User:Yerevantsi/sandbox/China

Armenia–China relations

Armenians in China

Buddhism in Armenia

Indirect contacts

Some scholars have identified An Shigao, China's earliest Buddhist translator, as the second-century Parthian prince Parthamasiris, who was appointed client king of Armenia by Roman Emperor Trajan in 113 AD. This identification has been widely disputed by scholars.

Medieval contacts

Dickran Kouymjian located Buddhist elements in the 1286 manuscript of The Lectionary of Prince Het‘um, commissioned by later king Hethum II. The grey-brown Chinese-inspired lions, protecting the Christ from dragons, trace their origin to Buddhism and the Buddha was considered a lion among men. There is also a Buddhist Wheel of the Law.

• Kouymjian, Dickran (2012). "Chinese Dragons and Phoenixes among the Armenians". In Tubach, Jurgen; Vashalomidze, Sophie; Zimmer, Manfred (eds.). Caucasus during the Mongol Period. Reichert Verlag. pp. 107-128. ISBN 978-3895008924.
• Kouymjian, Dickran (1986). "Chinese Elements in Armenian Miniature Painting in the Mongol Period". Armenian Studies: Études Arméniennes: in Memoriam Haïg Berbérian. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. pp. 415-468.
• Kouymjian, Dickran (2006). "Chinese Motifs in Thirteenth-Century Armenian Art: The Mongol Connection". In Komaroff, Linda (ed.). Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan. Brill. pp. 303–324. ISBN 978-90-474-1857-3.

p. 156

During this period Little Armenia became a vassal of the Mongolian empire which stretched from China to Anatolia. Relations with the Mongols were friendly, and in 1253 the Armen- ian king Het'um I even made the long trip to Karakorum, in Outer Mongolia, to visit the Great Khan Mongke. Through this cooperation with the Mongols Chinese works of art must have reached Armenia, for undeniable Far East- ern elements are found in some Armenian works. In a manuscript dating from 1288 (Erevan, Ms. 979), for example, a bust of the youthful Christ in a medallion is flanked by two lions having manes like flames, a characteristic Chinese form.

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Europeans in Medieval China

The Franciscan missionary John of Montecorvino (Giovanni da Montecorvino) was ordered to China by Pope Nicholas III in 1279. Montecorvino arrived in China at the end of 1293, where he later translated the New Testament into the Mongol tongue, and converted 6,000 people (probably mostly Alans, Turks, and Mongols rather than Chinese). He was joined by three bishops (Andre de Perouse, Gerard Albuini and Peregrino de Castello) and ordained archbishop of Beijing by Pope Clement V in 1307. A community of Armenians in China sprang up during this period. They were converted to Catholicism by John of Montecorvino.

Needham

List of Chinese inventions

Fishing reel: In literary records, the earliest evidence of the fishing reel comes from a 4th-century AD work entitled Lives of Famous Immortals. The earliest known depiction of a fishing reel comes from a Southern Song (1127–1279) painting done in 1195 by Song dynasty painter Ma Yuan (c. 1160–1225) called "Angler on a Wintry Lake", showing a man sitting on a small sampan boat while casting out his fishing line. Another fishing reel was featured in a painting by the Yuan dynasty painter Wu Zhen (1280–1354). The book Tianzhu lingqian (Holy Lections from Indian Sources), printed between 1208 and 1224, features two different woodblock print illustrations of fishing reels being used. An Armenian parchment Gospel of the 13th century shows a reel (though not as clearly depicted as the Chinese ones). 

• Needham, Joseph. (1965). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology; Part 2, Mechanical Engineering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., reprinted Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd. (1986)

p. 100 An Armenian parchment Gospel of the + 13th century also seems to show a reel, though less clearly;f [f The especially close links between Armenia and China will be remembered (Vol. 1, p. 224, etc.), and Armenia may well have been the channel of transmission of this technique.]

