HISTORY OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES: PORTUGAL AND EAST ASIA III
THE JESUITS, THE PADROADO AND EAST ASIAN SCIENCE (1552 – 1773)
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HISTORY OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES: PORTUGAL AND EAST ASIA III
THE JESUITS, THE PADROADO AND EAST ASIAN SCIENCE (1552 – 1773)
Edited by LUÍS SARAIVA and CATHERINE JAMI
World Scientific NEW JERSEY
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover design: Cláudia Hora from: Typus eclipsis lunæ, Anno Christi 1671 (detail) Rice-paper on scroll, 240 × 28.3 cm. Courtesy KULeuven, Faculty of Theology, Maurits Sabbe Library, Belgium P IG 112 K VERB. 1671 (formerly at the Jesuit Library, Heverlee). A full image is available at: www.jesuitica.be/images/info/moon_stitched.jpg. Prediction of the phases of the lunar eclipse of the 15th day of the 2nd month of the 15th year of the Kangxi era (25 March 1671) as seen in the capitals of the provinces of the empire and of Korea; prepared by Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623–1688), in his quality of “Prefect of Astronomy”. Composition: Carlos Perpétuo
HISTORY OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES Portugal and East Asia III The Jesuits, the Padroado and East Asian Science (1552–1773) Copyright © 2008 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.
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THE JESUITS, THE PADROADO AND EAST ASIAN SCIENCE (1552–1773)
HISTORY OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES: PORTUGAL AND EAST ASIA III Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus, Japan 4 –7 August 2005
Organizers: Luís Saraiva (CMAF, University of Lisbon, Portugal) Catherine Jami (REHSEIS, CNRS, Paris, France) Local Organizing Committee: Sasaki Chikara (University of Tokyo) Kobayashi Tatsuhiko (Maebashi Institute of Technology)
This Proceedings is made possible by a joint grant from the Center for Mathematics and Fundamental Applications (CMAF) and the Macao Scientific and Cultural Center (CCCM).
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Conference “History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia III ” took place at the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus, from 4 to the 7 August 2005. It was organized by the University of Tokyo and Centro de Matemática e Aplicações Fundamentais, and was sponsored by Fundação Oriente, Fundação Jorge Álvares and the Japan Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge the support of these institutions. It is only right to emphasize here the continued support of the Fundação Oriente in the organization of the three meetings on the same theme, starting with the first meeting in Arrábida in 1995. The Tokyo Conference took place as part of the Sixth International Symposium on the History of Mathematics and Mathematical Education Using Chinese Characters (6th ISHME). The 6th ISHME’s Organizing Committee included SASAKI Chikara (University of Tokyo, Chair), FENG Lisheng (Vice-Chair, Tsinghua University, Beijing) Luís SARAIVA (Vice-Chair), KOBAYASHI Tatsuhiko (Secretary General, Maebashi Institute of Technology), NAGAOKA Ryosuke (University of the Air, Chiba), Catherine JAMI, HAN Qi (Institute for History of Natural Sciences, Beijing), OGAWA Tsukane (Yokkaichi University), HORNG Wannsheng (Taiwan Normal University, Taipei), and XU Zelin (Tianjin Normal University). We thank our colleagues on this Committee and on the Local Organizing Committee, as well as the many students of the University of Tokyo, for helping to run the Meeting. Our gratitude goes to Dr. HIROMINOGUCHI, Cultural Attache of the Japan Embassy in Lisbon, Architect Eduardo KOL DE CARVALHO, former Cultural Attache of the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo, and the Cultural Center of the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo for the useful information provided in the early stages of the organization of this meeting. We would also like to thank the speakers for their papers, for all the research work done on the proposed themes, which represent an important contribution and new information on their subjects. Last but not least, we are grateful to the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau (CCCM) and to the Centro de Matemática e Aplicações Fundamentais (CMAF) for sponsoring the publication of the Proceedings of this Meeting.
Luís SARAIVA and Catherine JAMI August 2007
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FOREWORD The series of Conferences “History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia” started in 1995, with a meeting held at the Convento da Arrábida, Portugal, and was continued in 1998 with a conference held at the University of Macao. The main aim of these meetings has been to analyze the interaction between Europe and China from the the sixteenth to the eighteenth century in the field of the mathematical sciences, bringing to the fore the role of Portugal as an agent of transmission in this process. As soon as Portugal started to annex territories outside mainland Europe in the fifteenth century, there was a will on the part of Portuguese kings to exert influence on religious matters in their new possessions as well on their home territory. Already in 1436 King Duarte (1391–1438) tried to obtain from the Pope a say for the Portuguese Crown on the appointment of bishops in Portugal. Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455) wrote two Bulls in 1452, Dum Diversas, and in 1455, Romanus Pontifex, addressed to King Afonso V (1432–1481), by which he allowed the Portuguese to build churches in their new territories, as well as in those to be annexed in the future, and gave Portuguese kings permission to nominate missionaries for those territories. Pope Callistus III (1378–1458) confirmed these decisions in the 1456 Bull Inter Coetera, and accorded the spiritual jurisdiction of these territories to the Order of Christ, of which Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) was Grand Master. These Papal Bulls mark the beginnings of the Portuguese Padroado (“Patronage”) of the Orient.1 Since its beginnings (1540), the Society of Jesus had set mission in pagan lands as one of its main targets. Working under the Padroado, it played a major role in the enterprise of evangelization of Asia.2 Jesuits from various catholic countries were sent thus to the mission. They traveled to Asia aboard Portuguese ships, having received at least part of their training in philosophy and theology before 1
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The Padroado was a set of privileges granted by the Pope to the Portuguese crown. These included the administration of funds given by the crown for the management of all religious buildings in its territories and the right to propose to Rome lists of church officials for those territories. This guaranteed the Portuguese Crown a portion of ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom. In exchange, the king was to send missionaries to his newly acquired territories, and endow the religious establishments founded for this purpose. An important work on this subject is António da Silva Rego’s O Padroado Português do Oriente, Esboço Histórico, Lisbon: Agência Geral das Colónias, 1940. Rego, a University of Louvain graduate, was himself a missionary from the Padroado in Macao. The book was commissioned by the General Agency of Portuguese Colonies for the double 1940 celebration of the eighth centenary of the founding of Portugal (1140) and of the third centenary of the country’s regained independence from Spain (1640). See Alden, Dauril, The making of an enterprise: the Society of Jesus in Portugal, its empire, and beyond, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. On the Jesuit China mission in particular see Brockey, Liam, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. ix
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leaving Europe. From the late sixteenth century on, Jesuit education put great emphasis on the mathematical sciences. Thus evangelization by the Jesuits led to the transmission of some important elements of European mathematical sciences to East Asia. The essays in this volume discuss different case studies that reveal the various ways in which Jesuit scientific culture and Portuguese policies regarding education, trade and mission shaped the reception of “Western learning” in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam in the early modern period. Although these essays mostly fit in the period between 1552, when the Ming emperor gave the Portuguese permission to establish a settlement in Macao, and 1773, when the Pope suppressed the Society of Jesus, some of them show that the knowledge brought by the Jesuits under the Padroado continued to shape East Asian science to the end of the nineteenth century. The historiography of the circulation of the mathematical sciences imported from Europe to East Asia has long been shaped by preconceptions such as the superiority of European science over that produced in other parts of the world, and pro- or anti-Jesuit biases. An illustration of the latter is found in the historiography of Portuguese mathematics. Since the pioneering work of the Portuguese mathematician and historian of mathematics Francisco de Borja Garção Stockler (1759–1829) the control of the Society of Jesus over education has been pointed out as one of the two major factors of the so-called decline of the Portuguese mathematics. This “decline” period lasted about two hundred years, from Portugal’s loss of independence in 1580 to the reform of the Portuguese Universities in 1772, when the first faculty of mathematics was created. This view remained unchallenged until the 1940s. In his contribution, Luís SARAIVA analyzes the ways in which Portuguese historians of mathematics have given account of this “decline period”, and how they saw the Society of Jesus and its mathematicians in that period. For this, the writings of the main Portuguese historians of mathematics are considered, from Stockler’s initial essay, where he correctly identifies the Society’s main mathematicians in that period, to Rodolfo Guimarães (1866–1918), who in his Les Mathématiques en Portugal gives a list of seventeen Jesuit mathematicians (his 1911 Supplement II includes the first mention of Jesuits of the China mission), and Francisco Gomes Teixeira (1851– 1933), the best Portuguese historian of mathematics up to 1940, who unfortunately decided to present only an overall overview of the “decline period”. In the research on the scientific practice of the Society of Jesus in East Asia that has developed in recent decades, focus on the Beijing Jesuits has led scholars to consider Macao simply as a point of entry into China, where missionaries studied local languages and received information on their places of destination. St. Paul’s, the Jesuit College in Macao has therefore been little studied. Ugo BALDINI gives an account of the documents known today about teaching at
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St. Paul’s and outlines the main characteristics of Jesuit teaching in Macao. The role of Macao, as an unavoidable crossroads for all missionaries arriving or departing from East Asian missions as well as for all correspondence between East Asian missions and Europe made the College an important place for scientific production and exchange, independently of the level of the teaching there. The complex question of how complementary material concerning this issue might be located is also discussed. Among the subjects taught in Jesuits colleges, cosmology — the “Sphere” — was transmitted to China and Japan under various forms. Three essays are devoted to it. HIRAOKA Ryuji analyzes the study of this subject in Japan. He discusses the content and characteristics of the Latin treatise De Sphaera composed by the Spanish Jesuit Pedro Gomez (1533–1600), which was used as a textbook by Japanese and European students who were preparing for priesthood in Jesuit colleges in Japan. Then he proceeds to analyze three Japanese works derived from Gomez’ De Sphaera, namely Nigi ryakustsu , Kenkon bensetsu and Nanban unkiron , showing that their circulation was wider than had so far been assumed. Henrique LEITÃO and Rui MAGONE are jointly preparing a translation of Manuel Dias Jr.’s (1574–1659) Tianwenlüe (1615), a summary of European cosmographical and astronomical knowledge with examples and data adapted or calculated for China and which refers to the Chinese official calendar. It is a text in the tradition of the commentaries of Sacrobosco’s Sphere, but also the first text in Chinese that presented of Galileo’s telescopic observations. Their contributions to the present volume are complementary. LEITÃO analyzes the context in which the Tianwenlüe was written, describing the scientific tradition from which it derives, mainly the Sphere literature in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Portugal. He emphasizes that Manuel Dias, although never trained in mathematics in a formal sense, was familiar with advanced topics of astronomy; this suggests that he must have had contact with specialized books and experts in mathematical and astronomical subjects. On this subject some hypotheses are put forward concerning the network of Portuguese Jesuit schools: Coimbra, Goa and Macao. LEITÃO also points out that the cosmological model proposed by Dias differed slightly from that given by Matteo Ricci (1552–1610, the founder of the China mission), with features only included in later editions of Clavius’ commentary on the Sphere. The Tianwenlüe is not simply a translation: it shows traces of its Chinese context. Thus, subjects like solar and lunar eclipses, of crucial importance in Chinese official astronomy, are emphasized in it. Leitão argues that the Tianwenlüe marks a new stage in the Jesuit scientific presence in Asia, a change from the initial presenting Western science to China to writing Western science in China.
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Rui MAGONE analyzes the extant versions of the Tianwenlüe that he has so far been able to access, and proposes an interpretation of the differences between these versions. The importance given to the Tianwenlüe in the eighteenth century is apparent from the work’s inclusion into the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (Siku quanshu , 1782), an empire-wide compilation project commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736–1795). However the editors of the Complete Library not only suppressed Dias’ preface (which contained references to the Christian religion, then banned in China) but also truncated the text, omitting the account of Galileo’s telescope observations. MAGONE puts forward several hypotheses to explain these omissions; he argues that the work was regarded as relevant for its “use” rather than for its “essence”. Turning to the reception of Western learning, LIM Jongtae examines how a group of mid-seventeenth century Chinese literati at the centre of which was (1610–1671), responded to the religious the famous scholar Fang Yizhi and philosophical implications of the Jesuits’ science. The latter was deeply imbued with scholastic philosophy; in fact, Western science as a whole embodied the Christian–Aristotelian vision of the world. Fang’s group, which included Xiong Mingyu , Jie Xuan and Fang’s son Zhongtong , was exceptionally favorable to Jesuit science. However, LIM argues, major inconsistencies found in some Jesuit texts, where contradictory explanations were provided for the same subjects, convinced those literati that Western knowledge could be wrong. They constructed their own alternatives for what they thought were the shortcomings of both Chinese and Western knowledge. Fang Yizhi attributed one of the main defects of Western knowledge to the obsession with exact measurements, and consequently the neglect of the principles underlying the phenomena. In many of these scholars’ arguments, analogical reasoning was combined with data from the observation of natural phenomena, backed by a belief in the unity of the world. In this way, LIM concludes, the overall picture of the universe these scholars presented and the basic methodology they used remained close to those of the Chinese tradition. Vietnamese science is usually assumed to be an offspring of the Chinese tradition; in fact little known about its actual contents and social function prior to French colonization in the nineteenth century. However, in the seventeenthcentury, when the territory was divided between the Trinh to the North (“Tonkin”) and the Nguyen (“Cochinchina”) to the South, some Jesuit missionaries who worked there under the Padroado provided valuable information. Alexei VOLKOV analyzes the works of several Jesuit missionaries, in particular Christoforo Borri (1583–1632) and Giovanni Filippo de Marini (1608–1682), who give brief accounts of astronomy and mathematics then practiced in the two kingdoms, and offer a glimpse at the way in which Jesuit missionaries employed their scientific expertise
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to interact with local authorities. Thus VOLKOV shows that exploration of the Western sources provides interesting and sometimes unexpected answers to questions that had so far found no answer on the basis of the available Vietnamese sources. Catherine JAMI’s contribution focuses on Tomé Pereira (1645–1708), a Portuguese Jesuit who spent most of his adult life in Asia, including thirty-five years in Beijing, as a clockmaker, musician and interpreter in the service of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662–1722). Pereira wrote a treatise on European musical harmony, a revised version of which was eventually published as part of the imperially commissioned Lülü zhengyi (“Exact meaning of pitchpipes”, 1723). Despite this, Pereira’s role in the circulation of the mathematical sciences is usually assessed as negative. In 1688, when five French Jesuits sent by King Louis XIV as “his Mathematicians” arrived in Beijing, he effectively succeeded in keeping the most skilled of them away from the emperor and from the Imperial Observatory. JAMI analyzes Pereira’s motivations: the defense of both discipline in the Society of Jesus and the Portuguese monopoly on Asian missions, to which the French mission was a direct challenge. Thus Pereira is shown to be an interesting counter-example to received ideas concerning science and the Jesuit mission to China: it was his musical talent, rather than any skill in the sciences, that earned him imperial favor; moreover, his case shows that national allegiance could take precedence over the international dimension of the Society of Jesus. This points to the need for a more nuanced assessment of the role of science both within the Jesuit mission and in the toleration of Christianity in early Qing China than has so far been made. SHI Yunli recounts how Western astronomical knowledge further circulated from China to Korea. In 1742, under the supervision of Ignatius Kögler (1680– 1746) and André Pereira (1689–1743), the Beijing Bureau of Astronomy published a new work on calendrical astronomy, the Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian (“Later volumes of the thorough investigation of calendrical astronomy imperially composed”). While retaining the Tychonic model, this work introduced Newton’s theory of the moon and a number of other developments in predictive astronomy in Europe, including Kepler’s first two laws of planetary motion. A year later, Korean emissaries returning from a diplomatic mission to Beijing brought two copies of the work back to the Korean court. A royal astronomer was immediately dispatched to Beijing to learn the new system, and returned in 1744. In the following century and a half, the system explained in the Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian remained the core of official astronomy in Korea. Four famous Korean astronomers in the period based their own works on it. In a detailed review of these works, SHI shows how the new theory was received in Korea, and how astronomers accommodated it with the older theory that they had previously adopted from official Chinese sources.
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It is our hope that the present volume will contribute to the growing field of study of the circulation of knowledge between both ends of the Eurasian continent in the early modern age. The essays in it represent a variety of approaches: reflection on historiography, unearthing of new sources, as well as closer analysis and confrontation of those already known to us. The material thus used is revealing regarding not only the actors of this circulation, but also their gaze on each other’s knowledge, practice and beliefs. New light is thus shed on the Jesuit educational network in East Asia, on the production and circulation of Jesuit works in Japan and Korea as well as China, on the reception of Western learning in its qualitative as well as its quantitative dimension in those countries, on state patronage of the sciences, on the latter’s role in the missionary enterprise, and on hitherto unknown aspects of East Asian civilizations such as the official astronomy practiced in Vietnam. Thus the mathematical sciences appear to be closely intertwined with a variety of worldviews as well as social practices. We know that there is still a long way to go in the process of grasping the complexities of the cross-cultural circulation of the sciences. It is our aim that the series of international meetings History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia should continue to take place regularly, and its proceedings should be further published.
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CONTENTS Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... vii Foreword Luís SARAIVA and Catherine JAMI .........................................................
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About the authors ........................................................................................... xvii Pictures of conference participants ................................................................. xix The Jesuit mathematicians of the Portuguese Assistancy and the Portuguese historians of mathematics (1819–1940) Luís Manuel Ribeiro SARAIVA ...............................................................
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The Jesuit College in Macao as a meeting point of the European, Chinese and Japanese mathematical traditions. Some remarks on the present state of research, mainly concerning sources (16th–17th centuries) Ugo BALDINI .......................................................................................... 33 The transmission of Western cosmology to 16th century Japan HIRAOKA Ryuji ....................................................................................... 81 The contents and context of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe Henrique LEITÃO .................................................................................... 99 略
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The textual tradition of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe Rui MAGONE .......................................................................................... 123 Restoring the unity of the world: Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan’s responses to Aristotelian natural philosophy LIM Jongtae ............................................................................................ 139 Traditional Vietnamese astronomy in accounts of Jesuit missionaries Alexei VOLKOV ...................................................................................... 161 Tomé Pereira (1645–1708), clockmaker, musician and interpreter at the Kangxi Court: Portuguese interests and the transmission of science Catherine JAMI ........................................................................................ 187 The Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian in Korea SHI Yunli ................................................................................................ 205
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Ugo BALDINI has been professor of early modern history at the University of Padua since 1997, after teaching history of science at the University of Chieti (Italy) for ten years. His research relates to the institutional and doctrinal history of science in Italy from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, the interrelations between philosophy and science in early modern Italy, the scientific tradition of the Society of Jesus — both in Europe and in the Asian missions — and the relations between religion and science in Catholic Europe (16th–19th centuries). He is presently coordinating the edition of documents of the Roman Archives of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and of the Congregation of the Index pertaining to science; a first part of the work (16th century) has been completed and should be printed in 2007; two others, extending until Napoleon’s takeover of Rome (1808), will follow. HIRAOKA Ryuji is Curator of History of Science and Technology at the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture. He has written on the history of science in early modern Japan. His publications include “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook in ‘the Christian century’ Japan: De sphaera of Pedro Gomez,” “The Manuscripts of Kenkon bensetsu”, and “The Formation of, and the Reaction to, the Bukkoku rekisho hen”. Catherine JAMI is Senior Researcher at the French CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research, where she is a member of REHSEIS (Paris). In 2004–2006 she was the French Government Fellow at Churchill College and a Visiting Researcher at the Needham Research Institute. She has published extensively on the mathematical sciences imported into China by the Jesuits and on the reception of their sciences in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She is completing a book on the Kangxi emperor’s (r. 1662–1722) interest in and use of mathematics. Henrique LEITÃO (Ph.D., University of Lisbon, 1998) is Research Assistant at the Centre for the History of Science at the University of Lisbon. He teaches at the Masters Program on the History and Philosophy of Science, also at the University of Lisbon. His research interests include the history of exact sciences in Portugal from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century and the scientific activities in the colleges of the Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus. He is also interested in the history of scientific books and collaborates regularly with the Portuguese National Library, Lisbon.
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LIM Jongtae is a Visiting Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST, Korea). He received his PhD degree at Seoul National University (Korea) in 2003 with a dissertation that examined Korean and Chinese responses to the geographical ideas introduced by the Jesuits in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His research focuses on the responses of Korean and Chinese literati to Jesuit learning. Rui MAGONE, a Research Fellow at the Center for the History of Science, University of Lisbon, is currently based in Berlin. He received a PhD in Chinese Studies from the East Asian Department of Free University of Berlin, Germany. His research interests include intellectual history of late imperial China and the early phase of globalization between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, especially the logistical and cultural interactions between Lisbon, Goa and Beijing. Luís SARAIVA is an Associate Professor of the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University, and a researcher in CMAF. Since 2004 he is Vice-Director of the Science Museum of the University of Lisbon. He was one of the founders of the Portuguese National Seminar for the History of Mathematics and he is its national coordinator since its foundation in 1988. Together with Catherine Jami, he has been in the organizing committees of the first three conferences “Portugal and East Asia”. He is the editor of two previous volumes of papers from this cycle of meetings. Among his main research interests are the history of Portuguese mathematics in the nineteenth century and Portuguese historiography of mathematics. SHI Yunli is a Professor at the Department of the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China. In 2006, he was a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Guest Professor at the Institute for Chinese and Korean Studies, Tübingen University. He has published extensively on the history of astronomy in China and Korea, as well as on the early reception of Western astronomy in these two countries. Alexei VOLKOV obtained his PhD from the Moscow Institute for History of Science and Technology of the Academy of Sciences in 1989, under the supervision of Professor A. Yushkevich. He then held fellowships in Paris and Hong Kong (1990–1999), and worked in Canadian universities (2000–2005). In 2006, he joined the Faculty at the National Tsing Hua University (Hsinchu, Taiwan). His research interests have been concerned with the history of science (in particular, mathematics) in traditional China and Vietnam.
PICTURE OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS Front row, from right to left: Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Luís Saraiva, Sasaki Chikara, Lim Jongtae, unidentified, Alexei Volkov, Yukio Ohashi. Back row, from right to left: Li Liang, Mitsuo Monmoto, Nobuo Miura, Henrique Leitão, Rui Magone, Ugo Baldini, Hiraoka Ryuji.
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PICTURE OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS From right to left: Kobayashi Tatsuhiko, Shi Yunli, Yukio Ohashi, Hiraoka Ryuji, Lim Jongtae, Luís Saraiva, Henrique Leitão (in the background).
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THE JESUIT MATHEMATICIANS OF THE PORTUGUESE ASSISTANCY AND THE PORTUGUESE HISTORIANS OF MATHEMATICS (1819-1940) LUIS MANUEL RIBEIRO SARAIVA CMAF - University of Lisbon Av. Professor Gama Pinto, 2, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
In the first history of Portuguese mathematics, Ensaio histórico sobre a origem e progressos das mathematicas em Portugal, the first history of mathematics in a single country published in Western Europe, written by the important Portuguese mathematician Francisco de Borja Garção Stockler (1759–1829) and published in Paris in 1819, the control of the Society of Jesus over public education was pointed out as one of the two major factors of the so called decline period of the Portuguese mathematics, the other one being the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal. This period lasted roughly two hundred years, marked by the death of king D. João III in 1557 and the beginning of the reign of the king D. José in 1750. Since then, and up to the 1940s, this view was maintained unchallenged. Starting with a paper by Pedro José da Cunha in 1940, and fully developed in the last 30 years, a new way of looking both to the 1580–1772 period and to the mathematics work of the Society of Jesus has been done. In this paper it is analyzed the way Portuguese historians of mathematics up to 1940 have given account of this so called “decline” period, and how they saw the Society of Jesus and their mathematicians in this period. Besides the pioneering work of Stockler, we will consider Francisco do Castro Freire’s Memória Histórica da Faculdade de Mathematica (1872); Rodolfo Guimarães’s Les Mathématiques en Portugal (1909); Pedro José da Cunha’s Bosquejo histórico das matemáticas em Portugal (1929), A Astronomia, a Náutica e as Sciências Afins (1929) and As Matemáticas em Portugal no Século XVII (1940); and Francisco Gomes Teixeira’s História das Matemáticas em Portugal (1934).
1. Introduction The aim of this paper is to give an account of the writings of the Portuguese historians of mathematics on the subject of the role of the mathematicians of the Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus in Portuguese mathematics. The general theme of the Portuguese Assistancy and mathematics in Portugal was the subject of a previous paper [19], but here we have a different focus. The main aim of [19] was the analysis of the way the Society of Jesus was seen as an institution by the historians of Portuguese mathematics and not the way the 1
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individual Jesuit mathematicians and their works were reported. The difference in focus is conveyed in their titles: [19] mentions the Society of Jesus, the current paper states “Jesuit mathematicians”. The history of Portuguese mathematics was always researched by isolated scholars. We cannot speak at any time in Portuguese history of a school of historians of mathematics. So if we want to investigate general characteristics of a certain period in Portuguese historiography of mathematics, we have to analyze the major individual works of that period. This is the reason why, for the aim of this paper, we are only going to consider as the main texts in our analysis the five global history of Portuguese mathematics produced in the period from 1819 — the date of the publication of the first history of Portuguese mathematics [23] — to 1940. In fact the last global history of Portuguese mathematics to be published up to today came out in 1934, but we select 1940 as the upper time limit for our analysis because this is the year of publication of [5], the first paper that questions the appreciation of the Society of Jesus formulated in [23], an appreciation that had in its essential part remained unchallenged since it first was stated in 1819. Besides those five texts, we consider [5], because of its specificity as a boundary moment in Portuguese historiography that marks the beginning of a major re-analysis of the Society of Jesus, and texts that complement the above mentioned global histories or allow us to understand them. This is why we include [4], as it was written as a companion book of [3], and [13], which is the natural continuation of [12] and help us to understand aspects of [5]. 2. Francisco de Borja Garção Stockler (1759–1829) and the Ensaio Historico sobre a Origem e Progressos das Mathematicas em Portugal (1819) Stockler’s Ensaio histórico sobre a origem e progressos das mathematicas em Portugal (Historical Essay on the Origins and Development of Mathematics in Portugal) [23] is the first history of mathematics in a single country published in Western Europe.1 Stockler2 wrote as a moral imperative, of a man that saw his countrymen have no regards for Portugal’s scientific heritage, who by lack of care were letting the country’s scientific artifacts being either lost or destroyed. He writes his book as a way of preserving the knowledge about mathematics in the past and to call the attention for its importance in the country’s life and future. In this way we can understand that he extensively discusses the causes of Portugal’s scientific decline. This he does either in the main text, in a chapter 1
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dedicated to what he calls the period of decline (16 pages), or in the more extensive of the texts notes, note 32 (8 pages). The total text on the so called decline period represents over 14% of the whole text, which reflects the importance given by Stockler to its analysis and understanding. Stockler defines the period of decline from the final years of the reign of king D. João III, who died in 1557, to 1750, the beginning of the rule of king D. José, who in 1772 would approve a major reform of the Portuguese University, which would include the founding of the first Portuguese Faculty of Mathematics. Stockler says nothing on the mathematics during the Spanish occupation (1580–1640), only in a previous chapter he talks about some of its mathematicians, as André de Avelar (1546–?). As for the restauration period that followed, he defines the main aim of the country the defense of the monarchy against Spain, and he links this to the development of military architecture and to the creation of a school of military architecture, where the mathematics considered essential to the military engineers was taught: the principles of arithmetics, geometry and plane trigonometry. However Stockler is very critical of the mathematical quality of what was produced in this period: “[...] we must not dissimulate that almost all compositions of this troubled period [...] must considered more as compilations than original works.” 3 [23, p. 56]
He mentions one exception to the dominant standard and characteristics of the mathematics in this period: Manoel de Azevedo Fortes (1660–1749) who wrote in 1728/29 the work O Engenheiro Portuguez (The Portuguese Engineer), a treatise on fortification, attack and defense of forts. Its first volume is a practical geometry and plane trigonometry treatise. Stockler gives one cause for the decline of mathematics in Portugal: there was a halt on the sponsoring that the Government used to provide to a science which already implied a lot of work from each of its practicians. He then appraises the mathematics taught in Jesuit Colleges, mentioning the names of three Jesuits and referring briefly to their works: “[...] a science which the government did not continue to sponsor, and that needs continuous and adequate studies besides proper talent, would only be good to consume without profit the time of those who study it. This reason was more than enough for causing the ultimate decline of mathematics in Portugal. Even in the Jesuit colleges where they were in charge of public studies [...] 3
“[...] não devemos dissimilar que quasi todas as composições deste perturbado periodo [...] devem considerar-se mais depressa como compilaçoens, do que composiçoens originaes.”
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mathematics was reduced to little else than purely elementary matters. The works of Father Manoel de Campos and of Father Ignácio Monteiro, the best that were produced by that Society during the time of king D. João V, and in the first years of the reign of king D. José, are the most decisive proof of this truth. Even Planetario Lusitano, by Father Euzebio da Veiga [...] whose author was the first who published regularly in Portugal Astronomical Almanachs, does not require any deeper knowledge of astronomy other than its elementary principles.” 4 [23, pp. 59/60]
Stockler also refers positively the works of the Presbitarian António Carvalho da Costa (1650–1715).5 He states that he is the author of the only two global Astronomy treatises published in Portugal until then, and concludes his general appreciation of the works of these mathematicians by saying: “[...] it is fair to comment that, even that we cannot see yet in the works of these four writers the spirit of invention, however we see in them more regularity than in any others that preceeded them, as well as a new direction in mathematical studies.” 6 [23, p. 60]
Stockler includes in Note 34 some information on the works of Manoel de Campos and on Ignácio Monteiro. On Manoel de Campos he gives a list of his works: Elementos de Geometria (Elements of Geometry), 1735; Tratado de Trigonometria Plana e Espherica (Plane and Spherical Trigonometry Treatise), 1737; Synopse Trigonometrica dos casos que communmente occorrem em uma e outra trigonometria (Trigonometry Synopsis of the cases that normally happen in both trigonometries), 1737; the first of these works includes three appendixes: Sobre a doutrina das Proporções (On Proportions Theory), Sobre alguns theoremas escolhidos de Arquimedes (On some of the Archimedes’s Theorems) and Sobre a quadratrix de Dinostrato (On Dinostrat’s Quadratrix). As for Ignacio Monteiro, he mentions his Elementos de Mathematica, in two volumes, 4
5 6
“[...] uma sciencia que o governo não continuava a animar, e que demandando, alem de talento proprio, estudo muito serio e assiduo, somente serviria de consumir sem proveito o tempo de quem a ella se aplicasse. Esta razão era mais do que suficiente para que as mathematicas se vissem em Portugal reduzidas a ultima decadencia. Nos mesmos collegios dos padres Jesuitas, a cujo cargo estavam os estudos publicos, [...] esta se achava reduzida a pouco mais que aos conhecimentos puramente elementares. As obras do Padre Manuel de Campos e do Padre Ignácio Monteiro, as melhores que neste genero sahiram d’aquella sociedade, no tempo de El-Rei D. João V, e nos primeiros annos do Reinado do Senhor D. José, são a prova mais decisiva desta verdade. O mesmo Planetario Luzitano, do Padre Euzebio da Veiga [...] e cujo autor [...] foi o primeiro que em Portugal publicou umas Ephemerides regulares, tambem não pede conhecimentos de astronomia alem dos seus primeiros elementos.” He includes a one-page note on his works [23, p. 162]. “[...] he de razão que observemos que, se nas obras destes quatro escritores se não descobre ainda espirito de invenção, com tudo já nellas se distingue mais regularidade, de que em todas que as precederam, bem como uma nova direcção nos estudos mathematicos.”
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later included in his Philosophy Course, published in Venice in 1766 in seven volumes. 7 He informs that among the themes analysed are Geometry, Logic, Physics, Mechanics, Astronomy, Geography, and Electricity. And to conclude his note he expresses his appreciation of Monteiro: “In all these treaties it is manifest that Father Ignacio Monteiro not only had a vast knowledge, but also he knew all the more important writings on all these important matters, about which he wrote [...] at least rather clearly, with much detail and order.” 8 [23, p. 161]
In Note 32, an eight-page note which is the longest of his book, Stockler analyses the causes of the decline of sciences in Portugal.9 This note was taken as the final word on this matter for over 120 years, and was repeated either literally or paraphrased by most historians of Portuguese mathematics until 1940. In it Stockler sees in the establishment of institutions that prevented the free communication of ideas the main cause for the decline of Portuguese mathematics. He explicitly mentions two of them as the main offenders: on one hand the Inquisition, with its unlimited power, practicing censorship in all that concerned the circulation of ideas, and therefore creating a climate of fear that made people hesitate on what to read, what to think and what to say; on the other, the Society of Jesus, with its control over public instruction, in what he considers an inappropriate mixture of the religious and civil spheres. He analyses in more detail the later case, and he contrasts the logic of the institution with the will of its individual members, saying that the severe mistakes made by the Society were caused by the logic inherent to its functioning rather than by any occasional misdoings of its members. He adds that the qualities of the individuals in any institution can only minimize its faults, but they are not able to correct them.10 Stockler tries to show the complexity of the situation with a contextualized presentation of the Society of Jesus as one of the religious orders to whom the country much owes either in the preservation of 7
Although Monteiro in his own Introduction to this work says that it is divided into 9 volumes, Stockler only managed to see 7 of them, and this is the reason why in the main text he prefers to maintain this later number, which he can guarantee, rather than what is stated in the Introduction. Nevertheless in this note he hints what the contents of the two other supposedly missing volumes could be [23, p. 161]. 8 “Em todos estes tratados se manifesta que o padre Ignacio Monteiro tinha não somente uma instrucção muito vasta, mas que não desconhecia nada, do que até ao seu tempto se havia escripto de melhor sobre todas estas importantes materias as quais tratou [...] ao menos com bastante clareza, descripção e ordem.” 9 For a more extensive analysis of this note, see [19, pp. 316–318]. 10 “Os graves inconvenientes, que d’aqui resultáram, não vieram tanto da malignidade accidental dos homens, como do vicio permanente e intrinseco das cousas. [...] As virtudes dos individuos empregados em qualquer instituição politica viciosa moderam os defeitos da sua constituição, mas não os corrigem [...]” [23, p. 153].
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culture or in public instruction. He states that it was the Society that saved the Greek, Latin and Hebrew manuscripts during the so called barbarian invasions, an extremely important deed, as those manuscripts were the basis for a new beginning in the sciences and in the arts. Also he states that in all European countries the first public schools were started by religious orders, although in a healthier context than the one of the Society of Jesus, as they did not set the general rules for education, and they limited themselves to start religious education in their schools, with classes open to all. This being said, no matter what services were done to the country, nothing can guarantee their impartiality when it comes to a confrontation of their own interests (and of their members) with the interests of some other order or of the nation. He concluded that this was the reason why no religious order should have an exclusive power over a domain of public and general interest [22, pp. 154–155]. He sees the form of education of the Society as an obstacle to form people who can progress scientifically: “[...] the people that, since an early age, were oppressed and used to submit to an authority, and for three or more years learned in a dogmatic form the rules of Latin Grammar, which was followed by the study of a vane dialectics, and of an unsound and non-understandable Philosophy system, where what seemed subtlety was in fact incapacity of reasoning, so that they timidly behaved in their schools, and they almost became inept for any scientific progress: their will of already grown men [...] was attacked [...] by the always burning fires of the Inquisition, not daring to examine the scientific productions of the countries beyond the Pyrenees, they saw all as poisoned fruits which, under an apparent sweetness, were hiding the principles of destruction and death. The fate of Galileo made them be fearful that even in astronomy, in mechanics, and in physics the anti-religious plague was spread [...] therefore, segregating ourselves from the communication of nations, which continue unopposed the culture of sciences and arts, instead of accompanying their progresses we start going backwards on the same road.” 11 [23, p. 155/156] 11
“ [...] os entendimentos oprimidos e habituados, desde o seu primeiro desenvolvimento, ao jugo da autoridade; e entretidos, por espaço de tres ou mais annos, em aprender em forma dogmatica as regras de gramatica latina; passando d’ahi ao estudo de uma dialectica van, e de um sistema de philosophia aerio e ininteligivel, aonde parecia agudeza o que era verdadeiro embotamento de razão, de tal sorte que se acanhavam nas escolas, que quasi se tornavam ineptos para progresso algum scientifico: e os animos de homens feitos [...] aterrados [...] pelos fachos sempre acesos da Inquisição, sem se atreverem a examinar as producçoens scientificas dos paises situados alem Pirenéos, olhavam todas como fructos envenenados que, debaixo de uma doçura aparente, encobriam os principios da destruição e morte. A sorte de Galileo fazia temer que até na astronomia, na mecanica, e na physica, se tivesse insinuado a peste antireligiosa; e assim, segregando-nos da communicação dos povos, que continuavam sem obstaculo a cultura das sciencias e artes, em vez de os acompanharmos em seus progressos, passamos a recuar na mesma Estrada.”
