In terms of Chinese and Western cultural translation, Xu Guangqi and European missionaries exchanged and cooperated, in addition to the "Geometric Origin" that we are familiar with, in the Ming Dynasty more than four hundred years ago, he had already translated Aristotle's book "On the Soul", that is, Xu Guangqi's "Spiritual Words and Spoons". Li Tiangang, editor-in-chief of The Complete Works of Xu Guangqi, said in his lecture that Xu Guangqi "used the passages in the University and the Middle Way to translate Aristotle and explained Aquinasian theology in the terminology of Song Ming's theory." In addition, with the help of advanced European ideas, he also launched the "mathematical revolution", "calendar revolution", "agricultural revolution" and "military revolution" that have influenced the present day.
In terms of the "mathematical revolution", his greatest contribution was the translation of the first six volumes of the "Geometric Primitives" by Dangtui and Matteo Ricci, which greatly influenced the original mathematical learning and research habits in China, changed the direction of the development of Chinese mathematics; he also put forward the practical idea of "the study of degrees", discussed in detail the application of mathematics in the astronomical calendar, hydraulic engineering, sound law, weaponry and military engineering, accounting and financial management, various construction engineering, machinery manufacturing, public opinion surveying, medicine, manufacturing bells and leaks, and even suggested sub-disciplinary research.
In terms of the "calendar revolution", Xu Guangqi introduced the concept of a circular earth, introducing the concept of longitude and latitude; based on the Tycho star table and the traditional Chinese star catalog, the first all-day star map was introduced, which became the basis of the Qing Dynasty star catalog. In terms of calculation methods, the accurate formulas of spherical and planar trigonometry were introduced, and the parallax, mist difference and time difference were first corrected. The 24 hours we use every day to this day are from Xu Guangqi, who changed the "twelve hours" to "twenty-four hours".
In terms of the "agricultural revolution", Xu Guangqi is proficient in agronomy, and has authored the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", "Sweet Potato Shu", "Agricultural Relics and Miscellaneous", "Draft Agricultural Book", "Taixi Water Law", etc., covering all aspects of han agricultural production and people's lives in ancient China. In Li Tiangang's view, there are two aspects that have played a revolutionary role in China's agriculture: First, he actively promoted sweet potatoes, which greatly solved the problem of food and clothing for the ancient Chinese people and promoted the rapid development of the Chinese; on the other hand, he actively experimented with the planting of rice in the south and the north, trying to solve the problem of "grain diversion from the south to the north" and reduce the burden on the south.
In the aspect of "military revolution," he once put forward such military methods as "seeking the ultimate truth for backup," "making practical equipment for preparing for defensive battles at home and abroad," and "selecting and training elite troops to preserve victory." We must "seek refinement" and "be responsible." Xu Guangqi paid special attention to the manufacture and use of artillery weapons, constantly dredging up, hoping to introduce artillery manufacturing technology, and constantly exploring military ideas such as firearms and urban defense, firearms and sieges, firearms and infantry. He even corresponded with the Portuguese king and Cardinal Belamine, not only about religion, but also about science and the military; when the Manchus entered the customs, he hoped to import "red cannons" from Macau. Li Tiangang said in his lecture that after Dorgon entered the customs, he read the "Xu Shi's Sayings", saying that if Xu Guangqi was still alive, if the Chongzhen Emperor fully trusted Xu Guangqi, where could we still be allowed to enter the customs?
At that time, Xu Guangqi's generation sent "Chinese knowledge" to Europe and promoted the progress of global thought. He actively introduced and absorbed European science and technology, and made important contributions to the cultural exchanges between China and the West in the 17th century with erudite and pragmatic ideas and Sino-European cooperation, and was thus known as the first person in China's Sino-Western exchanges. Li Tiangang, editor-in-chief of the Complete Works of Xu Guangqi and professor of the Department of Religious Studies at the School of Philosophy of Fudan University, recently told the story of "How Xu Guangqi completely changed the lives of Chinese" in a lecture on "The First Person to Communicate with Chinese and Western Cultures: Xu Guangqi and Our Lives".
