Louis Fan (13 June 1682
[.] – 28 February 1753
[.]), born Fan Shouyi and also known as Luigi Fan, was the first known Chinese person to travel to Europe, return, and write an account of his travels. However, he was preceded by
Michael Shen Fu-Tsung
Michael Alphonsus Shen Fu-Tsung, SJ, also known as Michel Sin, Michel Chin-fo-tsoung, Shen Fo-tsung, or Shen Fuzong (, 1691), ,
Arcadio Huang
Arcadio Huang (, born in Xinghua, modern Putian, in Fujian, 15 November 1679, died on 1 October 1716 in Paris)Mungello, p.125 was a Chinese Christian convert, brought to Paris by the Missions étrangères. He took a pioneering role in the teach ...
, and
Rabban Bar Sauma, all of whom died abroad instead of returning to China.
Life
Fan was born in
Pingyao
Pingyao, officially Pingyao Ancient City, is a walled city in central Shanxi, China, famed for its importance in Chinese economic history and for its well-preserved Ming and Qing urban planning and architecture. Administratively, it comprises ...
,
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
, in 1682.
[ Little is known of his early life and family, but at some point he appears to have met the Piedmontese ]Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
missionary, Antonio Francesco Giuseppe Provana, who converted him to Roman Catholicism and baptised him as "Luigi" or "Louis".
At the time, the different Catholic orders in China were engaged in a controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...
over the legitimacy of Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
or ancestral veneration. In January 1707, the papal legate
300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate.
A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...
Charles-Thomas Maillard De Tournon Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (December 21, 1668 – June 10, 1710), also known as Carlo Tommaso, was a papal legate and cardinal to the East Indies and China.
Biography
Tournon was born of a noble Savoyard family at Turin on 21 December 16 ...
presented decree
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
' to the Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to 1 ...
, forbidding Catholic converts from participating in such rituals. The emperor ordered the Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
to assemble a second mission to attempt to change the pope's mind on the subject. Fan accompanied three Jesuits: Provana, José Ramón Arxó, and François Noël, the last of whom had participated in the first unsuccessful embassy. They left Macao
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
aboard the Portuguese ship ' on 14 January 1708.[.] The journey allowed Fan to observe Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
in the Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
(now Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
) and Bahia
Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...
in Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, probably making him the first Chinese person to return and write about the Americas. They arrived in Lisbon in September 1708, and Fan met King João V
Dom John V ( pt, João Francisco António José Bento Bernardo; 22 October 1689 – 31 July 1750), known as the Magnanimous (''o Magnânimo'') and the Portuguese Sun King (''o Rei-Sol Português''), was King of Portugal from 9 December 17 ...
of Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
soon afterwards. Noël may have travelled ahead, but Provana and Fan remained in Portugal for months, only reaching Rome in February of the next year. Unable to change Clement's mind on the issue of the Chinese rituals, Fan toured Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, studied Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
, and was able to make many first-hand observations of aspects of 18th-century Europe, which very few Asians had had the opportunity to do before him.[.] In 1717, he was ordained as a priest.[
In 1718, Pope Clement XI decided to send Provana back to China, so on 19 May 1719, Provana and Fan boarded the ''Francisco Xavier'' in Lisbon and set sail once again.][.] Provana died during the voyage, and Fan returned to Macao alone. From Macao, he travelled north to Beijing for an audience with the Kangxi Emperor that was held on October 11, 1720.[ No account of his meeting with the emperor has survived, but Fan wrote a short report of his experiences in Europe, the ''Shen Jian Lu'' (身見錄), which may have been created to complement the information he gave the emperor in person.][
For the rest of his life, Fan worked as a priest and missionary in China,][ and apparently as an interpreter for the emperor; the Italian missionary ]Matteo Ripa
Matteo is the Italian form of the given name Matthew. Another form is Mattia. The Hebrew meaning of Matteo is "gift of god". Matteo can also be used as a patronymic surname, often in the forms of de Matteo, De Matteo or DeMatteo, meaning " escen ...
mentions a ‘Louis Fan’ in the book he published on his experiences in China.[.] Fan died in Beijing on 28 February 1753.
See also
*Shen Fo-tsung
Michael Alphonsus Shen Fu-Tsung, SJ, also known as Michel Sin, Michel Chin-fo-tsoung, Shen Fo-tsung, or Shen Fuzong (, 1691),
*Arcadio Huang
Arcadio Huang (, born in Xinghua, modern Putian, in Fujian, 15 November 1679, died on 1 October 1716 in Paris)Mungello, p.125 was a Chinese Christian convert, brought to Paris by the Missions étrangères. He took a pioneering role in the teach ...
*Jesuit China missions
The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of relations between China and the Western world. The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th and 17th century played a si ...
* Chinese Rites controversy
References
Citations
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fan, Louis
1682 births
1753 deaths
Chinese Christians