The Jesuit Role as 'Experts' in High Qing Cartography and Technology
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2003
- Journal Title:
- Taida lishi xuebao
- Volume:
- 31
- Language:
- Abstract:
Earlier accounts have generally overvalued or undervalued the role of the Jesuits in Ming-Qing intellectual life. In many cases the Jesuits were less relevant in the ongoing changes occurring in literati learning. In the medical field, for example, before the nineteenth century few Qing physicians (ruyi 儒醫) took early modern European “Galenic” medicine seriously as a threat to native remedies. On the other hand, the Kangxi revival of interest in mathematics was closely tied to the introduction of Jesuit algebra (jiegen fang借根方), trigonometry (sanjiao xue 三角學), and logarithyms (duishu 對數). In the midst of the relatively “closed door” policies of the Yongzheng emperor and his successors, a large-scale effort to recover and col-late the treasures of ancient Chinese mathematics were prioritized in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Despite setbacks during the early eighteenth century Rites Controversy, the Jesuits in China remained important “experts” (專家) in the Astro-Calendric Bureau (欽天監) and supervisors in the Qing dynasty’s imperial workshops. Earlier Adam Schall (1592-1666) and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) had not only championed the role of mathematics in Christianizing literati elites, but they also produced instruments and weapons at the behest of both the Ming and Qing dynasties. The technical expertise of the Jesuits in the China mission during the eighteenth century also ranged from translating Western texts and maps, introducing surveying methods to producing cannon, pulley systems, sundials, telescopes, water-pumps, musical instruments, clocks, and other mechanical devices. Their European enemies accused the Jesuits of making themselves useful to local rulers for their personal advantage rather than in the name of Christianity.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Publisher URL:
- Page Range:
- 223–250
- ISSN:
- 1012-8514
- Comment:
- Journal title: 臺大歷史學報 [Historical Inquiry]