The following is a compilation of the text of the lecture, the content of the lecture has been abridged, authorized by the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House.
Xu Guangqi is "the first person to pass through Chinese and Western cultures", and he has had the privilege of misfortune in his life. He is the best Shanghainese in 400 years and the most remarkable Chinese. But in terms of this title, he has the time, place, and people, worthy of the "three talents". Tianshi refers to the era of "early globalization" 400 years ago; geographical advantage, referring to the fact that Shanghai was at the forefront of the times at that time; more importantly, he had "people".
Lin Zexu, the initiator of Modern Chinese History, was "the first person to open his eyes to the world." There is also a cruel saying behind "open your eyes and see the world", "Master Yi long skills to control Yi". The master said, "You are the one who dies and I live: if you can't eat me, I will steal the master's art and eat you." This is not "people and people", it is "people discord". This way of narrating modern history is a mentality of struggle. Whether it is the history of the Ming Dynasty, the history of the Qing Dynasty, or the history of modern times or modern history, if we talk more about Xu Guangqi, we will at least have a relaxed mentality and soft understanding of the history of China and the West since the 16th century (the history of the Ming, Qing, and Yi Dynasties should be said separately). Xu Guangqi interacted with Europeans and learned the "Renaissance" with the mentality of making friends. From his point of view of modern history, it is possible to get "huitong" inspiration in the fields of Chinese and Western thought, religion, and philosophy, and to achieve cultural "people" from the "people" of the individual spirit.
Shanghai Xu Guangqi Memorial Hall Xu Guangqi handwriting collection inscription "Engraving the Preface to the Geometric Origin"
Since 1600, many interesting things have happened in Shanghai that have been related to Xu Guangqi. Nanjing and Beijing were also the cities where Xu Guangqi stayed, but many traces of his presence in the imperial capital were erased. In Shanghai, for 400 years, he has had family inheritance, the expansion of the faith community, as well as the revival of the academy, the engraving of books, and the teaching of schools, and Xu Guangqi's spirit has not been far from the city, but has been carried forward. Xu Guangqi's affair was not considered important at the time. For example, he and the Italian Jesuit Bi Francis translated the "Spiritual Word Li Spoon", which was read by erudite people like Huang Zongxi, and no one else knew Aristotle's "On the Soul". Some of the great figures of 400 years ago have long been ancient; Xu Guangqi is different, he is becoming more and more modern, as if he just left yesterday.
According to Xu Guangqi's line of thought, modern history cannot be the history of "you die and I live", but the history of Exchanges between China and the West, the history of the convergence between China and the West, and the history of mutual learning between China and the West. The original geometry translated by Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci was not important at all at the time, but now "geometry" accompanies everyone's student days. The invention right or trademark right of the word "geometry" must be Xu Guangqi's. So, the history is not far away, it is all around. "History is alive", a history, a theory, some principles, some lessons, are not empty, they are full of spirituality in life.
The Complete Works of Xu Guangqi, written by Xu Guangqi and edited by Zhu Weizheng and Li Tiangang, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, May 2020
Xu Guangqi and Chinese and Western cultural exchanges
Xu Guangqi has three identities that are important.
First of all, he is a politician. In 1633, Xu Guangqi died. Before his death, he was doing China's top priority — saving Daming, and the Chongzhen Emperor pinned his last hopes on him. Why? Because Xu Guangqi promised to come up with a good calendar to get the chaos out of the world. At the moment of peril, Chinese particularly admired and revered heaven and earth: from the emperor, scholars, and ordinary people, they all believed that if the imperial calendar was compiled, the heavens were accurate, and the calendar was accurate, the world would slowly become peaceful. Man and heaven must be matched, and if the king is not worthy of virtue and virtue is not worthy of the throne, the world will be in chaos. In addition, Xu Guangqi also promised to resist the Manchu invasion, and he stepped forward as a civilian to train his troops, and the magic weapon was to introduce "red cannons" from Macao. He was indeed able to save the Ming Dynasty, but after his death in 1633, the Ming Dynasty was not saved. This judgment is not speculation, this is what Dorgon said. After Dorgon entered the customs, he read the "Xu Shi's Sayings", saying that if Xu Guangqi was still alive, if the Chongzhen Emperor fully trusted Xu Guangqi, where would we still be allowed to enter the customs? Xu Guangqi's outstanding status as a statesman was the first in the late Ming Dynasty.
