Letters of Père d'Entrecolles

The version that appears here is a verbatim translation from the French version published in Bushell, S. W. (1910). Appendix: Lettre du Pere D'Entrecolles, September 1712 and January 1722. In Description of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: Being a Translation of the T'ao Shou (pp. 181-222). OXFORD, CLARENDON PRESS. His text in this edition 'has been printed, practically without alteration, from a copy of the Lettres Édifiantes in the British Museum'.

It has been double-checked against the version of the same text in Brieven van Pater d'Entrecolles by D. F. Lunsing Scheurleer, Canaletto, Alphen aan den Rijn, 1988, which reproduces a facsimile of the original 18th-century printed text. I have also compared it with the English version translated by Robert Tichane (1983).

The current version that appears here is based on Bushell's version in French from 1910. It is my opinion that this my version here and most other translations attempts captures the information and intentions of the original fairly well, while I think the technical terms might not have been fully understood by the dear Father due to language barriers between him and the Chinese potters in Jingdezhen, as they were trying to communicate pottery, mineral, and chemistry terms as they went. Some of which is corrected in the second letter. But the reality of things, speaking from experience from my visit to Jingdezhen in 1992 where I tried to backtrack and collate everything mentioned here, is that not everyone that you might meet in Jingdezhen knows everything, but just can't admit that and thus just tells you what they think.

In this version, names and concepts have been modernized where this could safely be done without risking the loss of any information. Original names in the original text are given once in their original form within square brackets [...], and thereafter only in Pinyin. Chinese names and terms transcribed by d'Entrecolle are left as they were in the French original since they are understandable as they are, if we can live with glaze being consistently called "oil" (huile ou plustost ce vernis), in the French version, etc..

The biographical data on Father d'Entrecolles are culled mostly from Tichane (1983, p.43), who does not mention his sources.

Françoise-Xavier d’Entrecolles (1664-1741)

Françoise-Xavier d’Entrecolles, was born in Lyon France, 1664. He entered the company of Jesus in 1682 and went to China in 1698. At first he was missionary to Yangxi, where he was quickly appreciated by all for his profound knowledge of the Chinese language, his friendly personality, his understanding of Chinese customs and his apostolic spirit.

The first letter from Pere d’Entrecolles was sent on September 1, 1712 from [Jao zhou] Raozhou in Jiangxi province, to Father Orry of the Company of Jesus. The second letter was sent January 25, 1722 from the city of Jingdezhen. Father d'Entrecolles entire career and stay in China was within the reign period of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722), early in the Qing dynasty. After the close of this reign the Roman Catholic missions were forced to close and no more first hand descriptions of Jingdezhen were possible. To a certain extent, his two letters represent an autobiography in themselves.

By the interwoven descriptions of the people, the city, the history and the ceramics of Jingdezhen one can identify the interests, the sensitivities and even the sense of humor of Pere d’Entrecolles.

He was made general superior of the French mission from 1706 – 19 and superior of the French residence in Beijing from 1722 – 32. He composed several apologetic works in Chinese in defense of the faith and he translated a number of Chinese works for P. du Halde. Several of his letters were published in "Edifying and Unusual Letters", but those that dealt with the manufacture of porcelain appeared first in the memoirs of Trevoux and the Journal of Scholars.

Along with the preoccupation and accounting of the evangelical work, one also finds in his correspondence an astonishingly precise documentation on the arising of silkworms, the manufacture of artificial flowers, and synthetic pearls, and on the inoculation for smallpox by means of oral methods. P du Halde inserted in his Description of China a study of Chinese money that was probably drawn form a treatise written by d’Entrecolles for the Lyon library, but which is now lost.

Françoise-Xavier d’Entrecolles died in Peking on July 2, 1741.

Jan-Erik Nilsson