In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Scientific Revolution in Europe was in full swing, and the Kangxi Era coincided with its heyday. The Kangxi Emperor himself was passionate about science, and in the context of the globalization of science, how science developed in China at that time, and what role the emperor played in it, this is exactly the question we want to explore.
The scientific activities of the Qing court were closely related to French scientists and scientific institutions, especially the Royal Academy of Sciences in France, which was the most important scientific institution in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In China, the Mengyang Zhai Arithmetic Academy, founded in 1713 in Changchun Garden (next to the current West Gate of Peking University), was a very important scientific institution in the Kangxi Era. The two institutions are related to a certain extent, and we will start by introducing the institutions, taking the scientific exchanges between France and China at that time as an opportunity to look at the modernization of Chinese science in the Kangxi era.
When the Western missionary needs met the studious Kangxi Emperor
The Royal French Academy of Sciences was founded in 1666 with the support of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, who hired important European scientists such as Christiaan Huygens of the Netherlands and Giovanni Domenico Cassini of Italy as academicians of the Academy of Sciences. An important figure in the Academy of Sciences was the President, and the King designated it by Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon, who had many contacts with missionaries who came to China. Another central figure is the permanent secretary in charge of organizing the activities of the Academy of Sciences, three of which are related to China, such as Bernard LeBovier de Fontenelle, who lived to be nearly 100 years old, who had some contacts with Chinese Jesuits, Jean-Jacques Dortousde Mairan, and Jesuits in Beijing, such as Dominique, who had translated for the Kangxi emperor and the Yongzheng Emperor Parrenin) is more in contact. In addition to the President, permanent secretaries and paid academicians, the Royal French Academy of Sciences also has corresponding academicians, mainly to provide relevant scientific information to the Academy of Sciences. The Academy of Sciences also meets regularly and runs a variety of periodicals.
In 1683, Colbert, who was directly in charge of the establishment of the Academy of Sciences, died, and the Academy's subsequent dealings with China were carried out by two of its ministers, one of whom was Marquis de Louvois. After the establishment of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the Paris Observatory was established in France in 1666. Astronomical observation was a very important activity of the Royal Academy of Sciences at that time, including solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and observations of Jupiter's moons. Ganymede's observations were very important, one of Cassini's most important astronomical achievements. At that time, the map of France was not precise, and one of the tasks of Cassini and others was to measure the latitude and longitude of various places and make a new map of France accordingly. Latitude is relatively easy to measure and can be known based on the altitude of the North Pole. The measurement of longitude is more complicated, Cassini made ganymede watches, a big function is to determine longitude. In the Kangxi dynasty, geodesy borrowed Cassini's ganymede watch.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Jesuits were the main body of scientific and cultural exchanges between China and the West, such as Matteo Ricci, John Tang, and Nan Huairen, who had a great influence on China, and they brought knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and other disciplines from Europe. The reason why the Jesuits were interested in science was because they held the belief of "more and more glory", and used science as an important means to explore nature and explore science, so as to prove the greatness of God and add glory to God, so science played a very important role in their activities.
Kangxi experienced Yang Guangxian's anti-teaching case in his early years, and John Tang was involved, and Kangxi's interest in science had a lot to do with this anti-teaching case. John Tang was a missionary from Germany who served as a superintendent in the Qintian Prison. During the Shunzhi period, the Shunzhi Emperor had a very good relationship with John Tang, often going to the church (that is, today's South Church) to see John Tang, and in 1664 Yang Guangxian opposed Catholicism for various reasons, and Tang John and others were imprisoned. Four or five years later, Kangxi sent people to the church to find missionaries to find out whether Western astronomy was advanced. The Belgian Jesuit Nan Huairen took the opportunity to overturn Yang Guangxian's anti-teaching case, and an important means was to use solar shadow observation to determine whether the traditional method was better or the Western method. The results of the shadow measurements showed that the Western law was better than the traditional calendar, and the missionaries were reused again, and Nam Huai-jin recorded this in detail in his "Chronicle of the Examination of the New Calendar of the King".
