Matteo Ricci's Depictions of Alexander the Great in Late Ming China☆

Abstract

AbstractThis article primarily focuses on the origin, the earliest dissemination and the accommodation of European Alexander texts in imperial China by Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610). After providing an overview of the Chinese Alexander traditions, it first examines the sources of inspiration for Ricci's choice of Alexander as the prominent historical figure in his booklet on friendship, and then explores the reason for and implications of Ricci's allegorical translation of Alexander as Lishan 歷山 in Chinese. The remainder of the article analyses the cultural accommodation and literary tradition of each European exemplum of Alexander anthologized in Ricci's writings, from Jiaoyou Lun 交友論 (Treatise on Friendship) to Jiren Shipian 畸人十篇 (Ten Discourses of the Man of Paradox). The article shows that all Ricci's accounts of Alexander are mainly derived from the European Medieval and Renaissance Alexander tradition and were adapted in China by the strategy of cultural accommodation.