One of my favorite historical people is Matteo Ricci. He joined the Jesuits at a young age and spent several years in Goa in India before traveling to his intended destination of Macau.
Upon his arrival, the Catholic mission in China had limited success. There were few converts and the emperor did not allow the missionaries inland.
Unlike his colleagues, Ricci spent time studying the language and culture of China. He became an expert in the Chinese classics. 1/x
@jameshowell Glad you enjoyed it! If I do a similar write-up, I'll be sure to add more hashtags. Thinking about one on Cleon, the original demagogue from ancient Athens.
@badbede@histodons
East, West, North, South, all #history is just inherently fascinating. But I just love the East/West connections, which in the dominant culture have been so neglected (not to say whitewashed, Orientalized, and falsified).
Context is everything.
Set aside the breathless tendentious (ahem, racist) sensationalisms, the petty not-so-great-power posturing of the moment. Surely #India, #China, #Russia, #Iran, #CentralAsia will continue to assert themselves, in the best sense, as the century continues. It will be fascinating to see the cultures and histories of a resurgent #Eurasia come out from behind the eclipse of the West and move back into the global mainstream.
The unacknowledged, indeed incompletely explored, linkages between (for example) early Buddhism and 'ancient Greek philosophy' will be just one juxtaposition that may grow into a very illuminating field over the next century. Who knows?