The "Aphorisms of the Court Training", compiled by the third son of the Kangxi Emperor Yin Zhi and the Yongzheng Emperor, mainly records some conversations between the Kangxi Emperor and his sons, including the following passage: "Er waited only to know the essence of arithmetic, but did not know why I learned to calculate." When he was young, the Qin Tianjian Han officials and the Westerners were not at peace, and they impeached each other, almost to the great extent. Yang Guangxian and Tang Ruowang saw the shadow of the sun in front of Jiuqing outside the noon gate, and none of them knew the law of Nai Jiuqing. Thinking about oneself does not know, he can judge the right and wrong of others, and learn from self-anger. From this, we can see the reason why Kangxi studied Western astronomy and almanac. The scientific dissemination of the Kangxi era can be roughly divided into two stages, one is the Nan Huairen era, that is, the nearly 20 years from the victory of Nan Huairen after Yang Guangxian's anti-teaching case in 1669 to the death of Nan Huairen in 1688 can be classified as the first period; The second period was about 30 years between the death of Nan Huairen in 1688 and the first arrival of the French king mathematicians in China, between 1722. Of course, this period can be marked by the establishment of the Mengyang Zhai in Changchun Garden by Kangxi in 1713, and then subdivided into two stages.
After the end of the anti-teaching case, Nan Huairen compiled many books, such as the "Lingtai Yixiangzhi", and also built some instruments, most of which are still preserved in the ancient observatory next to the Beijing Railway Station today. Nan Huairen taught the Kangxi Emperor some Western astronomy and geography knowledge, and also wrote a book on local science, introducing the humanities, history, and geography of Europe, and also compiled the "KunYu Quantu", which was preserved in the Xujiahui Library in Shanghai. The Kunyu Quantu is a map of the world, which depicts many rare animals from all over the world, in part to satisfy Kangxi's interest, which can be corresponded to Nan Huairen's related letters, which proves that Kangxi has begun to be very interested in some natural phenomena and new things at that time. In addition, Kangxi once wrote the Compilation of Several Qualities, that is, a book on the observation of natural phenomena written by The Leisure of Major Events in Governing the Country.
In the early 1680s, another Belgian Jesuit, Antoine Thomas, came to China. Before coming to China, his mathematical level was already very high, publishing the Latin book Synopsis Mathematica in Portugal, and he later became Kangxi's mathematics teacher, and translated the mathematical content of the Mathematical Outline into the "General Outline of Algorithms", which was actually Kangxi's mathematics textbook. Since then, Kangxi has had a keen interest in science.
In 1685, King Louis XIV of France sent six "king mathematicians" to China, except for one who stayed in Siam (Thailand), five of whom came to China with their own strengths: Jean de Fontaney, the president, was a little older and had a very high degree of astronomy, and had published some astronomical works before coming to China; Bai Jin (Joachim Bouvet), who later taught Kangxi and had more contact with Leibniz; Jean-Fran□ Gerbillon), translator during the negotiation of the Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar; Claude de Visdelou was a linguist; Louisle Comte is well versed in natural history. According to the official French documents at that time, there were three main reasons for the "king mathematicians" to come to China: First, for the glory of the king and the interests of the country, in order to expand overseas hegemony and conduct overseas trade; Second, at that time, many scientific institutions were established in France, in order to promote scientific progress, especially for the development of astronomy and art; Third, in order to spread Catholicism. Prior to this, because of the reasons of the right of apology, many missionaries had to obtain the consent of the King of Portugal before they could take the Portuguese ship to China, and this time the French, in the name of the "King Mathematician", drove their own ship to China, which had a different meaning.
In 1678, in view of the small number of missionaries in China, endangering the missionary cause, Nan Huairen wrote a letter in Latin, engraved and printed many copies, and sent them to various Institutions in Europe, missionaries, and some important figures, with the purpose of recruiting more missionaries to China, equivalent to the Book of Jesuits in Europe, the impact of this letter was very large, and it was responded to by Europeans, the French Jesuits were sent to China, and Nan Huairen's letters were an important factor.
