Whether European telescopes were introduced to China by Matteo Ricci in the Ming Dynasty is an open question in academic circles. Many scholars use Galileo Galileo's creation of astronomical telescopes in 1609 to deny the Ming Dynasty's statement that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant", which led to various misunderstandings in the understanding of telescope transmission. However, a large number of documents confirm that Zheng Zhongkui's record is a history of letters. First, according to the early Japanese documents "Ouchi Yoshitaka", "Nanmanji Temple Xingfu Ji", "Nagasaki Shilu Daisei", "Xiancheng Outline", after the invention of the telescope in Europe in the middle of the 16th century, the missionaries soon brought it to Japan, then, for Macau on the same route, it is entirely possible for the missionary Matteo Ricci who came to China in the ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1581) to bring the telescope into China via Macau. Second, in the Chinese literature, Zheng Zhongkui said that Matteo Ricci brought a telescope into China is not a family statement, which can be obtained from a variety of literature records in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. For example, Lu Yingyang's "Records of Guangyu Opinion", Liu Tong's "Imperial Scenery and Material Strategy", Hanamura's "Talking about the Past", Shan Longzhou's "Xi Surname Supplement", Wang Fuzhi's "Si Qing Lu" and so on. Third, from Matteo Ricci's writings, it can also be proved that he brought a telescope into China. For example, in his Chinese book, The Compendium of The Rational Instrument, he mentions the telescope three times. In particular, the newly discovered manuscript of the "Kaicheng Minutes" signed "Taixi Ricci Biography, Songjiang XuGuang Qi School" in zhejiang provincial library details the manufacturing method and process of the telescope. Judging from the text and content of the book, it belongs to the preliminary completion of the manuscript, which has not yet been examined and approved, so it is preserved in the form of an unpublished manuscript. Fourth, Matteo Ricci not only brought in telescopes, but also made telescopes, and translated articles that introduced the process of making telescopes. This is recorded in the late Ming Dynasty Sun Chengze's "Yulu of Dreams in Chunming", Mao Qiling's "Xihe Collection", Wu Sugong's "Ming Yulin", and Zhu Sheng's "Small Introduction to the History of Mirrors". Therefore, it can be said with certainty that in the history of scientific, cultural and technological exchanges between China and the West in the Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci was the first European to introduce telescope manufacturing technology to China. His contemporaries, European missionaries, not only brought telescopes into China, but also produced a number of telescopes for the needs of the Ming court to revise the calendar under the guidance of the Jesuit Chinese missionary policy, which had been widely disseminated in Ming society.
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610)
Regarding the spread of European telescope manufacturing technology in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, many papers have been published, but due to the omission of previous studies on the collection of Chinese and Western documents, researchers have diverged on the issue of telescope transmission. In particular, most scholars take the 1609 year of Galileo Galilei (G. Galileo) Galilei(1564–1642) created astronomical telescopes to deny the Ming Dynasty's assertion that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror", which became a long-standing misunderstanding in Matteo Ricci's research and even in the history of Chinese science and technology. On the basis of a comprehensive collection of Chinese literature, this paper intends to use the Portuguese and Japanese literature of the same era, especially a number of new materials such as the newly discovered Ricci Ricci's "Kaicheng Minutes" to examine the Ming Dynasty Matteo Ricci (M. Ricci, 1552–1610) not only brought telescopes into China, but also built telescopes, hoping to correct the history of Chinese science and technology while also promoting Matteo Ricci's research.
1. Galileo's invention of the astronomical telescope cannot be used to deny that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant"
In the Ming Dynasty literature, it is clearly recorded that Matteo Ricci brought a telescope to China by Zheng Zhongkui. He said in "Jade Crane New Tan Erxin":
Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror that can be seen thousands of miles away, as in the present. To see the stars in the sky are great; to see the moon, its greatness is not to be disciplined; to see the heavenly river, the stars are clustered, and they are no longer as usual. It can also follow hundreds of steps of fly heads, and can be recited aloud. When Matthew dies, his disciples are threatened to travel to Nanzhou, and all the good deeds can be seen.
In 1942, Fang Hao published an article in Chongqing's Yishi Bao, denying Zheng Zhongkui's record. The rationale for this is:
However, When Matthew died in the thirty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1610), a year earlier, Galileo had made the first telescope in Bonace, and Matteo could never have seen it all. The people of The Country at the time of Gail greatly worshipped Matteo Ricci, so whoever heard of a different theory and saw a strange instrument would think that It had been created by Matteo. "Ear New" is only one example also.
In 1969, fang hao's sixty self-final drafts were published, including the article "The Relationship between Galileo and the Introduction of Science into China", which once again reiterated the above view. Before that, of course, the Jesuit E. Mano D. Junior, 1574-1659) in 1615 in China published the book "Tianwenluo", introduced Galileo's invention of the telescope, and said that "the day when this device (telescope) arrives in China, and then elaborate on its wonderful use", and also believes that before 1615, Galileo's astronomical telescope had not yet entered China. Therefore, Yu Sanle also held the same opinion as Fang Hao in his monograph on telescopes:
Because by the time the Dutch spectacle merchant applied for a patent from the government in 1608, Matteo Ricci had been living in China for 26 years and had been out of Europe for 30 years. Although even in China he may have learned about what had happened in Europe since his arrival in China, even in China, from his companions who came to China later, and indirectly from Books and chiming bells from Europe, he is unlikely to know the telescope, much less to get it. Because this was only a little more than a year before his death in May 1610.
It cannot be denied that Fang Hao and Yu Sanle's statements have their own scientific logic and reasoning, but it must be pointed out that Zheng Zhongkui's book "Ear New" does not say that the clairvoyant carried by Matteo Ricci is an astronomical telescope made by Galileo Galilei, and the manufacture of telescopes did not start from Galileo. Therefore, the above criticism is not enough to negate Zheng Zhongkui's statement.
The historian of science, Jiang Xiaoyuan, an important scholar who supported Matteo Ricci's theory of bringing telescopes into China, believes that although the Jesuits of the time Chinese writings, whether it is Yang Mano's "Heavenly Questions" in 1615 and J. Thomas Tang in 1626. A. S. v. Bell,1592–1666) or the Chongzhen Almanac of the Five Latitudes, compiled by John Tang and others in 1634, both attributed the invention rights of the telescope to Galileo, but in the invention of the telescope, the earliest telescope inventor mentioned in the academic community was the Englishman Gaskon, such as the late Qing Dynasty scholar Wang Tao (1828–1897) and the missionary Wei Lieali (A. Wylie, 1815–1887) co-translated the source of western celestial science about telescopes in the 16th century:
When Galileo was not born, the Englishman Gascon had used a telescope on the quadrant. For more than twenty years after the death of Gaskon, no one knew who used it, but there was a certain person in France who made it, exaggerating it as a creation, and creating two instruments, and there was no transmission, and Galileo restored it, crowning the mirror instruments.