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He sees that we have an irrefutable proof of the situation of sciences in Portugal if we compile a list of the mathematical works published in Portugal from the last years of king D. João III to the last years of king D. João V (roughly the period 1550–1750): he says that even the best Portuguese authors of the time, as André Avellar, Friar Nicolau Coelho and Manuel de Figueiredo showed that instead of the works of Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler, they evidenced knowledge of the Arab authors, who, although in their time they were valuable to science, they reanimated in their works the wrongdoings of astrology and of a physics produced in abstract, which led to mistakes that revealed great ignorance [23, pp. 157/158]. 3. Francisco de Castro Freire (180912–1884) and the Memória Histórica da Faculdade de Mathematica (1872) Castro Freire13 published in 1872 Memória Histórica da Faculdade de Mathematica (Historical Memoir on Coimbra’s Faculty of Mathematics) [9] to celebrate the 100 years of the Faculty of Mathematics of Coimbra University, created by the University reform of 1772. Its Introduction includes a short history of Portuguese mathematics up to his time (13 pages). Although it updates Stockler’s book and inevitably introduces some new data, the uncritical apologetic nature of his text makes it unsuitable to have a correct perspective of the Portuguese mathematics of its time. Only three pages are dedicated to the so-called decline period [7, pp.13–15], and it is the sole place where the Society of Jesus is mentioned. Stockler is explicitly mentioned and his book is used extensively. Until the Jesuit’s expulsion from Portugal in 1759 there had been a long conflit between the Society of Jesus and Coimbra University over the control of public instruction. So it is no wonder that Castro Freire does not change Stockler’s view on the Society: “In spite of these examples [Azevedo Fortes and others] mathematics were decaying steadily, due to the lack of encouragement and protection from the Government. Even in the Jesuit Colleges they were reduced to little else than elementary knowledge, of which the works of Father Manuel de Campos and of Father Ignacio Monteiro, the best produced by the Society in the time of King D. João V [...] if in those works we cannot see yet the spirit of discovery, we already observe more regularity than in all the ones that were published before.” 14 [9, pp.14/15] 12
In some references it is mentioned 1811 as the year of birth of Freire, a data that we mentioned in previous papers. Here we follow [7, volume II, p. 364], as it is the most reliable source for 19th century data. 13 On Castro Freire, see [7,volume II, p. 364], [7, volume IX, pp. 276–277] (both in Portuguese), and [22, pp. 241–242]. 14 “A despeito destes exemplos [Azevedo Fortes e outros] as mathematicas iam caminhando para a ultima decadência, faltas de incentivo e da protecção do governo. Nos mesmos collegios dos
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4. Rodolfo Ferreira Dias Guimarães (1866–1918) and the Project Les Mathématiques en Portugal (1900–1911) Guimarães 15 wrote Les Mathematiques en Portugal au 19ème siècle [11] for the Portuguese section in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. This was basically a 122-page bibliography of Portuguese mathematics works written in the 19th century, compiled according to the norms of the 1889 Congrès International de Bibliographie des Sciences Mathématiques, but also included two very small introductory essays on both Portuguese and International mathematics of the 19th century. Encouraged by a review from Gustav Eneström (1852–1923) in Bibliotheca Mathematica, Guimarães worked in the following nine years in expanding this work, not only producing a comprehensive bibliography of all Portuguese mathematical works, but also including a 96-page essay on the History of Portuguese mathematics [12]. This work was published in book form in 1909 with the slightly modified title Les Mathématiques en Portugal, reflecting the change in scope of the book. It included a 51-page Appendice with a bibliographical update for the period 1906–1908. In 1911 a second Appendix appeared [13], with a list of works not included in [12], as well as a bibliographical update for the period 1909–1911. 4.1. Les Mathématiques en Portugal (1909) Guimarães has 10 of his 96 pages of this book on the so-called the decline period (1536–1750). He quotes Stockler and restates that the Inquisition and the control over public education by the Society of Jesus were the main causes of Portugal’s scientific decline. He divides this period in five chapters, using the reigns of this period, individually or in group, to do this periodization. These five untitled chapters correspond to the following periods: i) D. João III/ D. Sebastião/ D. Henrique (ca. 155516 –1580); ii) Spanish Rule: Filipe I, Filipe II, and Filipe III (1580–1640); iii) D. João IV (1640–1656); Jesuitas achavam-se ellas reduzidas a pouco mais que aos conhecimentos elementares, do que dão prova decisiva as obras do Padre Manuel de Campos e do Padre Ignacio Monteiro, as melhores que sahiram d’aquella companhia no tempo de el-rei D. João V [...] se naquellas obras se não descobre ainda o espirito da invenção, já se observa nellas mais regularidade do que em todas que as precederam.” 15 On Rodolfo Guimarães see [18] and [22]. 16 For the beginning of this period Guimarães only mentions “the final years of king D. João III” [12, p. 26] (as Stockler before). D. João III started to rule in 1521, and died in 1557. We note that the Inquisition was established in Portugal in 1536.
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iv) D. Afonso VI/ D. Pedro II (1656–1706); v) D. João V (1706–1750). Some new data is introduced: for example, and in contrast to Stockler, mathematics during the Spanish rule is analyzed. It is also with Guimarães that we first see mentioned by an historian of Portuguese mathematics the important College of Santo Antão in Lisbon: “Sous Don Sebastião la décadence des sciences s’est accentuée encore, comme suite aux funestes resultants de la politique. Cependant, on institua au college des jésuites de Santo Antão, a Lisbonne, une chaire d’astronomie, qui fut d’une grande utilité.” [12, p. 26]
We will see now which Jesuit mathematicians were mentioned by Guimarães in this period.17 Nothing is said for the first sub-period (ca. 1555 –1580). The first references appear when he analyses (ii), the sub-period under Spanish Rule (1580–1640). He starts by having a global positive appraisal: “Sous les Philippes on remarque des savants qui cultivèrent les mathématiques avec plus d’intelligence et de soin qu’il n’y avait à attendre de la decadence ou l’on se trouvait. Nous devons mettre au premier plan ceux qui se livrèrent aux études théoriques et pratiques de la nautique.” [12, pp. 26–27]
He mentions five Jesuits: the first one, António de Castello-Branco (1556–1643), was a teacher at the Colégio das Artes in Coimbra at the end of the 16th century. Guimarães says that he has written in Latin a comets treaty in two volumes, and three books on astronomy. The other four were teachers at Santo Antão: Cristoforo Borri 18 (here called Christovão Borro) is said to have written a book on astronomy, and had studies on the magnetic needle, and proposed a method to compute longitudes at sea (which was refuted by Valentim Stansel); Francisco da Costa,19 of whom he just says that he was one of the best mathematics teachers of his time; Ignace Stafford,20 who in 1634 published in Spanish Elementos Mathematicos; 17
For details on the Jesuits of this period, we will use the information available in [1], [2], [8], and [14]. 18 Cristophoro Borri (1583–1632) taught at the Colégio das Artes in 1626/27 and at Santo Antão in 1627/28 until 1630. We remark that the lists of teachers at Jesuit Colleges are not available for all years, so what we write here for Borri and for the other Jesuit teachers does not imply that they were not at Jesuit Colleges in some of the years not mentioned, it simply means that there is written evidence of their teaching for the years stated. 19 Francisco da Costa (1567–1604) taught at Santo Antão as substitute lecturer in 1591/94, 95/96, 98/99, and was a teacher in 1602/04. 20 Ignace Stafford (1599–1642) taught at Santo Antão in 1630/34; returned to Castille in 1636.
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and João Delgado,21 of whom nothing is said besides being a mathematics teacher at Santo Antão. So Guimarães mentions 4 of the 12 mathematics teachers at Santo Antão during this period, which corresponds to half of the years where the teachers were known. However he does not mention Christoph Grienberger (1564–1636), probably the most distinguished Jesuit mathematician of this period, a teacher at Santo Antão in the period 1599/1602. iii) Reign of D. João IV (1640–1656) Guimarães mentions the founding of a mathematics chair in the Jesuit College of S. Tiago in Elvas:22 “[...] le prince Don Theodosio, fils ainé de Don João IV, [...] institua à Elvas, en 1651, au collège des jésuites de S. Thiago, une chaire publique de mathématiques, dont le premier professeur fut le père Anduens, mathematician belge.” 23 [12, p. 30]
Elvas is a town near the border with Spain. The king paid for the mathematics chair at the S. Tiago College in Elvas, as it was thought to be needed for the army defending the Portuguese border with Spain. It did not last long. As the restauration wars ended, so did the need for mathematics. In this period Guimarães also mentions Jan Ciermans24 (in this text: João Paschasio Ciermans, also known in Portugal as João Ciermans or Cosmander), a teacher of the prince D. Theodósio, and Jerónimo Osório da Fonseca, a mathematician in India who worked on navigation problems and proposed a method of navigation from East to West [12, p. 32]. 25 21
João Delgado (1553–1612) was the initiator of the Jesuit mathematical tradition in Portugal. He studied in Italy in the period 1576–1585; taught at Colégio das Artes in the period 1586/89; then he was in Évora during 1589/90; finally he was, although not continuously, at Santo Antão in the period 1590–1612; he also worked as an architect. 22 Mathematics teachers at S. Tiago College: Thomas Owen (English) in 1651/52; Hugh Collan (Irish), 1653/57; Valentim Stansel (Moravian), 1657/58; A. Mendes (Portuguese), 1658/60; G. Gelarte (English), 1660/63; A. de Almeida (Portuguese), 1663/67. 23 The information here is not correct, Auduens in fact was Thomas Owen (1513–1552), an English Jesuit, who had been at the Angra College, in Terceira, Azores Islands, in 1549. 24 Jan Ciermans (1612–1648) arrived in Lisbon in 1641; he taught at Santo Antão in 1641/42. He was appointed Chief Engineer of the Kingdom, and supervised defensive works. He left the Society in 1646. 25 He also adds an interesting note on Goa’s schools, although nothing is said either on contents taught or teachers, only dates are given: the Aula de Navegação, founded in 1759, and which became the Aula de Marinha in 1784; and the Aula de Artilharia, which was extinguished in 1812 and substituted by a fortification class, which could also be attended by Navy students. Both schools were replaced in 1817 by the Academia de Goa, which in 1841 became the Escola Mathematica e Militar de Goa. This was extinguished in 1871.
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iv) Reigns of D. Afonso VI and D. Pedro II (1656–1706) Here he mentions three members of the Society: a) Bartolomeu Duarte,26 of whom he just says: “Parmi les professeurs, le père Bartholomeu Duarte occupa une place distinguée.” [12, p. 33]
b) António Pimenta,27 on whom he commented: “[...] montra un penchant tout particulier pour les mathématiques et il les enseignat plus tard à Coimbra d’une façon remarquable et qui lui valut la reputation d’etre en Portugal le mathematician le plus savant de son temps. Il écrivit en 1685 la Epiphania, ou démonstration géométrique de la quadrature du cercle.” [12, pp. 33–34]
c) Valentim Stansel28 (in the text: Estancel), teacher at Santo Antão, who wrote Orbe Affonsino ou Horoscópio Universal, dedicated to King D. Afonso VI, and Tiphys Lusitano ou Regimento Náutico, dedicated to King D. Pedro II. He also mentions in this part Frei Valentim de Alpoim,29 who was in the Goa mission and of whom he just says that he “s’occupa des mathématiques en Portugal et à Goa” [12, p. 33]. v) Reign of D. João V (1706–1750) The author recognizes that there are signs in this period that show some improvement in mathematics before the Reform of the University in 1772. However here is reported a fictitious episode that shows how deep were the preconceptions against the Society of Jesus: “Les doctrines philosophiques de Descartes et de Gassendi pénétrant en Portugal, on reconnu qu’il fallait developer l’étude de la mathématique, nécessaire à la comprehension des nouvelles idées. Don João V voulu l’encourager, mais les jésuites, encore maîtres de l’instruction, déterminèrent le roi à faire venire d’Italie trois jésuites (Musarra, Capacce et Carboni) pour diriger l’instruction mathématique dans leurs collèges, ou elle fut réduite à un peu plus qu’aux notions élémentaires.” [12, p. 34] 26
Bartolomeu Duarte (1627–1701) taught at Santo Antão in 1655/58; he also lectured mathematics at the Court; he produced some work as an architect, and was praised by Stansel in his Horoscopio Universal. 27 António Pimenta (1620–1700) entered the Society in 1635, to leave a little later. He was a student at Colégio das Artes for some years. He later taught at Coimbra University. 28 Valentim Stansel (1621–1705) taught in S. Tiago College in 1657/58, and in Santo Antão in 1658/63. In 1663 he went to Brazil, where he died in 1705. He made some of the best astronomical observations in the Americas, mainly on comets. 29 Frei Valentim de Alpoim (1623–1696) was a Franciscan who is said to have written a book on Astronomy in Latin.
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In fact Giovanni Francesco Musarra (1649–1718) arrived in 1696 to Lisbon. By suggestion of General Gonzalez, instead of going to China he went to teach in Évora College (1696/98). In 1698 he left the country, going to Sicily, that is, he was no longer in Portugal when D. João V became king. Giovanni Battista Carboni (1694–1750) and Domenico Capasso (1694–1736) arrived to Lisbon in 1722 in order to proceed to the overseas missions. King D. João V kept both as technical advisors, mainly on cartography. Carboni became a royal mathematician, and published papers in respected journals, as Acta Eruditorum, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Commentari of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (joint papers with Capasso). Both taught in Santo Antão in 1722/23. Carboni became rector in Santo Antão in 1749. Capasso went to Brazil in 1726, where he worked as a royal cartographer. Such a big mistake on Guimarães’s part can only be due to his unchecked use of secondary sources, a tendency to use these materials as they were primary sources. Of the 12 Portuguese mathematicians he mentions in this period, 4 are Jesuits: Ignácio Vieira,30 who he qualifies as a man of great value, “comme témoigne son Traité d’Astronomie, composé en 1709” [12, p. 34]; Manuel de Campos,31 Ignácio Monteiro,32 and Eusébio da Veiga.33 On Manuel de Campos and Ignácio Monteiro he says: “[...] jésuites très érudits, qui laissèrent de très bons livres sur les éléments de la mathématique, les meilleurs qui soient sortis de la Compagnie de Jésus.” [12, pp. 34–35]
30
Ignácio Vieira (1675 or 1678–1739) taught in Colégio do Espirito Santo in Évora in 1699/1701; in Coimbra’s Colégio das Artes in 1705/08; and in Santo Antão in 1708/12 and 1715/19. Although he published nothing, he was one of the most outstanding mathematicians of the Society in the first half of the 18th century. 31 Manuel de Campos (1681–1758) was probably the Society’s best mathematician in the first half of the 18th century. He taught in Évora in 1710/11, and in Santo Antão in 1719/20. He was called to Rome in 1721, and returned to Portugal in 1728. He was appointed both mathematics teacher at the Collegio Imperial in Madrid in 1728/33, and royal cosmographer. 32 Ignácio Monteiro (1724–1812) was, with Eusébio da Veiga the most distinguished mathematician of the Society at the time of the expulsion in 1759. He taught in Évora in 1746/48 and in Coimbra in 1752/56 (or 55). While he was in Portugal he published his Compendio dos elementos de Mathematica in two volumes. After the expulsion he went to Ferrara, Italy, where he became prefect of studies at the local University. 33 Eusébio da Veiga (1717–1798) taught in Coimbra in 1744/45 and in 1747/49; he was at Santo Antão in 1753/59. General Visconti congratulated him on his appointment as mathematics teacher in Santo Antão, and wrote to its rector, Pedro da Silva, in support of Veiga, telling da Silva to buy the astronomical instruments Veiga needed and to introduce in Lisbon an advanced mathematics course like those existing in Coimbra and in Évora.
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On Eusébio da Veiga he states: “[...] professeur au collège de Santo Antão à Lisbonne, à qui on doit les premières Ephémerides regulières et méthodiques, coordonnées de manière qui ne laissèrent rien à desirer devant celles qui passaient par les plus parfaits en Europe, c’est-à-dire, celles données par l’Académie des sciences de Paris et celles de Boulogne.” [12, p. 35]
It is also mentioned in a footnote (p. 35) that there is an Astronomical Almanach at the Library of Poulkova Observatory with computations by da Veiga for the meridian of Rome. 4.2. Les Mathématiques en Portugal. Appendice II (1911) This is the concluding link of Guimarães’ extraordinary work, started 11 years before with the book [11] he presented at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900. This is not a comment on the value of his interpretation of Portuguese mathematics, or on the quality of his bibliography, but on the sheer volume of work done, on the dimension of the task of reporting almost singly the whole Portuguese bibliography of mathematics. This 1911 book is divided into two parts. The first one has a list of works missing in the 1909 book and in its Appendix, and also includes comments on some historiographical problems. The second one has a list of the mathematical works produced in the period 1909–1911, an update of the bibliography included in the 1909 book. In the first part we see mentioned for the first time by a Portuguese historian of mathematics Jesuits of the China Mission: Tomás Pereira and José Bernardo de Almeida. Guimarães states that only a short time before he had obtained sufficient information on these names: “Il a été aussi omis dans la partie historique de notre livre, faute de renseignements suffisants, que nous avons pu seulemente compléter tout récemment, le nom de plusieurs mathématiciens et ingénieurs, tels que le jésuite Thomas Pereyra, [...] le jésuite José Bernardo d’Almeida [...]”. [13, p. 9]
and in two notes he gives information on both. The one on Pereira is specially detailed: “Né a S. Martinho do Valle le 12 novembre 1645, il entra au noviciat de la Compagnie de Jésus le 25 septembre 1663, et arriva en Chine en 1673 et mourut à Peking le 24 décembre 1708. À peine parvenu dans la capitale de la Chine, il s’y fit aussitôt remarquer par Ferdinand Verbiest, president du Tribunal des mathématiques. Sous ce nom un peu étrange, les jésuites missionaires désignaient une espèce de bureau des longitudes qui fonctionnait à Peking et avait la direction de l’Observatoire imperial dans ses attributions.
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Grâce à son influence chez l’empereur Kang-Hi, Verbiest fit nommer Thomas Pereyra à l’une des deux vice-présidences de ce Tribunal; la deuxième était occupée par le P. Antoine Thomas, belge.” [13, p. 9]
On José Bernardo de Almeida he says: “Missionaire délégué de la Compagnie de Jésus, arrivé en Chine en 1759. Ce fut un remarquable mathématicien, très estimé a Peking.” [13, p. 9]
Still on Part One, he deals again with the “decline” period, as he realizes the controversy caused by his writing on the Society of Jesus.34 He does not bring any new data into his 1909 text, on his behalf he says that his interpretation was the result of having read new and old books on this theme. And he gives a small list of his main sources for this subject: Theophilo Braga’s Historia da Universidade de Coimbra e suas relações com a Instrucção pública portugueza (Tomes I and II) (History of the Coimbra University and its relations with the Portuguese public instruction), Academia das Sciencias, 1892 (Tome I) and 1895 (Tome II), Stockler’s Historical Essay; José Seabra da Silva’s Dedução chronologica e analytica, Part I, 1768 (Chronological and analytical deduction), and Codex 42 of the Pombal Collection of the Lisbon National Library [13, p. 16]. From this list we can see the care of someone who is aware of the publication new writings on the subject of his research, and who tries to combine knowledge obtained directly from original documents with the reflection on essays on his research theme. Remarks on Rodolfo Guimarães Guimarães’ main concern is to provide lists of mathematicians, as complete as possible; for each one there will be, accordingly to what Guimarães sees as being his relevance to Portuguese mathematics, a brief description of what he studied and/or the works he wrote. Sometimes a single sentence qualifies his work, without specifying what he did. We saw that the chapters defined by Guimarães either correspond to a reign or to a group of reigns of the Portuguese kings, sorted in chronological order. But inside each chapter there is no regard for chronology, there is no rule that authors should be analyzed following a time sequence. Generally there is no international contextualization. Institutions are not analyzed, only the works of its members are sometimes discussed: the author clearly does not see the institutions as significant elements in defining the research and progress of mathematics in Portugal. In what concerns the Jesuits, probably they are seen as a monolithic body, so from the author’s point of view it does not matter in which institution they teach. For instance, on the Jesuits that 34
He mentions [Henri] Bosmans (1852–1928) being surprised by his interpretation of the role of the Society of Jesus in Portugal [13, p. 16].
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taught at Santo Antão mentioned by Guimarães, only in a few cases it is said explicitely that they were teachers at Santo Antão (Stafford, Delgado, Stancel, da Veiga). In a significant number of cases either the College’s name is implicit, or simply there is no mention of it. So we can see references to its teachers as “jésuite, professeur de mathématiques à Lisbonne” (Borri), “jésuite, reputé un des meilleurs professeurs de mathématiques de son temps” (Costa), “jésuites [...] pour diriger l’instruction mathématique dans leurs collèges” (Capacce and Carbone), “jésuites très érudits” (Vieira and de Campos); Jan Ciermans is only mentioned as teacher of the Prince D. Theodósio (p. 30), Father António Pimenta is mentioned as having taught mathematics in Coimbra (no mention of dates), Father Bartholomeu Duarte is only said to be an eminent teacher (p. 33), he is not explicitly mentioned as a Jesuit. On the Society of Jesus, Guimarães correctly identifies the main Portuguese mathematicians (da Veiga, Monteiro, de Campos). However he does not mention Grienberger, probably the most distinguished Jesuit mathematician who worked in Portugal, teaching in Santo Antão for 3 years. 5. The History of Mathematics Works of Pedro José da Cunha (1867– 1945) for the Seville International Exhibition of 1929 Pedro José da Cunha35 wrote two works for the Portuguese Section of the Seville International Exhibition of 1929, Bosquejo Histórico das Matemáticas em Portugal and A Astronomia, a Náutica e as Sciências Afins (respectively “Historical Outline of Mathematics in Portugal” and “Astronomy, Nautical Science and Related Sciences”). Da Cunha is essentially a compiler of data from other researchers. His texts are mainly obtained by gluing together quotations by other authors. Most of the time he does not state his own conclusions, he builds his texts stating the opinions and reasonings of others. This may be seen as a mediocre way of writing on the history of science, but da Cunha had another characteristic which made more interesting what he wrote. He was aware of the research being done on Portuguese history, and used this knowledge when writing about history of mathematics. His main sources for the first of the above mentioned papers are Ernst George Ravenstein (1834–1913), Joaquim Bensaúde (1859–1952), and Luciano Pereira da Silva (1864–1926). 36 Sometimes this awareness to areas other than his pay off, producing comments that challenge the accepted views on some of the history matters. 35 36
On Pedro José da Cunha see [21]. He mentions Ravenstein’s Martin Behaim, his life and his globe, London, 1902; Bensaúde’s L’Astronomie Nautique au Portugal à l’Époque des grandes découvertes, Berne, 1912; and Luciano Pereira da Silva’s A Arte de Navegar dos Portugueses desde o Infante até D. João de Castro, Lisbon, 1921.
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5.1. Bosquejo Histórico das Matemáticas em Portugal (1929) On this work (Historical Outline of Mathematics in Portugal) there are two chapters where da Cunha talks about the Society, a total of 9.5 pages out of 65, As Causas da Decadência (Causes of Decline) and Os Matemáticos da Decadência (The Mathematicians of the Decline Period). Here he follows Stockler, who he quotes extensively. However there is a small but significant change in what da Cunha identify as the main causes of Portugal’s scientific decline. He names only the Inquisition as the main cause of Portugal’s scientific decline. Then he adds other factors that increased the negative effect of the Inquisition: i) The defeat in 1578 of the Portuguese Army in North Africa at AlcácerKibir, a battle where the King of Portugal died; ii) The loss of independence (in 1580) and the foreign rule (1580–1640); iii) The Independence War against Spain; iv) The control of Public Education by the Society of Jesus. Significantly, the last factor is stated in an implicit form, through a quotation by Stockler, a part of Note 32 from his Essay. This is done in a very curious way. After naming the Inquisition as the main cause of the decline period, he writes a paragraph where he states causes i) to iii). This seems to be the end of enumeration of causes of the decline period. He then starts a new paragraph, beginning by “Stockler says the following about the initial cause of the regrettable setback that sciences experienced among us at the end of the 16th century (note 32 of his Historical Essay, so many times quoted37)” [3, p. 28]. He follows this by a big quotation (corresponding to the beginning of Stockler’s eight-page note, here with 31 lines) where only at its end, in the last 10 lines, there is mention of the control over public education by the Society of Jesus, something never before mentioned in his text. And da Cunha is careful enough to follow this quotation immediately by the distinction already made by Stockler between the logic of an Institution and the will of its individuals, adding that Stockler paid homage to “so many men of solid virtue, pure habits and recognized honesty, who ennobled the Society called of Jesus” 38 [3, p. 29]. Nevertheless he explains Stockler’s point of view, ending by saying that Stockler thought that “[...] no matter how important were the good things done by them [the regular orders and other ecclesiastic corporations] it was not possible to guarantee their 37
“Stockler pronuncia-se dêste modo sobre a causa inicial do lamentável retrocesso que as sciências experimentaram entre nós nos fins do século XVI (nota nº 32 do seu Ensaio histórico, tantas vezes citado)”. The underlining in the English translation is ours. 38 “prestava homenagem a tantos homens de sólida virtude, costumes puros e acreditada probidade que ilustraram a Companhia denominada de Jesus.”
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impartiality when its particular interests or truly the particular interests of its members collided with the ones of any other order or with the general interests of the nation.” 39 [3, p. 29]
To fully understand the reason of this somehow strange text structure, in which da Cunha introduces a statement on the consequences of the Jesuit domain of public education through the voice of another author, we have to remember that the Jesuits had been expelled from Portugal with the advent of the Republic in 1910, and that, only from 1923 onwards they had been returning to Portugal. With the end of the Republic and the beginning of the dictatorship in 1926 this reintegration in the Portuguese society would become smoother, and in fact the new constitution of 1933 — abolishing the exception laws on religious grounds — (and later the decree of May 12, 1941, acknowledging the Society of Jesus as a missionary congregation) would normalize the Jesuits situation in Portugal. We can deduct that in 1929 it could be a touchy subject to say, in a official delegation of the Portuguese government, that the deeds of the Society of Jesus was one of the main reasons of the decline from a “Golden Era” of Portuguese history. So in this way we can understand why da Cunha, at the very beginning of his activity as a historian of Mathematics, and fully aware of his beginners’ condition, 40 always ready to accept the existing written texts on history of mathematics as unquestioned evidence, here made such a significant change. Nevertheless, he comments on his behalf that Rodolfo Guimarães considers the same causes for the scientific decline. And he adds some new ones, which he says were pointed out by Francisco Gomes Teixeira (1851–1933), the most reputed Portuguese mathematician of his time. These are quoted from several of his conferences (one was his speech in the opening session of the Luso-Spanish Scientific Congress of 1921 in Oporto, and the others in 1923 conferences in Paris and Toulouse): a)
The moral decline caused by the riches coming from the East and the oppression caused by the excesses of power; as well as the action of sectary influences that from time to time overcame Iberia;
b) The decline of Portuguese navigation. The main characteristic of Portugal’s so called golden era in science was the development of astronomy in its applied form to navigation. With a stagnation in Portuguese navigation there was no motivation for further developments in astronomy. 39
“[...] por maiores que fôssem os serviços por elas [as ordens regulares e outras corporações eclesiásticas] prestados à causa pública, não era possível garantir a sua imparcialidade quando os seus particulares interêsses ou verdadeiramente os particulares interêsses dos seus membros colidissem com os de outra qualquer ordem ou com os interêsses gerais da nação.” 40 We must remember that he called his book an “outline”, an acknowledgement of the lack of depth of analysis in his work.
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And da Cunha concludes: “[...] this abandon of sciences continued for almost two centuries, as Public Education was controlled by the Society of Jesus, who had no interest in scientific progress. This is, consequently, a matter in the history of mathematics in Portugal that, considering that everybody who has studied it agrees on it, can be considered sufficiently understood.” 41 [3, pp. 29/30]
This is quite ironic, because 11 years later, da Cunha writes a paper (which we will later analyze), where he challenges this very statement, the very first time this was done in Portuguese historiography of mathematics. In the second chapter, The mathematicians of the Decline Period, he copies Guimarães, shortening his text and adding small parts by Stockler. He does not mention António de Castello-Branco, Thomas Owen (and the Elvas College) and Jan Ciermans. He also mentions the Jesuit Tomás Pereira, repeating Guimarães in his 1911 Appendix II: “The Jesuit Tomás Pereira, who lived in China from 1673 to 1708, the year when he died, was for a long time vice-president of the mathematicians Tribunal that existed in Peking. This was the name by which the missionary Jesuits called a sort of a bureau des longitudes, which had among its duties the direction of the Imperial Observatory.” 42 [3, pp. 33/34]
By the time da Cunha writes this text it was already available a paper by Francisco Rodrigues (1873–1956), the most reputed Portuguese Jesuit historian of the Society of Jesus, on the Jesuits in China [14, pp. 83–85]. This paper was published in 1923 and was reprinted two years later, in a slightly modified form [15]. 43 However da Cunha does not seem aware of it. We can conclude this because of the way he also refers to José Bernardo de Almeida: “The first years of the rule of King D. José were so troubled that the culture of science, without an official support which stimulated it, was maintained in the 41
“[...] êste abandono das sciências continuou quási durante dois séculos, porque o ensino público caíra nas mãos da Companhia de Jesus, que não se interessava pelos progressos scientíficos. É êste, portanto, um ponto da história das matemáticas em Portugal que, pelo acôrdo de todos os que entre nós o têm versado, se pode considerar devidamente esclarecido.” 42 “O jesuíta Tomás Pereira, que viveu na China de 1673 a 1708, ano em que morreu, tendo desempenhado por muito tempo o cargo de vice-presidente do Tribunal dos matemáticos, que funcionava em Pequim. Por êste nome designavam os jesuítas missionários uma espécie de bureau des longitudes que tinha nas suas atribuições a direcção do Observatório Imperial.” 43 This paper omits references to the Society of Jesus either in its title: Matemáticos Portugueses na China (Portuguese Mathematicians in China), or in the author’s name, who is just mentioned as Francisco Rodrigues, omitting the later usual reference SJ. As mentioned before, 1923 was the year that the Society of Jesus started entering Portugal again, 13 years after its expulsion by the Republican regime, so the caution was understandable. Two years later the work would be republished (with minor changes) as an offprint in Oporto under the more adequate title Jesuítas Portugueses Astrónomos na China (Portuguese Jesuits Astronomers in China).
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lethargic state of the previous governments, producing nothing that marked any progress. Notwithstanding it is worth mentioning [...] José Bernardo de Almeida, Jesuit from the China Mission, where he landed in 1759, and who was much praised in Peking as a worthy geometer [...]”.44 [3, p. 35]
This is a straight copy of the Guimarães 1911 text. If da Cunha had read the above mentioned 1923 Rodrigues paper he should know that at some stage de Almeida became President of the Mathematics Tribunal, as this is stated by that author in a 6-line short notice [15, pp. 100/101]. Da Cunha’s unawareness of the Francisco Rodrigues paper proves to be an exception in da Cunha’s ability in using contemporary research in history. 5.2. A Astronomia, a Náutica e as Sciências Afins (1929) Only in a one page chapter, A Astronomia — do Infante D. Henrique à Reforma Pombalina (Astronomy, from Henry the Navigator to Pombal’s Reform), does da Cunha refers to the Jesuits in this 55-page book. Like in Historical Outline, the text is a compilation of quotes, where myth is stated unchecked.45 There is nothing here that brings any extra information in what concerns the Society of Jesus. We also have mention of the Santo Antão College and of the China Mission, although nothing is said either of the contents taught in Santo Antão, or of the matters transmitted to the Far East. As it is norm with this author, the text is not precise: “[...] even in the decline period was founded an astronomy chair in the Jesuit College of Santo Antão, which was quite useful; and it was also through the Portuguese Jesuits that the astronomical science was introduced in the Far East. They reached high places in the Mathematicians Tribunal in Peking.” 46 [4, p. 11] 44
“Foram tam agitados os primeiros anos do govêrno de D. José que a cultura das sciências no seu reino, sem estímulo oficial que as animasse, conservou-se no mesmo estado letárgico dos governos anteriores, nada produzindo que marcasse um progresso. Merecem citar-se, ainda assim, [...] José Bernardo de Almeida, jesuíta das Missões da China, onde desembarcou em 1759, que era muito estimado em Pequim como geómetra de valor [...]”. 45 He insists on the false historical statement (but at the time widely accepted) that Pedro Nunes lectured with regularity (and brilliantly!) from 1544 to 1562 in Coimbra University [4, p. 11]. The first Portuguese historian of mathematics who rejected this myth was José Vicente Gonçalves (1896–1985) in a paper [10] written precisely about Pedro José da Cunha. We know that Pedro Nunes rarely gave any lectures, it was almost always his assistants who taught the classes. We also know that the students were few, sometimes classes could not even take place because there were no students. It is Gonçalves who in the above mentioned paper questions pertinently the existence of a “golden era” of Portuguese mathematics in the 16th century and the consequent “decline” period. 46 “[...] todavia, mesmo no período de decadência, foi criado no Colégio dos Jesuítas de Santo Antão uma cadeira de astronomia, que prestou serviços apreciáveis; e que foram também jesuítas portugueses que levaram a nossa ciência astronómica ao Extremo Oriente, chegando a exercer altos cargos no Tribunal dos Matemáticos, que funcionava em Pequim.”
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6. Francisco Gomes Teixeira (1851–1933) and the História das Matemáticas em Portugal (1934) Teixeira47 represents a new type of historian of mathematics, a break with the tradition of not analyzing the mathematical ideas from a historical point of view. He states it discreetly in his book: on page 186, when commenting on works by Stockler, António Ribeiro dos Santos (1745–1818), and Rodolfo Guimarães on Pedro Nunes, he states that, although they are the ones which have more information about Nunes’ life, in what concerns the appraisal of his works they are all insufficient.48 Teixeira has the habit of contextualizing Portuguese history into the broader context of European mathematics. Also in contrast to the other Portuguese historians of mathematics, when he writes his História das Matemáticas em Portugal (History of Mathematics in Portugal), he has already behind him many years of reflection and publishing papers on the History of Portuguese mathematics. It is an unquestioned fact that this book, published the year after his passing,49 represents a qualitative leap for Portuguese historians of Portuguese mathematics. 50 Here he has two chapters on the so called decline period [24, pp. 197–223], Período da decadência e suas causas (Decline period and its causes) and Cultura da Matemática no período de decadência (1600– 1772) (Mathematics culture in the decline period (1600–1772)), 27 pages out of 295 of the main text, about 8% of the contents of the book. In the first chapter, Teixeira analyzes the causes of Portugal’s scientific decline. He states what he thinks are the causes of Portugal’s scientific decline. Some of them we have already mentioned when analyzing Pedro José da Cunha’s works, as he quotes Teixeira. We are here only mentioning what Teixeira considers the three main causes. For him the most important is the expulsion of the Jews who did not want to convert to Christianity, ordered during King D. Manuel’s reign (1495–1521). Teixeira comments that in this way many of the most skilled men of science had to leave Portugal. A second major factor is the beginning of the Inquisition. About this Teixeira says in no dubious way: “This institution [the Inquisition] was a mixture of painful tragedy and of low comedy, which for nearly 200 years interfered with all activities in Portugal and with it the general progress of the nation.” 51 [24, p. 199] 47
On Gomes Teixeira, see [20] and [22]. “[...] pelo que respeita a apreciações dos seus trabalhos, são todos insuficientes.” 49 Teixeira died before revising completely his work. The many notes he wanted to add to his text (and sometimes mentioned in it) were never included, and today they are thought to be either lost or never written. 50 See [22], in special pages 244/245. 51 “[...] foi uma mistura de tragédia dolorosa e baixa comédia, que durante cêrca de duzentos anos perturbou em Portugal tôdas as actividades e com elas o progresso geral do país.” 48
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Teixeira tries to find an explanation for the process of the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal. He finds causes inherent to the specificity of Portugal: “The civil and the religious powers, maybe conditioned by the ideal of religious uniformity on the Iberian Peninsula, by the extinction of Judaism, entered this terrible road, and so did the common people, who saw the Jews as representing an important role in the social and economic life of those times.” 52 [24, pp.199/200]
and also other more general factors, in that they are derived from the intellectual development of Europe, and therefore are not specific of the Portuguese situation: “Today the domains of the religious philosophy and of the scientific philosophy are apart [...] however it was not so in those times, when one thought that Science should be subordinated to Theology. The separation was started by philosophers of the 17th century, and the great French Encyclopédie announced it in the 18th century. The first consistent argumentation for that separation was made by Galileo, arguing for Copernicus’astronomical system, which contradicted the part in the Old Testament where the Sun stops when commanded by Joshua.” 53
Teixeira adds to the previous factors of Portugal’s scientific decline a third cause: the control of education by the Society of Jesus. The main criticism he makes is that their teaching is concerned only with the past, they omit any references to the new theories and to the new discoveries being made. Here we can see how he comments on the contents of the Society’s teaching: “In those colleges and in the University (mentioning only what is relevant) they taught elementary courses of Arithmetic, Geometry, and Geography and the philosophical and physical theories of Aristotle, and some of their masters wrote good manuals for teaching those sciences, and others seriously commented on these theories, but with no originality of spirit, and fundamentally they were conservatives, tied to old theories of the medieval Peripatetics and Scholastics, they did not introduce in the country the discoveries that were happening outside in the field of Science and Philosophy. They were scholars and they knew how to teach, and they taught well, but they only taught to know the works of the past, they did not face the future, they did not teach to progress. 52
“Entraram neste caminho infernal o poder civil e o poder eclesiástico, sugestionados talvez pelo ideal da unidade religiosa na Península Ibérica, pela extinção nela do judaísmo, e entrou nêle também o povo, que via os judeus representar um papel preponderante na vida social e económica daqueles tempos.” 53 “Hoje os domínios da filosofia religiosa e da filosofia científica estão separadas [...] não era, porém, o mesmo naqueles tempos em que se entendia que a Ciência se devia subordinar à Teologia. Aquela separação começaram a realizá-la filósofos do século XVII e proclamou-a, como arauto, no século XVIII, a grande Enciclopédia francesa. A primeira tentativa fundamentada para aquela separação fê-la Galileu, defendendo o Sistema astronómico de Copérnico, que contrariava a passagem do Velho Testamento, que se refere à paragem do Sol à voz de Josué.”