Here's a little episode worth noting: Philippe Couplet, the Belgian Jesuit, was sent to Europe in the 1680s, and his mission was to recruit Jesuits in Europe. The impact of Bai Yingli's trip in Europe at that time was very large, and he had contacts with Louis XIV and some important scholars, and when he went to Europe, he also brought a Nanjing man named Shen Fuzong. Some works of art, such as paintings at that time, reflected that Shen Fuzong's visit to Europe aroused the curiosity of many Europeans. In September 1684, Louis XIV hosted a banquet at the Palace of Versailles. The Paris press also recorded Shen Fuzong's journey to versailles, in which it is said that Father Berth lived in China for 24 years, managed the Chinese believers in 60 cathedrals, spoke French, and brought Chinese Shen Mier to speak some Latin, and they went to Versailles to greet the king. While in Paris, Bai Yingli and Shen Fuzong also had contacts with the "King Mathematician" who was about to go to China.
The relevant meeting minutes in the existing archives of the French Academy of Sciences show that Cassini, astronomer Royal of the Paris Observatory, Philippedela Hire, Hong Ruo and three other Jesuits were invited to the Academy of Sciences on the same day, and the Academy of Sciences gave them the journal of the Royal Academy of Sciences and told them what observations they should make after arriving in China, etc. It can be seen that the scientific mission of the Jesuits in China can be seen. In 1684, Hong Ruo, Bai Jin and four others were appointed corresponding academicians of the Academy of Sciences. In 1699, there was an important reform in the French Academy of Sciences, and some missionaries were appointed corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences, and these missionaries who became academicians had the obligation to undertake some scientific activities for the Academy of Sciences, which was equivalent to formulating a mechanism for mutual interaction.
King mathematician of Louis XIV, teacher of Western studies of Kangxi
On March 3, 1685, the "King Mathematician" set out from the military port of Brest, France. Departing from the military port means that the dispatch of the "King's Mathematician" is an act of the French government, supported by the state. The "King Mathematicians" traveled to Beijing via Siam and Ningbo, while missionaries had previously come to China from Lisbon to Goa to Macau. Their trip was written in the diary by several people on the same boat, from which they could learn about some of the activities on the ship at that time. One of the clergy wrote: "We should take advantage of the opportunity of these six priests to study astronomy with us, and they will all be like Nan Huairen in China." At that time, Nan Huairen was already serving as the "director of the Royal Observatory" in Qin Tianjian, the Qin Tianjian Supervisor, and the cleric felt that in the future, the six king mathematicians would also become very important figures in Beijing. The diary reflects the expectations of his contemporaries for the "King Mathematician." The time on board was long and boring, providing the missionaries with plenty of time to learn from each other. The priest's diary also wrote: On this day (May 8, 1685), Hong Ruo gave us a lesson on celestial bodies, and when he became a high official, a red man in front of the Chinese emperor, I can say that he taught me about the movement of celestial bodies on Sunday. However, despite Hong Ruo's high level, because the Portuguese were already in control of missionary activities in China at that time, the French could not hold important positions in the court, so his scientific talents could not be used.
A manuscript I found in France shows that French missionaries have been making some observations along the way, including astronomy and physics. The manuscript was given to the Academy of Sciences by missionaries in China. The collected Chinese Books of the Jesuits, which is now published, contains some letters written by Hong Ruo in 1702 and 1703. Before going to the palace, Hong Ruo and others stayed in Ningbo for several months, during which they wrote a large number of letters, through which their communication network can be seen - many letters were sent to the Academy of Sciences, such as Hong Ruo's letter asking the people of the Academy of Sciences to impart wisdom, let the members of the Academy of Sciences explain in detail what they particularly needed, and send some demonstrations, and at the same time asked the Academy of Sciences to appoint correspondents for five people to guide the work on behalf of the Academy of Sciences, and at the same time to provide advice when the five people encountered difficulties and questions. Hong Ruo also said: "Under such conditions, I hope that the Chinese Academy of Sciences will gradually improve, which will make you very satisfied." The so-called Chinese Academy of Sciences is actually an institution composed of their group of missionaries, providing some scientific data for the Royal French Academy of Sciences, from which it can be seen that there are some situations between the Academy of Sciences and the missionaries to China, the "King Mathematician". Hong Ruo's letter to Cassini in 1687 expressed his desire for more astronomical instruments, and later a large number of astronomical instruments were sent to the court, and many of the kangxi-era scientific instruments preserved in the Forbidden City in Beijing were brought or sent from France at that time.
