Kangxi Xuanye was not only knowledgeable and proficient in Chinese feudal culture, but also possessed a broad knowledge of natural sciences, such as mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, Western medicine, calendar, and so on.
Statue of the Kangxi Emperor
The accumulation of this knowledge is closely related to the work experience of Western natural science and technology talents in the Qing court, and most of these people are Western missionaries. In the Kangxi Dynasty, the activities of missionaries were restricted by the Qing government, and Kangxi adopted a take-ism approach to what they brought, and although it restricted their religious activities, it warmly welcomed "skilled" talents.
He also took the initiative to recruit natural scientific and technological talents from European countries to work in the relevant departments of the Qing court, such as sending Bai Jin, a Frenchman who has been working in China for a long time, as "Chincha" and letting him return to Europe to recruit scientific and technological talents.
Kangxi's keen interest in natural sciences stemmed from his need to govern the country, which enabled him to take the initiative to absorb advanced Western scientific and technological knowledge and recruit European technical talents to work in China.
At the same time, it is also because he realizes that advanced Western scientific and technological knowledge is irreplaceable for the governance of the country and traditional Chinese culture. The Ming Dynasty's "Great Unified Calendar" followed the Yuan Dynasty's "Chronological Calendar", which had not been revised and improved for more than 270 years, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it adopted the suggestions of the Chinese scientist Xu Guangqi and let the Western missionary Tang John Wang enter the calendar bureau to calculate and revise it into more than 130 volumes of the new calendar.
John Tang
In the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, the old-school figure Yang Guangxian, a new security official, opposed John Tang and his new calendar, and was supported by his assistant ministers, and Tang John was forced to step down, and Yang Guangxian took over as the overseer of Qin Tianjian and resumed the use of the old calendar.
After Kangxi took power, after a practical test, he confirmed that the calendar of Tang Ruowang's successor, Nan Huairen, was scientific, but Yang Guangxian was stubborn and blindly rejected Western law, and Kangxi Xuanye resolutely dismissed him, appointed the foreigner Nan Huairen as the deputy supervisor of Qin Tianjian, and reactivated the new calendar.
Kangxi actively supported Nan Huairen in compiling a more accurate calendar, approved his proposal to change the leap month from December of the eighth year to February of the ninth year, with corresponding changes in the solar terms and the occupation of the weather, and later promoted Nan Huairen to be the supervisor of Qin Tianjian and commissioned him to transform the observatory instruments. By February of the thirteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the transformation of the instrument was successful, and Nan Huairenjin presented the thirteen volumes of the "New Lingtai Yixiangzhi".
Kangxi was very satisfied with this, and he added the title of Secretary of the Southern Huairen Dachang Temple, allowing him to continue to govern the calendar. After that, Nan Huairen continued the thirty-two volumes of the Kangxi Yongnian Calendar, which was a calendar that Tang Ruowang did not complete.
Kangxi realized that drawing on foreign advanced natural science technology and knowledge was only one way, and the most important thing was to develop natural sciences in our own country and cultivate our own talents in astronomy and calendar, although this could not become the mainstream of society, and it was necessary to pay full attention to the actual needs of society.
It was precisely because of his relatively enlightened understanding of this that Kangxi Xuanye repeatedly issued edicts to the localities, asking relevant local officials to seek out and send people who were proficient in the astronomical calendar to qin tianjian to take up posts, promising to improve their social status and make them qualified to "ascend as one" with the officials of the various ministries and departments of the central government.
In order to promote a more scientific and accurate new calendar, Kangxi issued an edict in the fifteenth year that all officials must conscientiously study the new calendar. He explained that it was not clear which of the new and old calendars was more scientific and precise, and that the controversy between the two factions was constantly arising, resulting in discord between the officials' staff.
Nan Huairen
Now that everyone knows that the new calendar is correct, all of you Manchurian officials who study the astronomical calendar must pay attention to the study of the astronomical calendar. In the future, if you want to serve in the Qin Tianjian, you must first become proficient in the new calendar, and when you are promoted, this must also be used as a test standard, and officials who have not studied and do not understand the new calendar are not allowed to be promoted.