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Besides their main worry was the defense of Catholicism against heresies and the diffusion of Christian civilization in the overseas territories.” 54 [24, pp.204–205]
In his analysis of the Society of Jesus, Teixeira mentions that, after being in charge of the instruction in Portugal, the Society became interested in the teaching of Astronomy and of Physics. As to Astronomy, he says that this was natural, because of the status of its subject, because of its applications to Nautical science, and also by the advantages that its knowledge would imply for the missionaries that would go overseas. The interest in Astronomy led to start a course where this science was taught at the Santo Antão College in Lisbon, to the publication of several books on Astronomy by some members of the order, and to the publication by Father Eusébio da Veiga of Planetario Lusitano (Portuguese Planetary), the first Astronomical Almanach organized in Portugal [24, pp. 205–206]. In what concerns Physics, Teixeira shortly says that the Society’s interest could be seen in the publication of the Comentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Jesus, about which he mentions having written in a previous chapter55 [24, p.207]. The main criticism Teixeira states about the Society’s teaching is that they could not understand the new theories, acting as these were endangering the Catholic church: they kept on teaching Aristotle and Ptolemy when Galileo and Kepler had already made their innovations known. And he concludes that they act as though they were facing a mere crisis in scholastic theories due to a temporary destructive wave [24, p. 207]. This does not prevent him of seeing some good aspects of the Jesuit works: “The Society was scattered among scientifically unexplored lands, and some of its members contributed to the progress of natural and physical sciences with remarkable works written while they were there.” 56 [24, p. 206] 54
“Ensinava-se naqueles colégios e na Universidade (mencionando sòmente o que convém aqui notar) elementos de Aritmética, de Geometria e de Astronomia e as doutrinas filosóficas e físicas de Aristóteles, e alguns dos seus mestres compuseram bons manuais para o ensino daquelas ciências e outros comentaram sàbiamente estas doutrinas, mas desprovidos de originalidade de espírito e fundamentalmente conservadores, presos às velhas doutrinas dos Peripatéticos e dos Escolásticos medievais, não introduziram no País as descobertas que no campo da ciência e da filosofia se iam fazendo fora dele. Eram doutos e sabiam ensinar e ensinavam bem, mas só ensinavam a conhecer as obras do passado, não olhavam para o futuro, não ensinavam a progredir. Demais, o que principalmente os preocupava era a defesa do catolicismo contra as heresias e a divulgação da civilização cristã por terras de além-mar.” 55 In fact he writes a 12 line paragraph on the Comentarii [24, pp. 140–141], mentioning that in it Aristotle´s and his commentators’s theories on Physics are explained at length. He also adds that although this work has no indication of the author, José Joaquim Lopes Praça in his Historia da Philosophia em Portugal, etc, (History of Philosophy in Portugal, etc.), Coimbra, Imp. Litterária, 1868, identifies him as Father Manuel de Góis, who Teixeira says entered the Society in 1560 and died in 1593. 56 “[...] espalhada a ordem por terras cientificamente inexploradas, concorreram alguns dos seus membros para o progresso das ciências físicas e naturais com trabalhos notáveis nelas elaborados.”
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Gomes Teixeira makes a curious distinction between the Catholic Church and the (Coimbra section of) the Society of Jesus in what concerns science: “It is true that the Catholic Church always favored either directly or through its religious congregations scientific and philosophical culture, concerned only in preventing that it damages what is essential in its doctrines; but the Coimbra Jesuits did not follow in education the progresses of this culture.” 57 [24, pp. 207/208]
To have Portugal in an Iberian perspective, Teixeira states that similar facts happened in Spain: the Madrid Academy of Mathematics had as its main aim to prepare officers for the Army. In Teixeira’s point of view it did not contribute anything to the progress of science in that country, and this was the cause for its extinction. The teaching done in the Academy was then given to the Jesuits of Santo Isidro College, but the results were not better than before [24, p. 208]. This episode reflects his idea that Iberia was absent from the progress of science in the 17th century: “In the flights of science that took place in the 17th century, Spaniards and Portuguese did not have an important role.” 58 [24, p. 211]
Teixeira writes a couple of paragraphs on the Jesuits of the China Mission, with a footnote calling the reader’s attention to the Francisco Rodrigues’s paper Jesuítas Portugueses Astrónomos na China (the 1925 reprint): “In China, where Astronomy had a tradition and was very valued, some Portuguese Jesuits made some astronomical observations that made them win the respect of the Emperors themselves.” 59 [24, p. 206]
He then mentions the numerous observations of eclipses of the Sun and of the Moon made in Beijing by Father André Rodrigues,60 and published in the Memoires of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences in Tome II, 1799, and the observations of Jupiter’s satellites made by Father André Pereira61 in Beijing, 57
“É certo que a igreja católica favoreceu sempre directamente e por meio das suas congregações religiosas a cultura científica e filosófica, procurando sòmente evitar que prejudique o que há de essencial nas suas doutrinas; mas os Jesuítas de Coimbra não seguiram no ensino os progressos desta cultura.” 58 “Nos vôos da ciência que se realizaram no século XVII, não representaram papel importante nem espanhóis nem portugueses.” 59 “Na China, onde a Astronomia tinha tradições e era muito apreciada, fizeram alguns jesuítas portugueses observações astronómicas que conquistaram para êles a estima dos próprios imperadores.” 60 André Rodrigues (1729–1796) left Lisbon in 1754, arrived in Beijing in 1759. He was Vice-President of the Mathematics Tribunal in 1775, and became President in 1796. 61 André Pereira (1689–1743) was a Master in Arts by Évora University. He arrived to Macau in 1716. In 1727 he is appointed vice-president of Ignatius Koegler at the Mathematics Tribunal. His English name was Andrew Jackson.
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which were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (Tome XXXVII, 1831). In the second chapter, The Culture of Mathematics during the Decline Period, there is no explicit mention of Jesuit scientific activity. There is a general appreciation of mathematics in this period, saying that decline was mostly visible in theoretical mathematics. He states that the University, which should have developed them, did exactly the opposite, with long periods during which there was no chair of mathematics at the University. In contrast to others historians of mathematics, Teixeira does not analyze individually the mathematicians of this period. He completes this chapter in what concerns Portugal by giving a list of Portuguese men of science that had to leave Portugal in order to progress in science; some did not return (Ribeiro dos Santos, João Jacinto de Magalhães, Jacob de Castro Sarmento), others did (Soares de Barros, Manuel de Azevedo Fortes). Teixeira is the only Portuguese historian of mathematics who does not generalize the comments he makes on Portuguese Jesuits to the Society of Jesus in general. It is true that he does not say anything on the Society of Jesus as such, nor hints that the Iberian case was a singularity in the Society of Jesus. But he is always careful in stating that he is referring to the Portuguese Jesuits. In a way he opposes the Coimbra Jesuits to the Catholic Church, and the scientific practice of the Portuguese Jesuits to the new sciences. Also it is clear that he tries to see events in a more global perspective, as we can see in his inclusion of the short analysis of the Spanish case concerning the Jesuits. And also we must consider the references he gives: he is the only one to state the journals where some Jesuits published papers, and he gives in a footnote the reference of Francisco Rodrigues’ 1925 paper in what concerns the Jesuits in China. 7. A Reappraisal: As Matemáticas em Portugal no século XVII (1940) In 1940 the Portuguese regime decided to organize big scale celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Portugal’s regaining its independence (1640), and simultaneously of the 800th anniversary of the foundation of Portugal as an independent country (1143). The Lisbon Academy of Sciences decided to contribute to these celebrations by organizing a series of talks on Portuguese culture of the 17th century. Pedro José da Cunha was given the talk on Portuguese Mathematics in the 17th century. These talks ended up by not taking place, but da Cunha wrote in paper form his talk and published it as an offprint of the Memoirs of the Academy in 1940. In it he re-analyzes the causes of Portugal’s mathematical decline in the 17th century, mentioning that new works on these matters made him modify the analysis of this period he had made in previous writings. On the
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reorganization of studies done under King D. João III he mentions Joaquim de Carvalho and his Instituições de Cultura (Culture Institutions), a part of a major work organized by Damião Peres and Eleutério Cerdeira, História de Portugal (History of Portugal), published by Portucalense Editora in 8 volumes in the period 1928–1935; on the establishment of the Society of Jesus in Portugal he quotes Alfredo Pimenta’s Elementos de História de Portugal (Elements of History of Portugal), published in Lisbon by Empresa Nacional de Publicidade in 1936; and on the Society of Jesus, he refers to Francisco Rodrigues’ História da Companhia de Jesus na Assistencia de Portugal 62 (History of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese Assistancy), a multi-volume project, which had its first volume out in 1931. His aim is to refute what had been accepted since Stockler as the main causes for the so called decline period: the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal and the domain of the Society of Jesus over public education. Da Cunha lists the causes for mathematical decline stated previously by Stockler, Guimarães and Teixeira, minimizes the negative effects of the Inquisition and of the Society of Jesus and tries to argue (unconvincingly) that the two major causes were the decline of Portuguese navigation and the exhaustion in Portugal caused by two centuries of continuous territorial expansion. I believe that the political context of the time had a significant part in this rethinking made by da Cunha.63 62
When da Cunha’s paper was published, there were already 4 volumes of this work in print: Tome I, in 2 volumes, appeared in 1931, and Tome II, also in 2 volumes, was published in 1938, corresponding to the history of the Society up to 1615. Another three volumes would be published: Tome III, in 2 volumes, in 1944, and Tome IV, volume I, in 1950. The work remained incomplete, a planed volume II mentioned in the introduction of Volume I of Tome IV was never published. 63 We must not forget that da Cunha wrote at a dramatic time, when World War II was in its second year, with a course still totally favorable to the Axis powers. The Portuguese dictatorship had in censorship one of its most powerful ideological weapons, and at the time, although it never cut its ties with the Allies, the United Kingdom in particular, it had its sympathies with Germany and Italy. A few years earlier the regime already had a clear stand in these matters, helping Franco’s armies (logistically) against the Spanish Republic during Spain’s Civil War (1936/39) and persecuting and imprisoning Republican refugees. Da Cunha, although not a man involved in politics, was quite happy with the ruling powers, and seemed to fully agree with the ideological speech of the regime. On this, see his 1942 speech in [6], where he speaks about the Government being fully aware of the national needs; of Portugal “[...] being the living evidence of what Humanity can reach when one keeps oneself faithful to the eternal principles of Goodness and Justice”; of all Portuguese being side by side with the Government, on whom he knew all Portuguese could trust in its actions and in its wiseness; of the unanimity of thoughts and feelings; of the recurrent demonstrations of esteem and solidarity towards the president of the Republic and the PrimeMinister; the list seems endless. In all fairness to da Cunha, and although he spoke like a man of the regime, all reports say that he was not hostile to other scientists who opposed the regime, and tried to act with fairness to everybody, independently of their political stand. Also we must not forget that in 1940 da Cunha was 73 years old.
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In what concerns the Society of Jesus although most of the time he restates what other authors — Guimarães in particular — had written on the subject,64 he puts in some new data. One new item is the reference to the Ratio Studiorum: “In European Portugal, in a relatively short time the Jesuits built many colleges attended by many students. In their teaching they were guided by the Ratio Studiorum, sort of studies program that resulted from the experience gained in consecutive years of teaching and meditating. Says Mr. Alfredo Pimenta that the quality of this Ratio Studiorum can be seen in the mentality that it created, or allowed to blossom, and in the great members of faculty that grew in its shadow, either in the University or in the Secondary school.” 65 [5, p. 12]
This quotation highlights the strength and weakness of da Cunha’s writing: he is aware of important works done on history outside the mathematics field, he gets some interesting ideas, but he seems unable (or not wanting) to do further research on his own, based on the new ideas he gets from these sources. His statements have a vagueness and a lack of precision that prevents the reader from having any clear view of the situations described or analyzed. For instance, from the above quote one could never understand what is the specificity (and relevance) of the Ratio Studiorum. This lack of will to do any further research is patent everywhere in his work, we have in this text another clear example on the period of Spanish rule [5, pp. 20–22]. After writing a list of the mathematicians of this period, including for most of them some small comment, he has this extraordinary saying, when finalizing his writing on this period: “I do not know any of the works published in Portugal during the Spanish rule. Stockler is very critical in his appreciation. He considers them in its majority to be vain and pitiful, not including any new truths, perfected methods, or acceptable systems.” 66 [5, p. 22]
which is essentially a transcription of what he had written 11 years before in the Bosquejo histórico [3, p. 62], the only new information here is that da Cunha admits that he has not read any of the mathematics works published in Portugal during the Spanish rule. However the context of the quotation is not correct, because Stockler [23, p. 158] was referring to the general trend of the whole period be64
He also quotes Teixeira on the positive work of the Society mentioning Astronomy, Physics, and the astronomical observations made by the Jesuits in China [5, pp. 12/13] 65 “Na metrópole foram numerosos os colégios, de abundante frequência, que os jesuítas montaram num prazo relativamente curto. No ensino guiavam-se pelo Ratio Studiorum, espécie de programa de estudos elaborado com a experiência adquirida em anos seguidos de ensino e meditação. Diz o sr. Alfredo Pimenta que êsse Ratio Studiorum deu as suas provas na mentalidade que criou ou deixou criar e nas grandes figuras do professorado, que à sua sombra se geraram, quer no ensino universitário, quer no ensino médio.” 66 “Não conheço nenhuma das obras publicadas em Portugal durante o domínio espanhol. Stockler é bastante severo na sua apreciação. Considera-as na sua maior parte fúteis ou lastimosas, não contendo verdade nova, método aperfeiçoado ou sistema tolerável.”
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tween the last years of king D. João III and the beginning of the reign of D. José, roughly between 1555 and 1750, not only to the period 1580–1640. Even if the context was right, we clearly see that da Cunha does not consider the possibility of Stockler not having said the final word on this period, it seems that for him, once Stockler formulated his criticism, there ceased tio be a reason to analyze the works of this period. It looks like it is something outside his mental frame to consider that there is a possibility of Stockler having grasped incorrectly different aspects related to the contents of the mathematics works, its connections, etc. On the Society of Jesus he repeats with small variations the list given by Guimarães in his 1909 History, that he had already reproduced in his Bosquejo Historico, with the same omissions (Castello-Branco, Jan Ciermans, Thomas Owen, the Elvas College). He lacks rigor continuously. Of the teachers at Santo Antão, some are mentioned to belong to this institution (João Delgado, Ignace Stafford, Valentim Stancel), others are only said to be teachers in Lisbon (Christophoro Borri) or just teachers (Francisco Costa). On later periods he mentions two priests, Bartolomeu Duarte and António Pimenta, but does not state that they are Jesuits, although this is said in Guimarães’ book. The last two Jesuits mentioned are Valentim Stancel (called here Estancil) and Tomás Pereira. On the former he mentions two of his works: Orbe Affonsino or Horoscopo Universal, dedicated to King D. Afonso VI, and Typhis Lusitano or Regimento Nautico Novo (New Nautical Statutes), dedicated to King D. Pedro II. On the later he repeats (with minor changes) the paragraph he had written about him in Bosquejo Historico, and adds (probably he means here the different names of the Astronomy Imperial Bureau, of which the Imperial Observatory was one of its branches): “This [the Imperial Observatory] was probably the continuation of the Institute of the same name which existed in China in a faraway past, with the peculiarity of its members having to predict the sun eclipses, under death penalty [if they should fail].” 67 [5, p. 24]
He concludes his appreciation of the Society with these words: “This quick overview [...] confirms that it was a period of clear decline [...]. We can see that in this so to say conservation work, it was important the role of the Society of Jesus; and it was also the Jesuits the main important actors of the spreading of Portuguese culture in the exotic countries, which we were trying to colonize or evangelize.” 68 [5, p. 25] 67
“Êste era, provàvelmente, o continuador do instituto do mesmo nome que nos tempos mais remotos existia na China, com a particularidade dos seus membros serem obrigados, sob pena de morte, a predizer com antecedência os eclipses do sol.” 68 “Êste rápido golpe de vista [...] confirma que estávamos numa época de acentuada decadência [...]. Nota-se mais que nesta obra, por assim dizer de conservação, foi grande o papel representado pela Companhia de Jesus; e que foram também os jesuítas os principais agentes de propagação da cultura portuguesa pelos países exóticos, que procurávamos colonizar ou evangelizar.”
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8. Final Remarks A characteristic of the Portuguese historians of mathematics is that, as a rule, their initial motivation to start writing on the history of mathematics comes from a non-related area. So Stockler wrote his Essay because he felt a moral obligation to his country’s scientific inheritance, a heritage put in danger by his countrymen lack of culture. Francisco do Castro Freire wrote his 1872 book because of the centenary of the Faculty of mathematics; Rodolfo Guimarães was first commissioned his Histoire des Mathématiques en Portugal au XIXème siècle for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900; Pedro José da Cunha had to have his Bosquejo written for Seville’s International Exhibition. Only Gomes Teixeira arrives at writing his history of mathematics in Portugal after having thought for a long time on the problems placed by History itself, his book is the consequence of a lifetime practice of both mathematics and history of mathematics, not its starting point. Being recognized as one of the country’s most brilliant men of science also must have played some positive role, as it must have lifted off the pressure on him as writing of papers was concerned, so he could take his time to research and to establishing connections on the materials he obtained. Of all the Portuguese historians of mathematics only Teixeira could be said to have a practice of history of mathematics closer to the modern times, closer to putting as the main aim of the historian of mathematics the analysis of the mathematical ideas from a historical point of view. So it is ironic that he is the only author of a global history of Portuguese mathematics who did not analyze the Jesuit mathematicians of the “decline” period individually. Stockler has the immense merit of having written the first history of Portuguese mathematics, and even though some of his interpretations seem too simplistic nowadays, his arguing is always interesting, driven simultaneously by the absolute believe in the power of reason and by his belief in his moral obligation to contribute to preserve Portugal’s scientific inheritance. On the Society of Jesus he tried to show the positive as well as the negative aspects of that institution, highlighting the Society’s best mathematicians as Eusébio da Veiga, Manoel de Campos and Inácio Monteiro. Castro Freire is a minor figure in this context, his vision of reality totally biased, painting an idyllic and false picture of Coimbra’s Faculty of Mathematics, and only repeating Stockler in what concerns the Society. Of its mathematicians he only mentions explicitely Manoel de Campos and Inácio Monteiro. Rodolfo Guimarães is a completely different case. He may have started his work on history of mathematics as an outside job, but he really took to heart the aim of researching Portuguese mathematics, and his project on Les Mathématiques
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en Portugal took 11 years to fully take shape. In his 1909 book, although he repeats Stockler’s main arguments, he analyses in detail certain important aspects of the Society of Jesus, and gives data on 17 Jesuit mathematicians, although none from the China Mission. It is on his 1911 Supplement II that there is the first mention of a Jesuit from the China Mission in a work by a Portuguese historian of mathematics, when Tomás Pereira and José Bernardo de Almeida are mentioned. Pedro José da Cunha is also a minor figure in this context. He basically repeats Guimarães and Stockler. He can counteract his weaknesses as an historian with his awareness of the publications in areas other than mathematics. But this was not so on the Jesuits’ theme, da Cunha was not aware of Francisco Rodrigues’ paper, either in its 1923 version [14] or in the 1925 reprint. Finally Gomes Teixeira, probably guided by his mathematical training, is in a different qualitative level when researching historical conjectures. In contrast to the above historians, he decides not to analyze individually the works of the Jesuit mathematicians of the “decline” period, he chooses instead to present a global analysis of the period. As a consequence there is only mention of three names, two of them not reported by the other historians: André Rodrigues and André Pereira. The third one is Eusébio da Veiga. When speaking about the Jesuits mathematicians, he states an important fact, also not mentioned by the other historians, that they had their papers published in reputed journals, either Portuguese — the Memoirs of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences —, or nonPortuguese — the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London —, not only recognizing the quality of their research, but also calling our attention to the international net of mathematicians. Also, of the five historians, Teixeira is the only one that never speaks of the Society of Jesus as a global entity, always consider its origin, he always refers to Portuguese Jesuits, Spanish Jesuits, but not to the Society of Jesus in abstract. Also he is the only one that tries to have the Portuguese case contextualized, and he sketches a picture where Iberia is singled out. Acknowledgments I would like to thank Fundação Oriente for their grant, which allowed me to participate in the 3rd Meeting “History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia” which took place in the University of Tokyo in August 2005, and their continuous support of the research done on the theme of this Meeting. The research for this paper was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Programa POCI (Portugal/FEDER-EU), ISFL-1-209.
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References 1. Ugo Baldini, The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus and scientific Activities in its Asian Missions until 1640, Proceedings of the First Meeting “History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia”, pp. 49–104, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, 2000. 2. Ugo Baldini, The teaching of Mathematics in the Jesuit Colleges of Portugal, from 1640 to Pombal, pp. 293–465, Proceedings of the Conference “The Practice of Mathematics on Portugal”, Acta Universitatis Conimbrigensis, 2004. 3. Pedro José da Cunha, Bosquejo Historico das Mathematicas em Portugal, Exposição Portuguesa em Sevilha, 1929. 4. Pedro José da Cunha, A Astronomia, a Nautica e as Sciencias afins, Exposição Portuguesa em Sevilha, 1929. 5. Pedro José da Cunha, As Matemáticas em Portugal no Século XVII, Memorias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Ciências, 3 (separata), 1940. 6. Pedro José da Cunha, Discurso na sessão inaugural do Congresso LusoEspanhol do Pôrto em 18 de junho de 1942, Associação Portuguesa para o Progresso das Ciências, Imprensa Portuguesa, 1943. 7. Innocêncio Francisco da Silva, 1858–1870, Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez, Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional, volumes I–XIX, continued by Aranha, Brito, in volumes XX–XXII, 1883–1923. 8. Joseph Dehern, Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800, Letouzey & Ane, Paris, 1973. 9. Francisco de Castro Freire, Memória Histórica da Faculdade de Mathematica nos cem annos decorridos desde a reforma da Universidade em 1772 até ao presente, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1872. 10. José Vicente Gonçalves, Elogio histórico de Pedro José da Cunha, Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Ciências, 9, pp. 93–111, 1966. 11. Rodolfo Guimarães, Les Mathématiques en Portugal au XIXème Siècle, Coimbra, Imprimerie de l’Université, 1900. 12. Rodolfo Guimarães, Les Mathématiques en Portugal, Coimbra, Imprimerie de l’Université, 1909. 13. Rodolfo Guimarães, Les Mathématiques en Portugal, Appendice II, Coimbra, Imprimerie de l’Université, 1911. 14. Louis Pfister, Notices Biographiques et Bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de l’Ancienne Misión de Chine, 1552–1773, Chinese Materials Center, San Francisco, 1976. 15. Francisco Rodrigues, Matemáticos Portugueses na China, Revista de Historia, 12, 81–118 (1923). 16. Francisco Rodrigues, Jesuítas Portugueses Astrónomos na China, Porto, 1925; reprint of this edition: Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1990.
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17. L.M.R. Saraiva, On the First History of Portuguese Mathematics, Historia Mathematica 20, 415–427 (1993). 18. L.M.R. Saraiva, Historiography of Mathematics in the Works of Rodolfo Guimarães, Historia Mathematica 24, 86–97 (1997). 19. L.M.R. Saraiva, A Companhia de Jesus e os Historiadores da Matemática Portuguesa, Proceedings of the Meeting “A Companhia de Jesus e a Missionação no Oriente”, pp. 311–330, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente/Brotéria, 2000. 20. L.M.R. Saraiva, A Survey of Portuguese Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century, Centaurus 42, 297–318 (2000). 21. L.M.R. Saraiva, Pedro José da Cunha (1867–1945), Historian of Portuguese Mathematics, Studies in History of Mathematics dedicated to A.P. Youschkevitch, Proceedings of the XXth International Congress of History of Science, vol. XIII (E. Knobloch, J. Mawhin and S. Demidov, Eds.), De Diversis Artibus 56, 325–337 (2002). 22. L.M.R. Saraiva, Historiography of Mathematics in Portugal, “Writing the History of Mathematics, its historical development” (J.W. Dauben and C.J. Scriba, Eds.), Birkhäuser Verlag, Berlin, pp. 239–247, 2002. 23. F. de B.G. Stockler, Ensaio historico sobre as origens e progressos das mathematicas em Portugal, P. N. Rougeron, Paris, 1819. 24. Francisco Gomes Teixeira, História das Matemáticas em Portugal, Lisboa, Academia das Ciências, 1934.
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THE JESUIT COLLEGE IN MACAO AS A MEETING POINT OF THE EUROPEAN, CHINESE AND JAPANESE MATHEMATICAL TRADITIONS. SOME REMARKS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF RESEARCH, MAINLY CONCERNING SOURCES (16TH–17TH CENTURIES) UGO BALDINI Dept. of Historical and Political Studies, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Padova, Italy
1. A Neglected Subject As is well known, from the 16th to the 18th century both the residence and the college of the Jesuits in Macao were an essential crossroads for everything (people, objects and information) travelling to and from the Society’s missions in China and Japan, and for almost everything going to or from those in Indochina. They were, however, also much more. Jesuits heading for those areas remained in the Portuguese stronghold for a time, in order to recover from the journey, to learn the local languages and often — as shown below — to complete their studies. So during that time they became acquainted with those countries’ customs and intellectual traditions, met with experienced missionaries returning from the interior and — among other things — listened to their remarks on local beliefs, knowledge and technological potential. In addition, some of them taught philosophy and mathematics, giving courses to both Europeans and converted Asians. Briefly, Macao’s Jesuit community was crucial in the intellectual interchange between East Asia and Europe. Despite this, its intellectual history — especially that of the college — has been largely neglected. Studies concerning this interchange have mostly concentrated on the Beijing mission, considering Lisbon — and some European Jesuit schools generally — as the other pole of the process, while such nodal points as Macao and Goa have mainly been considered as geographical constants in the flux of information. Recently some work has been done on Goa’s Jesuit community (not only the college), but the real teaching and 33
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scientific activities are still awaiting detailed research.1 Macao has been studied much less, as even the organiser of a recent symposium entirely devoted to the history of its college up to the 18th century noted when commenting upon the papers presented: “[...] What I have learned from reading the papers and the comments [...] has led me [...] to ask further questions, for example: [...] what were the sources and what was the content of the courses in cultural studies, in science, in philosophy, and theology? What were the volumes in the library of 4200 books? [...] Who were the professors and students, the administrators and staff? Who came to Macau as exiles in times of persecution? Who were the retired missionaries spending their last years in Macau [...]? How did the seminaries [...] train their students for their future ministry? [...] As for Jesuit pedagogy [...], it would be interesting to compare St. Paul’s in Macau with St. Paul’s in Goa, and with the Roman College and the University of Coimbra where many [...] of the students of St. Paul’s had studied for some period of time before leaving Europe.” 2
These words show not only that some obviously basic questions, among the first to be asked when the history and functioning of any school is considered, have not been stated — let alone answered — in the symposium’s papers, but that not even the actual data on which any answer should be based have been sought in an extended — let alone systematic — way. This has important consequences for the study of the Jesuits’ role in Europe’s relations with both China and Japan. Usually, Jesuits have been credited with almost no real scientific interchange with Japan (apart from some cartographical work), also because they were expelled from the country just after the beginning of the Tokugawa period;3 another reason, however, is that Macao’s Jesuit community and college 1
2
3
Only very general information is provided by such studies as J. Correia-Afonso, Jesuit letters and Indian history, 1542–1773 (2nd ed.), Bombay 1969; P.S. Varde, History of Education in Goa, Goa 1977; J. Wicki, “La formazione della gioventù indo-europea a Goa”, in E. Fasana, G. Sorge (eds.), Civiltà indiana ed impatto europeo nei secoli XVI–XVIII, Milano 1987, pp. 47–60. Also studies of Jesuit science in India are focused on specific individuals’ work, in isolation from institutional and educational aspects (among recent studies are S.M.R. Ansari, Introduction of modern Western Astronomy in India during the 18 century, New Delhi 1985; L. Varadarajan, “Astrology and Astronomy. The Indo-Portuguese encounter”, in Ásia do sueste e o extremo oriente. Actas do VI seminário internacional de história indo-portuguesa (Macau, 22 a 26 de outubro de 1991), Macau–Lisboa 1993, pp. 485–499; and E.R. Hambye, “Scientific activities and works of the Jesuits”, in his History of Christianity in India: eighteenth century, Bangalore 1997, pp. 420–430). Edward J. Malatesta, Introduction, pp. 41–42, in J. Witek (ed.), Religion and culture: an international Symposium commemorating the fourth Centenary of the University College of St. Paul, Macao 1999. It is sufficient here, without considering historiographical discussions of this topic at length, to remember that evidence of scientific interchange hardly goes beyond P. Gomes’ lessons (see note 57)
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have been considered almost exclusively as a starting point and a logistic centre for those who entered China. Even specialised students often seem to forget that, if the entire period of the old Asian missions (up to 1759) is examined, this appears as the main task they performed; during most of this period China was not an independent missionary province of the Society of Jesus, but a viceprovince of the Japanese province, and Macao was the governing centre of the latter. The college’s primary purpose was to be a training place for missionaries to Japan, and overlooking this fact may easily lead to systematic distortions in historical reconstructions.4 Some papers in the symposium mentioned above provide evidence of this:
4
and such occasional remarks as that provided by a letter from Carlo Spinola to Japan’s Provincial: “[...] los mas nobles, los quales movidos de curiosidad venian a preguntar dudas de los cielos, y elementos, y viendo que todo esta fundado en razon, aunque muy contrario a lo que los Bonzos enseñan, se mueven a oyr los sermones, o per lo menos quedan muy aficionados a nuestra s.ta ley” (Nagasaki, March 18, 1612, in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu — henceforth ARSI — Jap.-Sin., 36, f. 154r–v). In another letter, written shortly before, Spinola asked the Roman Jesuits to send him some works by Clavius (“Arithmetica copiosa”, that is, his Algebra, and Geometria practica) and others, declaring that he had a copy of Clavius’ other works: Epitome arithmeticae practicae, the Commentarius on Sacrobosco, Horologiorum nova descriptio and Astrolabium. He added that “whatever book of this kind may be more profitable here than any work of theology” (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 36, f. 151v). This suggests that he was already using mathematics as a means to gain credit among learned locals, but nothing more precise is found in his letters. This is obviously a sign of the more difficult and restricted situation in which Spinola operated, compared to that in China. It has been said — perhaps too simply, but not wrongly — that the Jesuits’ teaching in Japan mainly concerned the Latin language and that none of the works they printed there was a “genuine” scientific treatise (S. Nakayama, A history of Japanese astronomy: Chinese background and Western impact, Harvard 1969, pp. 81–82). This is basically correct, because Gomez’ text was elementary and was not published, and another by C. Ferreira was also elementary and — it seems — was not a product of the Jesuits’ teaching in Japan (see notes 62, 63). To give just one example, only rarely and recently have studies considered that two of the Society’s vice-provincials in Japan, Carlo Spinola (1564–1622) and Giovanni Antonio Rubino (1578–1643), were accomplished mathematicians: both had studied under Christoph Clavius, the founder of the Society’s school of mathematics in Rome, and his main assistant, Christoph Grienberger. Spinola taught regularly in Japan for only a few years before the Tokugawa persecution of the Society, and Rubino was captured very soon after his arrival. This, however, does not mean that Spinola could not have imparted at least some scientific training to some of his fellow brothers (and perhaps also to some local students), and he could have had some informal interchange with local astronomical–cosmological traditions: see the preceding note, and also notes 72, 90. A recent attempt to reconsider the whole situation, taking the state of Portuguese colleges as a starting point, is an article by Luis Saraiva and Henrique Leitão, “The college of Sao Paulo in Macao: A background (16th and 17th centuries)”, in Alan Kam-leung Chan, Gregory K. Clancey, Hui-Chieh Loy (eds.), Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, Singapore 2001, pp. 285–298; and L.F. Barreto, “Macao: an intercultural frontier in the Ming period”, in Luis Saraiva (ed.), History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia II, Singapore 2004, pp. 1–22.
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“The college [i.e. Macao] [...] was the cradle of, and a contributor to, Chinese and Western cultural exchange.” [It followed the Coimbra model, but courses were] “based on requirements specific to the China mission, which included Chinese, Latin, philosophy, theology, mathematics, astronomy, biology, medicine, music, rhetoric, and more”. [These subjects were studied not only by western Jesuits, but by local ones too, who are identified only as Chinese]: “Chinese students studied Latin, physics, mathematics and the sciences.” 5
Another paper maintained that the Macao college was created for the sake of China’s missions, and that among the disciplines taught there were “the natural sciences such as mathematics, astronomy, music, botany, medicine, physics”.6 These phrases convey three kinds of distortion at least, because they assume: first, that the college’s institutional aim was to train missionaries for China; second, that it worked in a more or less continuous way (that is, philosophy and scientific subjects were taught regularly for two centuries);7 third, that among the subjects taught formally were “biology” (whatever this word means when referring to the early modern period), medicine, music, and botany. The first assumption was questioned during the symposium itself,8 but the second and third have never been fully discussed. A proper study of the domus macaensis as an intellectual centre must consider two different aspects: A) the development of the college’s teaching structure and the programmes of the disciplines taught in it; B) the scientific interchange — in both the college and the Jesuit residence, at the teaching and the private level — starting with a chronology of the transit of every Jesuit “scientist” there. Both aspects require scrutiny of all extant documents, some of which have been published in historical studies, but perhaps in large part still undiscovered in archives and libraries. A further difficulty comes from the fact that, owing to the loss or dispersion of most of the direct sources, that is, the college’s catalogues and registers, we have to rely on indirect ones (memories, letters, unpublished biographies, etc.), the typology of which cannot be predicted or limited a priori. This paper is a very general description of facts that are familiar to sinologists and historians of missions, but still largely unknown or little used by historians 5 6 7
8
pp. 252, 256, 257, 263. The underlining is mine. pp. 368, 372. This is also implied in Domingos Mauricio Gomes dos Santos, Macau primeira universidade occidental do Extremo Oriente, in “Anais da Academia Portuguesa de Historia”, 17 (1968), pp. 203–37. See Juan Ruiz-de-Medina’s remarks in the mentioned volume, pp. 347–351. The surviving files of Far Eastern documents in the Roman archive of the Society (ARSI) are collected in the fund Jap.-Sin. (i.e. “Japonica-Sinica”), but the documents concerning the two parts are — with a few exceptions — in separate volumes, and those concerning Macao are always among those relating to Japan.
