Natural History Floating across the Oceans

Ludovico Buglio’s Shizi shuo (On Lions)

Bibliographic Data

ID19218530
AuthorsYu Yating 余雅婷 (corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume74
Issue1
Pages71-95
Publication date2026-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMonumenta Serica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0254-9948 • E-ISSN: 2057-1690
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02549948.2026.2652776
OpenAlexW7163013772
LanguageEN
References cited11

In the process of contact between Chinese and Western natural history, Ludovico Buglio’s (Li Leisi, 1606–1682) Shizi shuo (On Lions, 1678) can be described as the earliest text of Western biological knowledge to be introduced to China. We can trace this book’s knowledge of natural history back to the De historia animalium, by the renowned Greek scholar Aristotle (384–322 BCE). Subsequently, Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder, AD 23/24–AD 79) authored Naturalis historia, an encyclopaedia on natural history that also includes references to Aristotle’s viewpoints. The medieval naturalist Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great, 1193–1280) later composed De animalibus, quoting Aristotle’s views and arguments. During the Renaissance, this link between Aristotle’s writings and Albertus Magnus’s text became a model to imitate for Conrad Gessner (1517–1565) and Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605); finally, Buglio adopted it for his translations. By examining the sources adopted in Shizi shuo, this article explores the view of natural history hidden in the text and how, through the lens of Renaissance readings, such a view floated across the oceans and reached the early Qing dynasty

Encyclopedia · Natural (archaeology) · Natural history · Naturalism · The Renaissance · TRACE (psycholinguistics) · Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies · Marine animal studies overview · Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology

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