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The Invention of China in Early Modern England

Spelling the Dragon

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jonathan E. Lux

    1. Tianjin International School, Tianjin, China

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  • Draws on a range of rare archival materials
  • Original scope - reaches further back than other studies of its type
  • Demonstrates how early modern England’s conceptualization of China continues to impact international policy

Part of the book series: Early Modern Literature in History (EMLH)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-v
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  2. Introduction: The Invention of China in Early Modern England

    • Jonathan E. Lux
    Pages 1-12

  3. Utopian Sinophilism in Early Modern England

    • Jonathan E. Lux
    Pages 13-63

  4. “This Lov’d Golgotha”: The China Trade in Early Modern England

    • Jonathan E. Lux
    Pages 65-116

  5. Aftershocks: Changing China

    • Jonathan E. Lux
    Pages 117-166

  6. Conclusions and Reflections

    • Jonathan E. Lux
    Pages 167-195

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 197-224
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Keywords

About this book

The Invention of China in Early Modern England describes how several different English communities became aware of China. It begins by describing how early modern intellectuals used the utopian ideal of China to license all kinds of progressive innovation before chronicling how England’s growing commerce in southeast Asia radically changed China’s representation in the English discourse community. For the new community of English merchants proposing to trade in Chinese goods, China became the seminal example in the growing discourse community of English Orientalism. It was an absolute or arbitrary authoritarian state, associated with crooked business dealings, and cloaked in a rhetoric of secrecy and exclusion—a dangerous exception to the traditions, values, and identities of the emergent English speaking states. Finally, the book points out some of the ways that contemporary English language sources continue to represent this early modern English thought tradition, labelling the complexities of modern China with analytical vocabulary perhaps better suited to the pressing political anxieties of the seventeenth century.  


Authors and Affiliations

  • Tianjin International School, Tianjin, China

    Jonathan E. Lux

About the author

Jonathan E. Lux, Ph.D. serves with Leadership Development International; he teaches at Tianjin International School, China, and resides with his family in Tianjin.

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