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Shakespeare & Beyond

Elizabeth I and the Qing Empress Xiaozhuang

Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Empress Xiaozhuang
Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Empress Xiaozhuang

Queen Elizabeth I tried to make contact with the Emperor of Ming China at least three times between 1583 and 1602 in the interest of setting up trade, for “we are borne and made to have neede one of another, & . . . we are bound to aide one another.” Although none of her letters ever reached their destination, her appetite for China ware must have been encouraged by a gift of fine porcelain in the 1580s, a luxury imported to England via the Portuguese and Dutch.

Letter and presents from Chinese Emperor being delivered to Dutch merchants

Letter and presents from Chinese Emperor being delivered to Dutch merchants. Montanus, Atlas Chinensis, 1671 Folger 141- 005f

Map of China

The Kingdome of China from John Speed, A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World, 1631. Folger STC 23040

Imagine instead if Elizabeth I (1533-1603) had been writing to another female ruler who was not quite her contemporary, the first Qing empress, Xiaozhuang (1613-1688). The Qing Dynasty began when a group of outside tribes, led by the Manchu, conquered Ming China beginning in the 1630s, and established their new dynasty in 1644. When reporting on this event, the great Atlas Chinensis translated by John Ogilby (1671) adds a marginal note pointing out the coincidence of “The Monarch of England, and Empire of China . . . chang’d at once” (398), referring to the English Civil War in 1644.