The inscription in the "Final Case of the Xi Dynasty" preserved by the French National Library in Paris says that the inspector of Zhejiang, Jin Feng, sent a report to the emperor, saying that the Westerner Hong Ruo and five other people had arrived in Zhejiang from Siam on the ship of the Guangdong merchant Wang Huashi, hoping to visit his fellow believers in Suzhou and Hangzhou, such as Ken Rongliu, who was willing to live in the interior for a long time, and so on. Later, Kangxi issued an edict inviting some of them who knew astronomy to come to Beijing. For this reason, Nan Huairen tried his best to mediate, and his contribution was indispensable, but before the "King Mathematician" arrived in Beijing, Nan Huairen died. On February 7, 1688, the "King Mathematicians" came to Beijing, and Kangxi then summoned them at the Qianqing Palace. At that time, the Songshu recorded some scenes of Kangxi receiving the "king mathematician": they brought 30 boxes of gifts, including a celestial instrument, a seat, an elephant apparatus and a dual imaging apparatus (which should refer to a microscope), a clairvoyant, etc., as well as 6 boxes of "astronomical scriptures", 5 Western geographical maps, and a small box of magnets. These gifts were the more advanced scientific instruments in Europe at that time, one of which was invented by the Danish astronomer Ole R. Luomer, which is specifically recorded in The Biography of the Kangxi Emperor written by Bai Jin, a Danish astronomer who was the first person to measure the speed of light. After the Kangxi Emperor summoned five people, he left Bai Jin and Zhang Cheng by his side, and the other three went to other places to preach.
In addition to sending "king mathematicians" to China by sea, Louis XIV also intended to send missionaries to China by land, but when passing through Russia without the permission of the Tsar, the missionaries were repatriated to China without success. Although the overland group did not go to China, they wrote a book about their travels, which included a letter from King Louis XIV to the Kangxi Emperor. The letter, written in August 1688, is a one-sentence, very long letter, translated into Chinese:
"Your Majesty the Supreme, the Most Illustrious, the Most Powerful, the Most Magnanimous, the Most Magnanimous, and our very close and good friends, may God add to your greatness and wish you a better future; we honor Your Majesty's urgent need to gather around you, in your territory, a group of erudites well versed in European science, and for this reason we decided a few years ago to send six mathematicians, our subjects, to show His Majesty the wonders of science, especially the astronomical observations of the famous Royal Academy of Sciences, built in our beautiful city of Paris But the sea has separated our two countries, which, because of the long sea, is extremely prone to accidents, and it is difficult to reach your country without going through all kinds of dangers and long journeys; therefore, in order to satisfy His Majesty, we have conceived this plan, and out of respect and friendship we undertake to send more Jesuit mathematicians, together with Count Syri, by the nearest and safest land route to His Majesty,who may be the first to arrive around His Majesty, when Count Syri returns, We will have a real understanding of His Majesty's extraordinary and honorable life. ”
Unfortunately, this letter of state did not reach the hands of the Kangxi Emperor.
The French Jesuit "King Mathematician" carried out a lot of scientific activities after coming to China. Bai Jin was later sent by Kangxi to recruit another group of people to France; After that, Hong Ruo also brought a group of people to China. Around 1700, many French people came to Beijing, and at that time a large part of the scientific activity in China was done by them.
During the two years after the "King Mathematician" arrived in Beijing, the Kangxi Emperor studied very diligently with the missionaries, giving classes two or three times a week. The Biography of the Kangxi Emperor, the Diary of Zhang Cheng, and the unpublished Diary of Bai Jin show the general situation of many scientific activities from 1689 to 1691, as well as the details of Kangxi's study of mathematics with missionaries.
