Visual Communication Across the Culture Border: Re-examining the Curious Illustrations in the Yuanxi qiqi tushuo luzui 遠西奇器圖說錄最 (Illustrated Treatise on the Wonderful Machines of the Far West, 1628)

Abstract The Yuanxi qiqi tushuo luzui (1628) by the Chinese scholar-official Wang Zheng and the German Jesuit Johannes Schreck is an illustrated treatise on classical mechanics and wonderful machine designs based on several European scientific and technological treatises. There are many discrepancies between its illustrations and European sources, which follow by contrast the pictorial techniques of linear perspective and chiaroscuro. Scholars thought Wang Zheng misunderstood European visual conventions. This paper examines the methodological flaws of such an argument and argues that he understood his European source well enough and that the discrepancies had more to do with his poor draughtsmanship.