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Sino Defender
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Topic: Medieval European Image on the Orient Posted: 09-Mar-2006 at 17:15 |
What was the image of the Orient in Medieval Europe?
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"Whoever messes with the heavenly middle kingdom, no matter how far s/he escapes, s/he is to be slaughtered"
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Maju
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Posted: 09-Mar-2006 at 18:14 |
In Medieval Europe there was surely no image of the Far East. Though among the few erudites there could be some idea of lands beyond India, they did not know much about them. European Medieval "world maps" are typically of the T-O type: It helps Jerusalem being in the Center of the world. As you can see in this extremely simlified case, the continents and the Biblical "races" are associated with an extreme naivety. Still the T-O map approximated somehow reality... only somehow. Here you can see a more elaborate map that still follows the T-O pattern anyhow: East Asia has no room in these conceptions: it's just the extreme of India and "Scythia". The following is a more scientific world map, based in Ptolemaic descriptions: You can see that what is bathed by the Mediterranean Sea is rather well known, as it happens with SW Asia. India is very diffuse (note the gigantic Sri Lanka) and the Far East is in these maps only mentioned very vaguely: "India beyond the Ganges" (Assam and Burma?) ,"Aurea Chrsonesus" (Malay Peninsula), Sina (Indochina?), Serica (China?). See the detailed map here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/PtolemyWorldMa p.jpg
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BigL
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Posted: 09-Mar-2006 at 18:22 |
Romans called chinese the Silk people, because thats were silk came from
Medieval despised asian people due to tartars and called them wild barbarian half horse half man
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Scytho-Sarmatian
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Posted: 10-Mar-2006 at 02:39 |
I'm surprised everyone forgot about Marco Polo!
He was medieval, wasn't he? Or maybe he's now considered an early
renaissance man. Anyway, read his book for more information.
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Maju
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Posted: 10-Mar-2006 at 13:03 |
Marco Polo is Medieval but of the late period, when the Dark Ages had vanished and Europe looked forward to modernity. Still may just didn't believe what he wrote - and even today his honesty is questioned. See: Wikipedia: Marco Polo and derived hyperlinks.
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Sino Defender
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Posted: 10-Mar-2006 at 14:31 |
Sina is another name for China. Not indochina.
Another question: why is Vietnam called Indochina?
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"Whoever messes with the heavenly middle kingdom, no matter how far s/he escapes, s/he is to be slaughtered"
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Maju
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Posted: 10-Mar-2006 at 15:31 |
Originally posted by Sino Defender
Sina is another name for China. Not indochina. |
You're probably right but it is misplaced. Serica sounds like "the country of silk" or something, just east of Scythia (Central Asia / West Siberia)
Another question: why is Vietnam called Indochina? |
Not just Vietnam but all (continental?) SE Asia used to be called Indochina, considered to be both geographically and culturally intermediate between China and India. The French colonial bloc in the area was called French Indochina and therefore sometimes Indochina seems applied only to the French portion of it.
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Nick1986
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Posted: 30-Nov-2012 at 07:32 |
China was known as Cathay in medieval times. It is thought Marco Polo brought the recipe for noodles back to Italy and popularised spaghetti
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Nick1986
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Posted: 01-Dec-2012 at 07:30 |
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Snafu
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Posted: 02-Dec-2012 at 18:15 |
Before the Mongol empire brought east and west into direct contact, all Europeans knew about the far east was what middle eastern merchants told them. And by the time those stories filtered down to the common folk they were more like legends and fairy tales. There were stories of dog-headed men (maybe influenced by the look of a steppe nomad's cap, with long floppy ear-flaps), weird humanoid creatures with faces on their chests and backwards facing feet, Amazons, Prester John the Christian king of the far east, etc. Even for the worldliest and most sophisticated Europeans, the world east of the Middle East might as well have been another planet.
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TITAN_
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Posted: 03-Dec-2012 at 06:00 |
East and West first met each other in the 4th century BC, in a massive scale....
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Nick1986
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Posted: 04-Dec-2012 at 08:45 |
Medieval people also believed there was a one-legged giant called Sciapod who used his massive foot as a sun shade
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Nick1986
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Posted: 05-Dec-2012 at 10:44 |
Originally posted by Snafu
Before the Mongol empire brought east and west into direct contact, all Europeans knew about the far east was what middle eastern merchants told them. And by the time those stories filtered down to the common folk they were more like legends and fairy tales. There were stories of dog-headed men (maybe influenced by the look of a steppe nomad's cap, with long floppy ear-flaps), weird humanoid creatures with faces on their chests and backwards facing feet, Amazons, Prester John the Christian king of the far east, etc. Even for the worldliest and most sophisticated Europeans, the world east of the Middle East might as well have been another planet.
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If the dog-headed men were Tatars in floppy caps, what's the story behind the headless men with faces on their chests?
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Me Grimlock not nice Dino! Me bash brains!
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