Vol. 1, p. 224 / Mongol alliance was arranged by the Armenian king Haython I four years later,h [h Sarton (1), vol. 3, p. 953. An excellent account of him is to be found in Beazley (I), vol. 2, pp. 382 ft. Armenian relations with China had sometimes been close, and certain families claimed Chinese origins (Yule (2), vol. 1, p. 94) which could well have been the case through exchanges of minor princesses and the movements of exiles.]

p.169 Chinistan became Jenasdan in Armenian writings Moses of Chorene . b [b Yule (2), vol. I, p. 93.] [YULE, SIR HENRY (2). Cathay and the Way Thither,· being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China. Hakluyt Society Pubs. (2nd ser.) 1913-15. (1st ed. 1866.) Revised by H. Cordier. 4 vols. Vel. I (no. 38), Introduction~· Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse between China and the Western Nations previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route. Vol. 2 (no. 33), Odoric of Pordenone. Vol.. 3 (no. 37), John of Monte Corvino and others. Vol. 4 (no. 41), Ibn Battuta and Benedict of Goes. (Photographically reproduced, Peiping, 1942.)]

https://x.com/Xiruermuzi/status/1815708558123553139 Armenians lived in China long before the 12th century with Hethum I of Cilicia met Güyük Khan in Karakorum becoming a vassal state of the Mongol Empire in 1254. Their present in Khanbaliq was confirmed by Italian Franciscan missionary Giovanni da Montecorvino(1247-1328). Armenians settled in China mostly worked as merchants benefited by the ancient Silk Road. Some penetrated into the Empire establishing trading communities in Canton, Hong Kong, Macau, Fujian and even Tibet. During WWI, many more fled from the Ottoman to China for betterment. Armenians settled mostly in Harbin, Shanghai, Canton and HK in 19th Century, due to - Eastern Railway by Russia in Manchuria 1898 and - Indian Armenians benefited by the British Empire in Shanghai and HK.

• Church of the Prelacy of the Far-Eastern Armenians in Harbin in 40s.

Modern period

Zheng Manuo (1633–1673), the first Chinese international student in Europe and the first Chinese Jesuit priest, and Alexandre de Rhodes journeyed through Persia and Armenia, and arrived in Yerevan in September 1648. De Rhodes placed Zheng at a Dominican monastery in Armenia, where Zheng stayed for six months and learned the Armenian language.

Bible translations into Chinese

The Archbishop of Canterbury recommended that the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge print the Chinese Bible; but, after four years deliberation, the project was abandoned. Then, two independent and almost simultaneous efforts were made. The Anglo-Hindoo College, of Fort William, in Calcutta, established in 1800, created a department devoted to the translation of the Scriptures into Asian languages, mainly the Indian vernaculars, but including Chinese. Professor Hovhannes Ghazarian (Lassar), an Armenian, born and educated in Macau, began by translating the Gospel of St. Matthew, which he finished in 1807. Ghazarian then moved to Serampore, where the work was continued under the care of Joshua Marshman. The British and Foreign Bible Society published The New Testament in 1813, and the whole Bible in 1822. This was the first known entire printed version of the Scriptures in Chinese.

https://books.google.am/books?id=B_w5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q=armenian&f=false

At length a double effort was made, independently and almost simultaneously, to translate the Scriptures into Chinese. Soon after the formation of the Anglo-Hindoo College, of Fort William, in Calcutta, in 1800, a department was devoted to the translation of the Scriptures into Oriental languages. The directors did not limit themselves to the Indian vernaculars, but included in their purpose the preparation of a version in Chinese. Professor Lassar, an Armenian, born and educated in Macao, began the work by translating the Gospel by St. Matthew, which he finished in 1807. After this, Mr. Lassar removed to Serampore, where the work was continued under the special care of Dr. Marshman, the New Testament being published in 1813, and the whole Bible in 1822, by the liberality of the British and Foreign Bible Society. This was the first known entire printed version of the Scriptures in Chinese...

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/baptist-endeavours-in-biblical-translation-in-china-before-the-chinese-union-version/D0408CB95CC7085B9EF3761821EC11B0 The Baptist Endeavours in Biblical Translation in China before the Chinese Union Version / Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

https://books.google.am/books?id=4fWf1WlCStcC&lpg=PA54 Chinese Translations of the Bible

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• Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-33228-4.

Mamikonian

In the interests of linking the Armenians to the greater world, it is worth noting that Moses is at pains to give the house of Amatuni a Chaldean origin, that of the Artsruni a royal Assyrian origin, and the Mamikoneans-a house of seemingly Georgian origin-an imperial Chinese ancestry, though whether these are Moses' own fabrications or the actual chimeras of the houses in question is not always clear.