Kangxi's strict requirements for natural scientific and technological talents not only ensured the smooth promotion and implementation of the new calendar, but also established a serious standard for scientific research departments in the employment of personnel, which is conducive to clarifying the scientific and technological team.
Kangxi not only modestly learned advanced natural science and technology knowledge from foreigners, reused Western missionaries who understood science to serve in the imperial court, and also took the opportunity of the southern tour to carefully visit relevant domestic experts and scholars who were "hidden" in the townships.
In the forty-second year of the Kangxi Dynasty, when he made his fourth southern tour and arrived in Dezhou, he was quite excited because he had already heard that there was a scholar in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, who was proficient in natural science and technology knowledge, that is, Mei Wending, who was born in Gongsheng.
When he heard that this man had a deep study of calendar and arithmetic, Kangxi sent the scholar Li Guangdi to ask for his relevant works, and as a result, Li Guangdi submitted Mei Wending's book "Questions about Almanac" to Kangxi, which consisted of three volumes. Mei Wending wrote a lot of works in his lifetime, with a total of more than 80 kinds, all of which have high scientific value.
One of the works is the "Ancient and Modern Calendar Examination", which draws on the strengths of the Chinese and Western calendars, and is the first monograph on the history of almanac in China.
Mei Wending has the idea of opening up the inclusiveness of Chinese and Western cultures, believing that the norms of the calendar providing people with the conversion of solar terms are unified, so there should be no distinction between The East and the West, and the formulation of the calendar is only based on the laws of nature as the standard.
His achievements in mathematics are also outstanding, absorbing Western mathematical achievements while correcting them and proposing his own new insights. After reading Mei Wending's "Questions about The Calendar", Kangxi very much agreed with Mei Wending's views and opinions, believing that this book studied the calendar very deeply and carefully, and the discussion and evaluation of some issues was also very fair, and later he took this book back to the palace to read it carefully, and also wrote it in his own handwriting.
Mei Wending
During the fifth southern tour of the forty-fourth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1705), he summoned Mei Wending to the imperial boat he was riding on, as if he had met a confidant, and as if he were asking for advice from an elderly teacher, he unconsciously felt that the monarchs and courtiers were suitable for three days.
Kangxi thought that Mei Wending was the only outstanding scholar he had met at that time, so he persuaded him to serve in the imperial court to further engage in his scientific research, and Mei Wending quickly thanked him, saying that he was old and could not bear any responsibility, and politely refused the emperor's good intentions. When he was leaving, Kangxi gave him a four-character plaque of "Achievements and Studies" to show care and praise, and also gave him a royal book fan and delicious food.
We have spoken of Kangxi reusing advanced weapons developed by Western missionaries. On August 19, 1313, Kangxi surrendered and ordered Nan Huairen to use ingenious and advanced methods to manufacture light artillery that was easy to carry.
After the successful development of the artillery in May of the following year, Kangxi personally inspected the Lugou Bridge Artillery Field, and saw that this kind of artillery was small in size, strong in firepower, and had a high hit rate, which could allow mules and horses to carry the march, which was very much in line with his ideal requirements. So special batch production.
This artillery played an important role in quelling the Wu Sangui Rebellion, and the Qing army's artillery was victorious in every battle, and the soldiers proudly called it the "victory cannon". Nan Huairen compiled the structure, principle and manufacturing process of this cannon into a book, called "Shenwei Tu theory".
In addition, Kangxi also asked Nan Huairen to build other types of artillery and repair old guns, all of which were very successful. In recognition of Nan Huairen's special contributions, Kangxi crowned him as the Right Attendant of the Ministry of Works, making the first foreigner in the Imperial Court of the Qing Dynasty with the treatment of deputy ministerial status.
In addition, Kangxi used Western talents in geodesy to map China. This work began in the forty-sixth year (1707), and after careful preparation, Kangxi commissioned the Jesuits Lei Xiaoen, Bai Jin, Du Demei, and the Chinese scholars Ming Antu and He Guodong to carry out large-scale field surveys throughout the country.
In the measurement process, these professional and technical personnel used the most advanced methods and techniques of the time, such as longitude and latitude, triangulation and trapezoidal projection technology. After eleven years of hard work, in the fifty-seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the map was successfully drawn, called the "Kangxi Emperor Public Opinion Overview Map".