The court was taught by the Frenchman Bai Jin and Zhang Cheng, as well as two Jesuit priests, the Portuguese Tomás Pereira and the Belgian Amdo, who took turns teaching mathematics to the Kangxi Emperor. The teachings at that time came mainly from two books: the mathematics textbook of the Jesuit college where Hong Ruo worked, Ignace Gaston Pardies' Geometric Primitives, and Amdo's own Compendium of Mathematics. Between 1689 and 1691, Kangxi studied a lot of Western science. Through the records and some Qing anthologies, it can be found that the purpose of Kangxi's study was to control the Han people with science and use it for showmanship. Because of the long-standing Manchu-Han dispute, the pacification of San Francisco and the unification of Taiwan in 1681 and 1683, but there were still great contradictions between the Han and the Manchus, so Kangxi has been trying to improve the status of the Manchus with Western learning.
Here's an example: On February 2, 1692, a very cold day in the first lunar month, Kangxi summoned his ministers at Qianqing Gate to observe the shadow of the sun. Generally, the Kangxi Emperor summoned his ministers to talk about major state affairs, but it was rare to talk to a group of ministers about scientific issues during the Spring Festival. Interestingly, the grandson of the famous late Ming thinker Fang Yizhi, a mathematician at the time, was also summoned, which is very unthinkable, apparently a deliberate arrangement of the Kangxi Emperor. Kangxi talked a lot about it at that time, such as the relationship between rhythm and mathematics, the size of pi, how to observe the shadow of the sun, and how long the shadow of the sun at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, where it would go, and so on. While observing the shadow of the sun, let a group of Manchu ministers and mathematicians gather around. At noon, when the sun shadow did reach the point predicted by Kangxi, the ministers began to praise the Kangxi Emperor, which is vividly recorded in the Records of the Holy Ancestors. Wang Xi, a minister present at the time, also recorded that he said that on that day, he was "summoned to Qianqingmen, together with Man Han Zhengqing and Hanlin Palm Scholars, to observe the calendar of the Law of Fortune telling, and to order the good fortune teller to calculate the Nine Chapters and other laws in front of the imperial court", and then measured the horizontal sundial, and began to come out in the afternoon. After Kangxi finished speaking, the ministers said: "If you follow the hadith, you will never hear it, see what you have never seen, and be more than celebratory." The minister Zhang Yushu also said: "Retreat to the surprise, Shen Yan used to be shallow in learning, and keep his words, without knowing that he was confused." It can be seen that the minister present at that time was very stimulated, and later suggested that some scientific books should be compiled.
At that time, because of insufficient talent, arithmetic institutions were not established. Later, in order to cater to the Kangxi Emperor, Li Guangdi, Mei Wending and others recruited some young people to study mathematics in Baoding, laying the foundation for the establishment of arithmetic institutions.
The Jesuits helped the Kangxi Emperor build cannons, build calendars, negotiate with Russia, and the missionaries also cured Kangxi of malaria with quinine (cinchona cream), in return, Kangxi issued a "new decree" in 1692, allowing the missionaries to preach in China, which made the missionaries very excited, they wrote a book about Kangxi's edict.
I can't walk out of the Western science of the Mengyangzhai Arithmetic Academy
After 1705, Kangxi's friendly attitude toward missionaries changed, an important reason for which the Holy See sent an envoy, Doro, to China to prohibit Chinese ancestor worship. After Doro arrived in Beijing, Kangxi was very friendly to him at first, but when he learned of his purpose of coming to China, Kangxi was very annoyed. According to Li Guangdi's records, Kangxi once summoned Li Guangdi and Xiong Zhilu to the palace and told them a passage - the Kangxi Emperor said: Do you know that the Westerners are now gradually becoming strange and scolding Confucius, so I treat them well, but only to use their skills; If you go outside in the future, you will tell some of my attitude to the local officials. It can be seen here that the main reason kangxi used missionaries was that they had a skill in astronomical calendars, artillery, etc., but Doro came to China to forbid the worship of ancestors and sacrifices, causing Kangxi to change his attitude toward missionaries.
Of course, there were other events that also influenced Kangxi's attitude, such as the observation of the sun's shadow on the summer solstice of 1711. At that time, Kangxi discovered that some of Qin Tianjian's algorithms were wrong, and Kangxi had always thought that there was no problem with Western law. There is a record in the "Records of Reality" that the Kangxi Emperor said that "the new law is calculated, and there must be no reason for error." However, the observation of the sun's shadow in the summer solstice of 1711 made Kangxi feel that the method of Qin Tianjian was wrong, and the result was that Kangxi not only distrusted the religious aspects of the missionaries, but also doubted Western science.