Tayk' was later enlarged (probably by the Byzantines when they acquired the area in 591) through the addition of the three districts of the principality of Bolxa to form the province of Armenia Profunda (Arm. Xoraguyn Hayk') 'Deep Armenia'. The principality of Tayk' was ruled by the house of Mamikonean, hereditary sparapets 'commanders-in-chief' of the Armenian army, a family claiming descent from the emperors of China (Arm. Čenk') but who were probably descended from the princes of the Georgian tribe known as the Chanians (Arm. Čanik'; Gk. Tzannoi, Sannoi, or Saniges = Drilloi?).

The House of Mamikonean The Mamikonids, originally princes of Tayk', claimed descent from the emperors of China (Arm. Čen-k'), but appear rather to have been descended from the chieftains of the Čanians (Arm. Čanik'; Gk. Sannoi or Tzannoi) and so to have had a Georgian ori- gin, as their name implies (Geo. mama 'father', 'chief'). As hereditary high constables of Armenia, the heads of the Mamikonean family were commanders-in-chief (spara- pets) of the combined forces of the realm, the Armenian royal army, and as such were preeminent in Armenia even above the Bagratids, who were their great rivals.

China. Armenian communities are known to have existed in a few Chinese centers in the late medieval period, Franciscan missionaries, for example, having been granted the use of an Armenian church at Zeitun (Ch'uan-chou near Amoy in Fu-chien province) by an Armenian lady who had built it and who had it blessed by an archbishop, presumably an Armenian, as well (c. 1320-1330). There were isolated Armenians here and there throughout the country in modern times, but their main center of activity was in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, where the merchant grandee Sir Cachik Paul Chater (d. 1926), contriver and executor of the Reclamation Project, builder of the race track, and head of all major shipping, banking, and international companies in the colony, came to be known as the "Grand Old Man of Hong Kong" and "the founder of everything in Hong Kong." Another Armenian, Lassar (Ghazar), born in the nearby Portuguese colony of Macao, began the translation of the Bible into Chinese in Calcutta.

Manchuria. At the time of the communization of Manchuria in 1949, there were some 350 Arme- nians there, almost all of them in Harbin and almost all of them refugees from the Russian Revolution and Civil War of 1917-1921. The community suffered greatly during the Japanese occupation (1931-1945), many of its members, including the parish priest, being interned. The departure of the last priest in 1950 brought the existence of the community virtually to an end.

Evans, Helen C., ed. (2018). Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press. ISBN 9781588396600. OCLC 1028910888. China: ceramics, 64, 64, 221; dragon motif, 160

p. 32 Some Armenians, however, prospered as allies of, and soldiers and merchants for, the Mongols, including the Zakarian, Orbelian, and Proshian families. They continued or extended their existing trade routes into China, now controlled by the Mongols.14
pp. 33-34 Some ceramic designs for works created and/or used by Armenians originated from as far away as China (cat. 18).
p. 133 In 1326, the Franciscan Fra Andreas wrote home to Italy of the continuing Franciscan link with the Armenians, describing an Armenian lady in the Chinese merchant city of Quanzhou who had provided funds for a handsome church and an endowment for its bishop, Brother Gerardus.21
p. 158 Dedicatory pages like these first appear in Cilician illumination at Hromkla in the Bardzrberd Gospel book of 1248 (cat. 56).4 This manuscript’s use of the traditional Armenian format for such pages, in which columns are shown supporting a headpiece, is modified here by the insertion of an Islamic-style, polylobed red arch that encloses a human-headed harpy with two bodies. Motifs such as these reflect Cilicia’s role as a major force on Mongol trade routes originating from the port at Ayas and extending to China.5 HCE
p. 177 The New Julfan merchants were “the only Eurasian community of merchants to operate simultaneously and successfully . . . [in] Islamicate Eurasia (Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid), Muscovite Russia, Qing China, and all the major European seaborne empires.”29
p. 264 The Armenians of New Julfa were active in major ports from Europe to China, but their commercial center was in New Julfa,9
p. 267 New Julfa. There, Armenians developed their own trading networks, focusing on the transport and sale of silk, precious stones, and spices. By the early eighteenth century, their networks extended from Indonesia, China, India, and Russia to Europe and the British Isles, creating an Armenian merchant elite of significant autonomy and enormous wealth.1

