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In 1722, the Kangxi Emperor died.
The third prince Yin Zhi was directly imprisoned by Yongzheng because he participated in the dispute over the crown prince in the later years of Kangxi.
Yongzheng, who succeeded to the throne, did not have much enthusiasm for scientific causes.
In this way, the "Royal Academy of Sciences of the Great Qing Dynasty" founded by Yin Zhi, Meng Yang Zhai, was abolished, and the Great Qing lost the opportunity to catch up with the West...
In fact, this is not the first time that the Qing Dynasty self-destructed the Great Wall.
01
Fast forward to March 16, 1665, the fourth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the Council of Ministers of the Qing Dynasty made a judgment:
Tang Ruowang, The Emperor of The Qin Dynasty, Ke Du Ru Pre, Yang Hongliang, Li Zubai, Chunguan Zheng Song Kecheng, Qiu Guan Zheng Song Fa, Dong Guan Zheng Zhu Guangxian, and Zhongguan Zheng Liu Youtai were all executed.
- "Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty"
One name in the judgment is particularly special, that is, the famous missionary John Tang, who was the Qin Tianjian supervisor at that time, and Du Ruqian, Yang Hongliang, and others who were also sentenced to Ling Chi were also outstanding astronomers and calendarists at that time.
They were sentenced to be related to a calendar compiled by John Tang, the Chronicle of Time.
Because the cover of the "Shi Xian Calendar" has the five words "According to the New Law of the Western Ocean", Yang Guangxian, an old Confucian who eats the ancients, has seized the handle, so he slandered Tang Ruowang as "secretly stealing the power of Zhengshuo to give the West" and "borrowing the calendar of the Great Qing Dynasty to zhang daqi Western Ocean"!
In this way, Tang Ruowang and his Qin Tianjian team were thrown into prison and sentenced to Ling Chi.
Fortunately, with the help of Empress Xiaozhuang, John Tang retrieved a life, but after the disaster of imprisonment, John Tang was physically and mentally exhausted.
In the fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1666), Tang Ruowang died a tragic death in poverty.
02
After Tang Ruowang's death, Yang Guangxian ascended the throne to become the new Qin Tianjian Supervisor, but he was not happy.
Because he knew in his own heart that with his mathematical computing ability, he was simply not qualified for this position, he panicked, wrote several times to ask for resignation, and the result was rejected, and he had to go to the post of Qin Tianjian with a hard scalp.
Scene of Qin Tianjian's work in the Qing Dynasty
What if the level is not enough? Old Yang also has his own little cleverness.
He thought of two tricks:
The first trick was to invite Wu Mingxuan to be his deputy.
Wu Mingxuan's mathematical level is always higher than that of Lao Yang, and inviting him to be his deputy can also play a little role.
The second trick is obscene.
John Tang had already compiled the yellow calendar for the fifth, sixth, and seventh years of the Kangxi Dynasty in advance.
Old Yang changed his name and took it for himself.
However, in the seventh year of Kangxi (1668), Lao Yang had to compile the yellow calendar of the eighth year of Kangxi (1669), so he had to let Wu Mingxuan help edit it.
Qing Dynasty Yellow Calendar
Unexpectedly, this compilation made up a big joke.
03
According to Wu Mingxuan's calculations, in the eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1669), there should be a leap December, lao Yang himself is not precise in counting academic qualifications, look at old Wu's calculations, can not see any problems, directly presented to the emperor.
Kangxi approved the new yellow calendar as was customary.
As a result, when the new yellow calendar was promulgated, Wu Mingxuan suddenly found that he had miscalculated, and this leap december should not have existed at all, so he quickly asked Lao Yang to fold the fold and request to withdraw the yellow calendar.
The yellow calendar has been awarded, and you have let it be taken back, is this not a joke about the emperor?
A batch of Kangxi Qi, but there is no way, it is impossible to take it back, but living according to the yellow calendar will lead to solar disorder and miss the agricultural time.
Therefore, they had no choice but to issue a decree announcing to the people that the "leap december" in the yellow calendar of the eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty would be directly cancelled, and everyone would be able to celebrate the New Year after December.
The "Yellow Calendar" promulgated during Yuan Shikai's restoration symbolizes the implementation of imperial power
Although the decree was given, it still caused a very bad impact, not only the people were talking about it, but even the ministers had doubts about Yang Guangxian's business level.
The Kangxi Emperor was even more furious and had the idea of expelling Lao Yang.
However, at this point he was unable to put this idea into practice.
Because at this time, Lao Yang's patron, the auxiliary chancellor Ao Bai, was still in charge of the imperial government, and Kangxi was not necessarily good at speaking.
But Kangxi had been preparing for John Tang's reversal.
