Introduction

Abstract

The first seven articles in the current volume of the “Ignatianum Philosophical Yearbook” are dedicated to Jesuit missions in China, based on the manuscript work of the Polish Jesuit Tomasz Dunin Szpot (1644–1713) entitled Historiae Sinarum Imperii, located in Rome in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI Jap. Sin. 102, ARSI Jap. Sin. 103). In this work, which has a chronological character, Szpot included a description of the Jesuits’ experiences in the Middle Kingdom from the initiation of the mission by St. Francis Xavier in the mid-16th century up to the first decade of the 18th century.