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of science, and of the possibilities for future research and discovery. Since it is mainly methodological, the examples it uses do not refer to the entire period of the college’s history but, with a few exceptions, to the first part of it, corresponding to the late Ming period. 2. The Development of the Courses and the Teaching Programmes The main elements of the college’s history may be recalled briefly. It was founded by Alessandro Valignano, the great Visitor of Asian Jesuit missions, during 1594, despite the Indian missions’ fear that a new college in the Far East would threaten the primacy of the one in Goa and — indirectly — India’s leading role in the Society’s structure in Asia. Courses of “arts” (logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics) began in 1595; they were recognised as being at university level in 1597. Valignano’s rules for the college (October 1598) preceded the publication of the Society’s definitive Ratio atque institutio studiorum (1599), but the structure of the courses and their programmes were modelled on those of Goa (which in turn followed those of Portugal’s Jesuit colleges, and generally those in Europe).9 Until the early eighteenth century at least, all teachers in Macao’s higher courses — like those in Goa or Cochin — had been trained in Europe (since, owing to the strategy of the Roman Superiors of the Society, to practical problems or to the poor quality of their personnel, the Asian colleges were unable to produce their own teaching cadres to any extent, using not only Asian Jesuits but also those of European descent). By 1590, the Society of Jesus had already built a number of residences in Japan (some having lower level teaching courses) but practically none in China, and this disparity was paralleled by one in the number of conversions.10 9
For these and other basic facts see D.M. Gomes dos Santos, Macau primeira universidade. As for the opposition of the Goa province to the founding of the Macao college: J. Wicki (ed.), Monumenta historica Societatis Iesu. Documenta Indica, 18 vols., Rome 1948–1988, 16, pp. 67*, 96, 629, 645, 765–67, 783–84, 837–39. 10 All existing documents from the first decades of the Jesuit missions in Japan have been collected and discussed by Joseph Franz Schutte in Introductio ad historiam Societatis Jesu in Japonia 1549–1650, Romae 1968, and Monumenta historica Japoniae I. Textus catalogorum Japoniae 1553–1654, Romae 1975. Schutte also provides the relevant biographical information on the missionaries of Japan’s province mentioned below; for those in the Chinese missions see L. Pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sue les Jésuites de l’ancienne mission de Chine, I, Chang-Hai 1932; J. Dehergne, Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800, Rome–Paris 1973; N. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume one: 635–1800, Leiden 2001, ad indicem. Finally, for the most important missionaries in both areas see the Diccionario Histórico de la Compańia de Jesús (4 vols., Rome and Madrid, 2001). Until 1590 only three Jesuits entered the Chinese empire: F. Pasio (for a very short time), M. Ruggieri and M. Ricci. Their status remained virtually clandestine until some years later, and there were about twenty
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The Society’s establishment in Macao had been conceived as the hierarchical and logistic centre of Japan’s missionary province, while China’s few missions were not considered a separate province, but mere local communities depending on that of Japan until 1615–1623, when they became a division (a vice province) of it. It is notable — both as a conspicuous example of the inertia of any institution and a possible sign of some aspects of the local situation, which perhaps still escape historians — that this hierarchy survived even after the situation from which it originated changed profoundly. The Japanese province survived until the Society was suppressed in Portugal and overseas (1759), that is, one and half centuries after the Jesuits’ expulsion from Japan; for most of that time China’s missions remained subordinate, although the expulsion from Japan proved permanent, the Jesuits gained some ground in Beijing’s court and there were a growing number of conversions in the Middle Empire. The China missionaries’ repeated attempts to change this achieved very little: they had to renounce their first aim, that of converting the Macao college into one of an independent Chinese province,11 and to ask the Lisbon and Rome headquarters to establish a new one for the sake of their missions; and, while a seminary was instituted in Macao for the Japanese missions (which by then hardly existed) in 1623, one for those in China was only instituted there in 1732.12 It should be pointed out that this was not so great a nonsense as it may seem. The Tokugawa persecution of Christianity caused a considerable number of converted Japanese to leave their country for Macao, Taiwan or the Philippines, so that the province had to take care of a Christian “Japan outside Japan”; although dispersed, this was larger than the persistently small group of converts in China and soon began to require local priests (the reason behind the Japanese seminary). In addition, the Society maintained structures to attempt — although unsuccessfully — to penetrate the country secretly and assist the Christians who remained there. Finally, the province was compensated for the loss of its original territory by the addition of some areas outside the official borders of the Chinese empire: Taiwan, Hainan, Vietnam, and Cambodia.13 documented conversions up to that point (which rose to about 100 in 1596 and 1000 in 1606: Standaert, Handbook, pp. 380–382). 11 This was attempted around 1646: Schutte, Introductio, pp. 267–269, and Monumenta historica, pp. 1008–1033. 12 Gomes Dos Santos, Macau primiera universidade occidental, pp. 91–92. Already in 1623, when the first seminary was organised, father Manuel Diaz senior asked General Vitelleschi to establish another for China in Macao (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 161 II, ff. 85r–86r). 13 In 1646, reacting to pressures to transfer the Macao college to the Chinese vice-province, the superiors of Japan’s province wrote that “non est deperdita spes recuperandi collegia et domus nostras in Japonia” (mentioning evidence for this); he added that “dato et non concesso, quod nunquam restituerentur collegia et domus, quas Societas habet in Japonia, adhuc remanet Provincia
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Formally, therefore, the personnel of the Chinese vice-province in Macao — both in the residence and in the college — were guests of their fellow brothers of the Japanese province. This formality was not strictly observed in practice, because both “Chinese” and “Japanese” missionaries officiated in the church and taught in the college; moreover, the special courses on local languages and (sometimes) literary/philosophical classics included Chinese and Annamite as well as Japanese works. However, finances were divided, the last word on the destination of a Jesuit reaching Macao belonged to Japan’s provincial and no “Japanese” missionary would have recognised the authority of a “Chinese” one. The conclusion is that evaluation of the Society’s intellectual role in Asia may have been divorced from that of its institutional structure and aims, more than for other areas of the world in which it operated. In fact, the missionaries’ scientific work in China, in its first stage at least, developed if not actually against, at least in spite of those governing that structure, or independently of them. Soon, because of Japan’s changed attitude toward Christianity and of Matteo Ricci’s progress in Beijing, the Society’s headquarters in Rome began to pay more attention to China and to send scientifically qualified missionaries there; for a long time, however, this policy was not fully supported by the Portuguese Assistancy and was actually openly opposed by some superiors in the Asian missions.14 All this provides a realistic background for a reconstruction of how the college functioned (the quantity and quality of the teaching it provided and the intellectual interchange within it), but such a reconstruction also requires a definition of what a Jesuit college was in the years in which Valignano founded that of Macao and in the particular conditions in which it operated. The Visitor had been a student in the Collegio Romano between 1567 and 1571/2; he reached Portugal in 1573 and sailed to Goa in 1574. He never returned to Europe, so his knowledge of his Order’s system of higher instruction came from the Collegio integra cum suo capite, nempe cum collegio Macaensi, et cum aliis collegiis in Regnis Tunkim, Cocincina, Camboja, Siam, et aliis missionibus”. 14 The opposition of superiors in Portugal and Asia to paying special attention to a scientific (“mathematical”) element in missionary activities went on until the late 17th century, when Rome decided to use force against them: U. Baldini, “The teaching of Mathematics in the Jesuit colleges of Portugal, from 1640 to Pombal”, in L. Saraiva and H. Leitão (eds.), The Practice of Mathematics in Portugal, Coimbra 2004, especially pp. 315–327. The tension between the small group of missionaries forming the “astronomical” staff of the Chinese mission and their Portuguese fellow brothers in Macao is reflected in many documents. It sometimes took the form of one between nationalities, because until the end of the 17th century the “mathematicians” were non-Iberians, who perceived their subordination to a hierarchical order which — with few exceptions — was Portuguese as an inversion of the real intellectual one, whilst the others saw their near exemption from a clerk’s primary duties as outside the Society’s nature.
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Romano — at an early stage of its development — and from that of Goa (he was in India for at least ten years before 1594). The latter college was not modelled on the former, but rather on that of Coimbra, which preceded that of Rome and had a structure that was in some ways different.15 Moreover, the paradigm of the Jesuit system of higher education, namely the 1599 version of the Ratio atque institutio studiorum, had not yet been published; two earlier versions (1586 and 1591) had not been even thought of when Valignano left Europe; the educational practice he was familiar with was not identical with that codified in them and it has not been proved — even if it is probable — that he could have read those two versions in Asia. The structure of Jesuit education, however, had been basically the same in all provinces since 1550 or so, and Macao’s surviving documents show that Valignano reproduced it: three years of grammar school (the Latin language); a two-year course in rhetoric; a three-year course in philosophy; and a four-year course in theology. All the Ratio’s versions, with few changes, included some mathematics in the second year of philosophy;16 before 1600, however, it was taught regularly in only a few Jesuit colleges in Europe and, as for the Iberian ones, only in that of Lisbon (for special reasons and in a rather peculiar way).17 In the same period it was taught very rarely in the American colleges; in Goa it was never (publicly at least), and even well after 1650 the teaching of mathematics was neither public nor continuous. Moreover, given that all young missionaries arriving in Macao had already attended a course of philosophy in Europe, some of them had already an elementary mathematical training, and no immediate reason existed for the new college to provide an advanced one (even if a competent teacher had been available). As for the local students (that is, the Jesuit novices — those of Portuguese descent, the Chinese and the Japanese — and the lay ones), there were very few until the late 17th century at least;18 so, even putting aside the lack 15
Just to mention two differences: public teaching of mathematics did not exist in Coimbra until 1692 (whereas in Rome it began in 1553); the philosophy course lasted for four years, instead of the three that were usual in Rome and elsewhere; and the contents and order of programmes were similar, but not identical. 16 See the 1586, 1591 and 1599 programmes for mathematics teaching in Monumenta paedagogica Societatis Iesu. Nova editio penitus retractata. Edidit Ladislaus Lukács S.I. V. Ratio atque institutio studiorum Societatis Iesu (1586 1591 1599), Romae 1986, pp. 109–110, 236, 402. 17 U. Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus and scientific activities in its Asian missions until 1640”, in L. Saraiva (ed.), História das ciências matemáticas. Portugal e o Oriente, Lisbon 2000, pp. 49–109; Id., “L’insegnamento della matematica nel collegio di S. Antão a Lisbona, 1590–1640”, in A Companhia de Jesus e a missionação no Oriente, Lisboa 2000, pp. 275–310. 18 See the numbers in the notes to the list of disciplines taught in the college listed in table 1. These numbers are found in the college’s “catalogues”, where only the Jesuits — both teachers and students — were listed; however, a very small proportion of Macao’s population (itself a few
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of interest of many superiors, there was no reason to make an extraordinary effort to find teachers for a discipline which was not essential for a religiously oriented education. So initially Valignano did not need to be concerned with mathematics; his concern only grew when Ricci’s messages began to advocate the value of mathematics as a key to open China’s locked doors.19 The Visitor designed a three-year course in philosophy, according to the Roman model, and a four-year one in theology.20 Since Loyola’s time a Jesuit, after attending grammar school (Latin grammar and syntax) for three years, courses of rhetoric (Latin, and sometimes Greek, classics) for two years and then the philosophy course, had to teach one of these subjects or to perform religious duties for another two (sometimes three) years, often after preparing himself for that task for a year or so. Only then — if judged able by his superiors — was he admitted to the theology course, during which (usually in the third year) he was ordained a priest. Therefore, in the minor colleges at least, where eminent specialists were not needed, the teaching of grammar, rhetoric or even philosophy was not a lasting and “professional” role. By contrast, it could have been in the case of mathematics or of the disciplines of the theology course (scholastic theology, Biblical exegesis, moral theology, sometimes Hebrew), because the very small number of experts in mathematics and the strategic role of theology obliged the Society of Jesus to rely on a limited group of specialists, for whom teaching could become a career. This model of instruction meant that a Jesuit was unlikely to complete his studies before the age of 26 or 27. At that point, if destined for the Far East missions, he had to reach Lisbon and then Macao, to study the local language and to become acquainted with local situations and customs. In this way, he could be a man of thirty before beginning his missionary work: too old, in terms of the 16th century’s average life span. Therefore most of those heading for Asia were sent to Portugal immediately after completing the philosophy course and were exempted from the usual two-year teaching. Some of them began the theology course in Coimbra or Évora while waiting for their ship to Goa (usually from late summer to the following March), and completed it in Goa or Macao, while others began it directly in the Asian colleges: about 200 of the 467 Jesuit thousand persons) could have been interested in high school courses, so that the lay students probably did not exceed those numbers, in the 17th century at least. 19 The first recorded positive reaction by Valignano to Ricci’s messages is found in 1605 (that is, only one year before his death), when he changed the destination of Sabatino De Ursis from Japan to China because he “had studied a little mathematics” (De Ursis to General Acquaviva, Jan. 25th, 1605, in ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 14 II, ff. 192–193). 20 Domingos Mauricío Gomes dos Santos, Macau primeira universidade ocidental, pp. 79–87.
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missionaries who entered China from 1583 to 1770 (42.8%) completed their studies in the Macao college, while a significant number of the others had done the same in Goa.21 Before 1594, when Goa was the only Jesuit school in Asia in which theology was taught, a missionary going to China or Japan had to stop there for two or three years (as, for instance, Matteo Ricci from 1578 to 1582), and after reaching Macao he had to stay there for at least a year to learn the language and to become familiar with the Chinese world. So Valignano’s intention in creating the new college was also to shorten this preliminary period, overlapping the two parts of it.22 The Visitor died in 1606, and at least some of his first successors did not understand or approve Ricci’s strategy (the Provincial from 1614 to 1617, Valentim Carvalho, declared himself against using “lay” disciplines, and especially mathematics, to obtain audience among the Asians);23 so there was no question of both public and persistent teaching of mathematics. However, it must be added that, even if the superiors’ ideas had been different, the Japanese province lacked the resources to provide continuous high-level teaching (not only in mathematics). From 1541 — when Francisco Xavier and his three fellows had left Lisbon — to 1600 roughly 420 Jesuits set sail for the East Indies: about 30 died during the voyage and many died before the end of the 16th century; the others were headed for places in East Africa, India, Ceylon, Malacca, the Portuguese establishments along the route to China (from Indonesia to the Moluccas), Vietnam and missions in China and Japan.24 In addition, it should be remembered that some of them were lay brothers lacking higher education, and that among the others the missionary aim prevailed over that of teaching: even in the late 17th and 18th centuries, well-known Jesuit experts in philosophy or 21
Witek (ed.), Religion and Culture, p. 252. Such calculations cannot be precise, but they are surely not far from the truth. 22 There was also an institutional reason. Following the older Orders (Dominicans, Minorites etc.), the Society of Jesus planned to have a “collegium maximum” (in which the whole curriculum of studies was taught) in every province, so that each one could train its own cadres independently. By 1590, this had been achieved in the American provinces and in India; so the creation of a Far East college eliminated an exception to the rule. 23 This distressed J. Wremann, the best mathematician in Macao during these years: see J. Ruiz-deMedina’s comments in J. Witek (ed.), Religion and culture, pp. 349–350. It is interesting to observe that Wremann began a course in mathematics as soon as the Provincial changed (see the table of disciplines taught in Macao before 1650). 24 A (fairly) complete list of Jesuit missionaries in Asia (excluding those in the Philippines, who belonged to the Spanish Assistancy and usually reached Asia from Mexico) can be found in J. Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer 1541–1758”, in Sonderdruck aus Portugiesische Forschungen des Görresgesellschaft. Erste Reihe. Aufsätze zur Portugiesischen Kulturgeschichte, 7. Band, 1967, pp. 252–450. For maps of the Society’s establishments in Asia see L. Carrez, Atlas geographicus Societatis Iesu, Paris 1900; many of them (perhaps more than fifty in the whole area) existed before 1600.
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mathematics were sent to frontier missions, far from educational institutions.25 Thus, although a majority of the missionaries remained west of Malacca and the colleges of the Indian provinces endowed with philosophy and theology courses (Goa from 1555, Cochin from about 1600) absorbed most of the few potential teachers, before 1650 even that of Goa, India’s collegium maximum, could not provide the same number of courses as those in Europe, nor offer courses in philosophy and theology every year.26 In Macao, therefore, the situation could only be worse. This is not been properly understood because, for a number of reasons, not all of which have been made clear, most of the catalogi breves (or annui) and of the catalogi triennales of the province of Japan (the basic sources on courses held in any Jesuit college and on those teaching them, year by year) have been lost. Concerning the period from 1595 to 1650, they are extant for 14 of the 55 school years: 1603–1605, 1606–1610, 1614–1618, 1619–1620, 1634–1635, 1647–1648, and 1649–1650; the losses may be reduced using other sources (not always clear or reliable) but, particularly for the last years of the Ming dynasty, we are undoubtedly unaware of the situation in most years.27 When documents proving otherwise do not exist, it is natural to suppose that if a school existed continuously it also provided the same formal teaching year by year; given that some specific records concerning certain years seem to indicate that such teaching was provided in those years, the idea arises of a school in which all the disciplines and areas of knowledge mentioned in the essays quoted at the beginning were taught systematically. In creating the college, Valignano wanted to provide a school for young Jesuits who had not completed their studies in Europe, for the growing European community in Macao and, prospectively, for the community of Japanese (and perhaps 25
For instance, the only good mathematician in the Indian missions from 1629 to 1643, Joahann Chrysostomus Gall, who had taught the discipline in the Lisbon college’s “aula de esfera”, was not employed to teach mathematics in Goa or Cochin but was a parson in some minor towns (U. Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy”, pp. 63–64, n. 41). 26 A close examination of the college’s catalogues and other documents shows that clear evidence of teaching of philosophy (or of one of its elements) only exists for about 43 of the 95 years from 1555 and 1649 (ARSI, codices Goa 24 and 25; Wicki, Monumenta historica). 27 The extant catalogues are found mostly in the ARSI codices Jap.-Sin., 25 and 26; some other information is provided from memoirs and letters in codices 14, 23, 134–135. These documents and some others in Portuguese and British libraries, containing the same kind of information, have been collected in Schutte, Monumenta historica Japoniae I. Among factors causing the losses were the (not infrequent) shipwrecks, the capture or destruction of ships by pirates or enemy ships and the control acquired by the Dutch — especially after 1610 — of certain parts of the carreira da India, which in some years interrupted the Goa–Macao route (it should be recalled that, owing to an agreement between the Society and the Portuguese crown, the royal ships provided free passage to Asia for the Jesuits, who, for their part, could not use other ships or routes).
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Chinese) converts, and also because the possibility of admitting them to the priesthood was already considered. The state of things expounded so far shows that, while his project was sound in principle, it had to be put into effect in very difficult conditions. In addition, two important inferences may be drawn from it. First, it contradicts a frequent (implicit) assumption among historians, namely that the notable scientific, historical and theological–philosophical work done by a number of missionaries in Asia was possible because the Society of Jesus intentionally sent some of its most brilliant minds there. If most missionaries were chosen immediately after completing the course of philosophy, or even before, when they had not yet taught or written anything, their intellectual potential could not be properly judged. Obviously, they were chosen also because their teachers and superiors appreciated them, but this does not mean that they were often (let alone always) the best possible choice on a purely intellectual level. Many of those who later became the best Jesuit mathematicians and philosophers requested to be sent to missions but were not chosen, because the Society needed them in Europe or because they lacked something required in missionary conditions. On the other hand, nothing proves that — for instance — Ricci and Schall were among the best students of Clavius and Grienberger in Rome, or that Verbiest was the best pupil in the Belgian Jesuits’ mathematics school in the mid-17th century. Intelligence and engagement (both surely common among the scientists-missionaries) do not suffice to produce scientific excellence; also, in the philosophical and theological field the Asian contribution cannot be compared with that of Europe, in either scope or depth, particularly if the basic speculative questions are considered. To be sure, this did not merely reflect the authors’ potential, but also the missionaries’ priorities and local restrictions; as a matter of fact, however, the missionaries’ scientific, philosophical and theological writings, notable as they are from several points of view, reflected the average standard of the masters and schools of the Society where they came from but were not, from a strictly conceptual point of view, outstanding expressions of it. No work produced in the Indian and Chinese context was really original, nor can it be taken for granted that if this or that missionary had remained in Europe he would have been at the top level of the Order’s intellectual hierarchy. The second inference is that in the Asian colleges and particularly in Macao — in the seventeenth century at least — teaching could not be the stable task of a group of specialists, exempted from anything else and assigned to it for a relatively long period. Such a group simply could not exist, because the Japan province often lacked competent persons in certain disciplines and, even when present, they could not become stable teachers without leaving some key
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positions in the missions empty. In this respect, the Asian missions should be clearly differentiated from those in Latin America, where since the late 16th century European rule and the number of immigrants provided the colleges with both a large public and a large number of potential teachers among Jesuits (some of local origin). In Macao, with the partial exception of the theological disciplines (where highly experienced persons — and hence of a relatively advanced age — were required, who might be some of the province’s superiors or others prevented by age or by other causes from working in the missions), teaching was a task performed for a few years before being sent to missions, or during temporary or permanent returns from the interior of China or from Japan. Nothing shows this necessarily subordinate role of teaching better than the fact that teachers were often sent to missions before someone arriving from Europe could replace them. As an effect of this, the higher classes (where more specialised personnel were needed) were highly sporadic, as the table of courses held up to 1650 clearly shows (see table 1).28 Owing to the losses, the data shown in the table represents nearly all the surviving information on courses held in the college until 1650.29 It cannot be excluded (on the contrary, it may be presumed) that also in some years that are not documented, philosophy (and to a lesser extent mathematics) was taught. However, the catalogues show that in several years philosophy was certainly not taught, and that mathematics was taught only rarely; thus, it may be presumed that even if all the catalogues had been preserved, the resulting picture would not represent be statistically different. Moreover, it seems that also later, and even in the 18th century, when Macao’s population — and so the demand for higher education — had grown, and local Jesuits were trained to support those coming from Europe, the situation did not improve: it seems, for instance, that in 1691, 1695 and 1731 philosophy was not taught.30 28
Many of the following data are taken from Schutte’s Monumenta historica; for the others, the archival source is mentioned. 29 Something else may be found in the volumes entitled Historia Societatis in ARSI’s section Jap.-Sin., in the collection of letters from the Japanese province in the same archive or in other documents in such collections as “Jesuitas na Asia” in the Biblioteca da Ajuda in Lisbon, “Jesuitas. Tomos” in Madrid’s Academia de Historia and, finally, in the private papers or letters of Jesuit missionaries in various European libraries or archives. However, the ARSI series have been carefully examined by Schutte and others (a number of them have also been examined by the present writer); so, reasonably, only a few — if any — new items of information may be found in them. Schutte and others have also examined the Iberian library collections mentioned (see note 104); so the most promising source may be the private documents (letters and other), a small proportion part which have been published since the late 16th century (but is often neglected in historical studies), while most may be distributed in an unpredictable number of libraries and archives: see §§ 5 and 6. 30 A. Lopes, “Services provided to the residents of Macau by St. Paul’s college”, in Witek, Religion and culture, p. 333.
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1592/93 1595/96 1596/97 1601/02 1602/03 1603/04 1604/05 1606/07 1607/08 1608/09 1609/10 1610/11 1611/12 1612/13 1614/15 1615/16 1616/17 1617/18 1619/20 1623/24 1634/35 1643/44 1645/46 1647/48 1649/50
theology; moral theology31 theology, philosophy32 theology; moral theology33 theology; philosophy34 theology; moral theology; philosophy theology; moral theology; philosophy35 theology; philosophy36 philosophy37 philosophy38 theology; moral theology; [philosophy?]39 theology; philosophy40 mathematics41 mathematics42 mathematics43 theology; moral theology44 moral theology45 [theology, philosophy]46 moral theology; philosophy; mathematics; a course on “livros sinicos”47 moral theology48 moral theology49 theology; moral theology; philosophy50 theology; moral theology; philosophy51 theology; moral theology; philosophy52 [no higher course taught]53 [no higher course taught]54
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
31
ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 25, f. 21r. Theology was taught already before the founding of the college, so that young Jesuits could finish their studies and become priests. 32 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 52, f. 172v. The college received the first Japanese students (probably in the lower classes). 33 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 13 I, f. 24r. 34 The catalogue for this year is not preserved; however, documents prove that a three-year philosophy course began in 1601 and finished in 1604. Direct information on the course exists in the catalogue for the year 1602–3, which provides the teacher’s name and the number of his students (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 452–53 and 478–83): teacher of philosophy Francisco Lopes; students of theology 14, of moral theology 7, of philosophy 5. One philosophy student was Cristóvão Ferreira (1580 – ca. 1650), the future translator into Japanese of a Jesuit compendium “de sphaera” published in Kenkon Bensetsu, a work discussed below. During his studies in Macao (from 1601 to 1608 or 1609), besides attending Lopes’s lessons, he would have benefited from conversations with such men as Spinola, Rocchi, De Ursis and M. Dias Jr (see table 2). However, since the work he translated was more “philosophical” than “mathematical” in tone, his main inspiration — if not actual author — could have been Lopes (see note 63). In view of this, the
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scant existing information on Lopes could be interesting. He was born in Proença a Nova, 1574 (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 14, f. 302 and 25, f. 79v). A Jesuit from February 1590 (Lus., 44, f. 25 letter o); departed from Lisbon on April 7, 1592 (Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer”, p. 280), not yet a priest. In 1606, after professing the four vows in Macao, he tried unsuccessfully to enter China (Jap.-Sin., 14 II, f. 244). During 1608 he was in Macao; from then onwards his name disappears from Jesuit documents, and he is believed to have died in that year (Schutte, Monumenta, p. 1218). Lopes had done his studies in philosophy and theology in the Goa college, from 1594 to ca. 1600 (Wicki, Monumenta historica, 16, pp. 945, 995, and 18, p. 846); so his lessons may reflect the normal content of courses in the Indian colleges. 35 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 484–89. Teacher of philosophy: Francisco Lopes (students: 5). One of the students of theology was Sabatino De Ursis, who is discussed below. His studies are an example of what has been said before: he had left Europe in 1602, had gone from Goa to Macao during 1603 and in 1603–4 was in his third year of theology; so he had probably attended a first year in Portugal (1601–2) and a second in Goa (1602–3). 36 Letter of Sabatino De Ursis: ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 14 II, ff. 192–193. 37 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 496–97. Teacher of philosophy: Domingos Gonçalves (students: 5). For a biographical note on Gonçalves see Schutte, p. 1184. 38 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 511–12. Teacher of philosophy: Domingos Gonçalves (students: 6). 39 The catalogue (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 513–14) has no teacher or students of philosophy, while a report on the college (dated Nov. 12th, 1609: p. 536) asserts that also philosophy is taught. One of the two teachers of theology was Manuel Dias Jr. (students: 9). 40 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 536–37. The teacher of philosophy was possibly Bartolomé Soares (really Chimino or Cimino, an Italian from Naples), because in 1614 it was said that he had taught philosophy for two years in Macao (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 580–81). 41 Teacher: Giulio Aleni. ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 134, f. 301v. 42 Teacher: Aleni or Francesco Sambiasi. ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 134, ff. 301r and 301v. 43 Teacher: Aleni or Sambiasi. Ibid. 44 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 615–16. Around this year, among teachers of theology could have been Francesco Bosomi and Jeronimo Rodrigues and among those of philosophy Francisco Taveira (1575–1652, one of the first Jesuits born in Macao of European parents), because in October 1617 they were credited with — respectively — five years’ teaching of theology and two years’ teaching of philosophy in Macao (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 690, 694). It seems that Taveira never entered China, so he could have been one of the few “professional” long-term teachers in the college. The catalogue for 1614 (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 25, fols. 90–95; Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 579–587) states that during 1614, after being expelled, some of the Japan missionaries had gone to Manila and most of the others to Macao (others — including Spinola — remained in Japan). This relative abundance of Jesuits in the college probably made teaching of philosophy possible as well; however, it is not mentioned in the catalogue. 45 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 636–38. In this year there were 96 persons in the college (superiors, teachers, students). 46 As said, the catalogue of this year credits Rodrigues, Bosomi and Taveira with teaching theology or philosophy in the preceding years, but it does not say explicitly that they were still teaching (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 689–96). 47 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 781–784. Teacher of philosophy: Antonio Freyre; teacher of mathematics: Jan Wremann. The lecturer on the “libri sinici” was S. De Ursis, recently expelled from China. This is one of the few instances when the catalogues mention an important fact: namely, that for the (advanced) teaching of Chinese some — probably Confucian — classics were used (obviously, because the Jesuits’ main reference were the mandarins); this was recalled by F. Verbiest when referring to his study of Chinese in Macao (see N. Golvers, The Astronomia Europaea of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J., Dillingen 1987, p. 18). As stated above, Wremann began teaching when a new Provincial succeeded Valentim Carvalho, who had opposed the teaching of mathematics: see note 23.
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In order to grasp what the above data convey about the college’s situation, some explanations are needed, mainly on three points: the relative frequency of courses of theology and philosophy; what the word “philosophy” means when referring to the Macao college; and the extent to which the teaching of “philosophy” and “mathematics” were mutually inclusive (or exclusive). Theology and philosophy. The table shows that the teaching of theology began before the college was formally established, and that it was probably more continuous than that of philosophy (and even more of mathematics). As mentioned above, many young missionaries arrived in Macao without having attended (or completed) the theology studies required to become priests, while priesthood was required to become a missionary (to obtain it was a more demandPerhaps his teaching was also made possible by a letter from S. De Ursis (note 73) to the new General, M. Vitelleschi (Canton, Dec. 2, 1617). In this letter (now in ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 17, ff. 108r– 109r) he wrote that the “oldest” priests in Beijing, convinced that mathematics and geography were valuable instruments to increase their credibility with the Chinese, had planned to send a letter signed by all of them to the Macao residence, where it should be read to all the priests in the refectory, encouraging them “a trabalhar nesta Missao, e usar dos mejos sobredittos da Matematica, literas morais, e cosas semillantes”. This public move, apparently directed to the entire community, could well have been an attempt to force the Provincial to change his mind as a result of the assembly’s reaction. On Wremann see note 74. 48 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 846–48, 868–84. In that year the college hosted 70 Jesuits. According to some sources, Alfonso Vagnone (ca. 1567 – 1640) also taught philosophy in Macao before teaching theology; since he reached the town in the summer of 1604 and entered China in February–March 1605, this could only have occurred between 1618 and 1623, when he was exiled from the Empire and forced to return to Macao. The catalogue mentions two Japanese Jesuits, Mathias Machida and Thomas Funamoto, who had attended a three-year course in philosophy. According to information in the index of Schutte’s work (p. 1224), the former had studied philosophy after coming from Japan in 1614; Funamoto is not included in the index, but he had most probably come to Macao in the same year as Machida. 49 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 956–969 (3 catalogues). In that year there were 59 Jesuits from the Japan province and 4 from the vice-province of China in the college. 50 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 997–99. In that year there were two (unnamed) teachers of theology; the teacher of moral theology was Alexander de Rhodes (8 students) and that of philosophy was Antonio Barbosa (8 students). The catalogues for the years 1620 to 1635 are lost (Schutte, Monumenta, p. 995); according to one source, philosophy was taught in Macao when the provincial was Antonio Cardim (1632–36: Gomes Dos Santos, Macau primeira universidade, pp. 91–92, but it cannot be taken as certain that this also refers to the years 1632–34. 51 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 64, ff. 218v–219r. 52 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 1013, 1051. 53 The catalogue for this year (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 1058–64) is not annuus (or brevis) but triennalis: that is, it summarises the previous careers of the priests in the college (teaching included), without being specific about their present duties. However, only one of them (Francisco Rangel) is said to have taught philosophy before (p. 1061); moreover, the teaching of theology, philosophy and mathematics is not mentioned among the ministeria performed in the college in that year. 54 The catalogue for this year (Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 1068–1081) is of the same kind of that for 1647/48. Besides Rangel (p. 1074), only one priest (Balthasar Caldera, p. 1071) is said to have taught philosophy (for only one year).
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ing process in the Society of Jesus than among the secular clergy and many other religious orders.55 However, given the shortage of high level teachers and the priority of missions over teaching, the province had to simplify the theology course, usually reducing the number of its disciplines to just two: theology (i.e. scholastic theology, dealing with the range of questions addressed in Aquinas’ Summa theologiae) and moral theology (the casus conscientiae, an area of applied Catholic doctrine which was fundamental to missionary action, as it connected dogma with the complex and multi-faceted cases of daily life).56 Philosophy was not strictly necessary, because all missionaries (some lay brothers excluded) had already studied it in Europe; it might become so, as time went on, if Macao’s European colony grew in number and needed high school courses or in the event that local people were admitted to the Society or to those courses, but the small numbers of students mentioned for certain years show that this did not happen for a long period. Finally, as the Society’s curriculum made mathematics a discipline of the philosophy course, any interruption of the latter would also extend to the former (in public lessons at least). Philosophy. In devising a three-year course in philosophy, Valignano conformed to the Rome college’s standard: one year of logic, one of natural philosophy (during which mathematics could also be taught, usually by a different teacher), and one of metaphysics. Thus, if teaching was continuous (that is, if every year a new course began) and the three disciplines were not taught by a single teacher (which occurred very rarely), three teachers were needed each year and a fourth was required if mathematics was also taught. This structure prevailed in the European colleges and — some periods excepted — in Latin America and in Goa; however, as the catalogues and other sources show, owing to a lack of personnel (and possibly also of students) this did not happen in Macao. While the yearly catalogues of the Jesuit colleges usually list the teachers of logic, natural philosophy (physica) and metaphysics separately, 55
In most European countries a formal course in theology was not required to be ordained a secular priest, while in most religious orders only a simpler and shorter one was needed (U. Baldini, “Die Philosophie und die Wissenschaften im Jesuitenorden”, in Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Philosophie des 17. Jahhunderts. Band 1. Allgemeine Themen. Iberische Halbinsel. Italien, Herausgegeben von Jean-Pierre Schobinger, Zweiter Halbband, Basel, Schwabe & Co., 1998, pp. 669–769, and “Elementi scientifici nella formazione del clero secolare in Italia (secoli 16–18)”, in M. Sangalli (ed.), Pastori pope preti rabbini. La formazione del ministro di culto in Europa (secoli 16–XIX), Rome 2005, pp. 66–108). 56 The typical Jesuit theology course also included teaching of the Holy Scripture and (although not always) those of “polemical” theology (a critique of the Protestants’ doctrines and rebuttal of their criticism of the Roman church) and Hebrew. It is possible that in Macao (and perhaps also in Goa, in the 16th century at least) the first and the second were dealt with — in a shortened form — by the teacher of scholastic theology.
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sometimes they use the general word “philosophy” instead of the names of the three disciplines, which denotes one of two situations: a simplified course of just one year (a third of which was devoted to each disciplines), or a three-year course given by one teacher, so that a discipline was taught once every three years, and beginners had to wait until a new course began (that is, until logic was taught again). In the first case the catalogues usually refer to a “philosophy” course, in the second sometimes they use the word “cursus”, while in other cases they use the name of the discipline taught in that year and mention only one teacher. The second case occurred in Europe only in some minor colleges or during crises; in the American ones or in those of Goa and Cochin it became rare after 1580. On the contrary, in Macao it seems to have been much more frequent (or even the standard), until the late 17th century at least, in the form of a three-year cycle (although, since the catalogues mention only one teacher in the case of this cycle, as in that of the one-year shortened course, the possibility cannot be excluded that in some periods the latter also occurred: the available evidence does not support firm conclusions).57 Obviously, the shortened course could only allow a summary treatment of some main topics; so it is possible that some of those who studied philosophy in Macao until well after 1650 attained less extensive knowledge of it compared to students in the Society’s colleges elsewhere. In principle, a shortened or simplified course is not necessarily conceptually obsolete and, since between 1600 and 1650 the “scientific revolution” began and new philosophical attitudes began to circulate, some aspects of both could have been brought to Asia by young Jesuits and have entered the Macao college. Galileo’s telescope observations, briefly discussed below, are a case in point. However, that such an early “migration” also took place with other aspects, theories or discoveries is a rather 57
See the cases of M. Machida and T. Funamoto, mentioned in note 48. Possible textual evidence for the second case is the lessons given in a Japanese college, shortly after 1590, by Pedro Gomez (1535–1600), a Latin version of which is in Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms. Reg. lat. 426. After a Compendium catholicae veritatis, the codex has a Breve compendium... de anima and a Tractatus De Sphaera. The second and third works (perhaps in inverse order) were probably two of the parts (respectively, a summary presentation of Aristotle’s De anima and an introduction to his De coelo) of a one-year course on philosophy. The original Japanese text and the Latin version have been published with an extensive commentary: Compendia. Compiled by Pedro Gomez, Jesuit College of Japan. Iezusukai Nihon korejiyo no Kōgi Yōkō, 3 vols., Tokyo, 1997–1999, Satoru Obara SJ (ed.), Introductory essay by M. Antoni Üçerler SJ on “Jesuit humanist education in sixteenth-century Japan”. The astronomical section (in the Latin text only) has now been published with a commentary by Ryuji Hiraoka, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook in 'the Christian century' Japan: De sphaera of Pedro Gomez (Part I)”, in Sciamvs, 6 (2005), pp. 99–175. This author affirms that Gomez’s lessons were also used in Macao, which would demonstrate that elementary astronomy was taught there after 1590, but no direct evidence seems to exist for this, and some scepticism is justified (there was no reason not to use a standard textbook, such as Clavius’ commentary on Sacrobosco, which was certainly available in Macao).
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vague possibility;58 as a matter of fact, it has not been substantiated by any evidence, partly because no complete text of a philosophical course in Macao has yet been found.59 The teaching of philosophy and mathematics. The above list refers to 24 years between 1595 and 1650; some of it is derived from the catalogues, and some from such sources as letters or reports. In the first case the disciplines recorded are all those taught in that year (publicly at least), while in the second the mention of one or two disciplines does not mean that others were not also taught. This is relevant for mathematics: almost all cases in which teaching of both theology and philosophy is documented are derived from the catalogues, while this happens for only one (1617–18) of the four years in which teaching of mathematics is recorded; so only for that year can it be said with certainty that it was taught as a part of the public philosophy course, whilst in the other three years it could have been taught privately, even in the absence of public courses in philosophy and theology. Moreover, it is important to observe that some ambiguity may be produced by records of lessons on astronomy imparted in the college. During the second half of the 16th century there were still few Jesuit mathematicians, so that their discipline was taught in no more than 10 colleges in all of Europe. In the colleges where it was not taught, it became normal, before starting the reading of Aristotle’s De coelo (toward the middle of the second year), for the teacher of philosophy to devote some lessons to the elements of sphaera (geocentric astronomy), usually based on Sacrobosco’s text, in order to help in understanding Aristotle. These introductory lessons were mostly generic and almost entirely qualitative, and thus low in mathematical content. In central Europe and Italy this practice disappeared around 1600, when in most colleges mathematics began to be taught by a special teacher, who also dealt with astronomy. In the Spanish and Portuguese colleges, however, it lasted longer because mathematics was introduced much later;60 for the reasons mentioned, this was even more true in the Asian colleges. Thus — especially when the years before 1650 are considered — a record of lessons in elementary astronomy, 58
No real proof may be adduced against this possibility, but all contextual elements appear to be against it. While until the late 17th century very few mathematicians in the province were Iberians, most philosophy teachers were Portuguese and Spaniards, who had studied in colleges where the new theories were not taught in that period and where there was no mathematics. As for the few Italians teaching philosophy and theology in Macao until about 1650, mathematics studies are not documented for any of them, and most of them came from colleges in Sicily or the kingdom of Naples, where the new science and philosophy entered later than in those of north Italy. 59 On this see, in § 4, the section “Teaching materials”. 60 On this kind of sphere lessons in Spain, see: U. Baldini, “As Assistências Ibéricas da Companhia de Jesus e a actividade científica nas missões Asiáticas (1578–1640)”, in Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, LIV (1998), 2, p. 217, n. 64. As for Portugal, cf. the same author’s “The Portuguese Assistancy”, p. 67, n. 53.
