Maximus inter maximos Imperatores

The Idealisation of the Kangxi Emperor in the Account of Tomasz Ignacy Dunin Szpot SJ

Abstract

The article analyses the image of the Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722) in the account of the Polish Jesuit Tomasz Ignacy Dunin Szpot preserved in the manuscript with the shelfmark Jap. Sin. 111. The aim of the study is to examine the way in which the ruler is portrayed in Jesuit missionary literature and to identify the mechanisms leading to his idealisation. Drawing on reports of missionaries active at the Qing court, Szpot presents the emperor as a monarch endowed with the qualities of an ideal ruler: extraordinary memory, intellectual acuity, a love of learning, and the ability to govern the state with prudence. An important element of this narrative is also Kangxi’s interest in European sciences and the activities of Jesuits – especially Ferdinand Verbiest and Thomas Pereira – who served as his teachers in mathematics, astronomy, and music. An analysis of Szpot’s text demonstrates that this description fits into the characteristic pattern of missionary accounts that tended to idealise rulers favourable to the activities of the Jesuits.