The Resonance of Chinese Antiquity in Milton's Paradise Lost 1

Not only Donne but also Milton was wrestling with the radical implications of the Chinese culture, implications that appeared the more disturbing as knowledge of the Eastern country expanded. Initially a new world to early modern Europe, China had become well known by the 1670s. In his An Historical Essay … the Language of the Empire of China is the Primitive Language (1669), the first extensive European treatise on the Chinese language, the English architect and linguist John Webb declares, “Their [Chinese] discovery is generally completed; their Antiquity certainly known; Their Language plainly understood … Time being to make known the rest.” ² In this chapter and the next, I will show that mid-seventeenth-century engagement with China, a negotiation based on more “certain” and “plain” knowledge of the Eastern country, also exhibits a liberal cosmopolitan spirit. Specifically, I will explore Milton's responses to Chinese history and language in Paradise Lost. While this chapter focuses on the resonance of the chronological debate in Milton's representations of Hebrew history and world histories, Chapter 5 deals with the contention between Webb's Chinese linguistic model and Milton's image of the primitive language in his epic poem.