Because before Shunzhi died, he consulted John Tang on the issue of heirs, and he replied: "The three brothers (that is, Xuan Ye) have already had smallpox, and from a scientific point of view, those who have had smallpox will not get smallpox in the future." ”
For this reason, Shunzhi finally chose Xuan Ye as his heir.
Therefore, John Tang was the great benefactor of Kangxi.
04
In May of the eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Kangxi took advantage of the opportunity of Aobai's solo court to capture him in one fell swoop, and then counted his thirty counts, and was imprisoned for life.
Ao Bai had fallen, and it was time to clean up Ao Bai's henchmen, and of course Lao Yang could not escape.
In order to be famous, he carefully designed a competition.
He ordered Tang Ruowang's students, the Belgian missionary Nan Huairen and the second-in-command of the Qin Tianjian, Wu Mingxuan, to conduct an astronomical test to measure the degrees of LiChun, rain and rain, taiyin fire, and mu erxing.
As a result, Nan Huairen won a great victory.
05
Old Yang was anxious to see this situation.
If it is better than academics, then we can only take the politically correct route.
As a result, Lao Yang gave Kangxi a fold, did not mention the academic problems of astronomical calendars throughout, and only talked about a bunch of "fists and patriotic hearts".
Lao Yang said:
"The throne of the Emperor is the throne of Yao Shun; the unity inherited by the Emperor is also the unity of Yao Shun; the calendar issued by the Emperor shall apply the calendar of Yao Shun." The emperor is fa Yao Shun in everything, is it not the only one in history? ”
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Old Yang also said:
"Now Nam Wai Ren, catholic people also." Is there the Holy King of The Fa Yao Shun and the Fa of the Catholic Church? ...... How can a foreign country of eighty thousand miles destroy my Yao Shun's instruments? ”
—— This hat is bigger, dare to use the Western calendar is "destroy Yao Shun!"
Yang Guangxian's book "The Last Resort"
Kangxi was completely enraged by Old Yang's wild entanglement.
In July of the eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Nan Huairen officially wrote to Kangxi, detailing the unjust case of John Tang in the fourth year of Kangxi and asking for the rehabilitation of his teacher, John Tang.
In August, Kangxi officially issued a decree:
"Yang Guangxian committed a vain incident, harmed the innocent, fabricated the matter of no shadow, and falsely accused Tang John of plotting rebellion. As for the offering of God, it is the old habit of the country and there is no evil deed. It was decided to restore John Tang's name as 'Teacher Tongwei' and give him a sympathy as it was. ”
According to Kangxi's instructions, the imperial court funded the construction of a high-standard tomb for John Tang, erected a tall tombstone, and personally wrote an epitaph, and then worked with Empress Xiaozhuang to worship John Tang.
John Tang finally settled down.
John Tang's tombstone is engraved with his life on the back
As for Yang Guangxian, he was dismissed from his post and imprisoned by Kangxi.
After deliberating on the crime, the Punishment Department found that he framed John Tang and caused trouble in the Qin Heavenly Prison, and that the crime could not be forgiven, and sentenced him to death.
However, when the opinion of the Punishment Department was reported to the Kangxi Emperor, he was still moved by compassion.
He felt that Old Yang was seventy years old and eighty old, so he pardoned him for his capital crime and let him go back to his hometown.
Soon, Lao Yang had a carbuncle on his back on the way home and cried out for his life.
John Tang was rehabilitated, Old Yang pounced on the street, and Kangxi had one last thing to do, that is, to appoint Nan Huairen as the Overseer of Qin Tian.
Unexpectedly, this incident made him touch the nail.
06
Tang Ruowang's tragic experience made Nan Huairen very cold, and after he was appointed by Kangxi, he immediately went to a twist, saying that he had been determined to dedicate his life to the promotion of Catholicism since childhood, was willing to live in poverty, and would never accept any official position.
He also used the example of the Tang Dynasty monks, saying that the monks and their party had been revising the calendar for the Tang Dynasty all their lives, and had not accepted the Tang Dynasty's official and half-positions, and the subjects were willing to follow the example of the monks.
In a word, I only do things, not official.
Kangxi understood his thoughts and agreed to his request.
However, the officials could not do it, and Qin Tianjian still handed it over to Nan Huairen's full leadership.
In this way, Nan Huairen did not have the title of supervisor, but he managed the Qin Tianjian of the Great Qing Until the end of his life.
At this point, a "Kangxi Calendar Prison" that set off an uproar in the early Qing Dynasty finally came to an end.
Behind this big case, what is reflected is the difficult process and contradictory mentality of an ancient country in accepting advanced Western science and technology.
Today, more than three hundred years later, it still makes people sigh...
References: "Biography of John Tang" (Li Lanqin edition), "Qing History Manuscript", "Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty"