There is a Guangqi Road in the south of Shanghai, where there is the "Nine Houses" of Taiqingfang, the former residence of Xu Guangqi, and a Guangqi Park in the northwest, where Xu Guangqi's tomb is located.
Xu Guangqi was born in a farming family, learned Kong Meng at an early age, and was a 20-year-old middle school talent. In the thirty-first year of the Ming Dynasty (1603), he was baptized in Nanjing by the missionary Luo Ruwang. In the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli Calendar (1607), Xu Guangqi took advantage of his father's death and returned to Shanghai to mourn the system, and specially invited the missionary Guo Jujing to Shanghai to open a religion, and he also became the founder of the Western Catholic Church into Shanghai.
Xu Guangqi's extensive acquaintance with the missionaries and his humble embrace opened the source of "Western learning and Eastern gradually" in the late Ming Dynasty, and opened up the channel of cultural exchanges between China and the West. His association with the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci is particularly commendable. In the twenty-eighth year of the Ming Dynasty (1600), Xu Guangqi, who was nearly confused, went to Beijing to take the exam, passing through Nanjing, and saw a "Map of Mountains and Seas", which was known to Matteo Ricci and had a deep relationship, and became very close, which added to his life. Xu Guangqi said: "If you want to win, you must be able to understand; before you can pass, you must first translate." He respectfully consulted Matteo Ricci and translated the six volumes of the Primitive Geometry, in addition to which he also learned Western surveying, water law, and astronomy for use in tun tian and salt affairs. The old-fashioned bureaucrats say that these things are of little use, and he says that this is the fundamental learning, "the basis for the use of the masses"; "The study of the work, the rational and the matter; this book (the "Geometric Origins") is beneficial, so that the learner can get rid of its bummerousness and practice its meticulousness; the learner has his own method and his ingenuity, so that no one in the world is not unlearned." In fact, in the process of asking for help from the missionaries, Xu Guangqi had already germinated the thinking of modern science in his mind, and eagerly knocked on the door of modern science.
Unfortunately, he was not born at the right time, and the DPRK and China "all went backwards" to the scientific theories such as "Geometric Origins" disseminated by Xu Guangqi. Francis Bacon of England is one year old. Both focus on practical and experimental. Bacon's thought became popular in enlightened Britain, and Xu Guangqi's thought was like a flash in the pan, and the light has since become silent.
Xu Guangqi was diligent and studious all his life, and in his 72 years of splendid journey, he left an extremely rich spiritual and cultural wealth for future generations, of which the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" and the "Chongzhen Almanac" were his top works. The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration is the most complete ancient encyclopedia of agricultural science in the history of Chinese agricultural administration. The Chongzhen Almanac laid the foundation of China's astronomical calendar for nearly 300 years, greatly developed ancient Chinese astronomy, and is of epoch-making significance. What is particularly valuable is that he was in the first climax of modern Chinese and Western culture, in the face of the surging torrent of Western culture, he was able to keenly understand the important role of science in the development of national strength, and advocated the introduction of scientific knowledge to the Chinese people first, and personally practiced it for decades, writing a brilliant chapter in the history of Chinese science.
Perhaps Xu Guangqi's achievements in science are too great, so his official integrity is little known. In 1604, Xu Guangqi entered the Hanlin Academy as a Shu Jishi and reviewed, and experienced several generations of emperors such as Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen. Although the late Ming dynasty officials ruled corruption, he "came out of the mud without staining." In the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632), Xu Guangqi, who was in his seventies, was promoted to the rank of Rebbe Shangshu and a scholar of Dongge University, and also the president of the compilation of the Records of Emperor Xizong. He instructed his children to "thank them all."
His son, Xu Ji, said that his father "took things from him in his life, often like this." After several decades of entering the DYNASTY, he was very frugal in his self-esteem, and in his later years he returned to his hometown from old age and illness, and the "History of Ming" said that he "had no spare resources on the day of the coffin"; the "Record of Sin" said that he was "a small official residence, and his open clothes were attacked a few times, and he stopped writing about the dust of his hands." Such a Qing official who is indifferent to fame and fortune and who has taken the rich country and strong soldiers as his mission all his life will be in the annals of history and will always be admired by the world.
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The pictures in this article are from the Internet
Author:Shen Qi
Editors: Wei Fuchun, Zhang Li