Did Vieira nurture a passion for the orient during the first globalisation?

Abstract

This stems from a question that later became a research hypothesis: did Father António Vieira have a passion and an interest in the Orient, on an intellectual, missionary or cultural level, and particularly in China? The study of Vieira's life and vast written records will allow us to analyse the references to the Orient and, particularly, the perceptions, allusions and representations of the Chinese empire. In this way, we can understand the meaning of the presence of this people and of this immense country in the writings of the renowned Brazilian missionary and royal preacher of the King of Portugal, D. João IV. Starting from the classification of references to China and their analysis, our study will critically consider to what extent and in what way we can affirm that Vieira had a passion for the Orient. This is similar to what happened to many of his Jesuit brothers during the modern period and was also what motivated a significant wave of Western missionaries to reach out to that geographical quadrant of the world in a stage of early globalisation.