110 Boundaries and Beyond
Chinese named Huozhe Yasan,^50 gave bribes to the emperor’s favorite
and the most powerful Court ofβicial, Jiang Bin, to obtain an imperial
audience.^51 The emperor found the interpreter’s knowledge of several
languages amusing and kept him for company. Unfortunately, this over-
conβident and arrogant man offended a Chinese ofβicial named Liang
Zhuo, who was in charge of the lodgings for foreign envoys, by refusing
to kneel before him. For this insult, he was beaten. Learning of this, Jiang
Bin quarreled with Liang and threatened to memorialize the emperor.^52
Moreover, Fernão Peres de Andrade’s ofβicial letter had been
translated by his interpreters in a way that indicated the king of
Portugal wanted to be a vassal of the emperor of China. However, when
the sealed letter of King Manuel was opened and translated by the
Court, the language was found to differ entirely from that of the letter
written by the interpreters in the name of Andrade. The Portuguese
clearly had no intention of disguising themselves as a tributary mission
from the former Malacca Kingdom,^53 but their Chinese interpreters had
followed the customary form of correspondence. The irony is that, if the
earlier translation had not been done to suit the Chinese world view,
it would not have left the provincial ofβicials any latitude to favor the
Portuguese entry.^54
- Huozhe Ya-san himself said he was a Chinese. See Ming shi, juan 325, “Folangji”,
p. 8431. Another example of using “huozhe” as a title is an Arab (Tianfang guo 天
方國) envoy named Huo-zhe A-li (Ming shilu: Shizong/Jiajing chao 明實錄：世
宗朝 [Veritable records of the Ming Dynasty: Shizong/Jiajing Reign]) (hereafter
MSL: SZ), 164: 5a. I would venture to suggest that their names actually were
Haji Hasan and Haji Ali respectively. See also Chang Wei-hua, Ming shi ou-zhou
siguo zhuan, p. 9 for the view that “huo-che” was a Muslim ofβicial title during
the Yuan. - Yan Congjian 严从简, Shuyu zhouzi lu 殊域周咨录 [A comprehensive inquiry
into strange lands] (Preface 1583; reprint, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1993),
“Folangji”, p. 320; also Fujida Toyobachi 藤田豊八, Tō zai kō shō shi no kenkyū 東
西交涉史の研究 [A study of East-West relataions] (Tokyo:Ogihara Seibunkan,
1943), p. 419. - Ming shi, juan 325, “Folangji”, p. 8431.
- Chang Wei-hua rightly comments that the claim in Ming records that “the
Folangji sent an envoy to pay tribute and request conferment of titles” is an
exaggeration. See his “Ming shi Folangji zhuan”, p. 6. - Diplomatic letters involved values and world views. The Chinese stressed the
importance of “the ritual relationship between the emperor and a tributary
prince”, whereas European states adhered to “the concept of a community
of equal status”. When such letters were translated for submission to the
counterpart, the translation was made compatible with the world view of the
reading party. For a discussion of the misunderstanding created by translated
communications between Imperial China and the European states, see John E.
http://www.ebook3000.com