Second, Xu Guangqi is a scientist. He translated the Geometric Primitives, compiled the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration, and presided over the compilation of the Chongzhen Almanac. However, the other half of the translation career is the foreigner Matteo Ricci.
Missionaries Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi in Chinese costume.
Xu Guangqi's other identity is Catholicism. Therefore, Xu Guangqi has three identities: politician, scientist and religious. These three identities are inseparable wholes. In 2003, Xu Guangqi's tomb was restored to its 1903 appearance (Xu Guangqi was buried in 1644) and the cross was erected. There was no objection, only an anonymous letter asking Xu Guangqi, a scientist, how could he believe in superstition? This is the separation of his three identities. It is the combined force of the triple identity that makes Xu Guangqi tall. Xu Guangqi's subsequent promotion was smooth, mainly due to the unique ability generated by his composite identity, which no one could match. He was ranked second in rank and was also a scholar of Bunkyunge University.
Xu Guangqi's greatness also lies in its smallness. Recently, I was compiling the Complete Works of Ma Xiangbo and reread Xu Wendinggong and Chinese Science. More than a hundred years ago, Ma Xiangbo met the relics related to Xu Guangqi in the West Mountain of Beijing, and touched the scenery. In the first year of the Republic of China, Ma Xiangbo served as a senior political adviser to the Presidential Office. In that year, the old calendar was abolished and the Gregorian calendar was changed to January 1 as New Year's Day, the first New Year holiday in the country. Ma Xiangbo traveled to Xiangshan to see Yingzhi. Ying Zhizhi is also a Catholic, and the two participated in the founding of Fu Jen University in Xiangshan. On that day, the French minister of the Beijing Legation, as well as several Jesuit professors and priests, gave lectures together. Ma Xiangbo said, you know what? Xu Guangqi studied the calendar and sent Chinese materials to Europe through the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome and the Université de Montpellier in France. Europeans were very excited after receiving these materials, and did the latest research to help Xu Guangqi and Tang John complete the Chongzhen New Calendar. Ma Xiangbo wanted to say that this calendar is not a simple translation of the European "Julian calendar", but the latest achievement of cooperative research between Europe, Beijing, and Jiangnan, "not shi Xiyang Chen said, but a using invention", the same as today's international cooperative research. China's latitude and longitude, flora and fauna, mountains and rivers, geography, humanities, history, as well as the ethics, politics and laws in the "Four Books and Five Classics", Europeans have absorbed it. On the Chinese side, no one did a good job after Xu Guangqi, so he fell behind. Johann Schreck, an academician of the Academy of SpiritualIty in Rome, came to China, his main job was to collect and study Chinese knowledge, write a lot of books to send back to Europe, and spread "Western studies" in China. Deng Yuhan was a colleague and friend of Galileo Galilei and an academician of the Academy of Spiritual Talent. Compared with the enthusiasm of European scientists, how terrible the indifference of Ming and Qing scholars to science is, Xu Guangqi's academic anxiety is easy to understand.
Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci
Ma Xiangbo said that the discovery of the Case of Sino-European "Cooperative Research" in the history of science 300 years ago was the discovery of p. Pei Huaxing, a French professor at Aurora University in Shanghai. H. Bernard) examined. Ma Xiangbo told everyone this conclusion, and Xu Guangqi's most famous words in the "Chongzhen New Calendar" were" that "if you want to win a victory, you must first pass; before you can pass, you must first translate", which was implemented at once, and we seem to see the situation in which scholars from Paris, Rome, and Jiangnan translated and passed together, and compiled a new calendar. Translation, communication, and superiority are a golden rule of cultural exchange. Xu Guangqi said that the fusion of Chinese and Western knowledge will lead to a newer knowledge. "Super win" is a win-win situation, a victory for humanity, not a winner for someone hiding in some dark corner.