"Overview of the Public Opinion of the Kangxi Emperor"
In addition to Xinjiang, the fifteen provinces of the country, including the Border Crossing Manchurian and Mongolian boundaries, are within the scope of measurement and mapping, and the content is very detailed, including border fortresses, flood and river defense, village fortresses, and generals guarding the frontier, towns and towns, and post stations.
The map represented the highest achievement of world geography at the time, and Joseph Needham wrote in his History of Science and Technology in China that it was "not only the best of all the maps of Asia at that time, but also better and more accurate than all the maps of Europe at that time." After engraving, Kangxi issued the map to the provinces.
Kangxi also set up a special laboratory in the imperial palace, allowing Western missionaries such as Zhang Cheng and Bai Jin to specialize in developing Western medicine. The diseases of Kangxi and many other officials were cured by this Western medicine, which was first developed in China.
In addition, at that time, anatomy had already been introduced to China, and Kangxi ordered the French missionary Bardoming to translate the Human Anatomy into Manchu and Chinese for medical personnel to study and use.
As we have already said, most of the Westerners used by Kangxi were missionaries, and there was a question of choice in accepting these people and what they brought with them. Kangxi adopted an attitude of neither blind rejection nor blind admiration.
In order to take advantage of the advanced skills of the missionaries, he sincerely supported them in engaging in academic exchanges beneficial to the development of Chinese culture, and limited their missionary activities to a certain extent. Both of these aspects have had practical effects, and the missionaries have done a lot of scientific and technological and cultural communication work, and missionary work seems to be relatively unimportant.
Kangxi used the official Feng Lu to attract Western professional scientific and technological talents to work in the Qing court, and the effect was remarkable. According to Nan Huairen's recommendation, he successively hired the Portuguese min Mingmei, Xu Risheng and the Belgian Amdo who lived in Macao to serve in the Qin Tianjian and the Imperial Palace, and since then the Qin Tianjian has repeatedly appointed Westerners, many of whom have been officials to the highest positions of Qin Tianjian supervisor and deputy supervisor.
Xu Risheng
In the twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Nan Huairen died, and through his initiative and guidance, the French missionaries Bai Jin, Zhang Cheng, Liu Ying, and Hong John successively went to Beijing to serve. Thirty-six years later, Kangxi ordered Bai Jin to be "Chincha" and asked him to return to Europe to recruit scientific and technological talents. Thirty-eight years later, Joseph Ma, Lei Xiaosi, Ba Duoming and others came to China with Bai Jin.
Forty-four years later, the Pope sent envoys to China, and Kangxi sent Sha Guoan to Rome in the name of praying to recruit relevant talents to work in the Qing Dynasty. Fifty-four years later, Kangxi instructed the missionaries Derig and Ma Guoxian to bring letters to the Pope, asking him to choose a few people who were proficient in "astronomy, law, algorithm, painting, internal medicine, and surgery to come to China to serve."
In 59 years, nine skilled people came to China with the pope's envoys, and all of them were appointed and treated generously by Kangxi.
According to the editor, Kangxi appointed Western missionaries, and he gave different responsibilities to different talents: Nan Huairen presided over the astronomical calendar work and manufactured weapons; Bai Jin was responsible for training and organizing China's geographical surveyors; Xu Risheng and others participated in editing large-scale astronomy, calendar, and music theory series.
Westerners who came to work in the Qing court were generally named after Chinese, some as Qin Tianjian officials, some as translators in the cabinet, some as doctors and painters in the inner government, and some became lecturers for the emperor and the emperor, teaching astronomy, geography, Western medicine, music, mathematics, Latin, human anatomy and other aspects.
Western missionary
Western missionaries also published many books in China on Western culture, although most of the content is related to religion, but nearly 20% of the natural science knowledge contained in it is of great benefit and promotion to the development of China's scientific and technological and cultural undertakings.
At the same time, these Western missionaries often had the ability to speak several languages, and Kangxi often used them to participate in foreign affairs activities to promote the smooth resolution of problems.
He also ordered Min Ming and others to go to Russia, France, and Italy to consult on foreign affairs on behalf of the Qing government, all of which undoubtedly promoted Sino-foreign cultural exchanges and increased mutual understanding.