All of the above led to the establishment of the Mengyangzhai Arithmetic Museum around 1713 by the Kangxi Dynasty. In fact, two missionaries introduced the French Academy of Sciences to the Kangxi Emperor, and the French missionary Jean-Fran □ois Foucquet specifically mentioned that the "Rich and Gian-Fil-A" (i.e., the French Royal Academy of Sciences) would discuss some astronomical issues; Bai Jin also told the Kangxi Emperor that one of the purposes of their coming to China was to collect some scientific materials, and he mentioned the "astronomical palaces and other academic palaces", the astronomical palace actually refers to the Paris Observatory, and the palace of gewu is the Royal Academy of Sciences. It can be said that the establishment of the Mengyangzhai Arithmetic Institute was to a certain extent due to political considerations--the ultimate purpose of learning Western studies is to get rid of the monopoly of Science by Westerners.
In 1713, when the Mengyangzhai Arithmetic Museum was completed, Kangxi put his third son, Prince Cheng, in charge of related activities, and selected more than 300 people from all over the country, and after examination, selected 72 to work in Mengyangzhai. Working in Mengyangzhai included Mei Wending's grandson Mei Yancheng, the Mongolian mathematician Ming Antu, the important figure of the Tongcheng school Fang Bao, and some students of Li Guangdi, a large number of young people of all nationalities who understood astronomy and mathematics. There are also many missionaries working in the Mengyangzhai Arithmetic Academy, such as Pierre Jartoux, Fu Shengze, Franz Thilisch, Kilian Stumpf, Bai Jin, etc.
There are many scientific observation activities in Mengyangzhai, including measuring the yellow and red angles in Changchun Garden, and also measuring latitude and longitude throughout the country. It can be seen that many of the scientific activities of the Meng Yang Zhai at that time imitated the practice of the French Academy of Sciences. Meng Yangzhai also compiled many almanac books, such as the "Origin of the Vinaya Calendar", including "The Essence of Mathematics", "Qin ruo Almanac" and "Vinaya Justice", which involved three aspects: mathematics, astronomy and music.
At that time, the content of Western science to China was still relatively new, and the arithmetic aspect included the borrowing root square algorithm, which was actually algebra; The English mathematician Henry Briggs on logarithmic representation; The book "The New Law of Algebala", an introduction to algebraic notation, and the series expansion related to calculus. Although there were a large number of missionaries serving the Kangxi Emperor in the court, science did not spread as one might think, and fewer books were published than expected. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi introduced many books in a short period of time, but during the reign of Kangxi, for a longer period of time, although there were more manpower (missionaries and Chinese) and material resources, the total number of books could not be compared with Xu Guangqi's era. It can be seen that Kangxi actually used science as part of the art of power.
Poor scientific dissemination was also related to imperial power, and Kangxi let his son lead scientific activities, so many activities were controlled by the crown prince and his officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and science became an important part of power. In addition, internal debates among missionaries also hindered the spread of science, for example, some missionaries did not want to introduce more advanced things, such as Copernicus's heliocentric system, and when other missionaries wanted to introduce it, they were opposed.
In addition, the Kangxi Emperor arbitrarily praised and disparaged the content of Western learning, he learned the borrowing root square algorithm, he felt that this was very useful, and later Fu Shengze wanted to introduce his more abstract symbolic algebra, the Kangxi Emperor did not understand, and therefore issued an edict commenting: "There is also a speaker A multiplied by A, B multiplied by B, there is no total number, that is, multiplying out I don't know how much, it seems that I want to be this person's algorithm Ping Pinger." Because Kangxi said something disparaging, some of the books translated by the missionaries did not go unpublished.