Italian G. Boltá B. D. Porta, 1532–1602, in his book The Magic of Nature, published in 1589, states:
With a convex lens, the nearby thing appears particularly large, but more blurry. If you know how to configure them together, you can see both near and far away, and in both cases, what you see is large and clear. I'm talking about Ptolemaic lenses, or glasses, which allow Ptolemy to see enemy ships attacking 60 miles away.
The Englishman Leonard Diggers Diggses (1515–1559) was also the inventor of the 16th-century telescope, and his son Thomas Diggs (T. Digses) Diggses, 1546 –1595) left a detailed instruction for the use of the telescope, and in a preface to his father's book The Longitude and Latitude Universal Goniometer in 1571, he stated: "The honor of the inventor of the telescope belongs to father Leonard Diggers." The history of the telescope also states:
In a letter to Cardinal Esther in 1586, Porta declared that he had made it clear in his Magic of Nature that he could make "occhiali" through which he could see people miles away.
The British scholar of the history of Chinese science and technology, N.J.T.M. Needham, 1900–1995, said:
To be sure, in 1550–1610 at least six people fiddled with combinations of double lenses, using double convex lenses and double concave lenses, and achieved surprisingly distant objects magnified. As soon as an idea spread, many people put it into practice almost at the same time, a phenomenon such as the invention of the telescope, which was almost impossible before modern times.
Later, on 2 November 1612, the Italian Jesuit priest G. Rubino, who was a frequent correspondent with the Chinese Jesuits, was appointed as a frequent communicator of the Chinese Jesuits. A. Rubino, 1578–1643) wrote in his letter:
Some people have written from Italy to tell me that a kind of glasses is made to see clearly 15–20 miles away.
I. Beckman (1588–1637) mentioned in 1634:
Jensen (Z. Jansen, 1585 –1632) built the first telescope in the Netherlands in 1604, basing the prototype on which it was made in Italy in 1590.
The above various Western texts can show that in the second half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the long-sighted tool with a combination of two lenses was invented and applied to practice. This long-range tool already has the effect of enlarging distant objects and can see enemy ships attacking sixty miles away. This long-range tool is called a "telescope", and Chinese is called a "clairvoyant". That is to say, before Galileo invented and created astronomical telescopes, the clairvoyant with the function of looking far had already appeared in the world.
Although according to textbooks, the telescope was in 1608, by H. Lieberch, an optician in Middelburg, the Netherlands. Invented by Lippershey (1570–1619), it was later invented by the famous scholar of the time, J. Kepler. Kepler(1571–1630) improved and designed several new telescopes, especially astronomical telescopes with two convex lenses. In 1609, Galileo built a telescope that could be magnified by nine times, began to observe the sky, and created a real astronomical telescope. Book IX of the Fourth Edition of the Biography of the Domain People states:
Galileo, in the thirty-seventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1609) to Venice, began to publish the book of Bale on Mars, occasionally talked with people, suddenly realized the root of the far mirror, and heard that the Dutch artificial instrument could measure the distance, because the thought imitated this as a heavenly measuring instrument, so it was caused by fine thinking. The self-proclaimed vision is a thousand times larger, nearly thirty times larger.
Galileo also said that he built the telescope after hearing about the Dutch artificial telescope. However, the astronomical telescope invented by Galileo is close to half a century from the earliest advent of the telescope, and during this time, the telescope has been put into various practical activities. However, the Jesuit missionaries, for their scientific missionary needs, generally referred only to Galileo and nothing else when introducing the invention and creation of telescopes. Therefore, people use the time when Galileo invented the astronomical telescope to define the time when the telescope began to spread to China, which brought about the error in people's understanding of the telescope transmission problem.
Since the invention of the telescope in the mid-16th century, telescopes have begun to spread to the East. According to the post-Nara period (1497–1557) Japanese document Ōuchi Yoshitaka:
During the reign of the Governor, Ota-gun of Iwami Kingdom discovered Ginzan. When foreign countries heard that Japan had discovered Baoshan, there were countless ships from TangTu, Tianzhu and Goryeo countries. Among the various items given by the Tianzhu people, there are twelve hours of the priest who are no different in the length of day and night, which can sound bells and thirteen strings without thirteen strings but can emit five tones and ten tones, and the mirror that can make the old flower eye see clearly and the mirror that can clearly see the distance have two sides.
The "Tianzhu people" referred to here should refer to the Portuguese or missionaries from Goa, India, and the "mirror that can clearly see the distance" refers to the telescope. The 19th-century Japanese church scholar Hideo Yamamoto's "History of Christianity in Japan" states that foreigners from India presented Yamaguchi's lord Yoshitaka Ouchi "letters from the Governor of Portugal and India and beautiful books on the harp, clock, far glasses, and mounting." According to the French scholar Jacques Blos, when Xavier (1506–1552) arrived at yamaguchi in Japan in 1549, he "presented a bell, some telescopes, and a Spinnel to the daimyō of Japan." The Meiji period Japanese document "Updated Craft Materials" explains that when the telescope was transmitted to Japan, it was also called:
After the reign of Emperor Nara, some Tengu people came to the ZhouFangguo Yamaguchi Pavilion and were praised for offering glasses and telescopes to the Lord of the Zhou Dynasty, Ōuchi Yoshitaka. From this, the people of the state became aware of the existence of glasses and telescopes.
As can be seen from the above, in the post-Nara era, the Spanish missionary Xavier brought telescopes into Japan when he arrived in Japan. According to the "Record of the Rise and Fall of the Nanman Temple":
After the foreigners arrived at Theo Castle in Jiangzhou, they were ordered to rest at Myoho-ji Temple for three days. On September 3, he was summoned into the city and met with Nobunaga. He wears a priest's robe, like a felt, with short sleeves and a left front buckle, similar to his body, like a bat spreading its wings. The voice is like the song of a pigeon, and the words are unclear. The most disrespectful thing is to embrace the incense of the name and smoke it in the imperial temple. To nobunaga, the fingertips of the two fingers are extended forward, and then the hands are crossed on the chest and the head is up. It's an incredible courtesy. There are seven kinds of offerings: telescopes that can be viewed from a distance of seventy-five miles, a magnifying glass that can see mustard seeds like eggs, fifty pieces of tiger skin, about five towns and four squares of felt, iron cannons and garo hundred pounds, eight stacks of mosquito nets, one inch and eight points of incense, and forty-two purple and gold beads.
This incident is also found in the Nagasaki Shilu Daisei:
In the second year of Tenshō, the Maharaja Oda Nobunaga ordered the old minister Sugatani Jiu right guard gate chief Lai to summon Tenren Ujigemo. Uerge Mo offers wu zhen ten, far and near mirrors, one in the ying and shrinking account, orangutan silk, medicine and other treasures. Nobunaga personally asked the reason for the voyage, and Uerge mo said: There is no other. The Way of God, the supreme religion of the universe, is to be passed on to your nation. Outside the city of Nobunagakan, the feast is at its peak.
