1585, Rome published a Spanish book entitled History of the Great Chinese Empire, which was divided into two parts. This is/kloc-the most influential work on China studies in Europe in the 6th century. It was written by the Spanish historian Gonzalez Mendoza, who is a member of the Austin Parliament. China's political system, education system, China's history, land, products and customs are introduced in detail. The book mentioned various China societies, which was an encyclopedia for Europeans to know about China at that time. Its position in the history of cultural exchange between China and the West is far beyond the previous works related to China studies, such as the History of Great China by Kyle Poirot, Travel Notes by robert pires, Notes of Eastern Countries by Barros and Asian History by Cruz. What is particularly significant is that The Story of China introduced the story of the Yellow Emperor, Three Kingdoms, emperors, Chinese characters and population to Europeans for the first time. The History of the Great China Empire uses the Yellow Emperor to deny the popular view in Europe, that is, the history of China is explained by the History of the Great China Empire. The book says: "The Chinese Empire is an ancient country. There is a view that the ancestors living in China were Noah's nephews, but the history of China tells us that the Yellow Emperor was their first emperor. He unified China into an empire, and all emperors were his descendants. " Before the Yellow Emperor, there were Chao's wooden nest, Zhu Renjia's cooked food, Fu's marriage, and the herbal smell of Shennong, the son of the Yellow Emperor. ""It is said that the Yellow Emperor is seven feet tall, and each foot is two-thirds the size of Spain, so it is higher than the fourth size. His shoulders are as wide as six palms, and he is brave in the battle. " "The Yellow Emperor was the first person to invent clothes. He also invented saws for dyeing, shipbuilding and sawing wood. Besides, he is also a great architect. He invented the house and the spinning wheel. " "The Yellow Emperor had four wives and twenty-five sons, who reigned for one hundred years. Between him and the emperor who built the Great Wall, there were 1 16 emperors, all after the Yellow Emperor, who ruled for 2257 years. "After introducing the Yellow Emperor, Zhou Sinong's Behavioral Art briefly mentioned that Qin Shihuang's repair of the Great Wall caused public resentment, and listed the Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty and his reign years. When talking about Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty, Mendoza told Europeans about the Three Kingdoms: "Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty was a fatuous monarch who was spurned by the country and the people when he was in office. He had a nephew named Liu Bei who rose up against his uncle. Liu has two assistants. They are his two brave brothers, one is Guan Yu and the other is Zhang Fei. Both of them supported Liu Bei as emperor, but Xian Di couldn't cope. When Liu Bei proclaimed himself emperor, there were four people, one was Sun Quan, the other was Cao Cao, the other was Yuan Shu and the other was Yuan Shao. He fought in the name of Emperor Liu Bei. Later, he made up with Sun Quan, ended the war with Sun Quan and married his daughter. With the help of my father-in-law, it created conditions for cracking down on the other three major power groups. At that time, China was divided into three parts in the world, namely Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Sun Quan. The situation in the three countries continued until Cathy succeeded to the throne. "This is the first time that The Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been circulated in Europe in written form. Of course, due to the limitation of subjective and objective conditions, Mendoza's Romance of the Three Kingdoms is not very accurate. For example, Liu Bei is not the nephew of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty, but Cao Cao is the one who "helps the emperor". Liu Bei broke up in the name of helping Han. He married Sun Quan's sister, not her daughter, so Sun Quan is Liu Bei's brother-in-law rather than his father-in-law. Nevertheless, for a European who hasn't been to China in the16th century and doesn't know Chinese, Mendoza's description of the Three Kingdoms is quite good. Then it introduces the situation after the emperors of the Three Kingdoms returned to Jin, and the age is more accurate. When Mendoza listed the emperors of the Tang Dynasty, he also wrote an episode in which Wu Zetian proclaimed himself emperor. He wrote that in Tang Gaozong, Emperor Gaozong took a wife of his father out of the temple and married her. At that time, she was just a nun. This woman's name is Bossa. She is very beautiful, and she

