According to the seven political instruments and related literature existing in the Forbidden City, the seven political instruments were Western astronomical instruments brought into China by missionaries, and their main function was to be able to demonstrate the celestial operation mode of the heliocentric theory, and was an important physical evidence of the introduction of heliocentricism into China during the Qianlong period.
In the Zhengda Guangming Hall of the Yuanmingyuan, a large seven-party ceremony brought by the British Magarni mission was placed, but unfortunately it was later burned down by the British and French forces.
Copernicus
The Theory of Celestial Motion, published before Copernicus's deathbed, moved the earth away from the center of the universe, placed the sun in the center of the universe, and made a clear and well-documented rigorous mathematical argument and quantitative description of the overall structure of the universe, the laws of motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets, and the phenomena of their apparent motion on the celestial sphere.
In order to avoid the repression of the Church and the attacks of believers in Aristotle's crystal ball theory and the Ptolemaic geocentric system, Copernicus wrote to his old friend A. On July 1, 1540. Osiander discussed finding a proper method of publishing. Ossandell suggested that the heliocentric geokinetic theory be proposed as a hypothesis, stating that the heliocentric system was not the reality of the universe just to facilitate the extrapolation of the ephemeris. Copernicus did not approve of this statement in his heart, but it was a stopgap measure in the circumstances at that time.
Ossiandel, who was later in charge of the publication of The Theory of celestial motion, wrote an unsigned preface to the above proposal. This, coupled with Copernicus's publication of a dedication to Pope Paul III at the beginning of the Treatise on the Motion of the Celestial Bodies, resulted in the official publication of this monumental work before Copernicus's deathbed and went unnoticed by the Church of Rome for 70 years after its publication. It was only later, because Bruno and Galileo openly propagated the theory of heliocentric motion, that the Church of Rome listed the Theory of the Movement of the Celestial Bodies as a banned book in 1616.
Copper gilded Hun Tianhe Seven Political Instruments Qing Qianlong
After the Celestial Motion was banned in Europe, it was miraculously brought to China in 1620 by the hands of the Jesuit missionary Kinniko. This may have something to do with the missionary Deng Yuhan who came to China with the missionary Kinnige.
Deng Yuhan's scientific literacy is very high, and he once participated in the Roman Lynx Society, composed of scientists such as Galileo, engaged in scientific research and exchange activities. When Kinnigger collected books in Europe, Deng Yuhan helped in selecting scientific books. During his stay in China, Deng Yuhan also corresponded with Galileo and Kepler, and in a letter to Kepler, he mentioned the records of astrological phenomena in the Chinese Shang Shu YaoDian, and Kepler expressed his intention to assist Deng Yuhan in his astronomical work in January 1630. However, Deng Yuhan's death in Beijing in May of that year failed to spread modern scientific knowledge, which represented the highest level of modern science in Europe at that time, as early as possible in China.
Deng Yuhan
Although Copernicus's "Theory of Celestial Motion" was brought to China, and many of the materials and observations in the Book of Chongzhen were quoted in the compilation of the Chongzhen Almanac by Luo Yagu, Tang John, and others, which already talked about the theory of earth motion, but did not fully and clearly introduce Copernicus's heliocentric system.
In the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong (1760), the Jesuit missionary Jiang Youren (1714-1774, who came to China in 1744) presented a hand-painted "Kunyu Quantu" to the Qianlong Emperor, which was equipped with various astronomical maps and captions around the world map. After introducing the cosmic system of Ptolemaic and Trojan, Jiang Youren believes: "Although the above two families are desirable, they are not as good as the secrets of Copernicus. He then gave a more detailed introduction and demonstration of Copernicus's heliocentric system, and said that Kepler and Newton and others "all speak for themselves." The astronomical map depicts a schematic diagram of the Copernican heliocentric system, introduces Kepler's three laws of planetary motion, and the latest discovery by French geodesists to measure the Earth as an ellipsoid.
Jiang Youren
While the missionaries were translating Western astronomical theories, they also brought Western astronomical instruments into our country. Among these instruments are the sundial, the simple flat instrument and the telescope for observation, as well as the armillary sphere for demonstrating the movement of celestial bodies and the seven-political instrument for demonstrating the Copernican heliocentric system.