It is very clear that the "near and far mirror" here should be a telescope. This time the telescope was dedicated in the second year of Tianzheng (1574). According to the Japanese Meiji era scholar Hagiwara Hiroyoshi's "Outline of The Manifest Inheritance":
In the second year of Tenshō's reign, the Senate Oda Nobunaga ordered Sugaya Nagarai, and summoned the incorruptible church dharma chief: The incorruptible disciple of the absorted, Wei man Nagarai, was taught by the general of the Corrections, and the Kyoshi Ryuzo-ji Temple. Takanobu sent an escort, and Nobunaga asked the envoys to Azuchi. Dressed in strange shape, shaped like bats with open wings, offering velvet, firearms, and telescopes.
According to this, in the second year of Tenshō, European missionaries donated telescopes to the Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582).
According to the above-mentioned early Japanese literature, after the invention of the telescope in Europe in the mid-16th century, missionaries quickly spread it to Japan. Since the telescope spread to Japan shortly after the invention of the telescope in the mid-16th century, and Macao was on the same route as Japan, most of the missionaries entered China through Macau, so was there a telescope transmitted to China during this period? According to the following two materials, we can also see that at about the same time that the telescope was transmitted to Japan, this Western artifact also entered the Chinese mainland. Fan Hong's Book of Classics, published in the thirty-first year of the Ming Dynasty (1603), records:
Clairvoyant: There is a mirror of estimated passenger goods, which must be thousands of gold. Wang Wenzheng: What is the difference between the mirror and the mirror? Guest: Can shine a thousand miles. Gong Yue: My face is not big, and I use it to take a thousand miles. So it went.
From this material, it can be seen that the clairvoyant had entered the Chinese mainland before the thirty-first year of the Wanli calendar, and was sold by merchants for thousands of gold. In addition, the "Poetry of Qiu Li" compiled by Shen Jiyou of the Qing Dynasty contains Zhao Shixian's poem "Titled Ren Clan Zhenjie Scroll":
Self-bitter frost, that knows the years deeply. Dust buried clairvoyant, intestines broken five-stringed piano. The bearish intention of the beggar pill is sad and the fossil heart. The total ginger has been completed, and the roll is dipped.
Zhao Shixian, "Zi Renfu, a Native of Fujian, Jiashan Xuexun in the Early Wanli Dynasty". This piece of information tells us that in the early years of the Wanli Calendar, Zhao Shixian, who served as a teacher in Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province, mentioned the "Clairvoyant Mirror" when he mourned Ren's chastity sentiments, and this "Clairvoyant Mirror" corresponds to the "Five-Stringed Qin" in the poem, which can be known that this Clairvoyant Mirror should be a telescope, and it can also be proved that in the early years of the Wanli Calendar, a telescope has been introduced to The Zhejiang region. It is worth noting that the two telescopes were introduced to the Chinese mainland time and Matteo Ricci came to China at about the same time, so it is entirely possible that Matteo Ricci, who came to China in the ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1581), brought the telescope into China. It is necessary to explain here that the telescope mentioned above refers to ordinary telescopes, not to astronomical telescopes invented by Galileo. Therefore, it is completely undesirable to judge whether Matteo Ricci brought a telescope to China by the criterion of Galileo's invention of the astronomical telescope in 1609.
2. Zheng Zhongkui's record that "Matteo Ricci has a mirror" should be regarded as a history of faith
Scholars who deny that "Matteo Ricci has a mirror" regard Zheng Zhongkui's records as anecdotal and folk legends, belonging to the category of novelists and not trustworthy. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce Zheng Zhongkui and his book "Jade Crane New Tan" next.
Zheng Zhongkui (郑仲夔), also spelled Longru , a native of Xinzhou , Jiangxi , was born and died in an unknown year , and judging from the year of his writings , he should have been a contemporary of Matteo Ricci. Although Zheng Zhongkui never became a scholar, his academic reputation was very high, and his friend Yang Guanji called him "a master's name like thunder and lightning, which cannot be hidden." According to the Cao Zhengyong order of the Jade Crane Xin Tan Qing Yan, the preface was written in the "Wanli Ding Wei", that is, the forty-fifth year of the Wanli calendar (1617). The book "Qingyan" was highly praised by the academic circles at that time, and was called "the core of "Qingyan", which is expected to show the eons of time". The qingyan was completed in 1617, only seven years after Matteo Ricci's death. Zheng Zhongkui was also a native of Jiangxi, and in the era of his life, it was possible that he had seen Matteo Ricci in Jiangxi, or at least heard rumors of Matteo Ricci. The book "Jade Crane New Tan Erxin" was completed in the year of Chongzhen Jia shu (1634), which is a historical work that Zheng Zhongkui praised as a history of faith.
According to the preface of "Ear New" Zheng Zhongkui:
Yu Shaobei, the scripture of the north and the south, the east and west of the Qiqi, the description of the falun gong, and the old mistake of the messenger and the merchant of the husband Xingyuan, not one ear involved in the new, can not bear its wandering and annihilation. With the smell and the writing, the book has been written for a long time, and it is detailed and bound, thinking that it can be questioned and the future is also accurate. Shu Ji, stealing is better than the righteousness of Zi Jun, waiting for his husband to be Meng Jian and Yuan Mei, is the novel Yun Hu Ya.
Chongzhen Jia Shu Autumn Shinshu Zheng Zhong's Master Inscription
From Zheng Zhongkui's self-prologue, we can see the following points:
(1) The time of completion of the self-prologue is the year of Chongzhen Jia, but when the preface is written, the book has been "written for a long time", indicating that the time of writing "Ear Xin" may be between the Wanli calendar and the apocalypse, otherwise, it is difficult to say "the world and the long time". Moreover, he also made it clear that the things recorded in the Ear New were things he heard when he was young, so it is possible that the "Pan Monk Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant" recorded by matteo Ricci during his lifetime or when Matteo Ricci had just died.
(ii) The facts recorded in the book are all "written with the news" by himself, that is, the things he heard at that time were recorded at that time; and after the book was completed, "and detailed and fixed", indicating that he was extremely serious about the things he recorded, and every matter was examined.
(3) Zheng Zhongkui in the preface to the Han Dynasty Liu Xin (Zi jun, 50–23 BC), Ban Guxiu's Book of Han is mostly based on Liu Xin's book, so he hopes to become a good history like Ban Gu (Zi Mengjian, 32–92) and Wang Shizhen (Character Beauty, 1526–1590). He also said that he wrote the book "Ear New" in the hope that it would become a history of letters passed down from generation to generation, and that "it can be questioned and quasi-future."
In view of the above three points, if future generations do not have enough evidence, it is impossible to easily deny the historical facts recorded in such an excellent historical work.