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while others on Euclidean geometry or some elements of applied mathematics are absent, may demonstrate the absence — rather than the presence — of teaching of mathematics. This, for instance, may have been the case of Manuel Dias’s T’ienwen lüeh (Compendium of astronomy), the first textbook of elementary European astronomy published in China (1615): in fact, he never taught mathematics and the work was not written to be used in mathematics courses, but as a general and purely qualitative introduction of the kind usual in courses on philosophy. Its historical value and the interest of some of its aspects are not diminished by this, but the work does not represent what it has sometimes been taken to represent: namely, an advanced form of the Jesuits’ teaching of astronomy in the Far East in the first half of the 17th century.61 The same could be said for a mysterious work, the Kenkon Bensetsu, a Japanese translation (ca. 1650) by the Jesuit apostate Cristóvão Ferreira of an unknown original by an equally unknown author (most probably a Jesuit), published with a commentary by a learned Japanese. The work resembles the traditional “De sphaera” textbooks, but is rather less technical and includes more “philosophical” materials (that is, concerning the “physics” of the heavens) than those written by mathematicians.62 Since Ferreira had apostatised in 1623, and had no further contact with the very few Jesuits surviving in Japan, it is probable that he owned the anonymous text for many years before translating it; since it seems not to derive from a printed work, it may have been his copy of lessons he had attended in Macao about 1605. In this case, the Kenkon Bensetsu could be the only testimonial of philosophy lessons given in Macao until the mid-17th century at least.63 Finally, this is also the case of Francisco Furtado’s Huan yu ch’üan (1628), which, although commonly considered as a synopsis of Aristotle’s De caelo et mundo, is perhaps better placed in the “philosophical” sub-species of “De sphaera” commentaries.64 What, then, about the claim quoted at the beginning about “Latin, philosophy, theology, mathematics, astronomy, biology, medicine, music, rhetoric, and more” being taught regularly in Macao? It is obviously correct for Latin, which was 61
Reprinted in Li Zhizao, Tianxue chuhan, Taipei 1965, v. 5. The work is mainly known for containing the first printed description in Asia of Galileo’s telescopic observations: see note 88. 62 These parts are not found, for instance, in Clavius’ Commentarius to Sacrobosco, although it has sometimes been suggested as the work’s source. The literature on Ferreira’s work and questions concerning it are considered in H. Leitão and José Miguel Pinto dos Santos, “O Kenkon Bensetsu e a Recepção da Cosmologia Ocidental no Japão do séc. XVII”, in Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, LIV (1998), 2, pp. 285–318. 63 If this purely hypothetical reasoning has a basis in fact, then the author of the lessons could be Francisco Lopes, the only known philosophy teacher in Macao around that year: see notes 34, 35. 64 The brief analyses provided by historical literature do not suffice to solve the question (see also note 80). The present writer has not yet examined P. Gomez’ lessons De coelo, which may be of the same kind as Furtado’s work.
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necessary to every student as the language of the Catholic liturgy, in which the Holy Scripture had to be read and also in which all higher courses (on whatever subject) were taught. It is also true for rhetoric (that is, reading and commenting on selected classics), as an extension of the basic teaching of Latin, and intended to provide a deeper understanding of it. As for theology, philosophy and mathematics, it has been shown that their teaching had various limitations (in continuity, extent and depth) compared to the standard programmes in the European colleges. Astronomy could be dealt with either as a part of a mathematics course (and hence very rarely) or, in an elementary form, as part of “physics” (natural philosophy). As for “biology” and “medicine”, they were never taught in any form (Aristotle’s zoological works were excluded from the Jesuit curriculum, and so were the rare “biological” sections in his other works). The writings on these subjects produced by some missionaries had no connection with public teaching (nor — as far as known — with private teaching), in Macao or elsewhere. Finally, no formal teaching of “music” (in a wide sense) appeared in the programmes. Like anyone aspiring to become a member of the Catholic clergy, a young Jesuit had to learn Gregorian chant and practise it (described in the catalogues as “cantus”); this, however, had no instrumental part, did not entail a theoretical approach and was restricted — in principle at least — to the memorisation and the modes of execution of the traditional pieces of the Catholic liturgy. While it cannot be excluded that, depending on a master’s level or a pupil’s talent and interest, the study of it could go deeper, this cannot be assumed to be usual;65 in fact, it was not common even in the European colleges and, moreover, in the colleges “cantus” was not a public discipline (that is, compulsory for all students), but a private one for Jesuit students only. These two facts mean that the impact of that teaching on European–Asian relations has certain limits.66 A final remark is necessary to provide the basis for a closer examination of mathematics. While the dispersion or destruction of the catalogues means that the discipline may also have been taught in non-documented years, a basic limiting factor is that teaching was only possible when at least one specialist (even in a relative sense) in mathematics was in the college. Owing to their studies, most Jesuits were potential teachers of philosophy, but mathematics could only 65
For instance, a profound knowledge of music is documented for Clavius and one of his best pupils, Giuseppe Biancani. The former was a composer of sacred music (about 10 of his pieces survive) and of a Boetianae musicae compendium (Rome, Pontificia Università Gregoriana, ms. Fondo Curia 2052); the latter was an opponent of the contrappunto at the beginning of Italian baroque music. 66 Knowledge of music, the ability to play relatively sophisticated instruments and even to compose liturgical pieces (some of them in a purely Chinese style) are documented for — among others — M. Ricci, D. Pantoja, G. Aleni, J.A. Schall, F. Verbiest, and T. Pereira; all of them, however, had acquired it in Europe. It is interesting to observe that none of the best-known episodes of sino– western musical exchange occurred in Macao: see the discussion in Standaert, Handbook, 851–857.
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be taught by someone who had studied it not only during his philosophy course, but also before entering the Society or attending a special mathematics course in a European college, or who had studied it privately. Among the Asian missionaries such persons were, however, very few and may be recognised through biographical information; thus, a chronology of their presence in Macao fixes a maximum number of years in which teaching or any meaningful mathematical activity in the town’s Jesuit community could occur. A methodological corollary is that, because of their small number, evidence is required not for the absence of the teaching of mathematics in a particular year, but for its presence. 3. Jesuit Mathematicians in Macao, 1578–1650 Thus the purely scholastic state of the Macao college, which was often rather poor, is in sharp contrast with its role as a logistic and communication centre in Asia, for which it may be compared only with that in Goa. An example of what the Society’s communication system in East Asia was like by the late 16th century is that, on his return to Macao after a two-year stay in Japan (1590–1592), Valignano found more than 1000 letters waiting to be answered.67 So every Jesuit living in the town was, so to speak, immersed in a flow of information, some of which was relevant in a scientific sense.68 People travelled along the same routes as the information, so in most years Macao hosted some Jesuits able to understand and use the scientific part of that flow. To complete the theology course and to learn the language and writing of China or Japan, most missionaries remained in the town for two or more years.69 Their studies were absorbing and even among the best qualified of them very few were employed in teaching, especially in mathematics: hence the sharp contrast between the few years (only four) in which the teaching of mathematics is documented and the much larger number of those in which one or more potential teachers were in Macao. However, a tradition of private discussions and research could well have existed, which is not reflected in the official documents. 67
J.F. Moran, Japanese and the Jesuits: Alessandro Valignano in sixteenth century Japan, London 1993, p. 37. 68 To the best of my knowledge, the mailing system of East Asia missions has only been described in part or in certain aspects only. A point relevant to this essay is that (usually once or twice a year) all letters and documents addressed to places outside China went sent to Macao, where a copy of each was made and kept in the local archive, while the original went on, also possibly to be read and copied in the Jesuit houses during its journey: see note 99. So information on notable things and events could spread along the itinerary. 69 As for missionaries heading for China, cases such as Ricci and Schreck, who only remained in Macao for one year (which points at their being exceptionally gifted in languages) are very rare. They were slightly less so for Japan, not because its language was easier for Europeans but because the Jesuit communities and schools there could provide further teaching of it.
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Table 2. Jesuit mathematics experts in Macao up to 1650.
1578/9 1579/8 1580/1 1581/2 1582/3 1597/8 1598/9 1601/2 1602/3 1603/4 1604/5 1605/6 1606/7 1607/8 1608/9 1609/10 1610/11 1611/2 1612/3 1616/7 1617/8 1618/9 1619/20 1620/1 1621/2 1622/3 1623/4 1625/6 1638/9 1639/40 1640/1 1641/2 1642–3 1645–6 1646/7
Michele Ruggieri70 M. Ruggieri M. Ruggieri M. Ruggieri; Pedro Gomez M. Ruggieri; P. Gomez; Matteo Ricci71 Nicola Longobardi; Diego Pantoja D. Pantoja Carlo Spinola; Muzio Rocchi; Francisco Lopes72 M. Rocchi; F. Lopes M. Rocchi; Sabatino De Ursis; F. Lopes73 M. Rocchi; S. De Ursis; F. Lopes S. De Ursis; Manuel Dias Jr.; F. Lopes M. Dias Jr.; F. Lopes M. Dias Jr.; F. Lopes M. Dias Jr. M. Dias Jr. Giulio Aleni (teacher of mathematics);74 M. Dias Jr.; Francesco Sambiasi G. Aleni, F. Sambiasi (one of them taught mathematics)75 G. Aleni, F. Sambiasi (one of them taught mathematics) Jan Wremann (Uremann);76 Cristoforo Borri J. Wremann (teacher of mathematics); C. Borri; M. Dias Jr; S. De Ursis.77 S. De Ursis; J. Wremann;78 M. Dias Jr. S. De Ursis; J. Wremann; Johann Schreck (Terrentius); Johann Adam Schall; Wenceslas Pantaleon Kirwitzer;79 Francisco Furtado;80 M. Dias Jr. J. Schreck; J.A. Schall; W.P. Kirwitzer; M. Dias Jr. J.A. Schall; W.P. Kirwitzer Giacomo Rho G. Rho; C. Borri81 W.P. Kirwitzer82 Giovanni Antonio Rubino G.A. Rubino; G. Aleni G. Aleni [G. Aleni?]83 Martino Martini F. Sambiasi; (Michael Boym?;) Johannes Nikolaus Smogulecki84 M. Boym
70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
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Some of the people on this list (Ruggieri, Longobardi, Pantoja, and perhaps Sambiasi, Furtado and Boym) lacked specialised training in mathematics when they left Europe, but acquired it partially in the Far East through contact with other missionaries; for three others (Gomez, Lopes, and Dias) no special competence is known, but — as mentioned above — they were the authors of the only surviving pre-1650 compendia of “the sphere” written for philosophy courses in the Far East (note 60).
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All the others (13) had attended an “academy of mathematics” (an advanced specialist course) in a European college. 71 As is known, Ricci learnt some essential Chinese in about one year, whereas Ruggieri had not made much progress in it in four years. Ruggieri may also have learnt from Ricci some of the cartographic techniques he employed in the map of the Middle Empire he later brought to Europe. 72 During this year Spinola, a former pupil (for a few months only) in Clavius’ academy of mathematics in the Collegio Romano and teacher of the discipline in Milan, was procurator (administration officer) of the Japanese province. He also drew up the plan of the college’s church (Madre de Deus or São Paulo, of which only the famous facade remains). During 1602 he sailed to Japan, where he remained despite the ban on his Order until he was executed (Sept. 10, 1622). Beatified by the Roman Church, he was surely the most notable Jesuit scientific expert in the old Japan missions. Something about his scientific activity in Japan is recalled below, but a detailed study of this aspect of his work is still lacking. Rocchi was also a former pupil of Clavius; in January 1602 he wrote a letter to Rome, requesting mathematical books (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 14 I, f. 88r); he could neither enter China nor produce anything scientific, because he died before finishing his theology studies (Macao, Nov. 7, 1605). In this year Lopes started teaching philosophy (see note 34). 73 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 25, ff. 78–82; Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 484–89, 1316. In January–February 1605 De Ursis, another pupil of Clavius, informed General Acquaviva in Rome that, although he had been going to Japan, Valignano had decided to send him to China because he had some knowledge of mathematics and architecture; he also informed the General that he had designed some rooms that had been added to the church and the college (something ignored in the studies of Jesuit architecture in Macao), and also manufactured some objects for them: ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 14 II, fols. 192–3, 234r–v. Some years later (1617: see note 47) De Ursis tried to improve the state of mathematics in the Macao province. 74 A former pupil of G. Biancani in the college of Parma and of Clavius and Grienberger in that of Rome, he had also studied G.A. Magini’s works while a student in Bologna university. In January 1610 he observed an eclipse in Salsete, and later in that year another one in Macao. 75 During 1612 a lunar eclipse was observed in Macao by Aleni and in Nagasaki by Spinola, to determine the longitudes of both towns. These observations were sent to Europe, and were published in some 17th century Jesuit works on astronomy. 76 In studies on Far Eastern missions this notable student in the Collegio Romano’s mathematical academy (1583–1621), esteemed by Clavius, is usually mentioned less than the other scientifically trained missionaries. This comes from the fact that he died a few months after entering China (Dec. 1620), while little is known of his activities in Macao. His best-known writing is a letter to G.A. Magini from the Collegio Romano (Jan. 1609). From 1609 to 1615 he was in Portugal, and in 1614–5 he taught mathematics in Lisbon. On him see Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy”, p. 86, n. 116, and the bibliography cited there. 77 Schutte, Monumenta, pp. 781–84. De Ursis, who had returned to Macao after being exiled from China, was “mestre dos livros sínicos”: see note 47. 78 Schutte, Monumenta, p. 1316. 79 This was probably the most notable company of mathematicians that gathered in the college throughout its history. The last three reached Goa from Europe in 1618 together with G. Rho (see for 1622/3), following Nicolas Trigault’s call for mathematicians (E. Lamalle, “La propagande du P. Nicolas T. en faveur des missions de Chine”, in Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu (henceforth AHSI), 1940, pp. 49–120). 80 In 1628 Furtado (1589–1653) published Huan yu ch'üan, usually considered an exposition of Aristotle’s De coelo, but perhaps one of the De sphaera textbooks written by philosophers (see note 60). It is worth noting that he sailed from Lisbon to Goa in 1618 on the ship S. Carlos, on which were also Schreck, Schall, Kirwitzer and Rho. Since during the voyage they taught each other some of the mathematical sciences, Furtado could have profited from these lessons (there is no evidence that he had studied mathematics in Portugal).
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This list contains some interesting facts. One is the long interval during which no mathematician was sent to the Far East: 1618 to 1640.85 Another is that, even taking the word “mathematician” in a rather strict sense, there was one (at least) in Macao for 23 of the years between 1595 and 1650: that is, nearly six times 81
Returning to Macao in his way back to Europe, Borri learnt about the Chinese denial of the “solidity” of the celestial spheres. Later in Europe he referred to this when he tried to obtain from the Society’s General, Muzio Vitelleschi, permission to print a treatise in which he maintained that the sky is one and “liquid” (Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy”, pp. 63–64, note 41). 82 After 1622 he was in a Kwangtung mission, but soon — possibly for health reasons — returned to Macao, where he was by October 1625; he died there (May 22th, 1626). His four-year stay in Macao, when mathematics was not taught (the same had previously been the case for Wremann) confirms that the primary obstacle to teaching was a lack not of experts, but of interest among the superiors. Although Kirwitzer had taught mathematics in the important college of Graz and was a notable scientist, he was employed in religious duties, in writing the Historia of the province (a yearly report to Rome) and, perhaps, as the province’s “procurator”. Some letters of his to C. Grienberger and Kepler show a profound insight into the contemporary state of astronomy and an open-minded attitude toward Copernicanism; the booklet in which he collected some observations made by himself and his fellow brothers while travelling in 1618 to Goa and in India (Observationes cometarum anni 1618 factae in India Orientali a quibusdam Soc. Iesu mathematicis, Aschaffenburg 1620) was widely appreciated in Europe and discussed by Kepler (M.W. RurkeGaffney, Kepler and the Jesuits, Milwaukee 1944, pp. 127–128). 83 In 1641, in Macao, Aleni was named vice-provincial of China; in the same or the following year, he entered China again. 84 Boym (1612–1659) left Europe in 1643, but it is not known when he set sail from Goa to Macao (where he was by 1646). Smogulecki (arrived in Goa in 1644) certainly went to Macao during 1645, and it is likely that the two Poles went from Goa to China together. Boym’s scientific writings were mainly on medicine and natural history; however, he was also the author of an unpublished “Mathesis sinica” and of cartographical works displaying a good mathematical training (Sommervogel, Bibliothèque, II, cols. 70–73). For his knowledge of astronomy, see note 120. Smogulecki (1610–1656), whose family belonged to the Polish aristocracy, had studied philosophy in the Jesuit college of Freiburg im Breisgau, where his master in mathematics had been Georg Schönberger (he published his theses: Sol illustratus ac propugnatus, Friburgi Brisgoiae 1626). Then he passed to the Collegio Romano, where he graduated in philosophy, also publishing his theses (Romae 1629: see Sommervogel, VII, col. 50, n. 88). After entering the Society (1636) he studied theology in Rome (around 1640). As he wrote some rather technical (unpublished) mathematical works in China (Sommervogel, VII, col. 1328), it is probable that in Rome he also attended courses in the academy of mathematics, under such teachers as Grienberger, O. Grassi or, possibly, Kircher. On him also see note 120. 85 Rho left Europe in 1618 together with Schreck, Schall and Kirwitzer, but remained in Goa until 1622 as a student of theology; Martini left in 1640 and remained in India until 1642. As for Rubino and Aleni, they had been in Asia more than thirty and twenty years, respectively in India and China. The only qualified mathematician sent to Asia between Rho and Martini (1629) was Johann Chrysostomus Gall, who had taught the discipline in Lisbon’s “aula de esfera” for four or five years. He, however, was not going to the Japanese province but to India, where he was not employed as an expert, but as a “normal” missionary (Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy”, pp. 63–64, note 41). The long interruption seems due to the fact that, since in the province (and, especially, in Beijing) there were 5–6 specialists, the Society’s headquarters judged that no more were needed; this is additional evidence that it was not considered important for stable teaching of mathematics to exist in Macao.
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more than those in which teaching of mathematics has been documented. It is highly probable (although not proved) that in those years private courses, for Jesuits only, were held in order to familiarise with mathematics those who had not studied it before, or to enable an exchange of knowledge. This is suggested by the fact that such courses were sometimes held at sea, during the voyages from Europe to Asia; moreover, some missionaries who had not studied mathematics in Europe and were in Macao when it was not taught publicly later showed some ability in it, which they could only have attained through their more expert fellow brothers.86 If scientific activities in Macao cannot be identified with public teaching or limited to the years in which that teaching existed, two different, though not unrelated, aspects should be considered: the research performed in the college or in the professed house; the coordination of data and information coming from various places in the missionary province, and their transmission to India and Europe. Macao as a research centre. Studies of “Jesuit science” in Asia have been — and still are — mainly descriptive, not in the sense of not offering technical analyses and interpretations, but because they mostly take the scope and contents of that science as something “natural”: that is, reflecting the general pattern of scientific learning and practice in the Society and, within it, the knowledge and capabilities of each author.87 This is only partially true, however, and a short discussion of this may provide a reliable historical context for documents concerning that science. The largest and perhaps most interesting part of it, that is mathematics (in a wide sense, distinguished from natural philosophy, medicine, zoological and botanical research, etc.), has been largely identified with the work performed in the Beijing mission, first by Jesuits of the Portuguese Assistancy, then also by those of the French Assistancy. However, it is far from obvious that the main features and contents of that work may be taken as representing the whole of “missionary mathematics” in East Asia. Already in Ricci’s time, and more in the following decades, the Jesuits in Beijing focused their research and writings on a number of topics which were obviously fundamental to the 86
The best documented and most notable case, given the names of participants, is the 1618 journey of Schreck, Schall, Kirwitzer and Rho, which was close to being an itinerant school and research laboratory (astronomical observations and measures of magnetic declinations were made and botanical samples were collected). It could also have been important in the spread of modern mathematics in Asia — even if no evidence of this has been found so far — because Schreck had been a student of Viète in Paris before 1603 and knew of such recent contributions as Ghetaldi’s partially “algebraic” geometry. 87 An extensive bibliography of studies on western science in China up to the late 18th century is provided in Standaert, Handbook, pp. 705–710, 732–737, 748–751, 764–770, 776–777, 784–785, 798–802, 807–808.
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Society’s mathematical learning, but were a selection aimed to gain the court’s attention, proving them able to answer some of its needs (accuracy in astronomical predictions as a basis for astrological forecasts; correction of the Chinese calendar; a more reliable cartography of the Middle Empire). Other aspects do not appear to be linked to “political” aims or constraints, because they were not dealt with for the court’s sake: summaries of Euclidean mathematics or of mathematical methods for astronomy, including trigonometry; expositions of the physical structure of the universe implied in astronomy’s mathematical models; descriptions of devices and machines. However, insofar as they were treated for the sake of enlightened mandarins, they reflected external requests or interests. In this way, some important aspects of “pure” Jesuit mathematical science were conspicuously absent in missionary science until the early eighteenth century, or even until the Society’s suppression: advanced geometry (both in the Archimedean and Apollonian tradition and in the modern one); non-elementary algebra; analytical geometry; advanced theoretical astronomy (both in the form of the old theorica planetarum and the post-Keplerian one, apart from heliocentrism); geometrical optics (elementary linear perspective excepted) and theoretical statics, to mention only some. Also, aspects of “mixed” (applied) mathematics that had some place in the Society’s tradition or in that of its Portuguese Assistancy (topography, hydrometry, military architecture, ballistics, nautical science and others) were absent or marginal. So a question to be asked is: do these characteristics of “Beijing’s science” (or continental missionary science) represent the whole of East Asian missionary science, and particularly of that performed in Macao? A further observation concerns instruments. During their first century in East Asia the Jesuit mathematicians never had instruments of the best standard of the time. In Ricci’s period, their few sextants, quadrants or armillary spheres were largely below that standard, in both dimensions and precision (let alone approximating those of Brahe, which remained a remote objective even for those of the best colleges in Europe). In Beijing the gap was somewhat reduced during Schall’s and, mainly, Verbiest’s years, but the basic equipment of an observatory in a European sense (as distinct from that of the imperial Astronomical Tribunal, which Verbiest had modified according to European parameters) existed perhaps only after the arrival of the French Jesuits (1688). As for Macao, almost nothing is known, especially as far as telescopes are concerned. News about Galileo’s telescopes and some of the observations they made possible reached the town in 1612;88 a short description of both the instrument and the 88
This event has been described many times, but the most detailed account remains P. D’Elia, Galileo in Cina: relazioni attraverso il Collegio romano tra Galileo e i gesuiti scienziati missionari in Cina (1610–1640), Roma 1947. Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius having appeared in 1610, the news of his discoveries could have been carried to Asia in the following year (ships to India set sail
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observations was provided just three years later in Dias’s T’ienwen lüeh, to be enlarged by Schall’s Yuanjing shuo (“On optical tubes”, Beijing 1630) and in other works (by Schreck and Rho, among others). However, the first telescope was brought by J. Schreck in 1619, and in the following decades only vague mentions are found of telescopes sent to Macao or constructed there.89 Thus — other obstacles apart — astronomical work could only remain traditional: that is, consisting mainly in observations of oppositions, eclipses, equinoxes and solstices. Such observations could be important theoretically (to determine the inclination of the ecliptic, the possible variation of the year’s length or of the rate of precession, the moon’s nutation and so on) only if highly precise values could be obtained, which meant very advanced instruments. The lack of these meant that for a long time observations of those kinds could only be used to measure a city’s longitude (for cartographical or nautical needs) or to check the accuracy of tables or ephemerides. The scant information available up to now on scientific work in Macao until the mid-17th century substantially agrees with these premises: just to mention one example, the first definitively recorded astronomical observation in the city, that of Aleni of a lunar eclipse on November 8, 1612, was intended to establish the city’s longitude.90 Moreover, there is no sign of research in pure mathematics (especially its modern aspects) until the 18th century. This resulted mainly from the contents of Jesuit training in mathematics until after 1650, but to a lesser degree also from more contingent factors. In the colleges’ advanced courses, modern geometry (Valerio, Cavalieri, and later Desargues) and Vietean and postVietean algebra had hardly any place until about 1640 and even a little later, so that even qualified missionaries were not really familiar with the most sophisticated geometry or with any branch of post-Viète “calculatory” mathematics from Lisbon in March or April, arriving in September or October, and a ship to Macao only sailed from Goa the year after). Notably, none of the 22 Jesuits who departed from Lisbon in March/April 1611 (names in Wicki, Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer, pp. 287–288) was a mathematician or is known for any scientific commitment. Only one of them was not an Iberian, but an Italian; another, Pedro Francisco, also came from Italy (he had been in Rome as the Japan province’s Procurator); so they are the most probable bearers of the news, probably in the form of correspondence directed to Macao’s “mathematicians” (the most probable addressee being Aleni). 89 Usually, only the lenses were sent from Europe, while the tubes were constructed locally: Golvers, The Astronomia Europaea, p. 296, n. 3. A general discussion of this topic is C. Diény, “L'introduction du télescope en Chine”, in I. Ang and P.-É. Will (eds.), Nombres, astres, plantes et viscères. Sept essais sur l'histoire des sciences et des techniques en Asie orientale, Paris 1994, pp. 177–191. 90 On the same day, and for the same reason, Spinola observed the eclipse in Nagasaki. In 1616, still in Macao, Wremann used these observations and those of others in India and continental China to determine the relative longitudes of a number of cities, taking as origin the meridian of Frankfurt am Oder (which had that role in the ephemerides he used, those of David Origanus): see Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy”, pp. 94–95.
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(apart from applications).91 An even more contingent factor was that before that year most of them came from the Rome school, where Clavius’s programme was followed strictly and such teachers as C. Grienberger, O. Grassi and A. Kircher were not focused on advanced pure mathematics, although between 1590 and 1610 Clavius’s school had perhaps been the leading Italian centre for the study of Viète’s works.92 Given that the college’s teaching staff was not permanent nor consistently distinct from the priests sent to missions (the division of the two groups being purely functional and temporary), this factor affected the scientific activity of the college as well as on the mainland.93 A partial opening to new perspectives could have begun when Antonio Maria Costantini, a former teacher of mathematics in the Parma college (1639–40), reached the Far East (he went to Goa in 1643, and sailed thence for Macao in late 1645). In 1640 he had been one of the first Italian readers of Descartes’ Géométrie, had immediately understood its importance and had translated its first book (at least) into Latin. So he mastered some of the new mathematics, Cavalieri’s geometry included, and in principle he could have introduced it into public or private teaching and made it known to some Jesuit mathematicians in the missions. This did not happen, because he died before reaching Macao;94 but — given the general situation — it is highly 91
This may be proved in several ways. Clavius’s programme for his Roman Academy of Mathematics (ca. 1593) only included elementary algebra; it was the basis for similar advanced courses in other European colleges and nothing shows that it changed during the first two or three decades of the 17th century (U. Baldini, “The Academy of Mathematics of the Collegio Romano from 1553 to 1612”, in M. Feingold (ed.), Jesuit science and the Republic of Letters, Cambridge Mass. 2003, pp. 47–98). So most students trained in these courses during that period lacked the basic training required for the kind of “algebraic geometry” which was the premise of Cartesian geometry (as pointed out in the text, almost all Jesuit mathematicians in the Asian missions before ca. 1650 had been trained in the Collegio Romano). As a matter of fact, even after Clavius’s Algebra no more than elementary work on pure algebra or its applications to geometry was published by a Jesuit for some decades. This was based not only on an educational routine, but also on epistemology, because the Jesuit tradition considered the Euclidean form of demonstration to be the only scientific one, so that any form of calculatory mathematics could at best be considered an aid or a purely heuristic device, which needed a formal proof to be considered scientific. This kind of scientific “mentality” was influential until the 17th century, in such mathematicians as Saccheri and even Boscovich. 92 Grienberger’s case was somewhat special, because in his youth he made important work in trigonometry (but mostly in calculating more accurate sine tables than those in use). On his scientific work see M.J. Gorman, “Mathematics and Modesty in the Society of Jesus: The Problems of Christopher Grienberger”, in The New Science and Jesuit Science: Seventeenth Century Perspectives, M. Feingold (ed.), Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003 (Archimedes vol. 6), pp. 1–120. 93 Table 2 shows that until 1650 only two or three “professional” mathematicians were in Macao for three or more years; this did not change in the following century. 94 In February 1646 his ship sank in the Gulf of Tonkin (C. Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, II, col. 1508, wrongly affirms that he came back to Europe and was in Mantua in 1648). The translation appears to be lost; during his voyage from Europe, Costantini measured the positions of several places. Biographical details and sources in U. Baldini, Legem impone subactis. Studi su filosofia e scienza dei Gesuiti in Italia, Roma 1992, p. 450, note 150.
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doubtful that his presence or that of a few others could have changed the basic pattern of the scientific work in the missions. Macao, however, as a sea town and a Portuguese establishment surrounded by actual and potential enemies and having hardly any specialised lay personnel to deal with certain technical problems, required the Jesuit specialists to provide their advice in issues which they usually did not consider. In 1622 Giovanni Rho and Adam Schall directed the town’s artillery during the siege by a Dutch fleet; and it cannot be excluded that, in that year or at other times, the Jesuits contributed to the design of Macao’s fortifications.95 Apart from engineering and military problems, however, a “coastal” branch of missionary science existed which was not in the “continental” one: that concerned with navigation problems, and especially with measuring longitudes at sea. Contributions to this area came from most Jesuit mathematicians while heading to or from Asia, but those who reached the interior and remained there put nautical questions aside. Obviously, the method of eclipses only applied to longitudes of fixed places (that is, in cartography); from the end of the 16th century another method, that of measures of magnetic declination, was suggested for taking longitudes at sea and, after Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, another highly refined method was added, namely observing the occultations of Jupiter’s satellites. The basis of the former was the (erroneous) expectation that the variations of magnetic declination on the Earth’s surface followed a general law, so that particular values of it could be correlated with certain positions; that of the latter was an assumption (correct, but practically unmanageable, especially at sea) that a difference in longitude could be calculated from the difference in times of occultation between one place and another one, for which the values in the tables or ephemerides of the satellites had been calculated. Measurements of magnetic declination were taken by Jesuit missionaries along all the main routes to America, Africa and Asia, but especially along the carreira da India, during the 17th century, until it became clear that the supposed general law did not exist. So Macao was one of the places where these measurements were collected and discussed, and from which they were communicated to Europe.96 The second method has been extensively discussed in studies on Galileo and his school; it is less well known, however, that before sailing to the Indies and also after 95
Schall’s role during the siege is described by all his biographers. As for Rho, see for instance Standaert, Handbook. 96 Several from the first half of the century are collected in A. Kircher, Magnes sive de arte magnetica opus tripartitum, Romae 1654, pp. 348–349. No complete list of later measurements has been made; for further information and remarks on the place of the Jesuits’ measurements in the early modern history of magnetology and geophysics, see M. Ugaglia’s introduction and notes to Leonardo Garzoni, Trattati della calamita, Milano 2005.
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reaching them Schreck made many (unsuccessful) attempts to get from Galileo working ephemerides of Jupiter’s satellites, and it is highly probable that this line of research persisted in the Jesuit context, both in Asia and Europe.97 Macao as a crossroads of scientific communication. It has been noted that, in the Portuguese system of travel and communication in Asia, Macao was the intersection of the routes of everything going to or from India: not only for Japan and China, but also for Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, eastern Indonesia and — for local navigation only — the Philippines (which communicated with Europe through the Pacific and New Spain). As far as, until about 1650, the Jesuits felt themselves bound to rely on this system, the town was a compulsory transit station not only for all those arriving from Europe or returning to it, but also for those going to or returning from the above-mentioned countries.98 They then also began to send their letters using the ships of the Dutch VOC sailing from Batavia, but this did not change Macao’s role, because it was also the departure point for Java. In addition, the ships’ departures being regulated by the rhythm of the winds (especially the eastern monsoon), missionaries had often to stay there, sometimes for a year; so they engaged in local activities and played a part in cultural exchange, and were also frequently requested to carry writings and information sent to Macao by other Jesuits from a very large area, in order to have them transmitted to superiors or other missionaries in Asia, or to Europe.99 It is of paramount importance to recall that — as a normal practice — 97
See, for instance, I. Iannaccone, Johann Schreck Terrentius. Le scienze rinascimentali e lo spirito dell’Accademia dei Lincei nella Cina dei Ming, Napoli 1998, pp. 66–70. The same author has recently reconsidered this point in a half-fictional biography of Schreck: L’amico di Galileo, Milano 2006. It is interesting to observe that, while some Jesuits required Galileo’s advice on one method, one of his best friends required that of the Jesuits. In 1609, when he was in Syria as a Venetian diplomat, Giovan Francesco Sagredo (one of the future characters of Galileo’s Dialogue) sent letters to Goa Jesuits asking for measurements of magnetic declination: see Galilei, Opere. Edizione Nazionale, Firenze 1890–1909, X, p. 262, and XII, p. 335. Some of his letters reached India and were answered; Sagredo complained to Galileo that the answers had been disappointing, but no precise information on this exists. 98 From about 1610, the Dutch expansion in the region between India and the Philippines and their takeover of Portuguese strongholds in Ceylon and Malacca forced the Portuguese to try other routes to reach Macao from Goa (like an eastern one via Timor). Later, the Jesuits considered the possibility of an overland journey via Siberia and Russia. However, these routes (especially the latter) never became as common as the traditional one, and Macao remained their terminal. 99 The impact of this logistical constraint (persisting during the entire period of the sailing ships) on biographical events and, consequently, on intellectual life and the circulation of works and ideas emerges continuously from the documents. The pauses imposed by the usual sailing times (Goa to Macao: from April–May to July–August; Macao to Nagasaki: June–July to July–August; Nagasaki to Macao: January–February to March; Macao to Goa: November–January to March–April) were increased by the fact that sometimes a few days’ delay meant having to wait for the following year’s ship. Moreover, the times of the minor routes (South–East Asia, the Philippines
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all letters and documents from missions of the whole area were copied in Macao and kept in files in the college’s archive;100 so — in principle at least — the archive kept a copy of every document sent from the Far East missions to India and Europe. This meant that it could have been by experts, especially if a text was written in Chinese or was so technical that the copyist could not understand it easily. Thus, most scientific work or information transmitted in those documents was shared in Macao and, when one or more scientific experts were in the town, scientific debates or research could take place in both the professed house and the college, which would have been much more frequent and important than the teaching. When there was none, at least a memory of important facts and notions remained, particularly in the late 17th and 18th centuries, when the study of mathematics had become so common in the European colleges that even missionaries who did not specialise in it were able to understand and comment on highly technical works. We may recall that an important work on the eclipses observed in China was written by Giacomo Filippo Simonelli, who had been in Beijing’s Astronomical Tribunal but worked on it after becoming the Visitor of the Chinese vice-province and completed it in Macao.101 Another possible example is Kirwitzer’s extant letters (possibly only a part of a larger correspondence).102 It should be noted that, Simonelli’s work and a few others excepted, the most important and original scientific works were written in Beijing and other missions within China, while those written in Macao consisted mainly of letters and short reports concerning observations made there, or referring to and organising those produced elsewhere in East Asia. This should not come as a surprise, given that the mathematicians’ stay in Macao was usually brief and occupied by other studies, but the typological difference does not always mean less docuand eastern Indonesia to and from Macao) connected with those of the major ones in a very complicated pattern. As far as the present writer knows, a detailed and complete study of the system’s connections with the cultural aspects of the Jesuits’ missionary enterprise does not exist, whereas the timing of the main navigation routes has been reconstructed many times, up to C.R. Boxer’s studies and, for the Jesuit context, since G.B. Riccioli’s Geographia (Bononiae 1661, fols. 105–107) and D. Bartoli’s La Cina (third part of his Dell’historia della Compagnia di Giesù, Roma 1663, pp. 159–160, 217, 583). The admirable and extremely detailed picture of the system’s logistics and economics in Dauril Alden’s The making of an enterprise (Stanford 1996) is not concerned primarily with its impact on individuals and intellectual life. 100 Studies on this subject are cited in Standaert, Handbook, pp. 163–164. A notable example of the passages and copying to which a document could be subjected is that of the letter by G. de Magalhães, L. Buglio and F. Verbiest (Beijing, Jan. 2, 1669) describing the changes to the Imperial observatory: see N. Golvers, The Astronomia Europaea of Ferdinand Verbiest, pp.152–153, note 2. 101 Scientiae eclipsium ex imperio, et commercio Sinarum illustratae pars prima, Romae 1744. The work was published by Melchiorre Dalla Briga SJ, who also edited the second part, which contained another treatise by Simonelli and a series of observations made in China, collected and ordered in Beijing by Ignaz Koegler (see the note in Sommervogel, Bibliothèque, II, col. 163, n. 14). 102 See Sommervogel, Bibliothèque, IV, col. 1084.
