This paper will discuss perceptions of Chinese alchemy and Chinese medicinal plants among Europeans engaged in alchemy in an around medical and pharmaceutical professions. It is concerned with views of Chinese trade- and medicinal secrets, alchemy, and extraordinary inventions. While the Jesuits were prolific gatherers and publishers of information, their version of China was not the only one propagated in early modern Europe. The study will concentrate mainly on Protestant, i.e. Lutheran, actors.

German and Scandinavian alchemists, apothecaries, physicians, surgeons and artisans travelled all over the world. They worked for the Russian state, and manned the ships of the Dutch East India Company. The paper will examine to what extent the understanding of Chinese natural knowledge among these groups was conditioned and created by European perceptions, priorities and pursuits. Did cultural conditioning prevent early-modern Germans and Europeans at large from accessing, or even discussing the vast and influential alchemical traditions of East Asia and China on any deeper level?