Far West (Taixi)

Far West
A satellite image of Europe, historically referred to as the Far West in East Asia
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	泰西
Simplified Chinese	泰西
Literal meaning	Far West
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin tàixī
Japanese name
Kanji	泰西
Transcriptions Romanization taisei

The Far West (Chinese and Japanese: 泰西; pinyin: tàixī; rōmaji: taisei; ) is a Chinese and Japanese term that refers to Europe, or more broadly, to the entire Western world. Originally a name for parts of Inner Asia and India, the term Far West as a Chinese exonym for the West was coined by the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci. Ricci invented the phrase as an Asian parallel to the Eurocentric notion of the Far East, which positioned Europe as a region on the fringes of a Sinocentric world. The term Far West was also used in Japan and appears in many Japanese publications.

It was originally used in China as a name denoting parts of Inner Asia and India. The meaning of the term was changed to encompass Europe during the Chinese Ming dynasty. This semantic change is credited to the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci, who used the Far West as the Asian counterpart to the Eurocentric concept of the Far East. The Jesuits called India the Little West (Chinese: 小西; pinyin: xiǎoxī) and identified their homeland as the Far West or the Great West (Chinese: 大西; pinyin: dàxī).

In his essay An Essay on Friendship in Answer to Prince Jian’an, Matteo Ricci introduces himself by saying, "I, Matteo, from the Far West, have sailed across the seas and entered China with respect for learned virtue of the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming dynasty." He may have used the term to ingratiate himself with his Chinese hosts by identifying Europe as a region on the western fringes of the known Sinocentric world. In 1601, an editor revised the essay by replacing the term Far West with Extreme West (Chinese: 最西; pinyin: zuìxī), possibly because he considered taixi an awkward-sounding name.