Xu Guangqi's life: open your eyes and see the world

Xu Guangqi's life: open your eyes and see the world

Xu's ancestral home was Suzhou, where he worked as a farmer and later moved to Shanghai. Xu Guangqi's grandfather became rich from business, and until his father Xu Sicheng's family fell, he still turned to farming.

In the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562 AD), Xu Guangqi was born in Taiqingfang (present-day Qiaojia Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai). As a teenager, Xu Guangqi studied at Longhua Temple.

In the ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1581 AD), after Ying Jinshan Wei took the Zhongxiucai Examination, he taught in his hometown and married the daughter of Wu Xiaoxi, a virgin of the county.

In the tenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1582 AD), the first township examination failed. In order to maintain the family plan, Xu Guangqi, like his father, "weak crown to supplement the high births, eat the palace of learning, and the family is poor, so he teaches the middle children." ”

In the twelfth year of the Wanli Calendar (1584 AD), Xu Guangqi's grandmother died, his parents were more than half a hundred years old, and with the flood, Xu Guangqi's family road deteriorated.

In the sixteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1588 AD), Xu Guangqi, in order to find a way out, went to Taiping Province (present-day Dangtu, Anhui) with his fellow villagers Dong Qichang, Zhang Ding, and Chen Jiru to take the township examination, but Xu Guangqi fell behind.

In the twenty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1593 AD), Xu Guangqi went to Shaozhou, Guangdong Province, to teach and became acquainted with the Jesuit Guo Jujing.

In the twenty-fourth year of the Wanli Calendar (1596 AD), he was transferred to Xunzhou, Guangxi to teach.

In the twenty-fifth year of the Wanli Dynasty (1597 AD), Xu Guangqi was appreciated by the examiner Jiao Zhu and took the Shun tianfu Xie Yuan Zhongju.

In the twenty-sixth year of the Wanli Calendar (1598 AD), he failed to pass the examination and returned to his hometown to teach.

In the twenty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1600 AD), he went to Nanjing to meet his mentor Jiao Zhu and met for the first time with the Jesuit Matteo Ricci.

In the twenty-ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1601 AD), Xu Guangqi did not participate in the examination.

In the thirty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1603 AD), Xu Guangqi was baptized into the Catholic Church by the Jesuit Jean de Rocha in Nanjing, and was given the name Paul.

In the thirty-second year of the Wanli Calendar (1604 AD), Xu Guangqi entered the priesthood and was elected as a Shujishi of the Hanlin Academy.

In the thirty-fourth year of the Wanli Calendar (1606 AD), he began to work with Matteo Ricci to translate the first six volumes of the Geometric Primitives, and in the spring of the following year, the translation was completed and engraved and published. After translating the Primitive Geometry, he translated the book "Measurement Law" based on Matteo Ricci's dictation.

In the thirty-fifth year of the Wanli Calendar (1607 AD), the three-year Hanlin Pavilion expired and was dissolved, and he was awarded the Hanlin Academy for review. In the same year, Xu Guangqi's father died in Beijing, and he returned to his hometown to worry about the system.

In the thirty-sixth year of the Wanli Calendar (1608 AD), Guo Jujing was invited to Shanghai to preach, which became the beginning of the introduction of Catholicism to Shanghai. During the period of observance, he sorted out and finalized the "Surveying Law And Righteousness", and cross-referenced the "Surveying Law And Righteousness" with the "Zhou Jie Arithmetic Classic" and the "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", sorted out and compiled the "Measurement Similarities and Differences", made the book "Pythagorean Yi", discussed the Shang Gao theorem, opened up double gardens and farm villas, carried out crop introduction and cultivation experiments, and made "Sweet Potato Thinning", "Turnip Thinning", "Jibei Shu", "Planting Cotton Method" and "Bamboo Illustration of Planting In the Garden".