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mental importance. However, Macao’s production is hardly mentioned in historical studies, mainly because very little of it has been preserved or found. So the question arises: what is the origin of this situation and how can it be modified? 4. The State of the Sources Paradoxically enough, more remains of the instruments, papers and books of the Beijing mission, which existed until the early 19th century (its last members died in 1826) but later fell under Chinese control and was subject to dispersions, than of those of Macao (and Goa), although the latter were institutionally much more organised, had a much larger personnel and were in territories ruled by the Portuguese until the late 20th century. The main reason for this is Pombal’s destruction of the Society of Jesus in the kingdom of Portugal and its overseas territories; it was so sudden, and the measures taken against its members so restrictive, that they could do little — if anything — to safeguard their archives, instruments and books.103 The Portuguese state, which took possession of them, transferred some to Europe and left others in the colonies, but in both cases disorder and dispersion — if not actual theft — were a frequent outcome for a couple of centuries. This explains why very little remains in Goa pertaining to the important college of São Paulo, and practically nothing in Macao pertaining to that of the same name (or Madre de Deus).104 A distinction should be made, 103
Sometimes the archives were destroyed even before, especially during the Dutch conquest of a Portuguese feitoria, as happened in Cochin in 1663: J. Correia-Afonso, Jesuit letters and Indian history, 1542–1773, Bombay 1969, p. 134. The documents’ dispersal and destruction explain the absence of an entry on Macao in Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque. 104 Extant archival materials concerning the Jesuits in Goa are described and discussed in the following works: C.R. Boxer, “A glimpse of the Goa Archives”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 14 (1952), 2, pp. 299–324; M.A.H. Fitzler, A secção ultramarina da Biblioteca Nacional, Lisboa 1928; V.T. Gune, A Guide to the collections of records from the Goa Archives, Panaji, Panaji 1973, and “Source material from the Goa archives”, in J. Correia-Afonso (ed.), Indo-Portuguese history: Sources and problems, Bombay 1981, pp. 19–33; A. da Silva Rego, “The Monsoon Codices at the National Archives of the Torre do Tombo”, ibid., pp. 51–71; J. Harrison, “Portuguese archives bearing upon South Asia”, in J.D. Pearson (ed.), South Asian bibliography: A handbook and guide, Sussex 1979, pp. 46–53; M.G.L. Alvares Meneses, “An overview of selected Indian, Portuguese and British public and private archives on IndoPortuguese history”, in H. Scholberg (ed.), Bibliography of Goa and the Portuguese in India, New Delhi 1982, pp. 375–383; P.P. Shirodkar, “Records on Jesuits in Goa archives”, in T.R. de Souza and C.J. Borges (eds.), Jesuits in India: In historical perspective, Macau 1992, pp. 21–34; F. Olival et al., Guia de Fontes Portuguesas para a História da Ásia, 2 vols., Lisboa (1998–9); F.G. Cunha Leão, O Índico na biblioteca da Ajuda. Catálogo da documentação manuscrita referente a Moçambique, Pérsia, Índia, Malaca, Molucas e Timor, Lisboa 1998. For Macao, there are several works by Schutte (Introductio ad historiam Societatis Jesu in Japonia 1549–1650; Monumenta historica Japoniae I. Textus catalogorum Japoniae 1553–1654; Japón, China, Filípinas en la colección “Jesuitas, Tomos” de La Real Academia de la Historia de Madrid, Madrid 1976; “Die Wiederentdeckung des Makao-Archivs. Wichtige Bestände des alten Fernost-
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however, between the documentation in the Asian establishments and the writings sent to Europe from them. In fact, the dispersion could affect the former; as for the latter, a further distinction should be made between documents addressed to a Jesuit institution or to members of the Order and those addressed to other persons. Documents of the first kind could be involved in the dispersal of Jesuit archives and libraries all over Catholic Europe, after the series of events affecting the Society from Pombal’s expulsion (1759) to the Papal suppression (1773). This dispersion, however, varied from country to country and from one place to another in the same country. Owing to the same causes mentioned for the Asian establishments, the contents of archives and libraries (especially if manuscripts are considered) of the great Jesuit institutions in Portugal (S. Antão college and the professed house in Lisbon, the colleges and professed houses in Coimbra, Évora, Braga, Porto) were largely lost, while the fate of those of the most important European colleges varied widely (from total loss to survival of important parts), and Rome’s libraries and central archive are nearly intact. This situation is the background for any research on manuscript scientific materials from East Asian missions in European libraries and archives. When these materials were included in reports sent to superiors, not as private persons but as officers of the Society, they shared the fate of the archive of the institution in which that superior resided. In the case of letters or reports sent privately to a Jesuit (in the case of technical writings, mostly a former teacher or a fellow student), they followed the addressee during his career; so — if not destroyed when he died — 105 they should usually be sought in his last known residence (not necessarily the same as the one to which they were originally addressed). This, however, implies that someone is known to have been the addressee of one or more messages, which obviously is not usually the case. Finally, essays, reports or letters could be written to non-Jesuits with whom the author had been in contact, who did not necessarily remain in the places where that contact occurred; moreover, a missionary could address himself to someone he only knew by repute.106 To these (rather obvious, but sometimes neglected) circumstances, a second order of facts must be added as a premise for any systematic and oriented research on relevant documents: namely, their typology. Archivs der Jesuiten, heute in Madrid”, in Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 30 (1961), pp. 90–124; P. Humbertclaude, Recherches sur deux catalogues de Macao (1616 et 1632), Tokyo 1942, and “Suppléments aux Recherches...”, in Monumenta nipponica, 6 (1943), pp. 435–444; A. Carayon, Catálogo dos manoscritos de Macao, Lisboa 1964; J. Dehergne, “La correspondance littéraire des missionnaires de Chine”, in Revue de synthèse, 97 (1976), pp. 111–114. 105 According to a general rule of the Society, issued under General C. Acquaviva (1585–1615), the papers found in a Jesuit’s room at his death had to be examined and, if judged unimportant (as was probably the case for ordinary lessons), destroyed. 106 This is, for instance, the case of Aleni’s letter to Magini: see note 121.
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Types of potential sources on the educational, cultural and scientific activities of Macao’s Jesuits To be sure, the range of potentially useful documents cannot be circumscribed a priori with any certainty, because in principle some relevant materials could be found even in routine writings of persons with no scientific competence or interest.107 However, a rough classification is better than none, insofar as it helps to concentrate on what is potentially more promising and to exclude research with a low marginal productivity. A. Teaching materials and manuscript works A 1. Manuscript copies of lessons. As a rule, in Jesuit schools all curricular lessons were dictated; teachers prepared a written copy of them, which they kept during their career to have it to hand for successive courses (and which was often the basis of their printed works, as in Clavius’ case), and each student produced his copy as the master was dictating. So a course could survive in a number of copies equalling that of the students plus their teacher, but this never occurred. As for the students’ copies, if not destroyed by the writers during their life they often were destroyed by the family, either when they died, or after: courses attended by 50 or more persons rarely survive in two or three copies and sometimes in only one; for a majority of them no copy has survived or is mentioned in the historical literature. As for the teacher’s copy, it was also private and usually did not remain in a college’s archive.108 In the case of the Indian and Japanese provinces, given that in most cases both teachers and students never returned to Europe, copies could only remain in the vicinity, in private hands or in a Jesuit establishment; since no library or archive of the Portuguese community existed in Goa, Cochin or Macao in the 17th and 18th centuries, and those of the Jesuits have been dispersed, it is not surprising that no manuscript copy of a theology, philosophy or mathematics course has yet been found.109 A 2. Manuscript dissertations or talks. According to the Society’s rules for teaching, at certain times during the school year talks on special topics were given by the best students of all upper level disciplines. Most of these talks (in the case of mathematics, they mostly concerned demonstrations of non-trivial theorems, solutions of astronomical problems or discussions of scientific novelties or debated questions) were undoubtedly prepared from a written text, but 107
See note 124 for a similar case concerning Indian mathematics. In Italy, for instance, a notable series of manuscript philosophical (not mathematical) courses survived in the Collegio Romano, but not in those of Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo. 109 The only, if notable, exception could be a part of the course on natural philosophy attended by C. Ferreira in ca. 1605: see note 63. 108
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these texts were not preserved systematically in a college’s archive or library, even in cases in which their importance, or some other reason, led to them being printed.110 Again, and for the same reasons affecting the previous genre of writings, both for the Indian colleges and that of Macao, for this also not a single specimen seems to have survived. A 3. Printed books used for courses. As stated above, Macao’s library was lost; in addition, no reliable list of its books and virtually no information on works used by teachers survive. However, even if things were different this would be of little — if any — help in finding some unique feature of teaching in the college, because textbooks used in Jesuit schools were very often the same all over the world, in mathematics as well as in philosophy or rhetoric.111 In addition, they were not the basis of the teaching (which was the teacher’s lesson) but a support for it, and only parts of them were used. A 4. Theses. Following the medieval custom of the universities and the schools of older religious orders, the Society of Jesus required that, to obtain an academic degree, a student had to discuss publicly some theses after finishing his course. For the degree in arts (philosophy), the theses had to concern the three basic disciplines: logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. Sometimes, after mathematics became a usual part of the course, theses of mathematics were also discussed, at a different time. The discussion was obviously oral, but it was often preceded by a printed list of the theses; as time went on, well-off students also began to print the arguments and demonstrations used in the discussion, so that their lists became booklets, and sometimes short treatises. It should be noted that in this respect the Goa college was well ahead of that of Macao. A printing press had existed there since 1556, and by November of that year it had already printed some theses: Conclusões de logica e philosofia.112 As for the Japan province, one existed in Nagasaki for some years toward the end of the 16th century, when the changing situation persuaded Valignano to transfer it to Macao, where it remained, printing a number of works.113 110
Even for the Collegio Romano few manuscript originals remain, even of talks which were printed or dealt with debated or important questions. This is explained only partially by the losses, because — for instance — a large number (perhaps a majority) of the philosophy courses in the Collegio have been preserved. 111 To take only one example, until the mid-seventeenth century works by Clavius such as the commentaries on Sacrobosco and the Elements, Arithmetica practica, Geometria practica and his textbooks on gnomonics were used in colleges all over the world, from Buenos Aires and Cuzco to Mexico, Lithuania, Transylvania and the Asian colleges. The same was true in natural philosophy for F. Toledo’s and B. Pereira’s textbooks and the Cursus Conimbricensis. 112 J. Wicki, “Ainda o IV Centenário da Primeira Imprensa de Goa”, in Brotéria, 1956, n. 63, and “La formazione della gioventù indo-europea a Goa”, p. 57. 113 J.M. Braga, “The beginnings of printing in Macau”, in Studia, 12 (Julho 1963), pp. 29–137.
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However, none of these books contained theses; moreover, no source provides information on theses discussed in Macao, and not even a mention of mathematics theses is found. This could mean that mathematics was not taught regularly even in the late 17th century, and possibly during the 18th century, up to the 1759 expulsion. A 5. Manuscript works. Since the eventual destinations of the most intellectually gifted missionaries (except for a few superiors and theology teachers) were the interior missions and not Macao, probably few Jesuit scientific works — as distinct from letters, memoirs or brief reports — were produced in the town. In fact, there is no trace of a printed scientific or philosophical work by a Jesuit entirely written when his author was there (data on the works’ composition are, however, often very vague or non-existent, and nothing proves that parts of them at least were not written in Macao, and even less that information and judgement from there were never relevant to their composition).114 The loss and dispersion of the college’s archive and library may have affected this kind of material even more than those of genres A 1–A 3, because the latter were, in some sense, institutional, whereas the former was eminently private; moreover, its preservation after the author’s death would have seemed important only to the few scientifically minded of the college’s personnel. So real discoveries are not very likely, and expectations may concern less the works themselves — in whatever number they were written and initially preserved in the college — than records and mentions of them, which could substantiate a chronology of the college’s intellectual life. B. Administrative materials B 1. Files of a college’s archive. Every college kept annual records of the disciplines taught and the teachers’ and the students’ names. The loss of such materials cannot be fully remedied by the provincial catalogues (see below), which only mention the Jesuits working in a certain place, and therefore list the teachers and the Jesuit students, not the lay students or those belonging to other regular orders or to the secular clergy. In addition to the college’s records, others concerning a province’s affairs were kept in the professed house in that province’s centre; generally, in most Jesuit settlements — in Europe and elsewhere — the Society’s suppression in the mid-18th century affected the former more than the latter and, while copies of some important files from the provincial archive 114
In general, the timing of the composition of Jesuit scientific works in China is an area on which less progress has been made recently than in others. This obviously applies more to authors on whom detailed monographs do not exist, but in certain cases it is also true for others (Ricci, Aleni, Schall, Verbiest, etc.).
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were sent to the central archive in Rome, which has preserved them, this did not happen for the school’s documents. Thus, even though in the case of Macao both archives are largely lost, a small part of the provincial archives partially survives through copies in Portugal, Spain or Rome, while the loss of the school’s documents is irremediable, as those extant deal with economic and logistic aspects much more than with teaching. B 2. Files of the Japan province’s and China’s vice-province’s archives. Surviving documents of the two archives could provide: lists (catalogi) of the persons present in a certain place (Macao or elsewhere) in a particular year, stating their educational — or other — role in that year; the superior’s judgements on each individual; letters by — and to — the superiors and their main advisers; reports on special topics; and chronicles of the inner life of every Jesuit house or college in the province, as well as of external events. As far as the Japanese province is concerned, the documents of this kind (in the collection “Jesuitas na Asia” in the Biblioteca da Ajuda in Lisbon, in that named “Jesuitas, tomos” in the Academia de la Historia, Madrid, in Rome and elsewhere) have been carefully scrutinised by J.F. Schutte.115 Those of the China vice-province have not been examined in such detail but, since the college did not formally belong to it, it is unlikely that a thorough search would find anything substantial. Nevertheless, a unified inventory of materials concerning the college, those teaching in it and their activities — which is still lacking — could shed light on a number of obscure points. C. Correspondence Jesuit epistolary materials are often dealt with without distinguishing between their types and their respective potential for scientific history. The following kinds at least deserve consideration:116 C 1. The annual letters (Annuae litterae, or Historia Societatis) sent by every province to the General in Rome, describing the main events of the province’s life and enterprises in that year. They are easy to find, because the Roman archive preserves most of them, and many have been printed since the 16th century.117 115
See note 104. This classification only considers the documents’ usage in terms of the history of science; it differs somewhat from that in Standaert, Handbook, pp. 163–165. 117 See, for instance, J. Dehergne, “Les letters annuales des missions jésuites de Chine au temps de Ming (1581–1644)”, in AHSI, 49 (1980), pp. 379–392, and “Lettres annuelles et sources complémentaires des missions jésuites de Chine”, ibid., 51 (1982), pp. 247–284; cf. also Dehergne’s “La correspondance littéraire des missionnaires de Chine”, in Revue de synthèse, 97 (1976), pp. 111–114. 116
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They were, however, mainly focused on religious (and also organisational) aspects; the specific aspects of college teaching were rarely dealt with (apart from the number of students, the names of teachers and some events affecting the school’s life), and the teachers’ or writers’ ideas or works even less. C 2. Letters from a province’s or mission’s superiors to the General, his Assistants in Rome or other superiors in Europe, concerning some particular or confidential aspect of the local situation. Among such letters, those sent from Macao and the Japanese province to Portugal were largely lost during Pombal’s rule; of those sent to Rome only some survive, but the content of many more may be inferred from the Generals’ answers, copies of which are preserved systematically in ARSI. Unfortunately, owing to the roles and main interests of the writers, they rarely deal with anything scientific more than vaguely.118 C 3. Letters from individual missionary-scientists of the Japanese province or the Chinese vice-province to the General or his Assistants. As in the preceding case, a number survive in the Roman archive, and the Generals’ replies give information on many more of them. However, most concerned specific problems or a missionary’s role at a certain time; so science — or doctrinal questions generally — appear in them only vaguely and perfunctorily: Spinola’s cited passage on “the noblest persons [in Nagasaki, coming] to ask us questions about the skies and the elements...” is an example of the genre. C 4. Letters by these missionary-scientists to their former superiors, masters, friends and school-fellows. As is obvious, and confirmed by well-known items by Ricci, Aleni, Schall, Verbiest and many others, these letters are the most promising, because the addressees often shared the intellectual interests of the authors, who therefore sometimes engaged in technical matters. However, there is no a priori means to know whether such letters exist, or the names of their addressees, so they are discovered only by accident; those still unknown may be located in an unpredictable number of places and institutions all over Europe, from national or public libraries to almost unknown public or private local archives. This includes Protestant Europe, because of the Jesuit correspondence that from the late 118
There were originally many letters, as shown by the selections published by the end of the sixteenth century (for instance: Cartas que os Padres e irmãos da Companhia de Iesus escreverão dos Reynos de Iapão e China, Évora 1598; G.P. Maffei, Historiarum Indicarum libri 16. Selectarum, item, ex India Epistularum libri IV. Accessit liber recentiorum Epistularum, à Iohanne Hayo... ex eadem Societate nunc primum excussus, cum Indice accurato, Antverpiae, Ox Officina Martini Nutij, ..., Anno MDCV; De rebus Iaponicis, Indicis, et Peruanis epistolae recentiores. A Ioanne Hayo Dalgattiensi Scoto Societatis Iesu in librum unum coacervatae, Antverpiae, Ex Officina Martini Nutij, Anno MDCV). It is notable that, with the exception of those sent to the Generals, most of the originals of the letters published in these two collections appear to have been lost.
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17th century travelled on VOC ships to Dutch ports. All this explains why a relatively small number of letters of type C 4 have been found and published.119 The account given so far is rather abstract. A reader may consider it the description of a mere possibility; he may also ask what grounds there are to believe that a significant number of important scientific letters and reports were produced in Macao and, secondly, that they have survived until today. A mention of known documents may not seem sufficient, because they are few and — apparently at least — of no great importance. A first answer could be that even a few lines in a few letters may convey decisive information, as shown by the well-known letter by Boym from Macao (Jan. 1646) accompanying a copy of Kepler’s Tabulae Rudolphinae that he was sending to Beijing, announcing that he or Smogulecki would retrieve it on arrival at the mission. Not only is the letter the first mention of a basic work of the new science in the Asian missions; it is also highly appreciative of it, which some historians have interpreted as evidence that Boym (and perhaps Smogulecki) were convinced Copernicans.120 A second, more complete answer may be that in the 17th and 18th centuries several scientists in Europe, Jesuits and otherwise, quoted data and observations pertaining to work done in Macao, reported in writings that seem to have disappeared.121 However, the fact that they have not been recovered does not 119
Old and recent editions of Jesuit letters from China (sometimes extending to Japan), of all kinds considered here, are listed in Standaert’s Handbook, pp. 166–174. For a corresponding list for India see Correia-Afonso, Jesuit letters, pp. 177–187. 120 B. Szczesniak, “The Penetration of the Copernican Theory into Feudal Japan”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1945, pp. 30–38, and “Note on Kepler's Tabulae Rudolfinae in the Library of Pei-t’ang in Peking”, in Isis, 40 (1949), pp. 344–347. Since these articles, the letter has been a topic in discussions on the possible “hidden” Copernicanism of at least some of the astronomical missionaries, such as N. Sivin, “Copernicus in China”, ch. IV in his Science in Ancient China. Researches and Reflections, Aldershot 1995. 121 While Aleni’s letter containing his observations of two eclipses (Jan. 9 and Dec. 15, 1610), sent from Macao (January 28, 1611) to G.A. Magini in Bologna, is preserved in the latter’s correspondence (it was published in A. Favaro, Carteggio inedito di Ticone Brahe, Giovanni Keplero e di altri celebri astronomi e matematici dei secoli XVI. e XVII. con Giovanni Antonio Magini, Bologna 1886, pp. 347–349), another describing an eclipse he had observed in Macao in November 1612, addressed to Magini or (like two others, one of the same eclipse and one of that in the preceding May, by Wremann in Goa) to C. Grienberger in Rome, appears to be lost (only a small part of Grienberger’s correspondence, perhaps among the most important mathematical correspondence of early seventeenth-century Europe, survives: see the inventory in Baldini, Legem, pp. 200–201, which does not consider his correspondence with Galileo). Both letters were partly published, partly summarised in Kircher’s Magnes (p. 329), in Riccioli’s Geographia (ff. 315, 365) and in the Paris Académie des Sciences Mémoires for 1666–1699 (VII, part 1, Paris 1729, p. 706). It is worth mentioning that, according to Riccioli, Wremann also sent his second observation to someone in Belgium. Since he had never been there and all his student life had been in Rome, it is probable that the addressee was Grégoire de Saint Vincent, who had been a school fellow of his in Rome since about 1608: this shows how unpredictable the letters’
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prove that they do not survive, given the large number of incompletely examined series of documents in libraries and archives in Central and Southern Europe. Rather, it means that only a carefully planned international research programme could produce substantial findings. As a historian has written concerning the same problem with respect to letters from India, “If it is difficult to trace the whereabouts of the official letters [...], it is a sheer impossibility to find out what happened to the numerous private letters [...]”; he added, however, that the fact that some are still being discovered, even in the absence of a planned search, has convinced him that many still exist.122 5. Directions of Research The great collections in libraries and archives mentioned so far, as well as others that might be mentioned, have been examined for decades.123 So, although their great size and complexity, and the fact that they have been searched mainly by people who were not historians of science, mean that something valuable may still remain to be discovered,124 for private letters and reports — the most promising, as argued — a less direct way is to be followed. Missionaries who were destinations (and therefore their present location) can be. Another observation of a lunar eclipse by Wremann in Goa (March 3, 1616), but certainly sent to Europe from Macao, is in Riccioli (f. 365). It was possibly contained in a letter Wremann addressed to Grienberger from Macao (Nov. 20, 1616), which also dealt with magnetic declination and the town’s latitude (estimated as 22° 15', the correct value being 22º 03' 05"), referred to by Kircher (p. 316), which also seems to be lost. The same is true for letters from Macao concerning astronomical observations or measurements of magnetic declinations, that are found in various works until the mid-18th century. 122 Correia-Afonso, Jesuit letters, ch. 12 (“The whereabouts of the letters from India”, especially p. 137). 123 In addition to those in the Biblioteca da Ajuda in Lisbon, in Madrid, in the Jesuit general archive and in the Biblioteca Vaticana in Rome and what remains in Goa, the following at least are to be recalled: the Fundo Geral manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon; the Monsoon codices and other sections in Lisbon’s Torre do Tombo national archive (A. da Silva Rego, “The Monsoon Codexes at the National Archives of the Torre do Tombo”, in J. Correia-Afonso (ed.), IndoPortuguese history: Sources and problems, Bombay 1981, pp. 51–71); the Fondo Gesuitico manuscripts of the Biblioteca Nazionale, those of the archives of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana and of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide in Rome (N. Kowalsky and J. Metzler, Inventory of the historical archives of the Congregation for the evangelization of peoples or De propagande fide, Rome 1988). Obviously, if the French Jesuit missionaries in China were also considered, a number of French libraries and archives should also be added. However, they did not usually land in Macao, and few of them were there for any length of time; thus their papers can only be a collateral source. 124 A modest, yet interesting example is an undated ARSI report (possibly early 17th century) sent to Rome by Goa’s provincial, concerning the learning of the Brahmans. Ch. 19, entitled “Das sciencias que aprendem”, has some information and judgement on Indian mathematics and astronomy, and is perhaps the first of its kind known (codex Goa 58, fols. 15r–18v; I knew of the document through George Gheverghese Joseph and Dennis Almenida, who discovered it). Although its content is not technical and sometimes highly vague or misleading, it shows that something useful may still be undiscovered even in such a thoroughly explored archive as the ARSI.
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not scientific specialists could sometimes convey information about important results or doctrines, as Goa’s provincial did, but they could not go deep into them; moreover, they would hardly occupy much space in the few letters they could send to Europe for something outside their interests and competence. So research should first concentrate on the 23 “mathematics experts” and on those who followed them up to the mid-18th century (a slightly larger number). The experts came originally from seven European countries and had studied in about 18 colleges or universities (excluding those in Asia):
Table 3. National origin and places of study of the mathematicians in the Far East missions.
M. Ruggieri P. Gomez M. Ricci N. Longobardi D. Pantoja C. Spinola M. Rocchi S. De Ursis F. Lopes M. Dias Jr. G. Aleni F. Sambiasi J. Wremann C. Borri J. Schreck J.A. Schall W.P. Kirwitzer F. Furtado G. Rho G.A. Rubino M. Martini M. Boym J.N. Smogulecki
NATIONALITY125
STUDIES
Italian Spanish Italian Italian Spanish Italian Italian Italian Portuguese Portuguese Italian Italian Croatian Italian German German Czech Portuguese Italian Italian Italian Polish Polish
[Naples?], Rome Alcalà Rome Messina [Toledo?] Naples, Rome Rome Naples, Rome Goa [Coimbra?] Brescia, Parma, Bologna [Naples?] Rome126 Milan [Konstanz?],127 Paris, Rome Rome Olmütz/Olomuc, Brno [Coimbra?] Milan, Rome Milan, Lisbon128 [Trent?], Rome Krakow, Rome Freiburg im B., Rome
125 126 127 128
125
Adjectives such as “Italian”, “Croatian” and “Czech” are anachronistic (Ricci was born in the Papal States, Longobardi in the kingdom of Sicily, Martini in the domain of the bishop of Trent, belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, Kirwitzer in the kingdom of Bohemia, and so on). However, present-day denominations are used to show to which modern state the missionaries’ letters would have been directed.
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It may be presumed that their friends and intellectual links were mainly in these countries and towns. The letters found so far confirm this: those of Ricci, Rocchi, Wremann, Schreck, Rubino and Martini were addressed to Rome, those of Kirwitzer to Austria or southern Germany (he had taught mathematics in Graz). So the first option is to search the libraries and archives of these towns; since the names of the teachers or fellow students of most of the 23 missionaries may be found in the catalogues, a (relatively) focused quest appears possible.129 Leaving Rome and its province apart, as a special case, the following remarks may be made concerning the state of the documents in the regions to which the other towns belonged. Sicily and southern Italy (kingdom of Naples). After the Order’s suppression, most Jesuit colleges in this area became state high schools or universities or were entrusted to other religious orders; in the process, they usually preserved their libraries, while the manuscripts were largely lost.130 As for the archival documents of the colleges and professed houses, as a rule all became the state’s property, but those concerning administration are virtually the only ones preserved in the town archives or in that of the kingdom of Naples. So in principle not much is to be expected; however, the takeover by the state was executed mostly in the major cities; during their careers, however, the former colleagues of the missionaries could have gone to smaller towns, where little-researched minor libraries and archives exist. Northern Italy (Venice and Milan provinces). The archives of the two provinces’ professed houses have largely been destroyed; as for those of the major colleges, those of Brera (Milan) and Bologna are practically lost, while 126
Wremann was born in Spalato/Split, then a Venetian protectorate continuously threatened by the Ottomans. He entered the Society in Rome when he was about seventeen, so culturally he may be considered an Italian. 127 Schreck’s studies before he contacted Viète in Paris (ca. 1600) are uncertain. Later he showed himself trained in anatomy, medicine and botany, so he may have attended some courses in medicine in his home town (or perhaps in nearby universities, those of Freiburg im Breisgau, Ingolstadt or even Vienna). 128 Rubino attended Grienberger’s lesson in the Lisbon Aula de esfera (1601–2) before he set sail for Goa; however, since his master soon returned to Rome, his scientific correspondence was not directed to Portugal, but to the Collegio Romano. 129 For instance, those who attended the Collegio Romano Academy of Mathematics (the advanced mathematics course) up to 1640 are almost all known (one of them, Giulio Fuligati, was the addressee of some of Ricci’s letters); the same is true for teachers and students in Bohemian, Austrian and Bavarian colleges during the years in which Kirwitzer was there. 130 For instance, Palermo’s Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana, the direct heir of that of the Jesuit college, has a small number of manuscripts considering the college’s long history and importance. The same holds true for those in Messina, Bari and other towns in which important colleges existed. The most notable exception is Naples, where the Biblioteca Nazionale has an important collection of manuscripts of Jesuit provenance; here also, however, letters are relatively rare.
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that of Parma, largely preserved in the town’s Archivio di Stato, has been little searched in this connection. Owing to the intricate political divisions of the two provinces at that time, however, there are many possible locations of archival documents and private letters and papers (some in modern Jesuit residences, some in local — and perhaps even private — libraries and archives).131 Thus, as for southern Italy, there is scope for well-focused research. Portugal. For reasons mentioned already, this is perhaps the least encouraging case. However, aside from some possibilities offered by the large collections and archives in Lisbon, Coimbra and Évora, little search concerning 16th–18th century Jesuit scientific history has been made in those of Porto, Braga, or Setúbal. Moreover, the Society’s presence in the country’s life was such that even minor documental deposits in small towns could offer surprises. A general census of Portugal’s public and private collections with more or less direct Jesuit connections is still lacking, however, and this is a necessary precondition. Spain. As a rule, before leaving Europe a non-Portuguese missionary would pass from the Order’s province he belonged to that of Portugal. Since this also happened for the (few) Spanish missionaries to Japan and China, they did not maintain formal relations with the Spanish provinces of the Order. Hence, not much is to be expected from a search in the official files of Jesuit houses and colleges in Spain. However, after the Dutch takeover of Malacca, Macao’s Jesuits also used the way via Manila (that is, the Spanish route from the Philippines to Acapulco, Vera Cruz, Cuba and Europe). The documents which travelled along this route would usually reach Lisbon via a number of Jesuit houses in Spanish ports in the Pacific and Atlantic until Seville, and in those cases they would occasionally have been read and copied.132 Moreover, the formal division of the provinces had no bearing on private documents: Spaniards such as Pantoja and Gomez could correspond with some countrymen and, particularly in the years in which the two crowns were united (1580–1640), copies of documents could be made in Portugal and circulate in Spain. Even large collections of them — both originals and copies — found their way to libraries and archives mainly in Madrid, but also in other, and sometimes minor, 131
To mention just one relevant case, a significant part of the archive of the noviciate of the Venetian province in Novellara, important because many of the better Italian Jesuit scientists (Riccioli among them) entered the Society there, is preserved in the state archive in Modena. The reasons for this are unknown: Novellara was not in the duchy of Modena, and today does not belong to its province. 132 A case in point is the collection “Jesuitas, Tomos” in the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid, which is central to Macao’s history, and seems to have been originated in Seville: see Schutte, “Die Wiederentdeckung des Makao-Archivs”.
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towns.133 Thus, again, a census of public and private “Jesuit” collections is a necessary precondition. The German Empire and Poland. Except for Boym and Smogulecki excepted, all non-Iberian and non-Italian missionary-mathematicians originated from Imperial territories: Baden–Württemberg (Schreck), Nordrhein–Westfalen (Schall), Moravia (Kirwitzer). These territories belonged to the Jesuit provinces named Germania superior (roughly, Baden–Württemberg and Bavaria), Rhenana superior (territories along the middle part of the right bank of the Rhine) and Austria (Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, part of Hungary, Slovenia, and a small portion of north–east Italy and Trieste). In what is now Germany and the Czech Republic, during the Thirty Years War the Protestant armies (especially the Swedish) largely destroyed the Society’s establishments, their archives and libraries, but also took away manuscripts and printed books, which are found today as far north as Uppsala. Bavaria and Austria were less affected by this, and so parts of the manuscript collections of important colleges like Munich, Ingolstadt, Vienna, Graz (and — partially — Prague) survive: recent research on them has provided papers and letters by such Jesuit scientists as C. Scheiner, P. Guldin, J. Lanz, J.B. Cysat and others.134 The fact that Schall’s home town, Cologne, and generally the Rhine province were more affected by destruction explains why, although there has been more biographical research on him than on most of the other scientist-missionaries, nothing significant has emerged documenting any scientific connection of his in Germany. As for Boym and Smogulecki, most Jesuit establishments in the Polish kingdom (Braniewo, Wilno/Vilnius, Kalisz, Lwów and Cracow, where he studied) were also damaged and looted in the Thirty Years and the two North Wars; so some of their documents and books was destroyed, and others were taken away. In addition — something that also applies to colleges in the present-day Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Transylvania — political events in the 20th century have hindered the scientific description of Jesuit collections, and in many cases knowledge of their very existence. Things are now changing rapidly;135 however, this is the area that perhaps requires most time and work before planned research becomes possible. 133
The geography of Jesuit establishments in Spain partially reflected the situation pre-Philip II: for instance, the centre of the province of Castile was Toledo, not Madrid. So the location of the main repositories of primary documents does not necessarily conform to present-day cultural geography. 134 In Vienna alone, the Handschriftensammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek has hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Jesuit manuscripts, in addition to materials in the University Library (which has inherited that of the Jesuit college). 135 The Provincial Library, a section of the Cracow college’s general library, is presently assembling old Polish Jesuit printed and manuscript works.
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6. A Brief Conclusion The Jesuits’ action soon extended to the whole planet, and so did their establishments; as the above shows, even the documents on their presence in a small town — to be sure, a logistically crucial one — must be pursued on an almost planetary scale.136 In recent decades studies on the Society’s role in the intellectual encounter between Europe and East Asia have shifted their focus, from describing a West–East transmission to describing an interplay, in which Asia was also active.137 Another necessary change, however, seems to happen more slowly. Whatever the Jesuits’ intellectual role in Asia was, it has been — and still is — studied by examining the works of individual missionaries, in an increasingly complete and detailed way. To put it differently, the historiographical unit on which studies have mainly focused is the single author, observed during his life and through the contents of his works. Obviously, no one would deny that the network of Asian Jesuit missions was such that the condition and working of its basic “junctions” could affect those of the others, not only in organisational and religious matters, but also in the production and transmission of intellectual contents. In fact, however, such junctions (the system’s crucial establishments) are rarely studied as primary objects in themselves (the many studies on Jesuits in Goa have not yet produced an all-round history of the college of São Paulo, and this essay shows that this is even more true for Macao). This is understandable when such great figures as Ricci or Aleni are considered, because in their cases person and institution virtually coincided, so that their scientific work was largely an individual enterprise. However, the institutions soon acquired a relative stability, so that their logic and the nature of the duties they imposed on individuals made a collective 136
Since the Jesuits also used the VOC’s communication system, a systematic search should also consider the Netherlands, northern Germany and, perhaps above all, the Society’s libraries and the collections of Jesuit documents in Belgium (the houses and colleges of the Belgian province would have been an obvious intermediate stop for documents sent to places in Catholic Europe); those in Louvain/Heverlée, Liège and the Bibliothèque Royal in Brussels have been examined — as far as Asian missions are concerned — mainly by students of F. Verbiest: cf., for instance, the detailed picture of manuscripts — both in Europe and outside — concerning his astronomical work in Noël Golvers, Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J., (1623–1688) and the Chinese Heaven, Leuven 2003 (especially ch. 9, “Verbiest’s Astronomica in Europe. Outline of a description of their circulation and reception”, which provides a fine chrono-geography showing nearly all the possible circulation routes listed so far). To cite just one example, a letter by Smogulecki (Batavia, Jan. 2, 1645) is in the Bibliothèque de Bourgogne, Brussels, ms. 4169 (Sommervogel, Bibliothèque, VII, ca. 1328, A). Moreover, unlikely as it may seem, since the Manila route was also used, the same applies to the Philippines and Latin America, even though the libraries and archives in these areas have never been considered sources on Macao as an intellectual (as distinct from religious, political or economic/financial) centre. 137 See, for instance, the introduction to N. Standaert’s Handbook.
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mechanism (in the case of the Beijing mission, not only that of the Society, but also that of the court, which was at least as dominating) able to affect events, both positively and negatively. In any case, they were supports not only in a material sense, but also spiritually and culturally (they provided books and instruments as well as information, and integrated the knowledge obtained by individuals into a shared experience). How is this kind of historiographical shift linked to the search for documents of “missionary mathematics” in Macao (or anywhere else in Asia)? A Jesuit scientist was not (and is not entirely still today) simply a scientist who was also a cleric: he (and his work) “belonged” to his Society in a sense and to an extent in which no modern scientist, or his research, “belongs” to the institution he works in. This was decisive in many aspects; as for what matters here, it meant that whatever he produced or wrote was not entirely personal property; he could not decide to publish it without permission; such permission was granted not only (and not mainly) on the ground of the work’s value in an internal sense; after his death his papers became entirely the property of the Society, which could decide — and in perhaps a majority of cases did decide — to destroy them. Obviously, a space for private relations and correspondence existed, but both were filtered and — a paramount factor here — in the overseas missions any writing was transmitted along the Order’s communication network: usually, only in the last part of its journey did a Jesuit’s message go outside the network to reach a private address, if this was where no Jesuit establishment existed. As pointed out above, both the documents produced directly by the institutions (catalogues, reports, teaching programmes, theses, copies of lessons, etc.) and their archives and libraries were largely lost, so that their role as cultural “junctions” must be reconstructed mostly through the private testimonies of those who worked within them or saw them working. Most of them, however, were still Jesuits; so their testimonies (letters, reports, memoirs) must be sought at the connections of the network’s strands, or at their final points. Therefore, a knowledge of the network’s minute structure, particularly in its peripheral parts (that is, a map of the repositories to which Jesuit documents of a certain area — say that of Bavarian colleges — have “flowed” during time) will soon become a necessary preliminary stage for any oriented research.
