The story of the first Dutch embassy to the emperor of China, an analysis of the different influences on the representation of China in Het Gezantschap (1665)

Abstract

This study analyzes the different influences on the representation of China in the book Het Gezantschap (1665). The focus is on the influence of the primary source of Het Gezantschap, European writings before the publication of Het Gezantschap and the influence of China on its own Western representation. Alongside the main objective of this study, attention is given to the commixture of Jesuits' writings and travel literature and the importance of the latter on the seventeenth-century European intellectual assimilation and dissemination of China.