In the thirty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1610 AD), Xu Guangqi returned to Beijing and was reinstated as an official. Because the Qin Tianjian estimated that the eclipse was inaccurate, he cooperated with the missionaries to study astronomical instruments, and wrote the "Jian PingYi Theory", "Pinghun Diagram Theory", "Sundial Diagram Theory" and "Night Sundial Diagram Theory".

In the fortieth year of the Wanli Calendar (1612 AD), he paid tribute to the Jesuit priest Xiong Sanba (P. Sabbathino de Ursis) studied Western water conservancy and co-translated the six volumes of the Taixi Water Law.

In the early winter of the forty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1613 AD), due to disagreements with some ministers in the court, Xu Guangqi resigned from his post and went to Tianjin. He planted rice in Fangshan and Laishui counties, carried out various agricultural experiments, and successively wrote books such as the "Yi Reclamation Order", "Draft Agricultural Book", and "Northern Cultivation Record", laying the foundation for the compilation of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".

In the forty-fourth year of the Wanli Dynasty (1616 AD), Shen Yu, a servant of the Ceremonial Department, connected three pieces of music and requested the investigation and punishment of foreign missionaries, in order to teach Nanjing. Xu Guangqi defended the missionaries in the "Debate Chapters". In the same year, Xu Guangqi returned to Beijing to resume his post, and the following year, he was appointed as Zuo Zanshan of Zuo Chunfang in Zhan Shifu. After the illness returned to Tianjin, he wrote the "Rules of Feces".

In the forty-sixth year of the Wanli Calendar (1618 AD), after Jin Nurhachi sent troops to invade Guannei, Xu Guangqi was summoned to beijing by starry night.

In the forty-seventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1619 AD), at the Battle of Salhu, the Ming army was defeated, and he repeatedly requested military training, and was later promoted to Shao Zhan Shi and Henan Province Yushi, and supervised the training of the new army in Tongzhou. However, due to the difficulty of supplying military salaries and equipment, the training plan was not smooth.

In March of the first year of the Apocalypse (1621 AD), Xu Guangqi returned to Tianjin to recuperate, and in June, when Liaoyang fell, he was summoned back to Beijing and tried to use the Hongyi cannon to help defend the city, but due to disagreements with The Bingbu Shangshu, he resigned again in December.

In the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624 AD), Xu Guangqi was promoted to the position of Right Attendant of the Ministry of Rites, and also held the position of Attendant, at that time, Wei Zhongxian had exclusive power, he refused to take office, and the following year, he was impeached and removed from office. After Xu Guangqi returned to Shanghai, he systematically expanded, revised, approved, and arranged the agricultural materials accumulated over the years into the later "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".

Together with P. Franciscus Sambiasi, he co-translated the Spirit Tongue Spoon. He also compiled his articles on military affairs into a book and engraved and published the "Xu Shi's Sayings".

In the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625 AD), after Xu Guangqi retired from retirement, he concentrated his main energy on updating and correcting the previously compiled "Agricultural Books", and after diligent study and day and night pen cultivation, he finally completed the first draft of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Politics" in the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627 AD).

In the first year of Chongzhen (1628 AD), Xu Guangqi was recalled to Beijing and the official was reinstated.

In the second year of Chongzhen (1629 AD), he was promoted to the rank of Left Attendant of the Rebbe. Due to the inaccurate calculation of the solar eclipse by the Qin Tianjian, the Chongzhen Emperor agreed that Xu Guangqi would preside over the opening revision of the calendar. In the same year, Emperor Taiji led tens of thousands of troops into Gyeonggi, and the Chongzhen Emperor summoned the ministers to discuss the matter, and Xu Guangqi played the battle defense.

In the third year of Chongzhen (1630 AD), Xu Guangqi was promoted to the position of Rebbe Shangshu.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631 AD), he successively entered several volumes of the Almanac, namely the Chongzhen Almanac.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632 AD), he was appointed as a scholar of Rebbe Shoshu and a scholar of Dongge University, and entered the aircraft service.

In the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633 AD), Prince Jia Taibao and Wenyuange University Tutu died of illness on November 8 of the same year.

(End of this article)