Documents from Ming and Qing Western Studies and Chinese Books in the Vatican Library

Abstract

In the research on the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the collection and arrangement of Chinese literature in Western studies is a basic academic work. In recent years, Chinese books of Ming and Qing Dynasties have been published successively in the Jesuit Library, the National Library of Paris, and the Xujiahui Library. The Vatican Library is currently the library with the largest collection of Chinese literature in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This paper studies the sources of Chinese books of Western learning in the Vatican Library, and preliminarily shows the basic characteristics of the Chinese books of Western learning in the Ming and Qing Dynasties stored in the Vatican Library.