Let's discuss the history of Matteo Ricci's introduction to the telescope recorded in Zheng Zhongkui's "Jade Crane New Tan Erxin". Among them, the term "Fan Monk" used by Zheng Shi needs to be carefully examined:
"Fan monk" is a common name for the early Western missionaries who entered China, because they themselves called themselves "Western Monks" or "Tianzhu Monks", and both Chinese and missionaries regarded Westerners as foreign monks. Although at the end of 1594, in the case of A. Van Lea an (A. Valignano,1539 –1606) began to change his name at the behest of the changing of name, and the missionaries ceased to be monks or monks, but appeared as readers or Confucians. According to the Ricci Letters:
We have considered abandoning the name of the Chinese despised monk (bonzos) and adopting the title of letrados (letrados) who patrolled the priests, and we wore beards and beards to the ears, and put on the special clothing worn by the literati when they visited each other, instead of the monks of the past.
Although Matteo Ricci had changed the image of the monks and monks of the past since he left Shaozhou, and was referred to as Confucians and literati, people did not change their titles according to the change of their image. The History of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church's Entry into China states:
As for the question of salutations, although our own families and many friends refer to us by our new titles, it is extremely difficult to promote them throughout Guangdong Province, because Chinese, whether secular or religious, all renunciations are referred to as "monks" by the terms of "monks." Similarly, they also call all the priests of Macau by this title.
Therefore, when Matteo Ricci and others came to Nanchang in 1595, the locals still called them "Fan Monks". For example, Fei Yuanlu, a Jiangxi Leadshan man who had been associated with Matteo Ricci in Nanchang, said:
Fan monk Li Matteo, in the shape of Kui'an Qiwei, sailed from the Kingdom of God into Shaozhou, Guangdong, lived in Wuyue and Yuzhang, more than fifty years old, after the beard, through the middle of the Chinese, the classics and statues of God learned are extremely exquisite.
For another example, Zhang Huang, a famous scholar in Jiangxi who had a deep relationship with Matteo Ricci, also referred to Matteo Ricci as a monk:
In the first ten years, it was rumored that some monks sailed into China, cross-examined their bodies, and stopped Huai Haotian's image, painting the sky as nine petals.
Throughout the Ming Dynasty Chinese data, there were only three people who called Matteo Ricci a "Fan monk", one was Zhang Huang, the second was Fei Yuanlu, and the third was Zheng Zhongkui. Interestingly, all three are from Jiangxi. This reflects that after Matteo Ricci arrived in Nanchang, Jiangxi people generally called Matteo Ricci by the name of "Fan Monk". And Zheng Zhongkui not only called Matteo Ricci "Fan Monk" in the book "Jade Crane New Tan Erxin", but in another of his books, "Jade Crane New Tan Jun District" still refers to Matteo Ricci as "Fan Monk":
The people of the world have made friends for a long time, so they do not ask about the harmony and dissimilarity of sound and qi, and they pretend to know each other. It is not easy to talk about the meaning of knowing each other. The monk Matteo Ricci regards friendship as the second self, and this is also the understanding of the understanding of each other.
It is worth noting that the reference here to "Matteo Ricci takes friends as the second self" refers to Matteo Ricci's book "The Theory of Friendship", and the "Theory of Friendship" is the first work published by Matteo Ricci in 1595 after he arrived in Nanchang. The term "Fan Monk" was the customary name given to Matteo Ricci by the locals during the Nanchang period, and the "Theory of Friendship" was also published in Nanchang in 1595, so it is estimated that "Fan Monk" should be a common name for Matteo Ricci in Nanchang, Jiangxi during the Ming Wanli Period. Therefore, what Zheng Zhongkui saw or heard that "Matteo Ricci has a thousand-mile mirror" still adopts the naming of Matteo Ricci by the people of Nanchang, Jiangxi during the Wanli Period as "Fan Monk", which can also prove that the historical text recorded by Zheng Zhongkuo that "Matteo Ricci has a thousand-mile mirror" should have been produced in the historical context of the time.
Zheng Zhongkui's "Jade Crane New Tan Erxin" quoted above says: "When Matthew died, his disciples of a certain Daoist were forced to travel to Nanzhou, and all the good deeds could be seen." Here are at least three more terms that need to be examined:
(i) "His disciples". Chinese texts mostly refer to missionaries who entered China after Matteo Ricci as "disciples of Matteo Ricci", such as the Ming Dynasty Chen Longzheng called Matteo Ricci: "I have not died of illness." His disciples can only pass on their instruments, and Yinghui Mo's arrest is also. Tan Qian also said: "Matteo Ricci sailed to Quang Nam in the second year of his voyage to the West Sea, and now he is not in vain, or are they all from Ouluoba?" It can be seen from this that the so-called "disciples" refer to Western missionaries who entered China after Matteo Ricci.
(2) "Taoists". A title given to missionaries at that time by the Ming Dynasty. For example, Feng Shike called Matteo Ricci a "foreign Taoist", and Chen Longzheng also called Matteo Ricci a "Li Dao person". "His disciple A certain Daoist" means a missionary after Matteo Ricci entered China. It can be seen from this that this "Taoist" was not the Chinese Taoist referred to in the general Chinese book, but the monks who came to the Catholic Missionary Church in China from the West at that time.
(iii) "Nanzhou". Although the southern region is broadly called Nanzhou, and even Nanyang in Henan, Zhangquan in Fujian and Shuzhong are also called "Nanzhou", but what people usually call Nanzhou refers to the ancient Yuzhang County, that is, Nanchang. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the famous scholar Xu Zhi, also known as Xu Zizi, was a native of Yuzhang County, who was repeatedly recruited by the imperial court and local governments, and finally did not come out, and was known as "Nanzhou Gaoshi", so most of the descendants took Yuzhang (Nanchang) as Nanzhou. For example, the Ming Dynasty Cao Xueqi's "Shicang Poetry Manuscript YuZhang Manuscript" (石仓诗稿· 豫章稿) "The ancient Han Yuzhang Shou Chen Gongfan" poem says: "Nanzhou Xu Zizi, unknown sage in the township." Once the county is too guarded, get off the bus please in front of the door. The poem "Su Gongpu" says: "Western Shu Su Gongpu, Nanzhou Zizi Ancestral Hall." Yingying two lakes, bright moon photography. "Nanzhou is the Ming Dynasty Yuzhang County pronoun, in the Ming Dynasty literature abounds, Zheng Zhongkui is a Jiangxi person, the memories are mostly what they saw and heard in Jiangxi, so the "Nanzhou" here should refer to Yuzhang County, that is, Nanchang.
So, after Matteo Ricci's death in 1610, which missionary was "carrying (clairvoyant) to travel to the southern state"? According to He Dahua's "Distant Asia":
Due to the death of Father Matteo Ricci, the post of head of the mission was taken over by Father Long Huamin. Father Long Huamin ran the second largest settlement in Shaozhou for many years. He was then asked to leave for the capital, where he needed the assistance of Father Long Huamin. Father Gaspar Ferreira became the managing priest of the Shaozhou settlement, accompanied by Yang Mano, who had recently entered China with Felecianoda Silva and Kinniko. Accompanied by the two men, Father Long Huamin took a boat to Nanxiong and disembarked from here to Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province. Father Long Huamin stayed here for eight days, handling the affairs of the local missionary site according to his own orders.
