Xu Guangqi saw the map of the world for the first time and knew for the first time that the earth was round

Xu Guangqi saw the map of the world for the first time and knew for the first time that the earth was round

Xu Guangqi was born in Shanghai in a merchant family, because of the robbery of the Wokou, the family road backward, turned to agriculture, but encountered a famine, the Xu family's life is even more embarrassing, growing up in such a family environment, so that Xu Guangqi from childhood to contact some specific production knowledge. Although the family was financially strapped, his parents tried their best to provide him with education. Under the teachings of his parents, Xu Guangqi also regarded the imperial examination as a ladder to his career.

In the ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1581 AD), the twenty-year-old Xu Guangqi won xiucai, but in the subsequent road of the imperial examination, it was a stumbling road. In order to make a living, he studied and taught in his hometown, and at the same time, participated in some agricultural production.

In the twenty-fifth year of the Wanli Calendar (1597 AD), Xu Guangqi went to Shuntianfu in Beijing to participate in the township examination. At first, his examination papers had been thrown aside by the examiner, who accidentally saw Xu Guangqi's examination papers from the "falling papers" and "struck the knots with admiration", saying that "this famous scholar is undoubtedly also", so he promoted Xu Guangqi as the first person to raise the exam.

However, after the middle lift, the next two examinations, Xu Guangqi fell in the first place. It was not until the thirty-second year of the Wanli Calendar (1604 AD) that Xu Guangqi finally passed the jinshi examination at the age of forty-two and was awarded the title of Shujishi of the Hanlin Academy.

Xu Guangqi's interests are quite extensive, especially he loves to read natural science books. In the twenty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar (1600 AD), he became acquainted with the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in Nanjing. Matteo Ricci's self-chiming bell, sundial, and other things aroused his keen interest in Western natural sciences. Since then, he has had the idea of translating Western science and technology books to improve the level of Chinese science and technology.

The first Western science and technology book translated by Xu Guangqi was the Geometric Primitives in collaboration with Matteo Ricci. When translating, it was dictated by Matteo Ricci and recorded by Xu Guangqi. Xu Guangqi paid hard labor for this. Because translation not only requires smooth writing, but also requires that some proper nouns be read and easy to understand under the premise of accurate meaning. The advent of the Chinese translation of the Primitive Geometry laid the foundation for mathematical research in the Qing Dynasty. Many of the nouns he translated are still in use today, such as points, lines, faces, right angles, and outer cuts. The word "geometry", which was originally a virtual word in Chinese, became a professional term after Xu Guangqi used it. Following the book "Geometric Origins", Xu Guangqi cooperated with Li Zhizao, Xiong Sanba and others to translate books such as "Tongwen Arithmetic Finger", "Taixi Water Law", "Measurement Law", etc.

In the forty-sixth year of the Wanli Calendar (1618 AD), after the Jin Dynasty broke Fushun, Xu Guangqi actively went up and suggested strengthening national defense. However, the constraints of various forces made Xu Guangqi feel that he was powerful and difficult to make, so he simply took a leave of absence to go home and write about the "kind of art" of the nature of the "Encyclopedia of Agriculture" that he had already planned to compile, which was the "Complete Book of Agricultural Politics" that was later written.

The book is divided into 60 volumes, with a total of 600,000 words, all of which involve agriculture at that time and the policies, systems, measures, agricultural tools, crop characteristics, technical knowledge, etc. related to agriculture. The book focuses on several items such as water conservancy and wasteland.

On the basis of summarizing the experience of his predecessors, Xu Guangqi proposed five water use methods, and this set of water use theories still has great reference value to this day. On the issue of preparing for and relieving famines, Xu Guangqi put prevention in the first place. In his book, he recorded more than 400 kinds of plants and wild vegetables, and the well detailed the edible parts of these plants and the specific methods of eating them. Many of these wild vegetables he also specifically noted that he had tasted. According to statistics, there are more than five kinds of wild vegetables and trees that he has tasted personally.

In order to eliminate the locust plague, Xu Guangqi also specially counted the time and place of the 110 locust plagues recorded in Chinese history, summed up the laws from them, and introduced the methods of catching locusts. The "Complete Book of Agricultural Politics" collected the essence of all the agricultural books at that time, and after its publication, it immediately attracted people's attention and was widely circulated. In addition, Xu Guangqi also has a good study of astronomical calendars. The Chongzhen Almanac at the end of the Ming Dynasty was completed under his supervision.

In the twenty-first year of the Wanli Calendar (1593 AD), Xu Guangqi was hired to teach in Shaozhou, and his first contact with the missionary Guo Jujing (L. Cattaneo) was in Shaozhou. In Guo Jujing's place, he saw a map of the world for the first time, knew that there was such a big world outside of China, heard for the first time that the earth was round, and there was a Westerner named Magellan who circled the earth in a boat, and for the first time heard that the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei had built an astronomical telescope that could clearly observe the movement of stars in the sky. All of this, for him, was unheard of. From then on, he began to come into contact with the natural sciences of modern Times in the West.

Xu Guangqi was a clean and honest official and lived a simple life, which was unimaginable in the family of officials and eunuchs at that time. The bigger Xu Guangqiguan does, the more low-key his handling of people is. On Xu Guangqi's seventieth birthday, according to the custom, officials, relatives and friends of all sizes had to send congratulatory gifts. Xu Guangqi had already written a letter to tell his juniors in his hometown of Shanghai that all the gifts sent would be thanked. It was the congratulatory gifts sent by his relatives and friends, and he politely declined. The children and grandchildren of Shanghai know the temper and character of the old man and do it correctly.

When Xu Guangqi was studying in the Hanlin Academy in his early years, there was such an incident, one day, when he got up in the morning to get dressed, he found that a garter belt could not be found, he did not alarm his classmates, and secretly replaced it with a strip of cloth. For more than a month, until his wife found out, she smiled and said, "No matter how little the salary of the Hanlin Academy is, it is not impossible to add a garter belt!" When you are so frugal that others see you, they will think that you are pretending. Xu Guangqi replied, "You! You know that nothing in the world is perfect. I don't lack anything now, winter clothes and summer shirts are complete, just missing a garter belt, as a small defect, I think it is just right, where is the pretense? Xu Guangqi looks a bit pedantic on the surface, but when he understands his inner thoughts, he will feel his inner noble personality charm.

(End of this article)