The thought-provoking Tang John case and the Kangxi prison

In ancient China, there was a special government agency for observing astronomical astrological signs, called Qin Tianjian. In the fifth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1666), several Chinese officials of the Qin Tianjian were arrested and imprisoned, including the European missionary Tang John Wang, who was spared death by the empress dowager's intercession, but Li Zubai's father and son and five other major officials of the Qin Tianjian were thrown and beheaded. The Tang John case arose because of the revision of the calendar for the imperial court, so the history is called "Kangxi Calendar Prison".

John Tong, a native of Cologne, Germany, whose real name is Johann Adam Schall von Bell, is a Catholic Jesuit missionary. In order to facilitate his mission in China, he gave himself a Chinese name name, John Tang. John Tang began preaching in China in the 48th year of the Ming Dynasty's Wanli Calendar, and he helped the Ming Dynasty scientist Xu Guangqi revise the voluminous Chongzhen Almanac, which consists of 46 kinds and 137 volumes. This "Chongzhen Almanac" has been highly evaluated by later generations, and even today, scholars still say that the completion of this calendar "marks the trend of Chinese astronomy into the development of world astronomy from now on."

John Tang was imprisoned because someone reported to the Kangxi Emperor that he was plotting against him and rebelling. The person who reported Tang was a Chinese named Yang Guangxian, who was John Tang's colleague in Qin Tianjian. He did not report that John Tang was not because the calendar that John Tang had revised for the imperial court was inaccurate, in fact, the revised "Constitutional Calendar" presided over by John Tang was accurate (the lunar calendar we use today was formulated by John Tang), and Yang Guangxian knew almost nothing about the astronomical calendar. Yang Guangxian reported John Tang only because John Tang was a foreigner with a high nose and blue eyes, especially if he did not tolerate foreigners to preside over the work of Qin Tianjian, although he knew that without Tang John, almost no one in the Chinese could do the work of revising the calendar, but Yang Guangxian still believed that "it is better to make the middle summer have no good calendar than to make the middle summer have Westerners."

In China, the most vicious way to put people to death is to buckle the hat and go online. Yang Guang first picked out the faults in Tang John's "Chronicle of the Constitution of Time". He complained to the emperor, first, the calendar contained in the ShiXian Calendar lasted for two hundred years, which was to curse the Qing Dynasty for only two hundred years. Second, the cover of the "Shi Xian Calendar" is inscribed with the words "According to the New Law of the Western Ocean", which means that I have "Bong Xio No Zheng Shuo Ye" in the Great Qing Dynasty. In fact, the clear-eyed people can see at a glance that Yang Guang is first making unreasonable trouble. John Tang cried and laughed, and he argued that the "Chronicle calendar" I revised was only two hundred years because of the limitation of paper space, as long as I was not afraid of wasting paper, I could repair ten thousand years, which was nothing more than a formula calculation and application. As for the inscription on the cover "According to the Western New Law", it is a printing error of Qin Tianjian, moreover, the "ShiXian Calendar" is indeed in accordance with the principles of Western astronomy, such as the traditional Chinese calendar, a day is divided into 12 hours, a total of 100 minutes, 100 minutes to 12 hours, each gets eight minutes, the remaining 4 minutes, so conversion, leaving a surplus, the accumulation of time and month will be inaccurate calendar, the most serious phenomenon is "synodic untested", popularly speaking, the moon is not round on the fifteenth day of the month. So in order not to leave the remainder to calculate conveniently, I changed it to 12 o'clock 96 o'clock a day, and so on.

Although John Tang's defense was reasonable, he could not escape prison. Because at that time in China, most people, like Yang Guangxian, could not tolerate foreigners in their eyes, let alone foreigners' Christianity. As for the astronomical instruments, self-chiming bells, dioramas and the like of foreigners, they are just some strange tricks. I am a heavenly kingdom, the earth is vast, and it is not rare to have that thing, and "the saints rule the country, morality and righteousness first", why should I play this little cleverness.

John Tang's "Shi Xian Calendar" was abolished, and the Qing Dynasty resumed the traditional calendar, and no one cared whether it was accurate or not, until the Kangxi pro-government revived the "Shi Xian Calendar".

Foreigners came to China, spread Christianity, spread spiritual opium, as a by-product, foreigners also brought Western science and technology. For Chinese culture, it is a completely heterogeneous civilization.

In the twenty-first year of the Ming Dynasty (1593), the thirty-one-year-old Xu Guangqi met the Jesuit Guo Jujing in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, and when he first saw the globe of a foreigner, his frightened eyes jumped out. Next, under Matteo Ricci's explanation, Xu Guangqi gradually understood the gravitational pull of the earth and how the planetary stars worked; he gradually understood Western geometry and algebra. As a traditional knowledge molecule who read the Four Books and Five Classics and was born in the Imperial Examination, Xu Guangqi was deeply impressed by Western science, and he took the initiative to convert to Christ and became a believer in Western culture. Xu Guangqi even thought of rejuvenating the country through science and technology, he translated the "Original Geometry" into Chinese, believing that geometry is the "basis of public use", and that the book "no one in the world should not study it properly", and said: "Those who can refine this book, nothing can not be refined; those who are eager to learn this book, nothing can not be learned." He also prophesied rather conceitedly, "After a hundred years, everyone will learn it, that is, they think that it will be late."

