page_title: Juan González de Mendoza
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Juan González de Mendoza / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Page 133 (Part I, Book III, Chapter XIII) of Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China by Juan González de Mendoza. The first edition, 1585. This is possibly the first European book that gives (or, rather, attempts to give) examples of Chinese characters. This page gives two characters. The first, purportedly meaning "sky" or "heaven", is hard to identify; the second, said to mean "king" is apparently (very poorly written) 皇. This is discussed in the footnotes 1853 Hakluyt Society annotated edition of the 1588 English translation.
context_page_description: Juan González de Mendoza, O.S.A. was the author of one of the earliest Western histories of China. Published by him in 1585, Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China is an account of observations several Spanish travelers in China. An English translation by Robert Parke appeared in 1588 and was reprinted by the Hakluyt Society in two volumes, edited by Sir George T. Staunton, Bart.
  González de Mendoza's Historia was mostly superseded in 1615 by the work of much more informed Jesuit missionaries who actually lived in China, Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas. Much of González de Mendoza's work was plagiarised from Escalante's Discurso de la navegacion
context_section_description: González de Mendoza was born at Torrecilla en Cameros (La Rioja (Spain)) in 1545. He joined the army but after some years resigned to enter the Order of Saint Augustine. He published his most famous text in 1585, Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China. It was based on the journals of Miguel de Luarca, whose 1580 trip to Ming China provided a simple majority thereof. He never set foot in China, but spent two years in Mexico before returning to Spain. 
  On 31 May 1593, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Clement VIII as Bishop of Lipari.On 7 June 1593, he was consecrated bishop by Filippo Spinola, Cardinal-Priest of Santa Sabina, with Cristóbal Senmanat y Robuster, Bishop of Orihuela, and Lorenzo Celsi (bishop), Bishop of Castro del Lazio, serving as co-consecrators. 
  On 24 May 1599, he resigned as Bishop of Lipari.
  On 7 May 1607, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Paul V as Bishop of Chiapas.
  On 17 November 1608, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Paul V as Bishop of Popayán.
  He served as Bishop of Popayán until his death on 14 February 1618.
caption: First page of the chapter on Chinese language in González de Mendoza's 1585 book, reproducing the characters published by Escalante in 1577. According to Staunton, of the two characters shown on this page, the first (said to mean "heaven") is hard to identify, although he guesses that it might be 𨺩 (a variant of 乾).[2] Modern Chinese translators of González de Mendoza's books suggest that 穹 may have been meant.[3] (May it though be a combination of two characters, with the one on top being a 天, perhaps in seal script?). The second (said to mean "king") is a poorly written 皇.[2]
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