The Beng Sim Po Cam (original title in Hokkien; in pinyin, the Mingxin Baojian 明心寶鑑), which translates literally as “Rich Mirror of the Clear Heart,” was the first Chinese book translated into Spanish, although it was not actually published in the sixteenth century. There are several recent critical editions. It is a bilingual book, the pages on the left in the original Chinese, the pages on the right containing Cobo’s translation into Spanish. The original Chinese work was written by Fan Liben 范立本 in 1393. In 1595 the Dominicans presented the Spanish king, Philip III, with Cobo's translation and the Chinese original.
This book consists of statements by several Chinese classical authors on ethics or human relations (morals), a compilation of several texts. In addition to Confucius and Mencius, there are excerpts from Taoists Laozi and Zhuangzi, the neoconfucian Zhi Xi, and extracts of edicts from several emperors of the Tang and Song dynasties.