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THE TRANSMISSION OF WESTERN COSMOLOGY TO 16th CENTURY JAPAN HIRAOKA RYUJI Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture 1-1-1 Tateyama, Nagasaki, 850-0007, Japan
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(A brief discussion on the celestial and terrestial worlds) (A discussion on the heavens and the earth with critical
(A discussion by “Southern Barbarians” on yun-qi) (Compendium for astronomy)
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(1) Nigi ryakusetsu (2) Kenkon bensetsu commentaries) (3) Nanban unkiron (4) Tenmon biyô
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Among the products of Jesuit missionary activities during the “the Christian century” in Japan (1549–1650), a latin treatise called De sphaera deserves special attention. Sources show that it was composed by a Spanish Jesuit Pedro Gomez (1533–1600) in 1593, and used as a textbook by Japanese and European students preparing for the priesthood at Jesuit colleges in Japan. This textbook played a significant role in the introduction of European cosmology into Japan, as it was the origin, or at least one of the sources, of several Japanese books, all of which were composed around the mid-seventeenth century. These books were similar in content, but differed in title and some other peculiars. They include:
They occupy a place of special significance, since they were the first full-scale presentation of Western physical sciences in Japan. This paper does not aim to describe the relationship between these works, nor the intellectual impact which they had upon the history of Japanese cosmology. This has been done many times, mainly by Japanese scholars,1 though much still remains to be investigated. Rather, the focus here is on (1) the content and characteristics of De sphaera, and (2) how many manuscripts of the Japanese works exist today. Strange as it may seem, these aspects have received little meticulous consideration, with the result that the historical and textual background of each work has often been understood and described in rather vague terms. Obviously, what follows is more of an introduction than an exhaustive account of the results of my research.
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Nakayama Shigeru, A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1969, pp. 79–115; Yoshida Tadashi, “A Japanese Reaction to Aristotelian Cosmology” in Luis Saraiva (ed.), History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia II, Scientific Practices and the Portuguese Expansion in Asia (1498–1759), Singapore, World Scientific, 2004, pp. 153–164. For more complete information about the preceding scholarly studies, see Hiraoka Ryuji , “Kenkon bensetsu shoshahon no kenkyû (On the Manuscripts of Kenkon Bensetsu)”, Nagasaki rekishi bunka hakubutsukan kenkyû kiyô (Bulletin of Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture) 1, 2006, pp. 51–63.
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1. The Content and Characteristics of De sphaera 1.1. General background
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While firmly rooted in Western intellectual tradition, De sphaera was a product of specific historical circumstances. Following the decision of the consultations summoned by Alessandro Valignano (1538–1606), the college of S. Paul was founded in Funai (Oita ) in October 1580. When the philosophy course officially began at the college in 1583, Gomez, who had just arrived in Japan, was requested to write a textbook for the students, probably on account of his previous experience of teaching at the Jesuit college in Coimbra. Sometime between August and October 1593, his long-awaited textbook was finally completed. According to the single extant manuscript in the Vatican Library (Fig.1), it forms a tripartite compendium: the first part is called De sphaera (the original text has no title) in which Aristotelian–Ptolemaic cosmology is discussed; the second is De anima in which Aristotelian philosophy on the soul is explained; the third discusses post-Tridentine Roman Catholic theology.2
Figure 1. The Vatican manuscript of De sphaera. 2
A facsimile edition of the compendium is now available. See Kirishitan Bunko Library, Sophia University (ed.), Compendium catholicae veritatis III, vol. I: Compendia compiled by Pedro Gomez, Jesuit College of Japan, Tokyo, Ozorasha, 1997.
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That the compendium was actually being used straight after completion is confirmed by many sources. In a letter to the Superior General of the Jesuits dated 6th March 1594, a Japanese student Itô Mancio ( , 1569–1612), who had been one of the envoys to Europe, speaks of a “kind of course or compendium of theology... composed by the Vice-Provincial [i.e. Gomez] in a clear and intelligible style”.3 Writing sometime during the second half of the same year, the Portuguese Jesuit Luis Frois (1532–1597) speaks of the compendium as follows: “In a few months, after they [the Japanese Brothers] have finished their studies, they will leave for the various residences, and the others who are in the houses will be sent to the college to listen to the main sections of this compendium translated into their language, as none of them knows Latin.” 4
As Frois mentions clearly here, the compendium had been translated into Japanese and was already in use by the beginning of 1595. Althought missing for a long time, a Japanese version was found in 1995 at Magdalen College, Oxford, in manuscript form.5 It is greatly to be regretted, however, that the manuscript lacks the De sphaera, containing only Parts 2 and 3. We cannot establish with certainty for how long thereafter the compendium continued to be used as a textbook. It is known, however, from contemporary letters and the Litterae Annuae Iaponiae that it was used in Japan at least until 1621 under the persecution.6 1.2. Content and characteristics According to the Vatican manuscript, De sphaera is divided into two main parts: Part One (fol. 1–20) discusses the celestial world, and Part Two (fol. 20–38) the sublunary world.
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See Obara Satoru , “Kirishitan jidai no kagaku shisô: Pedro Gomez cho ‘Tenkyûron’ no kenkyû (Scientific knowledge in the Christian era: a study on De sphaera by Pedro Gomez)”, Kirishitan kenkyû (Researches on early Japanese Christianity) 10, 1965, p. 131; Üçerler, M. Antoni J., “Jesuit Humanist Education in Sixteenth-Century Japan: The Latin and Japanese MSS of Pedro Gomez’s ‘Compendia’ on Astronomy, Philosophy, and Theology (1593–95)”, in Kirishitan Bunko Library (ed.), Compendium catholicae veritatis III, vol. III: Commentaries, 1997, p. 37. Üçerler, “Jesuit Humanist Education in Sixteenth-Century Japan”, p. 40. A facsimile edition is available in Kirishitan Bunko Library (ed.), Compendium catholicae veritatis III, vol. II: Iezusukai nihon korejiyo no kôgiyôkô (Compendia in Jesuit College of Japan), 1997. Üçerler, “Jesuit Humanist Education in Sixteenth-Century Japan”, p. 48. The name of Compendio do P.e Pedro Gomes can also be seen in the library catalogue of Macao college in 1616. See Takase Koichiro , “Macao korejio no zôsho (Books in Macao College)”, in idem. Kirishitan jidai no bunka to shosô (Culture and Some Aspects in the Christian century), Tokyo, Yagi shoten, 2001, pp. 505–543. ン
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The order of chapters in Part One7 resembles that of the Libellus de Sphaera of Joannes de Sacrobosco (?–1256 [1244?]), but several distinctive features can be noted as shown below. As for Part Two, its subject matter largely coincides with those seen in the Renaissance Latin traditions of De caelo et mundo, Meteorologica and De generatione et corruptione. (A) Clavius’ commentary as one of the sources
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Part One of De sphaera contains several texts suggesting that the author had consulted Clavius’ In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius, as Imai Itaru rightly claimed.8 • Dividing the earth into 23 clima There are many ways of determining the clima or climata, a zone or region of the earth lying in the same latitude, in the Western tradition of astronomy and geography. Whereas most treatises written around the late sixteenth century in Europe adopt a 7 clima system, following the tradition of Sacrobosco’s Libellus de Sphaera, both Gomez and Clavius have one distinctive feature in common, namely that they divide a hemisphere into 23 clima. Gomez explains: “[...] as we have said that the same longest day, for example, June 22nd, would have more or less hours depending on whether some region is nearer to or further from the pole, they [astronomers] conclude that different clima of regions should be so assigned that the space, in which the longest day exceeds the length of the day observed in other regions by half an hour, would constitute one clima.” 9
Having thus defined the notion of clima, the author continues to explain that: “Therefore those people divide the earth into 23 clima, counting from the places which have the latitude of 12 degrees and 43 minutes to that part of 66 and a half degrees or more. [...] Thus, for example, the first clima is from 12 degrees and 43 minutes to 20 and a half degrees and has 7 degrees and 50 minutes in itself, whereas the 14th clima has only 1 degree and 1 minute, as can be seen in the table of the clima.” 10 7
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For an English translation of Part One with the original Latin text, see Hiraoka Ryuji, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook in ‘the Christian century’ Japan: De sphaera of Pedro Gomez (Part I)”, Sciamvs 6, 2005, pp. 99–175. 8 My discussion below owes much to his seldom quoted papers: Imai Itaru, “Nigi ryakusetsu no ‘Jisatai (On the tabula climatum in Nigi no nikki’ ni tsuite ryakusetsu)”, Nihon tenmon kenkyûkai hôbun (Memoirs of the Japan Astronomical Study Association), vol. 2, no. 1, 1958, pp. 9–16; Imai Itaru, “Gomez no tenkyûron to Clavius Gomez Clavius (Gomez’s De sphaera and Clavius)”, idem, vol. 3, no. 3, 1968, pp. 13–18. 9 Hiraoka, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook”, p. 157. Upon quoting the passage here, minor grammatical modifications were made. 10 ibid.
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Although the Vatican manuscript lacks the table, we can reproduce it from above texts along with other information found in the same chapter11. In Table 1, I juxtapose the reproduced table (left) with Clavius’ “Table of climata according to Moderns” in In sphaeram12 (right). We find a striking similarity between these two tables.
Table 1. 23 clima in De sphaera (reproduced) and In sphaeram (some columns abridged).
Gomez’s De sphaera
Clavius’ In sphaeram
longest day
latitude
interval
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D
M
start 1 middle end
12 13 13
45 0 15
12
43 7
50
start 3 middle end
13 14 14
45 0 15
start 4 middle end
14 14 14
15 30 45
start 14 middle end
19 19 19
15 30 45
start 22 middle end
23 23 23
15 30 45
66
23
24
0
66
clima
11
longest day
latitude
interval
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M
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M
D
M
start 1 middle end
12 13 13
45 0 15
12 16 20
43 43 33
7
50
ca. 31
start 3 middle end
13 14 14
45 0 15
27 30 33
36 47 45
6
9
36
start 4 middle end
14 14 14
15 30 45
33 36 39
45 30 2
5
17
start 14 middle end
19 19 19
15 30 45
61 62 62
53 25 54
1
1
23 23 23
15 30 45
66 66 66
25 28 30
0
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30
start 22 middle end
30
23
24
0
66
31
0
0
20
30
30
1
1
clima
Hiraoka, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook”, p. 145, “For example, for those for whom the height of the pole is nearly 31 degrees, the longest day will be July 22nd having 14 hours; but for those for whom the height of the pole is 36 and a half degrees high, the same will be 14 and a half hours, etc. But for the former, the shortest day will be 10 hours, and the latter 9 and a half hours.” 12 “Tabula climatum secundum recentiores”, in Christoph Clavius, In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius, Lyon, Fratrum de Gabiano, 1593, pp. 496–497.
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• Coincidence of false information about the total eclipse of the sun in 1559 In chapter 5, section 2, “On the orbs of the planets”, Gomez says: “[...] it has been noticed by experience that the solar and lunar eclipses are unequal very often: for example, the total body of the moon is interposed between the sun and us and it eclipses the whole sun, so that none of its part could be seen and the eclipse continues just a little time, as happened in 1559. Sometimes the total body of the moon interposed cannot eclipse the whole sun, but some crown of light can be seen at the periphery [...]”.13
Gomez here mentions the total solar eclipse that happened in 1559. According to Oppolzer’s Canon of Eclipses, however, the three solar eclipses which happened during this same year were all partial and unobservable in Europe: 1559
III IX X
9d 1d 1d
5h 20h 4h
6.0m 0.1m 56.9m
partial partial partial14
Interestingly, Clavius also mentions in his earlier editions of In sphaeram that he observed a total solar eclipse in Coimbra in 1559: “I will read out two impressive solar eclipses, which happened in our time not long ago, one of which I observed in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1559 around midday, during which the moon was interposed directly between the eye and the sun, so that the total body of the sun was concealed for not a slight interval of time, and it was a bit darker than the night.” 15
Around this period, there was no total solar eclipse visible in Coimbra around midday other than the one on 21st August 1560: Conjunction Maximum at Meridian
12h W1o
23.5m N36 o 16
Thus, we can surely assume that Clavius was mistaken in saying that the year was “1559”. Later, however, he became aware of this mistake, for the year is 13
Hiraoka, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook”, p. 169. Oppolzer, Theodor, Canon of Eclipses: Canon der Finsternisse, trans. by Owen Gingerich, New York, Dover, 1962, pp. 264–265. 15 “recitabo duas insignes Eclipses Solis, quae meo tempore contigerunt non ita pridem, quarum unam anno 1559. Conimbricae in Lusitania circa meridiem observavi, in qua interponebatur Luna directe inter visum, ac Solem, ita ut totum Solem non modico temporis intervallo contegeret, essentque tenebrae quodammodo maiores, quam nocturnae.” I had the opportunity to peruse the following editions that contain the above text: Lyon,1593, p. 508; Lyon, 1602, p. 508; Venezia, 1603, p. 441. 16 Oppolzer, Canon of Eclipses, pp. 264–265. 14
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corrected to “1560” in the 1611 Mainz edition17. In any case, this coincidence of the error and other evidence indicate that Gomez had consulted an earlier version of Clavius’ In sphaeram. (B) Supposed readers and their location In Part One of De sphaera, one astronomical table is inserted between folio 6 and 7.18 Each column of this table describes, as to the 1st, 10th and 20th day of each month, (1) the length of day time, (2) the time of sunrise, (3) the time of sunset, (4) the length of night time and (5) entrance of the sun into the twelve zodiacal signs (Fig.2).
Figure 2. Astronomical table, inserted between folio 6 and 7 of De sphaera.
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Christoph Clavius, In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius: Mit einem Vorwort herausgegeben von Eberhard Knobloch, Hildesheim and Zürich and New York, Olms–Weidmann, 1999 (reprint of Mainz, 1611 edition), p. 295. 18 Kirishitan Bunko Library, Compendium catholicae veritatis III, vol. I, fol. 6–7.
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The longest day in the table is on 20th June, around the summer solstice, and its value is 14 hours and 15 minutes. If we compare this value with that seen in Clavius’ “Table of climata according to Moderns” mentioned above, we find the region in question is around 33 degrees and 45 minutes north. This indicates that the table was made for use in that latitude. This does not correspond to any location in Europe, but this parallel passes through or near, for example, Casablanca, Baghdad, Xi’an (China) and Fukuoka (Northern Kyûshû Island, Japan). At all events, it is very likely that this table was made for use in Funai or Nagasaki . If we look for other information which relates to the place of the composition or use of De sphaera, Gomez says in chapter 5, section 3, “How solar and lunar eclipses happen” that: “[...] from the eclipses, especially those of the moon, it is easy to get to know the distance of the regions from east to west of those who are within the same degree. Because, if, for example, we see the moon begins to be eclipsed at the point of midnight, yet for those who are in India or any other region [the same eclipse does not begin] until 7 PM, the distance from that province to us will be 75 degrees, for, as we have said, when 15 degrees rise above the horizon, then it is said that one hour has passed. When the distance from that province to us is 5 hours, when these are multiplicated by 15 degrees, they come to 75 degrees, and so on for the rest.” 19
In the above text, “we” are positioned 75 degrees east of India, roughly matching Japan. This is how Giulio Aleni (1582–1649) in Macao, Sabatino de Ursis (1575–1620) in Beijing and Carlo Spinola (1564–1622) in Nagasaki calculated the longitudinal interval of these places on 8th November 1612.20 2. The Extant Manuscripts of Japanese Books As stated above, there remain today four Japanese books derived from Gomez’s De sphaera. It has been believed that these works were never widely circulated and that “it is very likely that the persecution of Christianity prevented their diffusion. Even to discuss them openly was to court trouble”.21 However, my own research on the manuscripts of (1) Nigi ryakusetsu, (2) Kenkon bensetsu and (3) Nanban unkiron shows that the circulation of these works was certainly wider than has previously been believed.22 19
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葉
千
館
物
博
俗
民
史
歴
立
国
科
一
眞
矢
大
Hiraoka, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook”, p. 173. Upon quoting the passage here, minor grammatical modifications were made. 20 Cordier, Henri (ed.), De la situation du Japon et de la Corée: manuscrit inédit du Père A. Gaubil S.J., (Extrait du T’oung-pao 9, no. 2), Leiden, E.J.Brill, 1898, pp. 3–4. 21 Nakayama, A History of Japanese Astronomy, p. 100. 22 For Tenmon biyô, see Ohya Shin’ichi , “Kenkon bensetsu no ihon (A variant manuscript of Kenkon bensetsu)”, Kagakushi kenkyû (Journal of History of Science, Japan) 17, 1951, pp.25–28. The single extant copy is now preserved in National Museum of Japanese History , Chiba (Akioka Collection 5–55).
89
The transmission of Western cosmology to 16th century Japan
2.1. Nigi Ryakusetsu
Figure 3. Inagaki MS of Nigi ryakusetsu.
貞
謙
林
京
東
庫
文
閣
重
三
館
書
図
市
津
庫
文
垣
稲
隆
一
野
海
内
伝
民
先
小
Nigi ryakusetsu is a Japanese translation of De sphaera, though Christian tenets in the original have been entirely removed.23 Two extant copies of this work have the same colophon saying that it was composed by the Japanese astronomer, Kobayashi Kentei (1601–1683). According to the Senmin den (Biographies of the [Nagasaki] pioneers, 1819), Kobayashi was imprisoned when his teacher was executed on suspicion of being a Christian in 1646, and finally set free in 1667 when he was sixty-seven years old. Since the Nigi ryakusetsu has long been known only from the copy pre, Tokyo ,24 the influence of served in the Naikaku Bunko Library this work was thought negligible in the Edo period. However, Unno Kazutaka analysed the colophons attached to a newly found copy in the Inagaki Bunko Collection in Tsu City Library , Mie (Fig.3), and concluded that Nigi ryakusetsu was a focus of interest for scholars throughout the period.25 Recently, I have found some new sources that throw additional light on how it was transmitted. 23
て
し
関
に
節
敬
塚
大
説
綱
要
義
講
の
ヨ
ジ
レ
コ
本
日
会
ス
ズ
エ
イ
布
流
の
』
説
略
儀
二
『
る
略
儀
二
貞
と
茂
山
中
謙
林
小
下
・
想
思
学
科
世
近
け
お
に
代
時
戸
説
略
儀
二
：
て
い
つ
に
立
成
統
学
の
雄
告
派
秀
学
報
瀬
天
究
長
崎
研
会
究
研
料
江
資
学
蘭
旧
広
Hirose Hideo , “Kyû Nagasaki tengakuha no gakutô seiritsu ni tsuite: I Nigi ryakusetsu ni kanshite I (On the formation of the old Nagasaki school of astronomy: I Nigi ryakusetsu)”, Rangaku shiryô kenkyûkai kenkyû hôkoku (Reports of the Society of Dutch sources in Japan) 184, 1966, pp. 1–12; idem, “Kobayashi Kentei to Nigi ryakusetsu (Kobayashi Kentei and the Nigi ryakusetsu)”, in Hirose Hideo, Nakayama Shigeru and Otsuka Yoshinori (eds.), , Tokyo, Iwanami shoten, 1971, pp. 465–70. Kinsei kagaku shisô II 24 For the facsimile reprint, see Kirishitan Bunko Library (ed.), Compendium catholicae veritatis III, vol. II: Iezusukai Nippon korejiyo no kôgi yôkô (Compendia of the Jesuit College of Japan). 25 Inagaki Bunko Collection, 44–186~188, 3 vols. See Unno Kazutaka, “Edo jidai ni okeru ‘Nigi ryakusetsu’ no rufu (The circulation of the Nigi-Ryakusetsu (Outline of the Heaven and Earth) through the Edo period)”, Kagakuhsi kenkyû (Journal of History of Science,
90
HIRAOKA Ryuji
崎
長
館
書
留
書
図
方
早
文
諫
立
市
早
談
見
暦
如
童
川
西
教
諫
天
A manuscript titled Tenmongata kakitome (Astronomer’s Note) , Nagasaki is now preserved in Isahaya City Library (Fig.4). This manuscript is a compilation of 83 short passages concerning astronomical or geographical knowledge. Except for the text that is an “excerpt from Kyôdô rekidan (A discussion about calendar for children, 1714) by Nishikawa Joken (1648–1724)”, all the passages lack information about the sources from which they are compiled, but textual comparison clearly reveals that about a half of them (41 passages) are from Nigi ryakusetsu (Table 2). Table 2. Textual comparison between Tenmongata kakitome and Nigi ryakusetsu.
栖
各
ノ 也
境
共
國
ニ ノ
丸
半
諸 ノ
則 天
是 ル
ハ ユ
見
線 リ
平
地
。
也
ノ ノ
モ 方 方
ル
ユ
西
陽
東
陰
見 太 太
ハ
分
、
時
ク
同
事
ノ
ノ ノ 、 也
宿 望 刻 是
六 ト
時
朔
星 コ
ル
月
ノ 日 入 ル
次 出
ニ
ハ
二
月
、
テ
有
ニ
時
ノ
ノ
界 碍
故
ル フ
隔
下 ル 成 失
地
ト 下 ト ヲ
大
陽 ヘ
界 間
リ
障
光
ノ
ニ
太
。
ハ
ト 光
下 ノ ニ
ル
己
自
月
別 會 也 コ 日 受 輪
日
差 朔 物 ル 故 ヲ 日
ハ
ト 光 ハ
蝕
ル
ス
有
ハ
蝕 日
月
隔
食
ニ
食
月 日 向 日 陰 、 輪
月
リ
太
、
望
、
ト
食
日
、
…
ス
非
者
。
故
成
ニ
者
ハ
者
日 一 二 三 ニ
フ
失
ヲ
光
ノ
己
自
輪
日
ハ
蝕
日 …
ス
、
也
ル
ト
間
ノ 隔 故
碍
界 地 ル
ル
下
ト
下 ナ
ト
ヱ
大
ニ
間 障
界
陽
食
月
、
テ
有
ニ
別
事 時
ノ 。 ハ
太 下 ノ
月
ニ
ル
光
差 會 也 事 日 受
日
ノ 朔 物 ル ハ ヲ
故
ト ハ 在 ス 蝕 光
ル
蝕 蝕 ニ 蝕 月 日
隔
月 日 向 日 陰 、 輪
ト 、 望 、 太 リ 月
蝕 者 ハ 者 ニ 成 故 。 者 非
日 一 ニ
三
也
ル
ト
間
二
蝕
、
一
、
一
蝕
(vol. 1, fol. 17r–v)
(fol. 2v–3r)
、
ヲ
境
ニ
十
…
ノ 境
ノ
二
。
也
物 方 方
ル
ユ
西
陽
東
陰
見 太 太
ハ
分
、
時
ク
同
ノ ノ 、 リ
宿 望 刻 ナ
六 相 時 是
星 月 ル 事
ノ 日 入 ル
次 ハ ニ 出
二 ニ 境 ヲ
十 二 ノ 境
、
一
ヨ
…
処
栖
ノ
各
ニ
リ
ナ
モ 境
國
ト ノ
丸
諸 半
是
ハ
ト
則 ノ
天
ル
平
地
線 リ
ヨ
、
一
處
見
(vol. 1, fol. 15v)
(fol. 2r)
一
ト
Nigi ryakusetsu (Inagaki MS)
Tenmongata kakitome
(vol. 2, fol. 7v)
(fol. 14v–15r)
永
良
木
本
学
蘭
Moreover, the other passages in Tenmongata kakitome contain much information relating to Rangaku (Dutch studies), such as Latin and Dutch texts with Japanese explanations. Textual comparison reveals that some of them are taken from the work of Motoki Ryôei (1735–1794), a famous Nagasaki
篇
本
日
・
究
研
史
学
理
地
洋
東
Japan) Series II, 38, 1999, pp. 93–98. This paper is recently reprinted with addendum in idem, Tôyô chirigakushi kenkyû, nihon hen (Monographs on the history of geography in the East, volume on Japan), Osaka, Seibundo Publishing, 2005, pp. 48–61.
91
The transmission of Western cosmology to 16th century Japan
Figure 4. Tenmongata kakitome (Isahaya City Library, Isahaya Collection 15-1).
解
和
圭
月
日
interpreter of Dutch. Let us compare the passages with those seen in Ryôei’s Nichigetsukei wage (Translation about the sundial and moondial)26 (Table 3). Table 3. Textual comparison between Tenmongata kakitome and Nichigetsukei wage.
ニ
。
此
リ
。
ナ
語
云
ト
フ
印
的
刺
ハ
ル
記
ト
テ
ジ
通
ニ
陀
蘭
T’zaamen voeging
ス
譯
ト
阿 會
(fol. 27v)
朔
z saamen voeging
テ ス
譯
ト
CONIVNCTIO シ
通
ニ
語
毛
紅
朔
會
Coniunctio
ス
Nichigetsukei wage (Nagasaki MS)
Tenmongata kakitome
(fol. 11r) 印
的
刺
ハ
ル
有
ト
ス
譯
ト
數
日
之
次
月
テ
ニ
此
シ
。
通
ニ
フ
陀
云
蘭
ス
譯
ト
數
ト
阿
。
リ
ナ
語
ン タ 日
イ ン 之
テ ラ
ヲ
次
月
ラ
numeris dies mensium NVMERIS DIES MENSIVM de getal van de dagen de getal van de daagen [d]er maanden der maanden
(fol. 27v)
(fol. 12r)
、
ル
ニ
得
此
見
フ
。
ヲ
數
云
色
金
ニ
并
字
文
之
日
陽
太
ハ
ニ
上 ス
此
盤 譯
色
金
ニ
并
字
ト
(fol. 28r)
(fol. 20r–v)
館
物
博
化
文
史
歴
崎
The autographed draft by Ryôei is now preserved in Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture , 440–4.
長
26
文
之
日 ス
陽 譯
太 ト
ハ ル
ニ 得
上 見
盤 ヲ
數
此
ト
テ
ジ
通
ニ
陀
語 蘭
印 阿
刺
的 語
此
ン タ
イ ン
テ ラ
ヲ
ラ
in hac tabula invenitur[sic] IN HAC TABVLA INVENITVR[sic] LITERA DOMINICA ET AVRVM NVMERVS litera dominica et aurum numerus in dit tafel vinden de in dit tafel vinden de zondags letters en gulden getallen zondags letters en gulden getallen
92
HIRAOKA Ryuji
法
量
測
毛
紅
These facts imply that the compiler had something to do with Rangaku, though we have had no concrete evidence to show that Nigi ryakusetsu was circulated among those who played an important role in the field. Nonetheless, an anonymous work Kômô sokuryô hô (Dutch surveying method) has one citation from Nigi ryakusetsu.27 2.2. Kenkon Bensetsu
重
政
守
後
筑
拙
上
草
井
所
行
奉
崎
27
述
正
庄
斐
甲
衛
兵
吉
暦
明
西
長
庵
忠
野
澤
盧
升
元
井
向
As for the formation of Kenkon bensetsu, we have two documents that are quite contrary to each other in their statements. The first is the preface attached to Kenkon bensetsu by Mukai Genshô (1609–77), a Medico-Confucian (1675–1729), scholar in Nagasaki, and the second is a letter of Ro Sôsetsu a Nagasaki interpreter of Chinese. According to Genshô’s preface, the origin of Kenkon bensetsu is explained as follows. A Portuguese Jesuit Christovão Ferreira (1580–1650)28 who had long been engaged in missionary activitiy under persecution was finally caught and became an apostate and naturalized, taking a new Japanese name Sawano Chûan . He was ordered by Inoue Chikugonokami Masashige (1585–1661), Inspector General against the Pagans, to translate into Japanese a Western astronomy book, which had been confiscated from a Christian father caught in 1643. Chûan (Ferreira) wrote the text of the translation in Roman alphabet, because he could not write Japanese well, though he was able to speak (The Nagasaki and read. Under the command of Nagasaki bugyôsho Magistrate’s Office), the manuscript was kept in the custody of the house of Nishi Kichibei (or Kichibyôe) , a Nagasaki interpreter of Portuguese, not to be seen by anybody. Later in the winter of the 2nd year of the Meireki era (1656), the Nagasaki Magistrate Kainoshô Masanobu ordered Genshô and Kichibei to turn the Chûan manuscript into a Japanese book. While Kichibei read the text in Roman alphabet, Genshô wrote it down into Japanese characters. Genshô also attached his critical comments on the Western cosmological ideas put forward by Chûan, and thus Kenkon bensetsu was completed.29 庫
文
説
弁
坤
館
乾
書
図
属
附
学
大
信
通
気
書
図
電
書
叢
流
源
明
属
附
学
館
器
量
測
文
西
泰
大
北
東
林
Kômô sokuryô hô, fol. 15v–16r (Hayashi Bunko Collection 2611, Tôhoku University Library ). There is another manuscript copy of this book with a different title: (Western instrument of surveying), fol. 15v–16r (The University of Taisei sokuryô ki Electro-Communications Library , Tokyo, 442-Ta24). 28 For Ferreira, see Cieslik, Hubert, “The Case of Christovão Ferreira”, Monumenta Nipponica 29, 1974, pp. 1–54. 29 For the original text of Genshô’s preface, see Kenkon bensetsu in Kokusho Kankôkai (ed.), Bunmei genryû sôsho (Series on the origins of civilization) vol. 2, Tokyo, 1914, pp. 1–100, esp. pp. 1–2.
93
The transmission of Western cosmology to 16th century Japan
拙
草
蔵
軍
辺
渡
盧
The report of Ro Sôsetsu about the origin of Kenkon bensetsu is considerably different from Genshô’s explanation. In a private letter to Watanabe Gunzô in 1726, he says that:
戸
江
吟
書
文
天
寺
源
蔵
平
次
門
衛
成
元
末
右
郷
村
吉
光
松
澤
長
野
淺
鈔
要
通
氣
運
國
三
鈔
文
天
名
假
井
向
“In Nagasaki, we have a book in two volumes called Kana tenmon shô [An extract on astronomy written in kana]. Also entitled Sangoku unki tsûyô shô [A substantial extract on yun-qi theory of three countries], it gives a highly reasonable explanation about astronomy. This book was made when a doctor called Asano Chôtaku came from Edo [Tokyo] and made an agent of foreign origin, Sawano Chûan, write about Western astronomical learning. At that time, a Buddhist monk, Shôgin , the chief priest of Kôgen-ji temple, took dictation of what Chûan said, since Chûan, although well versed in reading Japanese, could not write its characters. This is why the book is also called Kôgen-ji tenmonsho [An astronomy book of Kôgen-ji temple]. I suppose the original autograph by Shôgin must have been preserved at Yoshimura Gôemon’s place. Since Gôemon’s grandfather was a servant of Suetsugu Heizô , Shôgin’s autograph was submitted also to Heizô. It is that book which has been passed down to the present day. Moreover, we have a book of 4 volumes called Kenkon bensetsu which cites this book of 2 volumes in due order and disproves them. This book was edited by Mukai Genshô, the father of Mukai Gensei of our time. Genshô later went to Kyoto to be a celebrated doctor. But his criticism about astronomical issues also includes some that are dubious.” 30
Although we still do not have textual evidence to reconcile these two accounts, there seems to be no doubt that Kenkon bensetsu derived from Chûan’s activity while he was serving as a censorial officer for the Japanese government in Nagasaki and the definitive Japanese text with Genshô’s commentary came into being in the 1650s. The Western astronomy book mentioned above which Chûan is said to have translated has not yet been clearly identified, but many scholars argue that Gomez’s De sphaera was certainly one of the main sources.31 Since 2001, I have been working on a survey of the extant manuscript copies of Kenkon bensetsu that are preserved all over Japan, though yet to be microfilmed for the most part. So far I have investigated 16 copies.32 In Table 4, 30
子
』
代
言
佳
秘
比
量
日
測
『
編
沢
広
井
細
：
介
二
紹
岡
隆
料
書
気
運
蛮
南
説
弁
容
受
の
初
最
の
像
界
世
的
欧
西
る
け
お
に
国
が
わ
：
本
日
郎
と
太
ス
俊
レ
東
テ
ト
ス
リ
学
科
る
け
お
に
明
文
ア
伊
史
平
For the original Japanese text, see Hiraoka Ryuji and Hibi Kayoko , “Shiryô shôkai: Hosoi Kôtaku hen ‘Sokuryô higen’ (The Sokuryo-higen (Private Letters on Surveying) edited by Hosoi Kôtaku)”, Kagakuhsi kenkyû (Journal of History of Science, Japan) Series II, 43, 2004, p. 96. 31 See, for example, Itô Shuntaro , “Arisutoteresu to Nihon: waga kuni ni okeru seiôteki sekaizô no saisho no juyô (Aristotle and Japan: the first reception of European cosmology in Japan)”, in Bunmei ni okeru kagaku (Science in civilization), Tokyo, Sokei shobo, 1976, pp. 168–237. 32 Here, I just describe the name of the library or collection to which each manuscript belongs. Some manuscripts in this list have different titles: Bensetsu nanban unkisho Critical
94
HIRAOKA Ryuji
録
録
目
目
合
総
総
書
籍
典
古
国
the manuscripts which are already presented in the Kokusho sômokuroku (General Catalogue of Japanese books) or Kotenseki sôgo mokuroku (General Catalogue of Japanese Old Books)33 are listed in the left column, while in the right column are those which were not included or were identified as different books in these bibliographies, most of which are identified for the first time here.
録
目
総
書
館
書
図
館
図
属
書
属
館
附
書
館
書
図
科
究
研
学
文
学
大
都
京
本
図
本
B
院
士
文
学
);
庫
文
堂
静
本
)
館
木
桑
);
B 書
図
属
附
嘉
士
学
);
院
学
大
州
九
本
木
Kuwaki MS , Kuwaki-B MS (Kyûshû Univ. Libr. 桑
大
京
本
図
院
本
日
士
学
, Gakushiin-B MS );
(Seikado Bunko Libr.
本
槻
大
Ôtsuki MS
本
文
大
京
LLKU MS , LLKU-B MS B (Library of Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto Univ. Gakushiin MS (Japan Academy
);
);
附
学
図
学
大
大
会
北
国
東
国
立
都
本
図
附
(Kyoto Univ. Libr.
京
本
(Tôhoku Univ. Libr. (National Diet Libr.
本
野 井 大
京
KUL MS
白
Kanô MS Shirai MS
狩
10 copies listed in the General Catalogue of Japanese Books
国
Table 4. Extant manuscript copies of Kenkon bensetsu.
館
物
博
術
美
市
橋
館
書
);
館
料
資
物
宝
);
館
家 書
内
);
台
文
天
立
国
山
図
属
館
物
博
附
佐
土 学
立
大 市
川 戸
神 図
市
津
本
台
文
香
本
内
本
原
);
);
(National Astronomical Observatory
(Tsu City Libr.
本
垣
Inagaki MS
稲
Tenmondai MS
(Kagawa Univ. Libr. (Kôbe City Museum
本
岡
秋
Akioka MS
天
Kanbara MS
神
山
Yamauchi MS (Tosa Yamauchi Family Treasury and Archives
豊
(Toyohashi City Museum of Art
本
内
大
Ôkochi MS
河
6 copies which were omitted from or identified as different books in the General Catalogue
)
書
全
大
四
録
目
録
合
総
目
籍
総
典
書
古
国
版
補
増
館
料
資
究
研
書
店
学
文
波
国
岩
解
弁
汰
沙
文
天
commentaries on the discussion about yun-qi by “Southern Barbarians”), Tenmon sata benkai (Explanations and instructions about astronomy), Sidai zensho (A complete work on the four elements). For details, see Hiraoka (2006). 33 Iwanami shoten (ed.), Zôhoban Kokusho sômokuroku (Revised edition of General catalogue of Japanese books), 9 vols., Tokyo, Iwanami shoten, 1989–1991; Kokubungaku kenkyû shiryôkan (ed.), Kotenseki sôgo mokuroku (General catalogue of Japanese old books), 3 vols., Tokyo, Iwanami shoten, 1990.
95
The transmission of Western cosmology to 16th century Japan
館
物
博
術
美
市
橋
豊
書
文
家
内
河
書
気
運
蛮
文
寛
南
知
説
弁
愛
大
The oldest manuscript copy of Kenkon bensetsu is now preserved in the Ôkochi Collection in Toyohashi City Museum of Art , (Fig.5). Although this copy has a different title, Bensetsu nanban Aichi unki sho (Critical commentaries on the discussion by the “Southern Barbarians” about yun-qi), its text is precisely the same as that of Kenkon bensetsu except that it lacks Genshô’s preface. There survives a bag in which the manuscript has been kept, on which is written a note, “The 10th year of the Kanbun era, 13th day of the 12th month (1671)”, so this copy was produced by that date at least.
Figure 5. Ôkochi MS of Kenkon bensetsu (Bensetsu nanban unki sho, Ôkochi Collection 537–538).
の
原
綱
輝
平
乱
院
光
免
羅
賀
□
都
貞
時
郎
四
This fragment is in a bag titled “Those which also include autographs of Sir Chikoin [i.e. Terutsuna]...”, in the Ôkochi Collection, 885–902.
智
34
草
天
毛
志
知
三
ヲ
滋
斎
道
和
宇
露
島
松
This copy belonged to a feudal lord, Matsudaira Terutsuna (1620–1671) who was once the owner of the library. It is known that he went to fight in the battle against the Christian uprising in Shimabara (1637– 1638), and this experience led him to take an interest in the art of war and eventually to write a book on Dutch firearms. In the Ôkochi Collection there is also a document that suggests that Terutsuna was collecting material about Christianity itself. Among the fragments of writings described by Terutsuna himself, we can see a passage which reads “ ” (Fig.6).34 This is an old Japanese transliteration of classic Portuguese “Lovvado seia o sanctissimo sacramento (Praised be the holy sacrament)” which can also be seen on the battle flag of Amakusa Shirô Tokisada (1621–1638), a young leader of the Shimabara uprising (Fig.7).
