idée imparfaite des avantages qu'on peut obtenir en étudiant Phistoire de ce pays, si l'on se representoit un empire isolé, pour ainsi dire, à l'extrémité de l'Asie, separé du reste du monde, dont l'entrée auroit toujours été interdite aux étrangers, et dont les relations au dehors se seroient bornées à quelques communications passagéres avec les peuples les plus voisins de ses frontières.”—
Abel BemusatEARLIEST TRACES OF INTERCOURSE. GREEK AND ROMAN KNOWLEDGE OF CHINA.
1. THAT spacious seat of ancient civilisation which we call China has loomed always so large to western eyes, and has, in spite of its distance, subtended so great an angle of vision, that, at eras far apart, we find it to have been distinguished by different appellations according as it was regarded as the terminus of a southern sea-route coasting the great peninsulas and islands of Asia, or as that of a northern land route traversing the longitude of that continent.
In the former aspect the name applied has nearly always been some form of the name Sin, chin, sinÆ, china. In the latter point of view the region in question was known to the ancients as the land of the Seres ; to the middle ages as the empire of Cathay.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cathay and the Way ThitherBeing a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, pp. xxxiii - cxliiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1866