Historians say that she was an unfaithful woman, lived a dissolute life and married a family member. Legend has it that before she got married, in order to facilitate her nephew to ascend to the throne, she killed the son born to her first husband. The move was opposed by ministers, who hailed her husband's other escaped son as king, named Towson. Dosa wrote the Bible during the Wanli period in China, so the last emperor of China was a "contemporary" Wanli emperor. Emperor 2 1 year-old, his mother is still alive. He married a cousin and gave birth to a son. Chinese characters have been used in Gago's letters since 1555 before the history of the Great China Empire. This letter was first published in 1565 in Kolbra, Portugal. It has six Chinese characters: heaven, man, moon, sun, emperor and soul, but it has not been printed in European works, and its influence is limited. Dosa's History of the Great Chinese Empire is the first book to introduce Chinese characters in European works. It introduces three Chinese characters: "Tian", "Di" and "Cheng" with phonetic notation. These three Chinese characters are all deformed. But after the opening, it is indispensable. Dosa also introduced China's paper, pen and printing, saying that the writing format of China people is contrary to that of Europeans, from top to bottom, from right to left, even printed matter is no exception. Before Mendoza, European works had introduced two capitals and 13 provinces in China, but Mendoza introduced them in more detail, not only the two capitals and 13 provinces, but also the number of governments, states, taxpayers and soldiers in each province. According to the history of the Chinese Empire, Beijing has 47 counties and 150 states. In addition to duty-free officers and soldiers, there are 2.7 million taxpayers, and because it is a military stronghold, there are 210.5 thousand infantry and 400 thousand cavalry. The remaining provinces are as follows: 37 states in Guangdong 190 states, with tax payment1670,000, 40,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry; Fujian has 33 prefectures and 90 states, with 2.4 million taxes, 850,000 infantry and 22,000 cavalry. Yunnan, 90 states 130 states, with tax payment of 2.2 million, 76,000 infantry and 25,000 cavalry; Guangxi, 38 States 124 States, with a tax revenue of 3.38 million and 80,000 infantry, has no cavalry because it is located in mountainous areas; Shaanxi, 44 states 150 states, with tax payment of 3.7 million, infantry120,000 and cavalry of 40,000; Shanxi has 5 1 region and 123 states, with the largest number of taxpayers, reaching 6.09 million. This is because Shanxi is close to Tatar, and the emperor sometimes patrols here. The military strength is quite strong, with 2.8 million infantry and 290,000 cavalry. Jiangxi, 24 states, 1 12 states, with 2.3 million taxpayers, 50,000 infantry and 22,000 cavalry; Huguang,19,74 states, with 3.8 million tax revenue, 2,000 infantry and no cavalry; Nanjing, 25 prefectures and 29 states, with 2.8 million taxpayers, 86,000 infantry and 48,000 cavalry; Henan 20 states 102 states, tax revenue10.2 million, infantry 44,000, cavalry10.4 million. Shandong, with 37 states and 78 states, paid taxes of 654.38+0.9 million, 52,000 infantry and 654.38+0.89 million cavalry; Guizhou, 45 states, 1 13 states, with tax payment of 2.03 million, infantry of 48,000 and cavalry of150,000; Zhejiang, with 39 states and 95 states, paid taxes of 2.24 million, infantry of 34,000, cavalry 1.3 million; There are 42 counties in Sichuan, 105 states, with 2.05 million taxpayers, 86,000 infantry and 43,000 cavalry. Whether the above figures are accurate or not has to be verified by experts. There are abundant materials, including not only Mendoza's observation and research on overseas Chinese in the Philippines, but also many European works describing China, such as Barros' History of Great China Empire, Ace Calante's History of Great China Empire, and more importantly, China books translated from China to Spain, such as Sima Guang's 0755-7900. However, due to the limitation of the translator's level, the introduction of The History of Great China Empire is wrong. It is worth pointing out that the History of the Great Chinese Empire was translated into many languages after its publication, published in the16th century, and became popular in Europe. In addition to the Roman version of 1585, there is another Spanish version of 10. 1585, Italian Venetian version appeared at the same time; In 589, German and Latin editions appeared in Frankfurt; In 595, a Dutch version appeared in Amsterdam; From 1588 to 1600, there is a French version in Paris; 1588, which is available in English in London.

In short, by the end of 16, Mendoza's History of Asia had been reprinted 46 times in seven different European languages. It can be seen that this book has a wide influence, and it is conceivable to what extent China is known by Europeans.