Portugal,Spain and France,which were used to be called Franks by Chinese,were three representative Western powers that successively contacted and constantly interacted with the Ming and Qing Dynasties after the discovery of the new maritime routes.However,compared with the Roman and Byzantine Empires,which usually made positive impressions on Chinese,the Chinese impression of these three powers was completely negative.In conclusion,Chinese tended to see them as aggressive,strange but powerful foreigners with cunning and turbulent ways,constantly seeking their own territorial aggrandizement.This was allied to an increasingly negative Chinese appreciation of Catholicism reinforcing the hostile image of the Franks in general and the entire Western world as embodied in the concept of Daxiyang(大西洋).The fact that these seemingly unstoppable alien forces challenged the existing world order as framed by Chinese civilization,and the clash between Catholicism and Confucian ethics,provided an enduring basis for the suspicions and dislike amongst Chinese towards a Frankish presence in their midst.
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