| Fr. Pierre
Martial Cibot (1727 - 1784) came to China in 1759 and stayed there
until his death in Peking. He was a prolific author and had a predilection
for Botany. A considerable number of interesting observations were
thus recorded by him concerning the plants of the capital city and their
economic uses. Trees mentioned included Chinese oaks, Celtis sinensis,
Lagerstroemia
indica, and the peaches and apricots of Peking. He did not use
scientific botanical names, but gave good popular descriptions with the
names generally then added. His treatises include one on Chinese
Hot-houses, in which he furnished details with respect to the primitive
but practical mode of Peking gardeners to protect Southern plants in winter,
and how they proceeded to force flowers in the winter.
In 1782, Cibot's "Essai Sur Les Jardins de Plaisance des Chinois" was published as an excerpt from Vol. 8 of Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, etc. des Chinois Par les missionnaires de Pekin. The first edition of this vast repertory of the scientific labors of the Jesuits in China in the second half of the 18th century was published in seventeen volumes between 1777 and 1814. All of Cibot's papers were printed in the Mémoires. |
| "Essai Sur
Les Jardins de Plaisance des Chinois (Essay on the Pleasure Gardens of
the Chinese)" (1782):
[I]saw trees, such as pines and cedars, only a few inches high, and to match the little trees there would be a miniature landscape in a vase, with everything set out in the right proportions. 1 |
|
1 Sirén, Osvald Gardens of China (New York: The Ronald Press Company; 1949), pp. 136-138; Bretschneider, Emil, M.D. Early European Researches into the Flora of China, (bound with) the 'Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society" (American Presbyterian Mission Press; New Series, No. XV, 1880. Whole actually published in 1881), pp. 124-126, which gives the publication info as 16 volumes between 1776 and 1814; pines and cedars quote from Gothein, Marie Luise A History of Garden Art (reprinted by Hacker Art Books, New York, 1966. First published in English, 1928), pg. 251. RJB is endeavoring to locate a more extensive quote from the actual Essay. |