Beyond the Lens: the Telescope’s Influence on Art and Vision in Ming-Qing China

Abstract The telescope was invented during the early seventeenth century in Europe and introduced to China during the Ming dynasty. This article discusses how the telescope shattered the epistemological understanding of vision in China in the late Ming to the mid-Qing dynasty. The telescope revolutionized not only scientific ways of seeing but also changed many aspects of culture and the philosophical understanding of vision itself. I endeavour to explain the visual perception afforded by telescope, and discuss the social aspects of that vision and the multiplicity of applications of the telescope in China through scientific books, records of imperial workshops, poetry, novels, and paintings. I argue that telescope not only helped the Chinese to imagine how to visually conquer space but also how to overcome the limits of time.