Le Guide Impossibili
5577 Ling Nam
ovvero alla scoperta della Cina marittima con un'escursione sulla misteriosa isola di Hainan
Edited by Gianni Guadalupi. Texts by Luis Lecomte S.J., La Barbinais Le Gentil, Jules Itier, B.C. Henry, Paolo Zappa
1994 / 208 PAGES.
Language: Italian
The White Devils’ first contact with the great harbours of Southern China: treacherous Mandarins, curious generals, hostile bonzes, sea and river pirates.
Ling-Nam (“South of the Mountains”) was the name given by the Chinese to the southern part of the Celestial Empire. Under the aegis of this arcane-sounding disyllable, we have collected a small anthology of texts and images on maritime China. The harbours stretching from the Gulf of Tonkin to the mouth of the Yangtze River were the first – in the 16th century – to see the White Foreigners from unexpected countries situated at the furthest end of the world appear in the lands inhabited, according to the Natural History put together by an anonymous Chinese Pliny, by truly dangerous people (perhaps three-headed and definitely cannibals).