2: Circulating Knowledges: Place Names and Global Imagination in Early Modern Sino-Spanish Exchanges

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Ming China experienced intensified interactions with the outside world, particularly with the Spaniards who settled in Manila after 1571. Migration to Southeast Asia and the Americas, missionary visits, and the circulation of maps and books fostered growing awareness between Ming China and Spanish Mexico. This encounter gave rise to a variety of geographical writings, including biji such as Dongxi yangkao, religious treatises like Rectificación y Mejora de Principios Naturales, maps such as the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, and ethnographic compilations like the Boxer Codex. These texts emphasized place names and their associated local products, such as the feather painting from Mexico, Pernambuco from Brazil, nankeen from Suzhou, and ceramics from Zhangzhou. Two key developments emerged from these writings: first, the articulation of terroir—a growing emphasis on the qualities and reputations tied to specific places and their products; second, the recognition that the same place might be known by different names depending on linguistic or political contexts. These variations reflect differing frameworks for understanding a rapidly expanding world. This paper argues that place identification became a crucial organizing principle in early modern knowledge production and transnational exchange. As places and place-based products circulated, global networks and expanding spatial awareness elevated new localities over older political centers. This study contributes to our understanding of the moving interconnections between places, products, and people, revealing how locales helped shape early modern perceptions of the world.