The copper-plated Seven Political Instruments and the Copper-plated Hun Tianhe Seven Political Instruments (both made in britain in the 18th century) now in the Collection of the Forbidden City are important physical evidence for the spread of heliocentrism in China. They were introduced to the Qing Palace before 1759. The "Seven Policies" refer to the sun, the moon and the five planets of water, metal, fire, wood and earth. The seven political instruments can demonstrate the movement of the earth and planets around the sun, Jupiter and Saturn have moons around, after opening the clockwork, the planets and moons are running in their respective orbits, which can demonstrate planetary positions, moon phases, solar eclipses and other celestial phenomena.
In the "Imperial Ceremonial Instrument Schema", it is said: "The seven political instruments of the dynasty system are cast in bronze, with a diameter of one foot six inches and five minutes, and a height of two feet and five inches." "The function of the Hun Tianhe Seven Political Instruments is similar to that of the Seven Political Instruments, except that there is no gear device and can only be demonstrated manually. However, at the beginning of the spread of the heliocentric theory, the Kunyu Quantu and these two seven political instruments were only limited to the upper class within the court and were not widely circulated among the people.
There is also a large celestial orbiter, which was donated to the Qianlong Emperor by the British Magarni Mission in 1793, but unfortunately failed to survive, and was burned down by the British and French forces in the Yuanmingyuan in 1860. In the book Stagnant Empire, the instrument is described as follows: "Celestial orbiter, which represents the universe, and the earth is only one point of it. This is the product of the best combination of astronomy and mechanics. The instrument accurately mimics the various movements of the Earth, the movement of the Moon around the Earth; from the instrument, the orbit of the Sun, Jupiter with four moons, Saturn with aperture and moons, and so on. The celestial orbiter can finally simulate the erosion, union and opposition of celestial bodies. It indicates the exact month, week, day, hour, and minute at which people observe. The instrument is the most exquisite in Europe, and it is designed to operate as a celestial body for a thousand years. ”
It can be understood that the celestial body running instrument is similar to the above-mentioned seven political instruments, a large solar system instrument that demonstrates the operation of the solar system, and it is huge: about one zhang around it, one zhang five feet high, and the book "Stagnant Empire" says that it took 18 days to install this instrument, but it did not get the attention of the Qianlong Emperor.
Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor
In 1799, on the orders of the Qianlong Emperor, the captions in the Kunyu Quantu were edited by He Guozong and Qian Daxin, and published in the name of "Earth Illustration". Qian Daxin asked Ruan Yuan to write a preface to the "Illustration of the Earth", in which Ruan Yuan believed in the geocentric theory that "the earth is spherical and dwells in the sky", and warned the reader that heliocentric theory of Copernicus "does not have to like its new and zongzhi".
When the Western geometric model-style universe system was introduced to China, the vast majority of Chinese scholars regarded it as a computational method, just like the traditional Chinese algebraic method. Qian Daxin said a very representative passage in the "Book of Dai Dongyuan": "The average wheel of this round is an illusion, and now it has been discarded, and do not create the rate of ovals, the ellipse is also an illusion, but if the calculation of the eclipse is accurate with the test, then the size of the wheel can be said, and the oval can also be said." It can be seen from this that Chinese scholars in the Qing Dynasty have not yet truly understood the value and significance of the heliocentric system established by Copernicus and Kepler in the history of human cognition.
If the geometric system from Ptolemy to Tycho was used as a mathematical model to calculate the laws of the movement of the sun and moon planets, then in Copernicus's heliocentric theory and Kepler's three laws of planetary motion, for the first time, human beings have placed the sun, earth and other planets in their actual positions in the universe through rigorous observation and argumentation.
The heliocentric system, perfected by Kepler, is no longer just a mathematical model of geometry, but truly depicts a real picture of the solar system in the universe. Its significance was also something that many Chinese scholars who advocated "the source of Western learning" at that time could not recognize, and even more so that the Qianlong Emperor could not understand.
No matter how imaginative Ossandell was, he could not have imagined that when Copernicus's heliocentric theory first entered China, Chinese scholars' understanding of Copernicus's heliocentric system was exactly the same as his convenient statement in the preface to the "Theory of celestial motion", which is really a historical coincidence. It was not until 1849, when the Qing Dynasty scholar Li Shanlan and the British missionary Wei Lieali co-translated the Astronomical Compendium of the British astronomer John Herschel that the truth of the Copernican heliocentric system was truly revealed to Chinese.
[Source]
Beijing Old Summer Palace Research Association
[Author]
Xiao Jun
[edit]
Zhu Ying