Long Huamin (N. Long). Longobardi,1559–1654) stayed in Nanchang for eight days when he left Shaozhou for Beijing in 1611, and the "taoist" zheng zhongkui saw in Nanchang carrying a telescope was Long Huamin. In Nanchang, Long Huamin not only showed people the telescope he carried, but also told Zheng Zhongkui the information that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror", so Zheng Zhongkui wrote down the saying that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror".
In the Chinese literature, Matteo Ricci brought a telescope into China is not an isolated evidence, which can be obtained from a variety of literature records in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Volume 1 of Lu Yingyang's "Records of Public Opinion" states:
When Matteo Ricci sailed ninety thousand miles into China, the Divine Sect ordered the first to be given to Him and the left of the Church. There is a Jian PingYi, whose real name is Fan Tiantu, which is the basis for the test. Hourglass is used to wait for the clock and strike itself when the time comes. Dragon tail car, launched above. Clairvoyant, can be seen as small as large, see far as near, are extremely skillful.
Lu Yingyang was a Ming Dynasty man, and at the same time as Matteo Ricci, it is also believed in his records that Matteo Ricci carried a telescope. Liu Tong's "Imperial Jingwuluo Xicheng Inner City Catholic Church" also states:
The far mirror, shaped like a foot bamboo shoot, draws out, out of the five feet, the knotty glass, the vision is too small, the vision is small, the distance is near. Waiting for the clock, when the time to strike yourself has a knot.
Liu Tong was born in the twenty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1593) and died in the eleventh year of Chongzhen (1638), and he saw the telescope brought by Matteo Ricci in the Catholic Church in Beijing, where Matteo Ricci once lived. In addition, Nakamura Tisai, a Japanese scholar of the early Edo period who was born in the second year of Chongzhen (1629) and died in the forty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1702), also said:
I have heard that Li Yi is very wise and sensitive, and he knows many words, and he has written a lot of works, and he has brought with him the map of heaven and earth, the measuring instruments, the distant mirror, the self-chiming bell, and so on, all of which are used in this world.
Even the Japanese in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties knew that Matteo Ricci brought telescopes. The Ming Dynasty remnants of the Ming Dynasty, who called themselves "Flower Village Watching The Waiters", also said:
The Head of the Atlantic Cross, Also of Ricci. In the 30th year of the Wanli Calendar, five or six people, including His disciples Pang Di'e and Long Huamin, led them from Dong'ao, Guangdong, to Wuyangcheng, transferred to Bamin, and handed them to Jinling. He said that he came from the Atlantic country, the road was 100,000, and the ocean was nine years. The sea is humble, rising above the heavens, below and under the abyss, and as low as the earth. The first clairvoyant, self-chiming bell, weightlifting algorithm events, greater Ming Guoxian foolishness ten thousand times.
The book "Talking about the Past" records mainly the events of the last years of the Ming Dynasty, which claims that Matteo Ricci came to China as "the first mirror", which proves that his record is not copied from Zheng Zhongkui, but has its own origins. Shan Longzhou, a native of Xiaoshan, Zhejiang, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also recorded: "Matteo Ricci, a fan monk, has a clairvoyant mirror. Shan Longzhou included the fact that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror" into a book on surname science in the early Qing Dynasty, which shows that this fact is widely spread in the folk. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Wang Fu's "Records of Thoughts and Questions" is also known as:
Matthew is in the midst of the earth, and his eyesight is the same as that of man, but he relies on the skill of a distant mirror, and the earth is ninety thousand miles in death.
Wang Fuzhi (1619–1692) was a famous historian of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and proposed that Matteo Ricci use telescopes to observe the astronomical earth, which corroborated with Zheng's statement that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant".
In summary, the various claims that Matteo Ricci entered China with a telescope confirm the authenticity of Zheng Zhongkui's statement that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror". Therefore, it can be seen that in historical documents and historical evidence, the saying that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror" is not a family statement, and it can also be proved that "Matteo Ricci has a clairvoyant mirror" recorded in Zheng Zhongkui's book "Ear New" as a history of faith.
The writings of Matteo Ricci also prove that he brought telescopes into China
Among the theories denying that Matteo Ricci brought the telescope into China, Song Liming also conducted a study, saying:
Official writings such as the History of the Ming Dynasty mention "square objects" that he carried to China or paid tribute to the emperor, but telescopes are untraceable. In his letters and memoirs of his later years, Matteo Ricci was very fond of the items he had brought to China, but never mentioned telescopes. Matteo Ricci's contemporaries never let Matteo connect with the telescope. On the contrary, Yang Mano clearly stated in his 1615 book "Heavenly Questions": "Wait for this instrument to reach The day of China, and then elaborate on the use of magic." This means that telescopes did not exist in China before 1615.
Song Liming's statement that Matteo Ricci did not mention the telescope in his "letters and memoirs of his later years" written in Spanish is true, but in the Chinese book "Outline of the Rational Instrument" written by "Tessili Matteo", the telescope is mentioned three times. The text states:
Celestial Bodies: Celestial bodies are round, out of bounds, and circling for no reason. Its shape is muddy, its vitality is congested, and it is surrounded by the center of the earth, and the earth is suspended in the air without falling. When the West sails, looking at it from a distance, he sees that the celestial bodies are concave and convex, firm and light...
Seven Obsidian body size: The sun wheel is one hundred and sixty times larger than the earth and 83.8. Try to measure it from a distance, and when you see it, the body is not very round, shaped like an egg, the edges are like jagged teeth, and its surface has floating black spots, and the size is different...
Mars is half a times larger than Earth. Mercury is twenty-one thousand nine hundred and fifty-one times smaller than the earth. The shape of these two stars, as seen in the distant mirror, is also like this, and nothing else can be seen.
This not only shows that Matteo Ricci has a telescope, but also proves that Matteo Ricci once used a telescope to observe celestial bodies.
