The Diego de Pantoja Year closed at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid with a round table discussion and a beautiful concert of Chinese court music. Conferences, publications, exhibitions, an international symposium, concerts, a baroque fair dedicated to China and even a place on the street in his hometown, Valdemoro (Madrid), have made up this anniversary for the 400 years since his death. The events have taken place both in the Asian country and in Spain in homage to this Jesuit, Mateo Ricci's companion, known as one of the first sinologists.

Pantoja lived in China for more than twenty years, describing in his writings meticulous aspects of Chinese society, culture, rites and customs, which spread widely in Europe and America. He was a pioneer in accessing the Forbidden City at the beginning of the 17th century and, from the heart of China, he also worked hard and with respect to disseminate his extensive knowledge of astronomy, geography, music or philosophy of the Western world, achieving the highest consideration among Ming court scholars.

At the event held in Madrid, the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, highlighted with joy how this year has served to "rescue from unjust oblivion" this precursor of cultural and commercial exchanges between China and Spain. He gave Zhang Xiping, director of the Institute of Comparative Civilization and Intercultural Communication at the University of Foreign Studies in Beijing, a portrait of the Jesuit.

During the round table several specialists talked about the figure of Pantoja, the importance of the extensive letter (133 pages) that the Jesuit wrote to Luis de Guzmán, Provincial of Toledo in 1602, which was a complete ethnographic report of the first order on Chinese culture. Some of its information was used to correct maps and geographical errors. At the end of the interventions, a concert took place, with habitual instruments of the Chinese Court.

This 400th anniversary has awakened in Chinese and Spanish researchers, historians and humanists the interest and impulse for the study of the life and work of Pantoja, as well as the interest for rescuing his historical figure. The mayor of Valdemoro announced that this impulse will continue, at least in his locality, in 2021, when the 450th anniversary of his birth is celebrated.

Photos: here.