p. 160 Gospel Book of Archbishop John [Sis, 1289] Archbishop John (Yovhannes), the youngest half brother of King Hetum I, was ordained archbishop of a region that included Bardzrberd, the family seat, in 1259. He established a scriptorium at Grner, where he sought to collect a library of significant texts.1 This manuscript, made for his personal use, contains colophons stating that he wrote some, if not all, of the text in 1289, during the first year of the reign of King Hetum II, Archbishop John’s grandnephew. Illuminated at the Cilician capital of Sis, the manuscript shows the archbishop as an old man in the year of his death ordaining a deacon.2 The Marshal Oshin Gospel book of 1274 shows him as a younger man (cats. 65, 66). His vestments in both portraits reflect his interest in textiles and the breadth of their sources. Here, the hem of his tunic displays an ornate upright Chinese dragon very similar to one on a Central Asian textile from the eleventh to twelfth century in the Metropolitan Museum ... Such works may also have been brought to the Cilician court by travelers, among them Rabban Bar Sauma, a Central Asian member of the Church of the East (Nestorian) who traveled through Armenia on his way to and from Rome in the 1280s with gifts from Arghun Khan.4 The Chinese silk here and the fleur-de-lis on the earlier portrait in the Marshal Oshin Gospel book exemplify Cilicia’s role as a major conduit of trade between the East and West under the Pax Mongolica.

p. 221 The town of Kütahya lies in a fertile plain of wheat fields and vineyards on the Anatolian plateau some seventy miles south of Bursa. The soil in the region is abundant with clay, and Kütahya was long a major center of ceramic production, especially under the Ottomans. As early as the fourteenth century, Armenian ceramists are mentioned in church donations among a mixed population of Greeks and Muslims. Their later presence is attested to in the blue-and-white ewer from the British Museum; the Armenian inscription inside the base ring reads, “This vessel is in commemoration of Abraham, servant of God, of K‘ot‘ay. In this year 959 [ad 1510], March 11th” (fig. 71). Details such as the floret decoration recall those on large Iznik dishes of that time. The dragon-shaped handle points to a direct Chinese influence. Tiles found at Kütahya have similar Chinese patterns, indicating the contribution of the town’s ceramists to the production of the major ceramic center at Iznik, from which tiles were much in demand for the new buildings of Constantinople in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Yingsheng, Liu; Kauz, Ralph (2008). "Armenia in Chinese Sources". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 175–190. doi:10.1163/157338408X406001. ISSN 1573-384X.

Yang, Xi (1 January 2009). "Some Possible Chinese Records about Armenia and the Armenians in Mid-Qing Dynasty". Iran and the Caucasus. 13 (2): 229–237. doi:10.1163/157338410X12625876281064. ISSN 1573-384X.

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Bedrosian, Robert (1981). "China and the Chinese according to 5-13th Century Classical Armenian Sources" (PDF). Armenian Review. 34 (1–133): 17–24. Retrieved 20 November 2013.

• Hewsen, Robert H. (1992). The Geography of Ananias of Širak. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag.

In Armenian legends and fairy tales, China is called the country of Chenes, Chinumachin, or Chinastan.

• Nersessian, Vrej (2001). Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 9780892366392.

Maranci, Christina (2018). The Art of Armenia: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190269005.

also Yuan

Armenians in Tibet

https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/227057/2/JTS_01_05.pdf [PDF] Armenians in India and Tibet HE Richardson - 1981 - repository.cam.ac.uk

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43741554 Christian Missionary Enterprise and Tibetan Trade

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146733 THE ARMENIANS IN INDIA: TRADING TOGETHER BUT SEPARATELY

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-global-history/article/social-capital-trust-and-the-role-of-networks-in-julfan-trade-informal-and-semiformal-institutions-at-work/67EF5A2DF075C704C57AA1C4BB316D9E Social capital, ‘trust’ and the role of networks in Julfan trade: informal and semi-formal institutions at work

Words

չնաշխարհիկ =  awesome, unmatched, out of this world, beautiful [disputed][1]
ճենապակի = porcelain
ճենակավ = Kaolinite / china clay

References

Notes

Citations