The three volumes of the Compendium of Theories and Instruments are a compendium of European cosmology and methods of astrometry, and neither contain the "First Letter of Celestial Studies" compiled by Li Zhizao, nor the relevant bibliography of Matteo Ricci written by Chinese and Western scholars such as Fei Laizhi, Xu Zongze, Fang Hao, and Rong Zhenhua. Examination "seeking the master of the building", when he was Jiang Kai in the official punishment department during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Jiang Kai, Zi Jichuan, Fang Cha, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, donated to Changzhou County In the sixth year of Qianlong (1741), qianlong fourteen years (1749) donated to build the Royal Road of Wu County. During the Qianlong Period, Jiang Kai purchased the old residence of the Ming Dynasty scholar Shen Shixing (1535–1614) to build the "Huanxiu Mountain Villa", and built the "Qiu Zi Lou" in the zhuang, so he called it "Qiu Zi Lou Master". He said in the later poem that Qianlong "borrowed the manuscript of Mao's clan from Jiguge in the early summer of Pengyin (1758), because Lingxu copied it." "Mao's manuscript of Jiguge" should refer to the manuscript of the late Ming Dynasty, because Mao's collection of books was gradually dispersed after entering the Qing Dynasty. After Mao Jin's death, his son Mao Mu said: "The books collected by the ancestors, analyzed by the scriptures, were scattered into clouds and smoke within twenty years." It can be seen that the Mao's manuscript borrowed by Jiang Kai should be a manuscript of the late Ming Dynasty, but Professor Zhu Weizheng did not disclose the source of this manuscript when he published this work. However, according to what the cortex shows, this book should not be Matteo Ricci's original. Some scholars today call this book apocryphal, and that the entire contents of Volume II of the Compendium of Theories and Instruments are copied from the relevant works of Mei Wending (1633–1721), so as a whole, this manuscript was obviously completed after Mei Wending. These two articles are drawn by the method of comparing the history of science, and although they are very convincing, according to the "Summary of Rational Instruments" appended to the book " Asking the owner of the building to know himself" said:
The right book is three volumes, the illustrations are exquisite, the interpretation is clear, the covenant is not general, the simplicity is simple and clear, and the treasure that is not easy for astronomical mathematicians to obtain. In the early summer of PengYin, he borrowed the Mao's manuscript of Jiguge, because Ling Xu copied a pass, although the handwriting and painting were far inferior to the Mao ben, but the carelessness was not lost, and the face of Lushan could still be seen. Ask the owner of the building to know.
Jiang Kai explicitly stated that he had copied it "by borrowing the Mao's manuscript of Jiguge", and also compared the difference between Jiang's manuscript and Mao's codex, so that the author of this manuscript was Mao Jin or a scribe in The Jiguge; Mei Wending was engaged in astronomical and mathematical research after Kangxi, and Mao Jin, who died in the sixteenth year of Shunzhi (1659), could not have copied mei Wending's book. Therefore, this manuscript should have been rewritten by Mao Jin or scholars hired by Mao Jin at the end of the Ming Dynasty, based on the compilation of the main points of the works of Matteo Ricci and other scholars of the late Ming Dynasty on astronomy and astrometric methods, so it is called "summary". In particular, there are three passages above mentioning "looking at it with a far-sighted mirror", "measuring with a far-sighted mirror", and looking at it in the far-sighted mirror at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and no recorded text of any work is the same or similar to the above three paragraphs, so these texts should be from Matteo Ricci's writings, so I agree with Zhu Weizheng's judgment on this book: "It is difficult for us to deny that this manuscript contains Matteo Ricci's unpublished manuscript. "The three records of the far-range mirror in the book are likely to come from Matteo Ricci's unpublished manuscript. And in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, there were indeed records of Matteo Ricci using telescopes to stargazing. Gu Jingxing, a gongsheng of the late Ming Dynasty who was born in the first year of the Apocalypse (1621), said:
Matteo Ricci Cloud: Small starlight gathered, obscure in autumn, cloudless. When I look at it with a glass telescope, I see the fine stars like sand, and the water is soaked in the day, and the foam is also seen.
Here is a clear record of Matteo Ricci's use of a glass telescope to observe the stars of autumn nights, which is corroborated with the historical facts of Ricci's observation of the stars with a telescope in the Compendium of the Juridical Instrument.
Coincidentally, in addition to the data on Matteo Ricci's use of telescopes recorded in the book "Outline of Theory and Law Instruments", Gong Mianyan, a professor of history at Ningbo University, recently found a copy of the "Kaicheng Minutes" in the Zhejiang Provincial Library, which was signed "Taixi Matteo Biography, Songjiang Xuguang Kai School". The manuscript introduces numerous technologies and processes in the form of articles, and there are more than sixty articles in the whole book. In this deployment of the book "Kaicheng Minutes" entitled "Taishe Ricci Biography", there is a special introduction to the telescope, detailing its manufacturing methods and processes, including "materials", "systems", "molds", "mirrors", "cylinders" and so on. This is an extremely important scientific work on craftsmanship jointly completed by Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi. Judging from the text and content of the book, it should belong to the preliminary completion of the manuscript, which has not yet been examined and approved, so it has been preserved in the form of an unpublished manuscript. The following transcription of the entire text about the telescope manufacturing process is as follows:
Telephoto
A material, must be transparent real glass thick and one point, can be used as a front mirror, if thin, that is, can not be large. For its body to protrude from the reason also. Glass-illuminated large mirror breakers can use crystals to work hard, incapable of hurting the eyes.
In a system, if the fore mirror is to protrude, the object of view is greater than the body. Far away is its great infinity, far away from the front mirror to see a little farther away. Therefore, after the mirror is received, the rear mirror should be depressed, and its viewing object shape is smaller than the body, and the front and back are consistent. Moreover, if the two mirrors are separated from each other, the distant body becomes close, and the small body becomes the large one.
A mold, the copper plate is like a mirror, seven inches in diameter. Its deep middle gauge, the radius of the rule, that is, the length of the far lens tube, is the degree of the difference between the front and back mirrors. First make the radius ruler, take the circle to make two curved back rulers, and then make the copper and gold and the curved back ruler, to rotate the mold, so that the curved back ruler is compatible, it is already. This curved back ruler, leaving a commonly used tryout. Fear of grinding for a long time mold damage, then not 凖也. The mold of the mirror tastes convex, and the thin mirror copper plate nest is used as a kettle shape, which is no more than one inch and five minutes large, and it is also like the previous work of the central standard inward curved ruler, the mold nest is used to bend the ruler, and the bending ruler is still filed on the rotating bed, so that it is in line with the ruler. Then use concave sandstone to polish, the ratio of the two grinding, then the radius of the large mold, and the radius of the small mold, if twenty and one also.
A mirror, first make a front mirror, cut the glass round, with a length of two or three inches, circles and mirrors, etc., with gluttony glue, holding the wood to the copper plate grinding, grinding with the treasure sand mill shop has the use of fine, and water mill, waiting and the mirror plate will be the sub-combination does not have to be completely combined, the material is too thin, that is, yibao mortar that is, the former treasure sand grinding water flies out to the fine one, or in the mill shop to take the water tile out of the use, and grind until smooth and no lines, is itself. But the light is not bright, and the second time it is ground with lamb liver stones, grinding extremely fine flying pole pulp. When you see the light, you are like a mirror. The secondary use of treasure medicine Suzhou Wu Zhao Fang mill gemstone Shen family has to sell, every two or three minutes and five cents, the miller to buy it, the future water flying, take the very fine one, and then grind to the extreme bright, is himself. Treasure medicine must be more grinding, should not be used by hand, must be used with mirror tape wood glue on the shaft, with cowhide, the outside dipping treasure medicine is a little should not be used more to spin, so that the illumination of the silk hair, far things one by one, is the self. Its rear mirror will be small mold glue on the spin shaft, and the glass does not have to be as large as the front mirror. The second time the yellow wax is poured, sticking to the glass side, so that the finger is against the mold with a mirror, the water rotation of the treasure sand is deep, not to make the glass wear as a degree, the second as before with the treasure mortar, sheep liver stone pulp grinding to a slight light, that is, take off the mold, the mirror glue on the spin shaft, also with cowhide cut round, with the horn dipped in the fine treasure potion grinding as before, extremely bright and stop. The rear mirror is only one side of the depression, not two sides. If the front mirror is convex on both sides, it is nearly one-third larger than the one-sided. If you use the front mirror two as glasses, how much convex it is. According to the discretion of the human year, the older the age, the shorter the path.