Xu Guangqi translated the Geometric Original in the thirty-fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (1606), and sixty years passed in the blink of an eye, until the Tang John Case occurred in the fifth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1666). What is shocking is that after sixty years, the vast majority of Chinese still know nothing about Western technology, and Yang Guangxian is the most representative figure. He specially wrote articles such as "The Theory of Warding Off Evil Spirits" and asked John Tang: You say that the earth is round, so what about the people standing directly above the earth, and the people on the sides and below? Could they climb on the wall like geckos? I'm standing upstairs, and if you John Tang can hang upside down under the slab, I believe the earth is round. Moreover, the water of the world, high to low flow, Mr. John Tang, have you ever seen the sea water sticking to the wall without flowing? I give you a teacup filled with water, and you tilt the teacup upside down, and if the water doesn't spill, I believe the earth is round. What is even more infuriating is that according to your globe, Chinese stand on the earth, the Western Ocean is under the earth, submerged in the water, and if so, the Western Ocean only has fish and turtles, and you Mr. Tang John is an old turtle spirit.

The rambling description of John Tang's case is not the purpose of this article, and what is shocking is not the ignorance of Chinese, but the attitude of Chinese towards advanced culture. Intellectuals all over the world are busy with The Emperor Guangzong Yaozu, who is going to read Xu Guangqi's "Geometric Origins"? Who cares about science? The Four Books and Five Classics of the Imperial Examination have said that anything that is not examined by the Imperial Examination is a waste of life without doing the right thing.

In fact, the missionaries of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties did not bring the natural sciences of modern Western times, and China at this time had not yet been distanced by the West, or there was no generation gap between China and the West. In 1687, Newton published the book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", in which he told the world that nature has laws, and all natural laws can be described in mathematical language. Nobel laureate Yang Zhenning once said that if you have to find a sign for the birth of science, then in 1687, Newton published "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", which is a sign of the emergence of science.

Two years after the birth of science, in 1689 (the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty), the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar was signed. Kangxi was one of the rare Chinese emperors who did not oppose Western studies, he rehabilitated John Tang, he asked missionaries to be teachers, he even knew how to treat malaria with cinchona cream, but he still knew nothing about modern Western natural science (there is a saying that Kangxi studied calculus, but only for himself, not folk studies, because he was afraid that the people's hearts would be tempted by foreign ideas). If at this time, there can be a Tang monk to learn the scriptures and go to the West, perhaps there is still hope for China. Originally, "Xiucai did not go out, he knew the affairs of the world", but unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty's juzi knew nothing about the West except for knowing the Four Books and Five Classics, promoting officials and getting rich. After that, an even worse situation arose, and in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), the Yongzheng Emperor ordered the expulsion of the missionaries, and China completely lost contact with the West.

In 1776, Watt built the first steam engine with practical value, and in 1776, Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" was published, technology and capital met, and the Industrial Revolution occurred in the West, leaving China far behind. These are still not terrible, the terrible is that China still knows nothing about this, remember, 1776 is the forty-first year of the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty.

In the fifty-eighth year of Qianlong (1793), 18 years after the invention of the Watt steam engine, China ushered in the last opportunity to change its historical destiny. King George appointed Magalhany as ambassador to Visit China, hoping to establish diplomatic relations and trade with China. The Magurni mission brought more than 600 boxes of gifts as a birthday gift to the Qianlong Emperor. Many of these gifts are quite meaningful, such as the British's intention to show china that its technology is advanced and powerful, and they show the model of the "Monarch" battleship, which was the largest british warship at that time and equipped with 110 guns of the largest caliber, and various exquisite scientific instruments. However, the Qianlong Emperor was quite dismissive, thinking that these were all magic acrobatics of overseas Fan states similar to witchcraft and magic. And the Envoys were just traveling thousands of miles to send tributes to show their tribute to the Great Qing Dynasty. Qianlong did not see the advanced technology of the West from the gifts, but on the contrary, he always wondered why the Envoy did not kneel when he saw the Emperor of the Heavenly Dynasty, which did not conform to the style of the Heavenly Dynasty. Qianlong, from the perspective of the whole history of China, can not be regarded as a dark king, he told the British envoy Magorney, China is a heavenly kingdom, do not need foreign commodities to be self-sufficient, we ourselves do not have the need for equal trade. As for you foreigners who want to have equal diplomatic relations, it is even more arrogant, you Are English to me to be a vassal of the Qing Dynasty, I can reward you, if you do not agree, then get out of the egg as soon as possible, so you ordered the expulsion of foreigners, leaving only the Port of Guangzhou for trade.

There are many reasons why China has suffered a century of humiliation in modern times, and it is definitely an important reason to stand still.