利玛窦世界地图在日本

The Map of the World by Matteo Ricci in Japan

利玛窦在华期间曾绘制世界地图数幅,这些地图的原刊本全世界仅存五件,其中有三件藏于日本。利氏地图经由传教士、中国商人和士人传到日本后,受到了日本社会的广泛欢迎,它不仅被江户时代的文献广泛征引和摹绘,而且还出现了许多以它为原型制作的世界地图。利玛窦在地图中宣扬的"地圆说"、"五大洲说"等观点,受到了以佛教徒为首的传统势力的抵抗,同时也得到包括兰学者在内的开明人士的欢迎,它对江户时代人们世界观的改变具有非常重要的影响。利氏地图还将许多崭新的地理学理论与世界知识带到了日本,对日本地理学的发展以及人们认识世界水平的提高有着颇为重要的作用。

During the period when Matteo Ricci was in China, he drew several maps of the world. Of these maps, there are only 5 original versions in the world, 3 of which are currently in the collection of Miyagi Prefectural Library, Kyoto University, and National Archives of Japan respectively, and whose origin and present state of affairs are rarely known to the Chinese.These maps were introduced into Japan by missionaries, Chinese businessmen, and scholars in the early Edo Period (before Catholicism was forbidden) and in 1720 that foreign books were officially allowed again to enter Japan, and gained much popularity there. On the one hand, they were extensively cited and reproduced in the literature of the Edo Period. According to Japanese statistics, of all works of the Period there were 30odd books which made use or mention of the map of the world by Matteo Ricci, and another 25 books whose maps of the world were produced by referring to Matteo Ricci's map; and there are 21 reproductions of the said map available at present. On the other hand, there have appeared many variations based on the original version, which belong to the Matteo Ricci system of the map of the world. The system characterized the 17th and 18th centuries in the Japanese history of drawing the map of the world. The viewpoints that 'the earth is round' and 'there are five continents in the world', which Matteo Ricci advocated in the map of the world, were in conflict with the traditional Japanese world outlook and met with the objection from the conventional forces led by the Japanese Buddhists, while welcomed by enlightened personages. The map of the world is not merely a kind of map, but also a geographical book which includes almost all the main geographical names, concepts and theories in the West at that time. Its introduction into Japan was of great significance to the Japanese histories of ideology and geography. It helped the Japanese establish a modern positivistic outlook on world. It also brought with itself a lot of brandnew geographical theories and world knowledge to Japan, which played an essential role in developing Japanese geography and improving the ability of the Japanese to know the world.The Matteo Ricci's map of the world have remained popular in Japan, whereas it is quite opposite in China, which results from the extent of openness of the two countries in terms of cognitive tradition and cultural tradition.