Ma Xiangbo also told a second story in Xishan, which was even more interesting. Sang Zhihua of tianjin northern xinjiang museum (P. Father Licent once told Ma Xiangbo that he had found four important plants that Deng Yuhan had discovered in Xishan, Beijing, that were not found in Europe. Ma Xiangbo went to the West Mountain this time, and sure enough, he found these plants in the "Jingyi Garden" of Yingzhi. Deng Yuhan's Latin writings examine Chinese nature, biology, race, history, language, religion, and culture. At that time, the "Renaissance" of Europe studied everything, and the "Renaissance man" was the man who knows everything. Da Vinci, Deng Yuhan and Kichel are "Renaissance people", Xu Guangqi can also be counted as one, Mr. Zhu Kezhen called Xu Guangqi "China's Francis Bacon", but the "Chinese Renaissance Movement" has not been carried out. In 1933, Hu Shizhi said at the University of Chicago that their "New Culture Movement" was a "Chinese Renaissance Movement," which was too far behind. Today we are also calling for a "Chinese Renaissance," which is one reason why Xu Guangqi is so close to us. Xu Guangqi's words and deeds are exactly the same as the concerns of modern people, unlike an ancient person 400 years ago. Xu Guangqi was able to get close to us because he had a lot of living things; it can even be said that Xu Guangqi was the first modern person in China.
This is the story told in "Xu Wendinggong and Chinese Science". Ma Xiangbo said, "Deng Yuhan and others found four kinds of herbs in the Xishan Institute in Beijing! Yi Jin also got it in Jing Yi Garden. "In 2019, I happened to pass by the Academy of Spirits, just across the Tiber River from the Vatican in Rome. These academic institutions are attached to the Roman Church in the Vatican, once the Apostolic Academy of Sciences, and today the highest institution of learning in Italy. More than 400 years ago, Bellarmine, Galileo, Deng Yuhan, and Matteo Ricci and others gathered here to study the Geometric Primitives and discuss scientific and theological problems, including those from distant China. Xu Guangqi longed for Rome, and according to Western sources, he traveled to Macau and corresponded with the Portuguese king and cardinal Archbishop Bellarmine. They talk not only about science, but also about religion and the military. Xu Guangqi and Cardinal Bellarming wrote a letter asking him to help the Chinese Catholic Church. Bellarmine was a judge of the Inquisition during his lifetime, and was canonized as a saint after his death, and the holy remains are placed in the church of Loyola in Rome.
Letter from Xu Guangqi to the King of Portugal (in Latin)
Deng Yuhan and Galileo were friends of Mo Rebellion, and both were academicians of the Lingcai Academy. In 1619, Deng Yuhan also brought Galileo's telescope into China, so we conclude that Xu Guangqi used an astronomical telescope in Qin Tianjian. Galileo galilei was observing the moon with a telescope in 1609, and the Pope advised him not to do it, desperately trying to prove that there were no angels on it. Later, when the Inquisition pursued him, a friend could have come out and intercede and explained to Justice Bellarming that this was Deng Yuhan, but others in China could not contribute.
During the Kangxi Dynasty in the early Qing Dynasty, there was also a Changshu painter Wu Li (Wu Yushan), who was equally famous as Dong Qichang, and his paintings were of the highest level in the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum. After his wife's death, Wu Li studied Latin, and like Xu Guangqi, he went to Macau and prepared to go to Rome. After returning to Jiangnan, he lived in the Catholic Church in The town of Loutang in Jiading. After his death, he was buried in the South Tomb in Nanshi, Shanghai. We found a rubbing of Wu Li's tombstone in the Jesuit Archives in Paris, and the great painter Wu Li was still a priest.
Xu Guangqi is really a modern person, he reads the "Four Books" and also reads the works of Aristotle. The Ming Dynasty people read Aristotle's works 400 years ago, which was not remarkable at the time, but it is difficult to imagine today. The Complete Works of Aristotle, translated a few years ago by Professor Wang Xiaochao of Tsinghua University, asked: "Tiangang, how is this possible, 400 years ago!" "Originally, I was also surprised that Xu Guangqi had engraved this book in 1624 before his death! Even if it was mainly translated by Francis Bi, at least he polished, proofread and approved. Xu Guangqi translated Aristotle in the words of the University and the Middle Way, and explained Aquinasian theology in the terminology of Song Ming's theory.
