God's Forgotten Garden
The Role of Missionary Botany in Sino-European Exchanges
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3474575 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Hong (0000-0001-9922-225X, Duke University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 66 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel16010066 |
| OpenAlex | W4406243656 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
This study explores how European botanical science, introduced by foreign missionaries, transformed the intellectual and environmental landscape of premodern China. By examining the transnational exchange of scientific ideas, the paper highlights the role of missionaries, particularly Jesuits and Protestants, in promoting Western botany within a highly sophisticated Chinese intellectual framework. Despite cultural barriers, missionaries sought to integrate a Christian understanding of nature into Chinese episteme, using botanical studies as a conduit for proselytization. The research focuses on key historical moments, including the Treaty of Nanking, which opened China to Western religious and scientific influences. Findings show that missionaries' botanical studies, driven by both religious and scientific interests, contributed to cross-cultural intellectual collaboration, leading to ideological-environmental changes. The research reveals that botanical exchange was not limited to science but also intertwined with political, economic, and religious interests. Furthermore, the introduction of experimental science reshaped Chinese approaches to nature, blending European and Chinese intellect systems. Ultimately, this paper argues that foreign missionaries played a crucial role in shaping both modern Chinese botany and global episteme, illustrating how scientific ideas transcended cultural boundaries to create lasting environmental impacts
Art · Biology · Botany · Geography · Classics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
The Encounter of Chinese and Western Philosophies
The Chinese Garden
British Naturalists in Qing China
The Crisis of Global Modernity
EurAsian Matters
Discovering Nature
New Perspectives on the History of Life Sciences and Agriculture
From Timur to Tivoli
The Invention of Religion in Japan
Philosophy and the French Invention of Sinology
The Translation of Modern Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China, 1840-1895
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |