Northern and Western Europe in “Illustrated tributaries of the Qing empire”

This paper explores features of the visual images and descriptions of the inhabitants of four European states (Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland), found in “Huang Qing Zhi Gong Tu” (“Tributaries of the ruling Qing dynasty”) - a Chinese historical and ethnographic book compiled by Fu Heng in the middle of the 18th century. The book is stored in the collection of rare Oriental books at St. Petersburg State University. Eight xylographic illustra-tions of the inhabitants of the European states are selected and analyzed. The attached explanatory texts are also trans-lated. They contain information about the geographical location of the countries mentioned, as well as the history of their contacts with China and some notes about the inhabitants of these countries, including an anthropological por-trait, a description of costumes, customs, occupations and so on. The interpretation is carried out in accordance with the principles of scientific translation used by academician Vasiliy M. Alekseev (1881-1951). In case of need the translations are supplemented with textological, historiographic and culturological commentaries. An analysis of the drawings and texts aids in recreating the picture of the perception by the Chinese of the mid-18th century of the four European states. The archaic names of countries and peoples used by compilers are analyzed. Misconceptions and stereotypes of Chinese compilers are revealed. Attempts are being made to explain their possible origins. The author of the paper found out that the compilers sometimes relied upon a method of explanation of the phenomena unknown to the Chinese by rethinking similar facts from the history and culture of China.