Xu Guangqi inscribed Lu Wanyan's handwriting of "Titled Qinhe Gaofeng Poetry Book"
Xu Guangqi and our daily lives
How can Xu Guangqi's contributions to science, culture, education, and religion be reflected in daily life?
First of all, let's talk about Xu Guangqi's scientific contributions. Together with Matteo Ricci, he translated the Geometric Primitives, the work of Clavius, the teacher of Matteo Ricci, Galileo, and Deng Yuhan, who was the arranger, annotator, and the founder of modern mathematics, and Xu Guangqi called him "Mr. Ding" because Clavius meant nails. In this way, Xu Guangqi also became a disciple of Clavius. However, at the same time, Xu Guangqi inherited the Han Dynasty's Nine Chapters of Arithmetic and studied Pythagorean.
Needham said that in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, China's science and technology began to lag behind, and before it was leading in the world; in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and even in the Yuan Dynasty, China's mathematics was still very advanced. By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, with the rise of European science, China fell behind. European science arose in the 17th and 18th centuries, and Matteo Ricci was in its infancy when he arrived in China. Xu Guangqi brought a group of Chinese students to join in, and the opportunity was very good. If this history is not interrupted, Chinese science may not be as advanced as Britain, France, and Germany, but at least it can develop slowly like Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and Hungary.
China once lost an opportunity to translate another book, The Taixi Water Law. The Complete Book of Agricultural Politics is basically an excerpt from an ancient Chinese book, but the book Taixi Water Law is a translation. Xu Guangqi and Xiong Sanba jointly translated, from Aristotle's material origins, to the formation of the solar system, to the orbit of the planets, to the formation of the earth, and then to the atmosphere of the earth, and then to geology, mountains, rivers, and finally to water transportation, water law, how to engage in water conservancy engineering, the manufacture and use of equipment, tools, and so on. At that time, science had not yet been separated from theology, so it would start from the creation of God and the origin of celestial bodies, which was similar to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "List of Fengshen Gods" talking about the universe and the heavens and the earth.
Second, Xu Guangqi also carried out an "agricultural revolution", which was also linked to Europe. Xu Guangqi's Sweet Potato Thinning promotes sweet potatoes in China, and the origin of sweet potatoes is not China, but South America. Sweet potatoes are called "sweet potatoes" in Shanghai, not potatoes, but sweet potatoes. In the 16th century, the Spaniards brought it from Mexico to the Philippines, and the Fujianese brought it from the Philippines to Taiwan, and then from Taiwan to southern Fujian. Xu Guangqi did not follow this route, and after he joined the Church, he became familiar with the Jesuits of Macau and introduced seeds from the Portuguese. At that time, tobacco, corn and other crops were also imported from Macao. Among them, sweet potatoes played the greatest role, bringing about a green revolution. This crop is very suitable for planting in the southeast hills, does not need a lot of water and soil, a little soil in the middle of the stone crevice can be planted, and the yield is still very high. Southern Fujian and southern Zhejiang took the lead in mastering, and as a result, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a reverse migration movement, and Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang people actually went north with sweet potatoes, and they were all Hakka immigrants to the south. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers were in chaos, and after the end of the war, the population of the Qing Dynasty exploded, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng slaughtered many places, and the population of the early Qing Dynasty was 50 million, and by the Qianlong period a hundred years later, the population became 250 million, an increase of 4 times. This is the "agricultural revolution" that Professor He Bingdi and other professors talk about, and its origin is Xu Guangqi's "Sweet Potato Thinning". If Xu Guangqi's introduction of artillery is a military revolution, the introduction of sweet potatoes can be called an "agricultural revolution."
