Searching for Sirenes in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Fantastic Taxonomies of Anthropomorphic Fish in Chinese and Jesuit Texts

Descriptions of a half-human, half-fish creature are common to all cultures, and visible also in Europe and China; the siren has changed names, taxonomies, and features over time in both Europe and China, but during the 17th century it also bore witness to the cultural interaction between the West and the East: new information on sea creatures such as manatees and dugongs –the result of the more frequent global travels – was shared and circulated globally. The paper will analyze the descriptions of Sirens or human fish in Chinese and European sources in order to underline the great cultural exchange between East and West and the Jesuit missionaries’ commitment to translating into Chinese.

Descrizioni di pesci antropomorfici sono rintracciabili sia in testi cinesi che europei. Nel Seicento e Settecento, le grandi spedizioni marittime e l’incontro con nuovi animali marini hanno contribuito a rafforzare l’interesse scientifico e lo scambio di informazioni su queste creature misteriose, promosso in Cina tramite le traduzioni dei Gesuiti. L’articolo analizzerà l’immagine della Sirena nel contesto letterario cinese ed europeo, e il risultato generato da questo scambio culturale.