Where the glasses want to be medium and high, the glass body is thin, can not follow the law, the law to do two sides of the convex measurement, so that the eye is already there. If the glasses are myopic, they are used as a depression, but different from the size of the front mirror, the radius must be slightly longer, the depression is slightly shallow, and the crystal can be used as a two-sided, and the glass does not have this thick body, but can be used as one ear.
A cylinder is made, or copper skin, or iron sheet, soldered, or cloth table, pulp with white mustard, inside and outside with Aya as a surface, so that it can be pulled, the number of cylinders, or two or three or more, the degree of separation from the front and rear mirrors, as appropriate.
Such a detailed record of the process flow and manufacturing method of making telescopes from glass is the first time that a work on the history of Chinese science has appeared. In 1615, Yang Mano's "Heavenly Questions", although it introduced Galileo's invention of the telescope, did not record the method of making the telescope. Although John Tang's "Telescopic Theory" records the manufacture of the telescope, the text recorded in Matteo Ricci's "Kaicheng Chronicle" is completely different from John Tang's. John Tang said:
A mirror, the method of making: using glass to make a round mirror that looks like a flat non-flat, a barrel mouth mirror, that is, the former so-called medium and high mirror, the so-called front mirror also. Make a small mirror, known as the glasses, that is, the former so-called middle mirror, the so-called rear mirror also. It is necessary to examine how the forces of the two mirrors coincide, if they are long and short, if they are proportioned, if They Gou knows its strength, if it knows its combination, if the length is appropriate and the proportion is appropriate, it can gather a statue, although it is far away and small, all kinds of colors, and it does not lose its original. One tube, the mirror stops at two, the tube is more than two, the barrel is set, the long and short, can be extended and retracted.
Comparing the records of the two books on the manufacture of telescopes, it is clear that the "Records of The Distant Mirror" and the "Kaicheng Minutes" are not from John Tang, which should be Matteo Ricci's writings on the telescope manufacturing methods and processes from Western scientific works combined with the entity that owns the telescope. Because his co-author is Xu Guangqi, it can be concluded that this should be the first introduction to telescope manufacturing in a work on the history of Chinese science that predates Yang Mano and John Tang.
Matteo Ricci can make telescopes, and Sun Chengze, a late Ming Dynasty man, has already pointed out in his "Spring Ming Dream Yulu Temple":
Matteo Ricci sailed ninety thousand miles from Europa into China to worship God, and the god he painted was held by a small woman, known as the "Mother of Heaven". Its arms, ears and nose are raised, as if it were a living person, the printed books are repeatedly printed in white and red, the words are all in line, and its book is bound like a Song plate style, with lacquered leather on the outside, and with gold and silver bent hooks on the outside, and the production of Jian Pingyi, Dragon Tail Car, Hourglass, Far Mirror, Waiting Bell, and Lyra.
Sun Chengze was born in the twenty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1593), and the "Aftermath of The Dreams of Chunming" is a work that mainly records the local history of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty. In this book, Sun Chengze explicitly refers to Matteo Ricci as "making telescopes." This was the first person in the Ming Dynasty to claim that Matteo Ricci could build telescopes, indicating that Matteo Not only brought telescopes into China, but he could also make telescopes. This can also be proved by Mao Qiling's "Xihe Ji, Western Religion Into Chinese Gangs", which was born in the third year of the Ming Dynasty (1623) and died in the fifty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1713):
Matteo Ricci entered China from Guangdong during the Ming Dynasty, and gradually entered the capital of Liudu, and the high theory was amazing, and the products of the bell and the clairvoyant mirror were displayed, and they were shocked, and the number was Xiru, and the Liudu Ceremonial Department sent it to Beijing.
Mao Qiling was a famous historian of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and most of the historical facts recorded were carefully examined, and in his writings, he further proposed that Matteo Ricci showed his homemade telescope when he was in Nanjing. In other words, when Matteo Ricci arrived in Nanjing, he would be able to build telescopes. There is also a similar record in the Ming Yulin Qiaoyi, who was born in the sixth year of the Apocalypse (1626) and died in the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1699):
Westerner Matteo Ricci, the art of fine almanac, reckoning, Pythagorean, and guizhi. Gauge glass for glasses candles far away, see hundreds of miles away.
Here it is called "regular glass for glasses candles far away, see hundreds of miles away", it is obviously a telescope made by Matteo Ricci. Therefore, in the understanding of many people in the late Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci was indeed able to make telescopes. However, from the "Kaicheng Minutes" recorded in the telescope meticulous process and manufacturing methods, its manufacturing methods are very simple, the process is not complicated, the production materials are not particular, mainly the grinding of glass. Therefore, the process of making "far-sighted mirrors" recorded in the book can never be the astronomical telescope created by Galileo Galilei after 1609, but only an ordinary telescope used as a far-sighted tool in navigation or military. From the records of Matteo Ricci's "Kaicheng Minutes", it can be seen that not only did Ricci have telescopes around him, but Matteo Ricci was extremely familiar with how to make telescopes. This is completely consistent with the Ming Dynasty literature on the transmission of Chinese with Ricci with telescopes, and also with the record that Zheng Zhongkui said that "Matteo Ricci has a thousand-mile mirror" and Sun Chengze said that "there is a distant mirror made". The record of telescope manufacturing methods in Matteo Ricci's "Kaicheng Minutes" further confirms that the Ming Dynasty documents record that Matteo Ricci not only brought telescopes into China, but also introduced the technology and methods of making telescopes to China.