Xu Guangqi collected the magnum opus of the ancient Chinese agronomy "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" (Shanghai Jiading Confucius Temple Exhibits)
Xu Guangqi also launched a relatively small agricultural revolution, which is also related to our daily life, that is, transplanting rice from the south to Tianjin. 400 years ago, the north was much colder than it is today, and Tianjin was the northernmost latitude that rice could reach. The Japanese later planted rice in Yingkou, and today in Wuchang County, Heilongjiang, but it was difficult for rice to cross the Huai River at that time. Xu Guangqi successfully introduced seeds in the Tianjin Xiaozhan area and reclaimed a large area of low-lying wasteland. Manchurians originally ate noodles, and after entering the customs, they envied life in the south, and they also had to eat rice, oppressing Jiangnan to pay taxes, and it was very expensive to transport them to Beijing. Xu Guangqi, who was an official in Beijing, knew that the pressure on Songjiang, Suzhou, Huzhou, and Jiaxing was too great. If rice is grown in the north, although the yield is not high, the water temperature is low, the growth period is long, and the rice tastes good. Therefore, he cultivated a large area in Tianjin and sold it in Beijing and Tianjin nearby, eliminating the need for travel expenses from the south. Later, the famous small station rice was made by Xu Guangqi. Xu Guangqi tried to solve the problem of "grain diversion from the south to the north" and reduce the burden on the south. Xu Guangqi also found Zhang Jingqiao, a Beijing Catholic baptized by Matteo Ricci, to work as a housekeeper in Tianjin. The housekeeper surnamed Zhang was later taken to Shanghai by Xu Guangqi, who happened to have wasteland reclamation in Pudong, and Xu Guangqi gave him a sum of money to develop.
The "calendar revolution" completed by Xu Guangqi's group of people is even more remarkable. The new calendar was already done by Xu Guangqi, but the Chongzhen Emperor did not dare to use it: what if it is wrong again? By the time he made up his mind, it was already 1644. After the promulgation of the new Chongzhen calendar, the Qing army entered the customs within a few days. The first thing the Qing army did when they entered the customs was to find the calendar -- the version could not be destroyed, we had to use it -- and then the cover was removed and a new piece was engraved, called the "Western New Calendar". The Qing Dynasty used this calendar for a total of 267 years from 1644 to 1911. This calendar affects our daily lives to this day.
Before the Qing Dynasty, two chronograph systems existed. One is to count in hours, and to count in the armour, that is, zi, ugly, yin, 卯, 辰, 巳, noon, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 海, 12 hours. Matteo Ricci, Deng Yuhan, and John Tang said that we are 24 equal points a day, Xu Guangqi said that this is easy, we divide into two, and engage in an "hour", that is, "hour". Another timing system is "100 minutes", 100 equal minutes a day. The new calendar is four o'clock in one hour, and the whole day is 96 ticks. 24 divided by 100 can not be exhausted, the dial can not do. Xu Guangqi flatly decided to abolish 100 moments and change them to 96 moments. Xu Guangqi also matched the lunar calendar calculated according to the trajectory of the moon since the Zhou Dynasty with the Roman calendar calculated according to the operation of the sun, that is, the lunar calendar we are still using. The lunar calendar is not a lunar calendar, nor is it a solar calendar, but a yin-yang calendar. The Hundred Hours is the Hourglass System of the Han Dynasty, the Jiazi Timekeeping is the Zhou Dynasty Regulation, and the Lunar Calendar is the Provision of the Ritual Record and the Moon Order. Xu Guangqi's "deviance" is really a revolution.
Li Zhizao's series of books published in the first year of Chongzhen (1628) "Tianxue Chuhan", which contains a large number of translations by Xu Guangqi.
In terms of customs, wearing a black veil at today's memorial service began at the funeral of Xu Guangqi's father, starting from shanghainese. In the past, it was Phi Ma Dai Filial Piety, which was a white veil. In 1607, Xu Guangqi opened a new funeral, his father Xu Sicheng was baptized by Matteo Ricci in Beijing, and after his death the coffin was transported back to Shanghai for a funeral with Catholic rites. They did it very seriously because they wanted to take the opportunity to preach. At that time, Buddhism and Taoism did funerals, knocking and beating, which was not solemn enough. Do it carefully, do it carefully, and there are moving things in different rituals. Xu Guangqi managed carefully, Italian priest Guo Jujing did a hard job, the funeral was very successful, not allowed to wear linen and filial piety, and black was used. After the funeral, 200 people joined the church, the first Catholics in Shanghai.