It can be said that the Kangxi era had a good opportunity for scientific development: a large number of missionaries were active in China, in addition, European scientists such as the German mathematician Leibniz, through missionaries, wanted to establish contact with China and even with the emperor himself; The French Academy of Sciences also hoped to have some scientific exchanges with China through missionaries, but in fact this good opportunity was missed. What came in at that time was basically some knowledge about the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses, because it was very important to the emperor - if a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse occurred, the emperor had to reflect, so the prediction should be accurate. Therefore, many of the introductions are basically practical knowledge, and many of the leading scientific works of Kepler, Cassini and others have been introduced but not published. It is deeply regrettable that a large number of new scientific knowledge did not spread rapidly at that time.
Another big reason for the missed opportunity was that Yongzheng after the Kangxi Dynasty did not like Western missionaries and began to strictly ban Catholicism after he ascended the throne in 1723; In addition, the third son of the Emperor, who was very knowledgeable about Western science and had a good relationship with Yongzheng, was no longer valued, and the scientific activities of the Mengyangzhai Arithmetic Academy, which he was in charge of, were eventually discontinued. So how to evaluate the role of the Kangxi Emperor in scientific activities? I personally believe that he himself had a certain degree of scientific literacy, did import some Western things, and had an important impact on the development of Science in China in the 18th and 19th centuries; But his role in the development of science at that time was very limited, because on many occasions Kangxi only used science as a means of domination, elevating the academic status of himself and the Manchus, in order to suppress and control the Han people whose academic tradition was obviously deep. Therefore, Kangxi's request was not a systematic scientific novelty, so that some advanced scientific content would have to wait twenty or thirty years after it was introduced, for example, the Geometric Primitives had been translated around 1690 and not published until 1722--if it had been published earlier and let everyone know earlier, the situation might have been completely different. From the records left by the missionaries, it can be seen that Kangxi did not want to let his subordinates know in time about the scientific content disseminated in the court. The missionary once said in a letter: Kangxi summoned him to the palace in a certain month of a certain year to translate the things of algebra, and the emperor told him not to tell others after these things were translated. It can be seen that Kangxi actually wanted to "leave a hand", he did not want to immediately spread the new scientific knowledge that was disseminated to the public, his purpose was to monopolize science as his own selfishness, and he could show off in front of the ministers and Han people to improve his authority.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the popular "Western learning in the source" view in the Kangxi era, that many new things in western learning were actually transmitted from China, this blind and arrogant view actually hindered the spread of science. This involves the study of the I Ching conducted by Bai Jin at that time - an important reason for Kangxi's idea is that Bai Jin believed that the content of the I Ching was similar to binary and Leibniz's research, and Kangxi was influenced by Bai Jin and other missionaries to further deduce the "source of Western learning". This concept undoubtedly makes the study of New Knowledge of Western Science lack the humility and study that should be deserved, which is bound to hinder the further dissemination and development of science in China. Therefore, in general, in the process of scientific modernization in China, Kangxi may have objectively promoted the development of science, but more often it hindered the timely dissemination of scientific new knowledge, so that the real modernization of Chinese science was delayed until after the Opium War.
The author han qi is a researcher and deputy director of the academic committee of the Institute of Natural Science History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a doctoral supervisor, a professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a member of the Academic Committee of the Christian Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an academic member of the Research Center for Religion and Chinese Society at Chongji College of the University of Chinese, Hong Kong, and a member of the Academic Committee of the Matteo Ricci Institute of Chinese and Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco.
His main research areas are the history of Chinese science, including the history of mathematics in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the history of astronomy in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the history of printing in China, and the history of scientific society. The history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially the history of Sino-foreign scientific and technological and cultural relations; History of Catholicism in the Ming and Qing dynasties, etc. He is the author or co-author of "The Western Transmission of Chinese Science and Technology and Its Influence (1582-1793)", "Compilation of Catholic Documents of the Yongzheng Qianlong Dynasty in Europe", "History of Printing in China" and other monographs. He has been invited to visit the United States, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Poland and other countries, and has published more than 80 academic papers in four languages, such as "Gewu Poor Institution and Mengyangzhai - Sino-French Scientific Exchanges in the 17th and 18th Centuries", "Scientific Activities of The French Jesuits of the Kangxi Dynasty in China", "Science, Knowledge and Power - The Observation of The Sun shadow and the role of Kangxi in the reform of the calendar", etc. In 2014, he was invited to give a 45-minute report at the 27th International Congress of Mathematicians.