It should be noted here that the content recorded in the "Kaicheng Minutes" is not necessarily all transmitted by Matteo Ricci, and some of it is likely to be written by Xu Guangqi himself, but the method of making the telescope should come from Matteo Ricci. Zhu Sheng, an expert in mirror making in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, said in "< Mirror History> Xiaoyin" that Sun Yunqiu:
In the spring of 1672, Matteo Deli and Tang Daowei wrote a book called "Mirror Geometric Mind Method", and came to visit Wulin and visit Yu Jingxue. The rest of the time is the annoyance of pen and ink rewards, and the day is not time to give. The rain window urges the knees, a little instruction, Sun Shengmiao understands the gods, and has always been righteous. Over the years, Yu was summoned by Liu Titai of Chongsha, and then through Wumen, Sun gave birth to the "History of Mirrors" and the production of Yu, and the method was tamed and perfected. Mid-Autumn Moon Night, relative discussion, tireless, yu also exhausted after the elbow to describe. The mirrors of the present system are unparalleled in their right. And humble and obscure, originally born of nature, five cars and two unitary, mo is hidden. Up to the time of connecting with people, such as Liang Jia living deeply, hiding Yao Cai. That is, the art of mirror-making, the secret of unique profit and soup geometry, the inspiration is to know one thing and three, and the merit is a hundred people. However, those who have heard of this skill will humbly ask for advice, if they are victorious against themselves. Yu Yun: ShengDe is like a void, and great wisdom is like a fool. The more enough to sign its humble and obscure beauty, send the full sincerity of the support. The mirror maker, Yu also experienced a number of children, and there were six or seven out of ten people who were similar to him, and there were ten or twenty three people who would know his theosophical, and he smiled with flowers, but Sun Sheng was alone, that is, Qi Li and Tang and proved it, I am afraid it is not easy for me to say. The Qiantang Ascension Day is inscribed in the Dou Room of Sun Sheng An Su Zhai.
Zhu Sheng explicitly stated that Sun Yunqiu had obtained Matteo Ricci's book "Mirror Geometric Mind Method" in the eleventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1672), and twice mentioned that Sun Yunqiu's telescope manufacturing technology was derived from The "Geometric Secret" of Matteo Ricci and John Tang. This can show that Matteo Ricci did have articles on how to make telescopes, and Matteo Ricci's reputation for making telescopes has spread in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, zheng xiangru, a Kangxi dynasty, also said:
During the Wanli Period, the Westerner Matteo Ricci entered Beijing, and there were books such as "Western Mirror Record" and "Tongwen Arithmetic Finger" circulated in China, purely with pen, but its writing style was like a bead plate, from left to right.
The Ricci "Western Mirror Record" mentioned here should be the same as Matteo Ricci's "Mirror Geometric Mind Method", and the method and content of the telescope manufacturing recorded by Matteo Ricci in the "Kaicheng Minutes" corroborate with zhu sheng and Zheng Xiangru's statement, which in turn can prove that the "Kaicheng Minutes" should be the unpublished manuscripts jointly completed by Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi. The discovery of the Kaicheng Minutes should arouse profound reflection among Eastern and Western scholars engaged in Matteo Ricci's research. Matteo Ricci has lived in China for nearly thirty years, and how many Western and Chinese works he has left behind cannot be accurately estimated so far, so it is absolutely impossible for Matteo Ricci himself to deny their existence without recording what they have recorded.
The historical fact that Matteo Ricci was able to build telescopes can also be proved by the construction of telescopes by his contemporaries. In the forty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1613), Li Zhizao, the shaoqing of the Taibu Temple in Nanjing, said:
The tai has neglected its duties, calculated that the sun and the moon have eaten, the time is lost, often wrong, the food is poor, the qi is fixed, and it is all bad. Fushimi Atlantic Naturalization Companion Pang Di I, Long Huamin, Xiong Sanba, Yang Mano and other people, Mu Yiyuan came, read and talked, all with different assets, insight into the study of calculations, and carried a lot of books from other countries. For a long time, he gradually became a voice, and learned The Chinese tone. ...... Look at the instruments that make it to peep into the sky and the sun, all kinds of exquisite.
It can be seen from the above introduction that Li Zhizao knew in 1613 that the missionaries such as Pang Di I and Long Huamin at that time could make "instruments for peeking into the sky and peeping into the sun". In addition, in May of the 44th year of the Wanli Calendar (June 1616), Shen Jian, a servant of the Nanjing Ceremonial Department, gave the Ming court a famous recital, "Sam Yuan Yi Shu", which also mentioned:
The speaker is also called the rule of the calendar, the law of the Ming Dynasty, which has long been lost; the Taiwan supervisor calculates, and gradually becomes poor. And the instrument made by Pi Yi to peep into the sky and the sun is quite exquisite. Therefore, the Wanli Sanshi Jiu Nian once had a title in this section, and he wanted to translate the people who studied the reasoning with Tongpi yi.
The so-called "made by Piyi" here refers to the system made by these missionaries; the so-called "instrument of peeping into the sky and the sun" should refer to the telescope. The Ming Dynasty also said that Tang Daowei and Pang Di I had built the "Eternal Instrument for Measuring the Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon and the Distant Mirror for Peeping the Sky"; he even directly called the telescope "Peeping Mirror". Xu Guangqi's "New Law Arithmetic Book and New Law Table Difference" also said: "The far-range mirror made is more peeping into the sky, and it can be used to detail the eclipse minutes and seconds, and it can observe the taibai with up and down strings." The Qing dynasty Dai Dachang Yiyun: "Telescopes, also known as voyeuristics, cover the time and second of solar and lunar eclipses." It can be seen that the scientific instruments that can "peek at the sky and the sun" at that time should refer to telescopes. Since the telescopes made by the Westerners were explicitly mentioned in the 1613 Li Zhizao and the 1616 Shen Shu Chapter, and in the thirty-ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1611), the Ministry of Rites had proposed that these missionaries participate in the revision of the calendar, so in order to enter Beijing to revise the calendar, the missionaries stepped up the manufacture of these necessary scientific instruments for the revision of the calendar, the telescope that peeks into the sky and the sun. This can also show that before 1611, not only had the telescope been brought into China by missionaries, but also in order to participate in the ming court calendar revision, European missionaries led by Matteo Ricci had mastered the technology of making ordinary telescopes and stepped up to make telescopes. This should also have been one of the most important missionary strategies of the Jesuit Mission in China at that time.
To sum up, the Ming Dynasty Zheng Zhongkui's saying that "Matteo Ricci has a thousand-mile mirror" records the truth of history. Matteo Ricci not only brought telescopes to China during his lifetime, but also taught Xu Guangqi how to make telescopes; he also translated articles on the process of making telescopes, but they were not published. Therefore, in the history of scientific, cultural and technological exchanges between China and the West in the Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci was the first European to introduce telescope manufacturing technology to China. His contemporaries, European missionaries, not only brought telescopes into China, but also produced a number of telescopes for the needs of the Ming court to revise the calendar under the guidance of the Jesuit Chinese missionary policy, which had been widely disseminated in Ming society.
Tang Kaijian, Professor of the Department of History and Doctoral Supervisor of the University of Macau, Professor of the University of Foreign Chinese in Beijing, Visiting Professor of Yuelu Academy of Hunan University, President of the Macao Oral History Society, Vice President of the Chinese Ethnic History Society; The Horn of Alienation of the Heavenly Dynasty - Western Civilization in Macao in the 16th and 19th Centuries" and fifteen other works.
Source: Southern Studies, No. 1, 2019