Xu Guangqi's translation also appears in our daily lives. Our translations today are more influenced by Japanese, Cai Yuanpei and Liang Qichao use Japanese as Chinese, "philosophy", "economics" and "political science" are all Japanese translations, and almost all the names of departments in universities today come from Japanese. Like "physics", Xu Guangqi's group of people translated it as "lattice physics", and then "philosophy" is "zhizhi" or "aizhi", which is phosophy, which is more appropriate! At that time, it was translated according to Song Ming's theory of science, using the system of "righteousness of heart, knowledge of qualities, self-cultivation, self-cultivation, self-cultivation and family, and governance of the country and the world". There are still some things left, such as "geometry" (Geo). There are also "points, lines, surfaces, and bodies" in "Primitive Geometry", which are still used today.
Xu Guangqi defined the two most important words, which we still use, namely "God" and "God". The Chinese church words were translated from Deus, and Xu Guangqi discussed translating them as "God" and "God", because these words are found in the Book of Poetry, the Book of Shang, and the I Ching, which are consistent with the meaning of Deus. "Heaven" is the Lord, it is creation, and then it will lose its temper, it will reward, it will punish, isn't it Deus? Deus means "God", and it also has the etymological meaning of "heaven". That is to say, in the Greek and Roman languages, the heaven of nature and the heaven of creation are identical. Xu Guangqi said, yes! Chinese's the same thing! The origin of this word, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi must have discussed. Etymology after the nineteenth century has made it clear that the "day" and "deus" of the Indo-European peoples are polysemyses. Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language, and "heaven" has a divine righteousness, which should happen to happen to it. However, Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci "will pass" these two, which is of great significance. Today's Catholic Church still talks about "heaven", and we do not call this church "Theo religion", but Catholicism, which is the reason. Some people say that "God" is a foreign word, completely forgetting that the word "God" comes from the Book of Verses and is originally Chinese.
Illustrations from the Chinese edition of The Primitive Geometry: Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi
Finally, Xu Guangqi had read Aristotle's works. He translated Di Anima (On the Soul), Chinese book was The Spoon of Spiritual Words. "Lingyan Li Spoon" is about the problem of the soul, Xu Guangqi found the Chinese "soul", which matches Anima. Anima is Latin, equivalent to the English word; or to wash away the superstitious overtones a little, called spirit, or "spirit" or "god". Then, Xu Guangqi began to try to correspond with Chinese. Aristotle spoke of the three souls—the living soul (plant), the enlightened soul (animal), and the soul (human), while Chinese talked about the second soul—the soul and the spirit. There are two kinds of human spirits, spirits, souls, and souls: one is the soul, which flies upwards, and the other is the spirit, which is scattered underground. "The gods ascend, the ghosts return", the spirit, the ghost, now everyone does not understand much, the daily language also says "the soul is scattered". When you go to the grave, pour a glass of wine, that is to bring up the spirit; burn a handful of incense, that is to put the soul qi next. Soul qi and courage hedge, will pass, the Western text is called harmonicate, the soul, the god and man will communicate. This involves a lot of Aristotle and the ancient Chinese concept of the soul. These things are still entangled with us today, and Xu Guangqi actually discussed these transcendence issues with us in the form of Chinese and Western translations, human and divine understanding, and belief in transcendence, and he was a living being.
Note: Li Tiangang, a professor at the School of Philosophy of Fudan University, is mainly engaged in Chinese Christianity, Chinese religion, Cultural exchanges between China and the West, and Shanghai cultural studies. He is the author of "The Controversy over Chinese Etiquette: History, Documentation and Significance" and "Cross-Cultural Interpretation: The Encounter between Scripture and Theology". He is the chief editor of the Complete Works of Xu Guangqi, the Updating of Xu Guangqi's Chronology, the Selected Writings of the Bulletin of the Nations, and the Volumes of Ma Xiangbo, a Collection of Modern Chinese Thinkers.
Lectures | Li Tiangang
Organize | Strict step cultivation
Edit | Shen Chan
Proofreading | Li Ming