Ro
u
wa dou / sei
ji / wo/san chi shi mo / sa
都
免
羅
賀
□
毛
志
知
三
ヲ
滋
斎
道
和
宇
HIRAOKA Ryuji
露
96
ka ra men to
(lower line is my transliteration according to the Hepburn system) Figure 6. Fragments of writings by Terutsuna [above: overall view, below: detail].
本
熊
館
丹
支
切
草
天
立
市
渡
本
Figure 7. Amakusa Shirô’s battle flag (preserved in Hondo City Amakusa Christian Hall , Kumamoto ).
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The transmission of Western cosmology to 16th century Japan
2.3. Nanban Unkiron Nanban unkiron is known as a variant copy of Kenkon bensetsu. Although it completely lacks Genshô’s commentaries as well as his preface, the text clearly resembles Chûan’s text in Kenkon bensetsu, and must be derived from the same original35. So far I have investigated 11 manuscript copies of this treatise (Table 5):36 Table 5. Extant manuscript copies of Nanban unkiron.
); )
館
館
書 図
属
図
館
);
書
院
書 理 附
学
天
図
士
);
属
学
附
属 大
日
本
州
附
学
大
学
東
北
大
天
(Kyûshû Univ. Libr.
九
本
木
B
理
本
院 本
林
(Tôhoku Univ. Libr.
桑
Kuwaki-B MS
(Japan Academy
(Tenri Central Libr.
本
理
天
Hayashi MS Tenri MS
学
Gakushiin MS
士
4 copies listed in the General Catalogue
館
物
博
術
美
市
橋
豊
館
物
);
館
物
博
料
史
館
);
浦
書
博 図
立 立
市
戸
市
神 水
);
);
本
本
(Kyûshû Univ. Libr); (Library of Graduate School of Letter, Kyoto Univ.); )
館
料
資
物
宝
家
内
山
佐
土
本
内
Yamauchi MS (Tosa Yamauchi Family Treasury and Archives 山
松
本
(Matsuura Historical Museum
図
文
沢
本
内 本
河 岡
本
(Mizusawa City Libr.
木
桑
大
LLKU MS
京
Kuwaki MS
松
Matsura MS
(Toyohashi City Museum of Art (Kôbe City Museum
浦
圃
小
Obata MS
秋
Ôkochi MS Akioka MS
大
7 copies omitted from or identified as different books in the General Catalogue
Figure 8 shows how Nanban unkiron was transmitted throughout the Edo period according to the colophons in each manuscript. It is noteworthy that there are several versions of the title attached to each copy. This may have something to do with the banning of Christianity, since the word Nanban (Southern Barbarians) had been associatied with the religion. In any case, the variety of the titles suggests that there may still exist other copies that are 35
書
：
本
異
一
の
説
弁
坤
論
気
運
文
天
地
論
文
天
解
要
文
天
天
論
気
運
蛮
南
乾
See Ohya Shin’ichi, “Kenkon bensetsu no ichi ihon: Nanban unkiron (A variant manuscript of Kenkon bensetsu: Nanban unkiron)”, Kagakushi kenkyû (Journal of History of Science, Japan) 14, 1950, pp. 35–39. 36 Here, I only give the name of the library or collection to which each manuscript belongs. Some manuscripts in this list have different titles: Tenchi ron (On the heavens and the earth), Tenmon yôkai (A brief explanation on astronomy), Tenmon unki ron (A discussion about astronomy and the yun-qi), Tenmonsho (A book on astronomy).
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HIRAOKA Ryuji
actually Nanban unkiron but which have been identified as different works because of their titles.
Figure 8. Transmission of Nanban unkiron according to the colophons.
3. Concluding Remarks Above, I have given examples showing how the early tradition of Jesuit cosmology in Japan originated and was transmitted and preserved. Due to both the lack of sufficient evidence and the complicated nature of bibliographical study, it is still very difficult for us to reach a fundamental reassessment of this process. Nonetheless, I have arrived at the following conclusions: some texts in De sphaera indicate that Gomez had consulted Clavius’ In sphaeram, while others presuppose that readers should be inhabitants of Japan. Whether or not the holders of each manuscript were afraid of being persecuted, we can estimate that the circulation of Japanese works was certainly wider than has previously been believed. The colophons attached to some manuscripts suggest that there were a variety of paths along which they were transmitted by various people in various places — Edo, Tôhoku, Nagasaki, Kyoto and so on. Also, some examples suggest that we need to expand the scope of our survey to the other traditions, such as Dutch studies. Acknowledgment The author is grateful to John Moffett for his help in correcting the English.
THE CONTENTS AND CONTEXT OF MANUEL DIAS’ TIANWENLÜE HENRIQUE LEITÃO History of Sciences Center of the University of Lisbon Campo Grande, Edifício C8, Piso 6, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
1.
略
問
天
Manuel Dias’ (1574–1659) Tianwenlüe (Epitome of Questions on the Heavens, 1615) is a summary of European cosmographical and astronomical knowledge. It is a text in the tradition of commentaries on Sacrobosco’s Sphere but with several important novelties. It is structured as a series of questions and answers, the questions being formulated by a Chinese and the answers given by an European. Also worth noting is the fact that it presents examples and data specifically adapted or calculated for China. But, above all, it is remarkable because it presents for the first time in Chinese a description of Galileo’s telescopic observations. Despite being frequently mentioned by historians of science, this text was never studied in detail and nearly every question related to it — composition, contents, diffusion, reception, etc. — remains to be clarified. In this paper I investigate the background of the composition of this text describing the scientific tradition where it stems from, namely, De sphaera literature in Portugal and in Jesuit schools in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and, more specifically, Jesuit’s presentation of Western science in China. The questions that will be treated here are mostly related to the author of the Tianwenlüe, his biography, his scientific competence and the sources he used to prepare the text. One question of direct relevance to the composition of the Tianwenlüe will be inspected in more detail: the spreading of news related to Galileo’s discoveries among Jesuits in the Portuguese Assistancy. Finally, some words will be said on the impact of the book.
Biographical Data on Manuel Dias, Jr.
1
諾
瑪
陽
The author of the Tianwenlüe, Manuel Dias Jr, (Yang Manuo ) was born in Castelo Branco, a small village in Portugal, in 1574, and entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 2 Feb. 1593.1 From 1596 to 1600 he studied philosoRome, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, [henceforth ARSI] Lus. 44, 78v. Manuel Dias was known with the specification, Junior (Jr.), or the Younger, to distinguish him from his slightly older contemporary Manuel Dias, senior (ca. 1561– 1639). Both of them are frequently referred to as Emmanuel Diaz, but the form Manuel Dias is preferable. Besides the sources identified in the text, information on Manuel Dias Jr. can be collected from: Diogo Barbosa Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana, t. III, pp. 246–247; Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Cultura, vol. 6, cols. 1297–1298; Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, vol. III, pp. 44–45; Louis Pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de l’ancienne mission de Chine, 1552–1773 (Shanghai: Imprimerie des Lazaristes, 1932–34), pp. 106–111; Joseph Dehergne, S.J., Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800 (Rome: Institutum Historicum S.I., 1973), pp. 76–77; 99
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2
3
4 5
州
江
欄
柵
雄
南
北
韶
phy at the Jesuit College in Coimbra and on April 11, 1601 sailed from Lisbon aboard the galleon Santiago.2 He lived for three years in India (from late 1601 to 1604) before sailing to Macao. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that he arrived to Macao in 1604, although several authors suggest the year 1605. He stayed at the Macao College for six years, teaching philosophy and theology, and finally entered China in 1610 (or, according to other authors, in 1611),3 together with the fellow Jesuit Gaspar Ferreira (1571–1649), heading to Shaozhou . Conditions at Shaozhou were then very adverse to the missionaries and they were forced to abandon the place, the Jesuit residence being looted on April 13, 1612. Dias and Ferreira then traveled along the Beijiang river until Nanxiong , near the northern border of Guangdong where they established a new mission on July 31, 1612. In 1613 (since May at the latest) Manuel Dias was in Beijing.4 Two other priests, Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618) and Sabatino de Ursis (1575–1620), were also there. Around this time, Dias prepared the Tianwenlüe helped by some of the best known Chinese converts. It was usual for the Jesuits that were based in Beijing to spend some time at the residence in nearby Zhalan , and it was while he was in Zhalan with another Jesuit (most likely Sabatino de Ursis), that in 1614 Dias finished the Tianwenlüe.5 The book was published in 1615, most likely in Beijing. In the meantime he had been appointed Visitor of the Chinese mission (late in 1614). He did not start his task immediately staying for two months in 1615 in Zhalan, with Diego de Pantoja, finally leaving Beijing later Ugo Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus and Scientific Activities in its Asian Missions until 1640”, in: Luís Saraiva (ed.), History of Mathematical Sciences, Portugal and East Asia (Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, 2000), p. 85; Dictionary of Ming Biography, L. Carrington Goodrich (ed.) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), p. 32; J. Sebes, “Dias (o Novo), Manuel”, in Charles O’Neill and Joaquín Maria Dominguez, S.I., Diccionario Histórico de la Compañia de Jesus (Rome–Madrid, 2001), p. 113. Josef Wicki S.J., “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer, 1541–1758”, Aufsätze zur Portugiesischen Kulturgeschichte, (Münster [Westfalen]: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1967), pp. 252–450. On Dias’ voyage, see p. 283. As will be seen below, these dates are very important for our purpose, but unfortunately I have been unable to establish them more accurately. Writing in August 1616, Manuel Dias says: “It is now fifteen years since I came to the Indies; I stayed three years in Goa, six at the college in Macao, and other six inside China” (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 17, f. 10). This is a somewhat imprecise statement but since Dias left Lisbon in 1601, it most likely means that he was in Goa during the years 1601–1604, in Macao in 1604–1610, and inside China from 1610 onwards. Further investigation in the archives will no doubt clarify this matter. ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 15 II, f. 269. An unidentified fellow Jesuit writes that he had been for 20 days in Zhalan together with Manuel Dias and that during this time Dias “finished his book of mathematics tien ven lio”. Lisbon, Biblioteca da Ajuda [henceforth BA] 49-V-5, ff. 148v–149. Isabel Pina, who called my attention to this important document (and whom I thank warmly) is of the opinion that the Jesuit accompanying Dias was Sabatino de Ursis.
The contents and context of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe
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6
啓
光
徐
that year.6 Somewhat ironically, the Provincial Valentim Carvalho (1559–1630) gave him the task of, during his visits the mission, forbid the use by missionaries of non-religious disciplines, including mathematics and astronomy.7 In 1616 Manuel Dias returned to Macao. He was already there when the 1616 persecution broke, which made it impossible for him to reenter China. He lived until 1621 at the Madre de Deus College. On August 1616 he reported to the father Provincial the results of his visit to the mission (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 17, fl. 10). Some weeks later, on September 18, 1616, he made his profession of the 4th vow, an important step in the Jesuit hierarchial system (ARSI, Lus. 4, 44). On December 26, 1616 he wrote from Macao a long letter to the General of the Society, with news about the persecutions.8 On 30 December 1616 Dias wrote the Annual Letter of the year 1615, directed to the General of the Society, father Claudio Acquaviva9 and on January wrote the Annual Letter of 1616.10 As is usual in these letters the contents are mostly apostolic and no mention is made of the Tianwenlüe nor of any other book on scientific matters. On November 18, 1618, from Macao, Dias wrote to Manuel Severim de Faria, a well known person in Portugal and a good friend of the Jesuits, with some news of the missionary work in China. Interestingly, in this letter he also gives information on the comet “that first appeared on the 12th of this month” and that it is “more than 28 degrees long”.11 In 1621 he was allowed to return to Beijing, staying with Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) and other Chinese converts, making frequent visits to groups of christians in the City. Friends of the Jesuits in high places at the Court had been able to convince authorities that the Europeans had technical (and military) skills that could be helpful in facing the Manchu threat. Thus, apparently against their will, Niccolò Longobardo (1565–1655) and Dias were persuaded to assist the Ministry of War, which in return gave them permission to preach in Beijing. On February 1622, while in Beijing, he wrote to Manuel Dias senior with news According to a letter (of Nov. 27, 1615) by the Jesuit Niccolò Longobardo, in November Dias had already left Beijing to visit the Jesuit residences. ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 16 II, f. 234v. 7 See the letter (2 Dec. 1617) of Sabatino de Ursis to the Assistant of Portugal. ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 17, f. 108. It is difficult to assess the impact of this command — that was revoked after some time — and the enthusiasm of Dias in promoting it. 8 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 17, ff. 39–40. 9 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 113, ff. 395–424v. 10 BA, 49-V-5, f. 183–186v; ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 113, ff. 465–493v and 494–496v. Published (doc. 11) in: Cartas ânuas do Colégio de Macau (1594–1627). Direcção e Estudo Introdutório de João Paulo Oliveira e Costa. Transcrição paleográfica de Ana Fernandes Pinto (Macao: Comissão Territorial de Macau para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, Fundação Macau, 1999), pp. 158–165. 11 Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional, Mss. 29 nº22.
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宁
建
平
延
12
藻
之
解
直
經
詮
碑
教
]
景
[
京
聖
書
金
世
輕
李
of his negotiations (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 161 I, fls. 61–62). On 20 July 1622, he was at the Emperor’s Court, in Beijing. He took the opportunity of a courier that was going to Macao to send a letter to the Society’s general, Mutio Vitteleschi. The letter contains information on the technical help he was providing at the Court and remarks on the opportunity that this gave to the Christian mission. Among other aspects Dias mentions that it would be of great profit to send to the Court some books on military engineering that the Jesuits had in China (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 161 II, fls. 63–64). All through the year of 1623, together with Niccolò Longobardo, Dias continued his negotiations with the ministry of War.12 In this year, while staying at the house of Li Zhizao (1565–1630) he and Longobardo built a terrestrial globe with very updated information, improving on the geographical information of the Ricci maps. From 1623 to 1635 Manuel Dias was appointed Vice-provincial of China, that is, the highest authority of the Jesuits in China. He travelled widely in China during this period, taking care of many administrative and apostolic obligations, improving the conditions of the missions, building churches and seminaries, etc. On 1 Nov. 1633, from Nanchang, Dias wrote to the Jesuit general Mutio Vitteleschi (ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 18 I, fls. 141–142) with news about the missionary work. He expressed his apprehension at the missionary activities of some mendicant friars in China. His opposition to some of the friars’ methods would later involve him in polemics with the Spanish Franciscan Antonio Caballero (1602–1669). After being substituted in his post of Vice-provincial (1635) Dias seems to have found the leisure to dedicate himself to literary pursuits. In the following years, he devoted considerable attention to publishing Chinese versions of religious and devotional European books. In 1640 he published the Qingshi jin shu , a partial translation of immensely popular De imitatione Christi, and in 1642 the Shengjing zhijie , explanations of the Gospels of Sundays and Feast Days, adapted from a larger work by the Portuguese Jesuit Sebastião Barradas (1542–1615). In 1644 he published a work of great importance, the Jingjiao beiquan in one juan, in Hangzhou, the first treatise by an European on the Nestorian monument of 781. Dias lived in Hangzhou from 1639 until 1643 when, falling seriously ill, was sent to Nanchang. He then moved to Jianning (Fujian), where he was in 1645, and afterwards to Yanping , where he lived from 1646 to 1648. In this year he was once more appointed Vice-provincial and returned to Hangzhou. On February 25, 1623, together with Niccolò Longobardo, he had an important meeting at the Ministry of War. Ânua da China de 1623, Hangzhou, 10.IV.1624, BA 49-V-6, ff. 111v–115.
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From this date onwards he lived in Hangzhou the rest of his life and despite declining health and old age, was kept as Vice-provincial of China until 1654. Manuel Dias died in March 4, 1659 in Hangzhou.13 ***
中
關
Before focusing on the Tianwenlüe, I would like to say a few words about Dias’ other achievements. Manuel Dias is also known for some other important contributions: The first is the terrestrial globe he made with Niccolò Longobardo in Beijing in 1623. This remarkable globe, presently at the British Library, 14 is one of the most striking examples of the influence of Western geography in China. The globe, drawn on a scale of approximately 1:21 million, is painted in lacquer on wood, and signed in Chinese characters by Dias and Longobardo. The world is depicted in some detail and is relatively up-to-date. It is said to have been in the Imperial Palace in Beijing before its arrival in England in the last century. As mentioned above, Dias is also known for the publication, in 1644, in Hangzhou, of the Jingjiao beiquan, a treatise on the Nestorian monument of 781. , while people were digging the ground He reports the find “in Guanzhong under government orders in 1623”, provides complete Chinese text of the inscription, adds a commentary on each phrase and each important word of the text, and concludes with wood-cut illustrations of three crosses found shortly before in Fujian. An appendix includes an account of the discovery written by Li Zhizao in 1625.15 Finally, Dias was also responsible for religious texts in Chinese. From the point of view of the origin and composition of the Tianwenlüe, there is a biographical aspect that must be noted: Manuel Dias was never trained, in a formal sense, as an expert in mathematics. He was not one of those “Jesuitmathematicians”, experts in science that the Society trained, and whose history in China would be so important. We do not even know if he ever attended regular classes of mathematics. It is very likely that during his studies in philosophy he was exposed to the basics of cosmography and the Sphere since this was rather common in the Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus. But, judging by the contents and the technical level of the Tianwenlüe, it is obvious that he was familiar with some advanced topics of astronomy. That is, although he himself was not an expert in mathematics and had not received 13
井
方
大
Dias is buried outside the city walls in Dafangjing , together with other fellow Jesuits. London, British Library Maps C.6.a.2. See: Helen M. Wallis and E.D. Grinstead, “A Chinese terrestrial globe, A.D. 1623”, The British Museum Quarterly, 25 (1962), pp. 83–91. 15 Cf. Dictionary of Ming Biography, p. 415. 14
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advanced training in science in a formal way, he must have been acquainted with specialized books and attended private classes, or, at the very least, discussions, with experts in mathematical and astronomical subjects. Manuel Dias is thus one very interesting case-study of an aspect generally underestimated, namely, the opportunities that the Society of Jesus offered for informal training in science. His knowledge of scientific matters must have occurred in private classes or in even more informal settings, such as supervised study or discussions. 2.
The Broader Context: Jesuit Scientific Texts in China Until 1615
16
圖
全
國
萬
輿
說
圖
憲
通
蓋
指
算
原
何
本
法
文
水
同
西
泰
幾
渾
義
體
坤
乾
坤
Dias’ Tianwenlüe is not, of course, the first scientific publication in Chinese by the Jesuit missionaries. Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) started translating European scientific texts and other Jesuits would do the same after him. In the end these translations turned out to be a cultural enterprise of enormous magnitude. 16 Until around 1615 most scientific translations had been done as isolated efforts by some Jesuits. Of the translations made by Ricci together with his Chinese collaborators one must note the Kunyu wanguo quantu (Complete Map of all Nations on Earth), in 1602 [actually a reprint of a map Ricci had done in 1584]; the Qiankun tiyi (On the Structure of the Heaven and Earth, ca. 1608), a translation of Clavius’ very influential Commentarium in Ioannis de Sacroboso Sphaera; the Hungai tongxian tushuo (Illustrated Explanation of Cosmological patterns), in 1607 [translation of Clavius’ Astrolabium]; and, above all, the Jihe yuanben (Elements of Geometry), in 1607, that is, the translation of the first 6 books of Euclid’s Elements.17 In 1612 Sabatino de Ursis published the Taixi shuifa (on Western hydraulics) and two years later appeared Tongwen suanzhi (1614) based on Clavius’ Epitome arithmeticae, by Ricci and Li Zhizao. Finally, in 1615, Manuel Dias published the Tianwenlüe. In this first phase of translations it can be said that all works were based on the teachings of Clavius. It is also important to recall that these works and Dias’ in particular, were written before 1620, when Nicolas Trigault brought hundreds of Western books to China with him, and before the Jesuits started to get involved in calendrical matters, in order to gradually approach the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. See Henri Bernard, SJ, “Les adaptations chinoises d’ouvrages européens. Bibliographie Chronologique. I. Depuis la venue des Portugais à Canton jusqu’à la mission française de Pékin (1514–1688)”, Monumenta Serica, 10 (1945), pp. 1–57, pp. 309–388. 17 See Peter M. Engelfriet, Euclid in China. The Genesis of the First Translation of Euclid’s Elements in 1607 and its Reception up to 1723 (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
The contents and context of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe
3.
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De Sphaera Literature
The Tractatus de sphaera composed by John of Holywood, also known as Sacrobosco, in the thirteenth century was a phenomenally successful introductory textbook to cosmography and astronomy. So many were the works based on it (commentaries, paraphrases, etc.) that it can aptly be said that a whole literary genre appeared: the De sphaera literature.18 In Portugal Sacrobosco’s treatise occupied a central role in all scientific education, especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A good indication of this is the fact that three different translations into Portuguese were published between ca. 1509 and 1537, the last one by the celebrated mathematician Pedro Nunes (1502–1578). 19 It is also worth noting that in Portugal it was not uncommon to study the Sphere in the format of a sequence and Questions and Answers. One example is a wellknown manuscript containing a “Treatise on the Sphere in Questions and Answers”, generally attributed to the famous scholar and soldier João de Castro (1500–1548).20 Evidently, Jesuits in Portugal operated within this tradition. In Portugal the Lisbon College of Santo Antão became the focal point of the Society of Jesus scientific activities. In this college a class of scientific matters, for Jesuit and non-Jesuit students, tellingly named Class on the Sphere [Aula da Esfera], operated from the end of the sixteenth century to 1759, when the Jesuits were expelled from the country. The impact of this scientific class on Portuguese cultural life would be very great.21 18
On the Sphere of Sacrobosco and its use in an educational setting, see: Lynn Thorndike, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949); Francis R. Johnson, “Astronomical text-books in the sixteenth century”, in: E. Ashworth Underwood (ed.), Science, Medicine and History. Essays on the Evolution of Scientific Thought and Medical Practice (London: Oxford University Press, 1975); Owen Gingerich, “Sacrobosco as a textbook”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 19 (1988), pp. 269–273. It is important to note the great longevity of this work: by the end of the sixteenth century the Tractatus de sphaera was still the most popular introduction to astronomy and it continued to be published in the seventeenth century. See: Edward Grant, Planets, Stars and Orbs. The Medieval Cosmos, 1200–1687 (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 19 On the relevance of Sacrobosco’s text in Portugal, see: Luís de Albuquerque, “Sobre um manuscrito quatrocentista do Tratado da Esfera de Sacrobosco”, Revista da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Coimbra, 28 (1959), pp. 142–179; Luís de Albuquerque, “Sobre a influência de Sacrobosco em Portugal”, in: Crónicas de História de Portugal (Lisboa: Presença, 1987), pp. 18–27. 20 The manuscript is in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Cod. 1140. The attribution to João de Castro is usual, but it is problematic. See Armando Cortesão e Luís de Albuquerque (eds.), Obras Completas de D. João de Castro, 4 vols. (Coimbra: Academia Internacional da Cultura Portuguesa, 1968–1981), vol. I, pp. 15–108, and also Suzane Daveau, “Qui est l’auteur du Tratado da Esfera attribué à Dom João de Castro?”, Mare Liberum, 10 (1995), pp. 33–54. 21 Information on the Santo Antão College and, in particular, on its class of mathematics, the so-called “Aula da Esfera” can be found in: Francisco Rodrigues, História da Companhia de Jesus
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Although it uses material that was well known, the Tianwenlüe is an original composition. Its structure and its choice of materials, that we will discuss in more detail below, are very judicious. There is not a single Western text that can be identified as its direct source, although it is relatively easy to understand what could have been its general sources. Reading the text, it becomes evident that Dias was very well acquainted with De sphaera literature and, in particular, that he had studied Clavius’ Commentary on Sacrobosco in one of its many editions, probably other than the last one, of 1611. Besides Clavius’ original book, in Jesuit circles in China it was also easy to get Ricci’s translation of it, the Qiankun tiyi (On the Structure of the Heaven and Earth, ca. 1608). In alternative, Dias might have based his book in lecture notes on the Sphere by a fellow Jesuit. Besides these works on the Sphere, the contents of Tianwenlüe reveal that Dias was also acquainted with material from the more advanced Theoricae novae planetarum, by Georg Peurbach (1423–1461). This was also a book easy to obtain since there were many editions and, again, parts of Peurbach’s text were usually incorporated in introductory courses of astronomy in Jesuit schools. Perhaps more important than ascertaining what were Dias’ sources for the composition of the Tianwenlüe is trying to understand where could he have acquired his knowledge of astronomy and cosmography. This could have happened on different occasions, the most obvious being the following: in Coimbra in the period 1596–1600 when he studied there; in Goa, in the period 1601–1604; in Macao, in the period 1604–1610. na Assistência de Portugal (Porto: Apostolado da Imprensa, 1931–1950). A pioneering study on this important class was presented by Luís de Albuquerque, “A ‘Aula de Esfera’ do Colégio de Santo Antão no século XVII”, Anais da Academia Portuguesa de História, 2ª ser., vol. 21 (1972), pp. 337–391. [Also in: Estudos de História, vol. II (Coimbra: Acta Universitatis Conimbrigensis, 1974), pp. 127–200]. Recently the activities of this class, together with the lists of its professors were investigated by Ugo Baldini in a series of fundamental contributions: Ugo Baldini, “As assistências ibéricas da Companhia de Jesus e a actividade científica nas missões asiáticas (1578–1640). Alguns aspectos culturais e institucionais”, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 54 (1998), pp. 195–245; Ugo Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus and Scientific Activities in its Asian Missions until 1640”, in: Luís Saraiva (ed.), História das Ciências Matemáticas, Portugal e o Oriente (Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, 2000), pp. 49–104; Ugo Baldini, “L'insegnamento della matematica nel Collegio di S. Antão a Lisbona, 1590–1640”, in: A Companhia de Jesus e a Missionação no Oriente (Lisboa: Brotéria e Fundação Oriente, 2000), pp. 275–310 [this work was republished in Ugo Baldini, Saggi sulla Cultura della Compagnia di Gesú (secoli XVI–XVIII) (Padova: CLEUP Editrice, 2000), pp. 129–167]; Ugo Baldini, “The teaching of mathematics in the Jesuit colleges of Portugal, from 1640 to Pombal”, in: Luís Saraiva and Henrique Leitão (eds.), The Practice of Mathematics in Portugal. Papers from the International Meeting organized by the Portuguese Mathematical Society, Óbidos, 16–18 November, 2000 (Coimbra: Acta Universitatis Conimbrigensis, 2004), pp. 293–465, with Appendices (by Ugo Baldini and Henrique Leitão), pp. 629–758.
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Besides these, Dias could have learned some scientific matters during the long sea voyage from Lisbon to Goa. This is always a possibility for Jesuits in this period and there are several known cases, the most notable being the expedition of 1618 when a truly impressive group of Jesuit mathematicians was sent to Asia.22 However, in the case of Dias this is not likely since none of the Jesuit companions that embarked with him in 1601 was trained in advanced mathematics.23 Let us now take a closer look at Coimbra, Goa and Macao as possible locations for Dias’ training in astronomical matters. Dias studied in Coimbra in the years 1596 to 1600. He writes in a letter that he entered the Coimbra College when father Manuel de Lima was Master of Novices and father Jerónimo Barradas was teaching there.24 Manuel de Lima (1554–1620) turned out to have a distinguished career and we know that he was not insensitive to scientific matters.25 Lecture notes of the philosophy course he taught in Évora in the years 1588–1589 are extant. They contain lessons on Aristotle’s Physica, De caelo, Meteorologica, and Parva naturalia, and also a commentary on the Sphere. Although these notes reveal some interest for scientific matters, their level is elementary. Scientific teaching at this level cannot explain Dias’ skills in the Tianwenlüe. So, even if Dias had such an introduction to astronomical and cosmographic subjects he must necessarily have completed it elsewhere. Interestingly, one exceptional opportunity to learn mathematics from a firstrate mathematician did take place while he was in Coimbra, for during some months in 1599, the German Jesuit Christoph Grienberger (1564–1636) taught a private course there.26 Not much more can be added to these facts, except to note that there was the possibility for Dias to acquire some expertise in scientific matters outside the regular courses. Another possibility is that he was introduced to scientific matters during his stay in Goa. Unfortunately not much is known about Dias’ life during his period in 22
On April 1618 two ships sailed from Lisbon with many Jesuits. Aboard the S. Carlos travelled a remarkable group of Jesuit mathematicians: Giacomo Rho (ca. 1592 – 1638), Johannes Schreck (1576–1630), Wenzel Pantaleon Kirwitzer (ca. 1589 – 1626), and Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591–1666). It is known that during the sea voyage Schreck was in charge of giving mathematical classes to his fellow Jesuits. Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer, 1541–1758”, pp. 289–290. 23 The group consisted of four priests (including Dias) and five brothers, all Portuguese. Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer, 1541–1758”, p. 283. 24 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 17, f. 10. 25 On Manuel de Lima, see: João Pereira Gomes, Os Professores de Filosofia da Universidade de Évora (Évora: Câmara Municipal, 1960), pp. 146–149; Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus”, pp. 67–68. 26 Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus”, pp. 60–61.
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India. One can note, however, that he was in Goa when Giovanni Antonio Rubino (1578–1643) was also there, teaching mathematics.27 It is more plausible that he perfected his knowledge of scientific matters during the first period that he lived at the College in Macao, that is in the years 1604 (1605?) to 1610 (1611?).28 When Dias arrived to Macao, the most competent Jesuit in scientific matters living there was Sabatino de Ursis, an Italian who had some training in mathematics and was known for his talent in science. De Ursis had left Lisbon at the same time that G.A. Rubino (March 1602), but had sailed on a different ship.29 He reached Macao in 1603 and stayed there until 1607. It is plausible to assume that Dias and Ursis engaged in conversations about scientific matters, with the Italian guiding Dias’ curiosity. It is known that years later Sabatino de Ursis would write to Europe asking for men trained in mathematics to be sent to China, and one may speculate that at this time he had already understood this need and proceeded to teach Dias. Two other Jesuits, with advanced training in mathematics, Giulio Aleni (1582–1649) and Francesco Sambiasi (1582–1649), both of whom had left Lisbon on March 23, 1609, 30 reached Macao in 1610. Dias could have also learned from these men (if indeed he was still in Macao at that time). Aleni is known to have corresponded with the great Italian astronomer Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555–1617) while in Macao. In January 1611 he wrote a letter to Magini expressing his great admiration for him and addressing several scientific matters. He described two lunar eclipses he had recently observed: one in Salsete (Goa, India), on 9 January 1610, and the other on December 15, already in Macao. More interestingly, he writes that “In leaving Italy, I brought 27
Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus”, p. 79 and p. 85. Giovanni Antonio Rubino, about whom more will be said below, sailed from Lisbon on March 25,1602, that is, the year after Dias had departed. From India Rubino corresponded with Jesuit scientists in Rome. Some of these letters have survived. In 25 Oct 1609 he wrote to Clavius and there are 5 more letters he sent to Grienberger. See: Christoph Clavius: Corrispondenza, Edizione critica a cura di Ugo Baldini e Pier Daniele Napolitani (Pisa: Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Matematica, 1992), I/2, pp. 90–91; VI/1, pp. 142–143; VI/2, pp. 82–84. 28 On the College of Macao, see Domingos Maurício Gomes dos Santos, “Macau, primeira universidade ocidental do Extremo Oriente”, Revista de Cultura [Macao], 21, II sér. (1994), pp. 5–21 [originally in Anais da Academia Portuguesa de História, 17 (1968), pp. 203–237]. See also the various works in the thematic issue of the Revista de Cultura [Macao], 30, II ser. (1997) devoted to this college, and J. Witek (ed.), Religion and Culture: An International Symposium Commemorating the Fourth Centenary of the University College of St. Paul (Macao, 1999). See also the contribution of Ugo Baldini to this volume. 29 Although they both left Lisbon on March 25, 1602, Rubino sailed in the Nossa Senhora da Paz, and Ursis in the Nossa Senhora da Bigonha. Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer, 1541–1758”, pp. 283–284. 30 Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer, 1541–1758”, p. 287.
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with me your ephemerides and tables [...] and also your Cosmography; the books are a great help on many occasions”.31 Thus, by 1610 not only the books of Magini, but also a man conversant with these materials were in Macao. Besides these, Dias might have become interested in science in a more informal manner. It is known that at the Macao College some attention was conceded to scientific matters. In particular, it is known that a course on the Sphere prepared by Pedro Gómez in Japan around 1593 was also taught in Macao.32 Gómez’s text is interesting because it bears some resemblance to Dias’ book: it was prepared by a Jesuit not fully trained in mathematical subjects;33 it is not a mere translation of a Western book, but an original work; and it is adapted to local context and situation. 31
A. Favaro, Carteggio inedito di Ticone Brahe, Giovanni Keplero e di altri celebri astronomi e matematici dei secoli XVI e XVII con Giovanni Antonio Magini (Bologna, 1886), pp. 347–348; Mario Colpo, “Giulio Aleni’s cultural and religious background”, in Tiziana Lippiello and Roman Malek (eds.), “Scholar from the west”: Giulio Aleni S. J. (1582–1649) and the Dialogue between Christianity and China (Brescia: Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana; Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institut, 1997), pp. 82–83. 32 The Sphere of Pedro Gomez is part of a larger Course that is today extant under the name Compendium Catholicae Veritatis. It is not known precisely when Gomez started to write this course, but it is certain that it was being used in classes at the college in Amakusa in September 1593. Gomez’s Compendium was translated into Japanese under the supervision of Pedro Ramón (1550– 1611), in the year 1594, and in 1595 was already being used in classes. It was continuously taught in Japan until 1614, when Jesuits were expelled. Gomez’s course was also known in Macao where it continued to be used after 1614. Josef Franz Schütte discovered Gomez’ Compendium at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, in 1939. This showed that the teaching of the Jesuits in Japan, although for the most part focused on doctrinal and theological aspects, had also addressed questions of natural philosophy and even scientific subjects. However, these manuscripts notes are in Latin and one might reasonably suspect that they had a limited impact among local scholars. The discovery in recent years (1995) of a Japanese translation of Gomez’s notes at Magdalen College, in Oxford, made this question much more interesting. The manuscripts that were found contain the Japanese versions of the notes on De Anima and De theologia. Even though no Japanese version of the Sphere commentary was found it is very likely that one was made. For an extended discussion of these matters, see: Tsutomu Sakuma, S.J., Holy Scripture in “Compendium Catholicae Veritatis” of Pedro Gómez S.J. (1533–1600). Emended Text of the Tractate “On the Holy Scripture” with an Introduction (Roma: Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, 1995); Ryuji Hiraoka, “Jesuit Cosmological Textbook in ‘the Christian century’ Japan: De sphaera of Pedro Gomez (Part I)”, Sciamvs, 6 (2005), pp. 99–175. 33 Bearing some resemblance to Dias, Pedro Gomez is another case of a Jesuit who without receiving formal scientific training contributed significantly to the scientific exchanges between Europe and Asia. He was born in Antequera, in Málaga, and joined the Society of Jesus on December 12, 1553 in Alcalá de Henares. He moved to Portugal, studying and then teaching at the college in Coimbra and after that in the college in Angra, in the Azorean islands. He worked with Pedro da Fonseca (1528–1599) and Cipriano Suárez (1524–1593) in the preparation of the Institutionum dialecticarum libri octo (Lisbon, 1564). In 1579 Pedro Gómez left the Azores reaching Japan in 1583. There he was involved in educational activities and in administrative charges. He died in 1600.
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The Tianwenlüe : Contents
The Tianwenlüe is a summary of European cosmographical and astronomical knowledge written in the form of questions and answers. It is, in a sense, a De sphaera text, summarizing the basic Aristotelian–ptolemaic notions in the tradition set by John of Sacrobosco’s Sphere. The technical level of the text is not very sophisticated and its purpose is to present the basics of astronomy and cosmography to an intelligent novice. However the level is above the very elementary introductions to cosmography that were frequently taught in non-specialized courses as some advanced topics are treated as well. In addition to the main text — which is very interesting just by itself — the Tianwenlüe has the exceptional value of presenting for the first time in Chinese a description of Galileo’s epoch-making telescopic observations of 1609–1611. The textual problems surrounding the Tianwenlüe are analysed in Rui Magone’s contribution to this volume and it will be sufficient here to make very brief remarks. What is generally considered to be the Tianwenlüe editio princeps (extant at the Vatican Library, Borgia Cinese, 324) contains, according to Pasquale d’Elia, important information not mentioned in later editions.34 It specifically states that the person “answering” is Manuel Dias, revealing at the same time that the book was revised by two other Europeans, the Jesuits João da Rocha (1565–1623) and Pedro Ribeiro (1570–1640).35 Thus, there are no doubts on the authorship: the text of 1615 attributes it to Manuel Dias, and Jesuit documents in the following years confirm this. But it should be kept in mind that Jesuits generally worked 34
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The Vatican edition, indeed, possesses some particulars which the other editions do not have. In the first place, since the work is in the form of questions and answers, this edition is the only one which indicates Manuel Dias as he who answers these questions, and gives the names of the two official revisers of the work, João da Rocha and Pedro Ribeiro, who reached China respectively in 1597 and 1604. 35 Pedro Ribeiro was born in 1570 in the small village of Pedrogão (or Portalegre?) and entered the Society in 1588. He studied philosophy in Braga, and theology in Goa and Macao. In 1603 he entered China. During the persecution of 1616/17, he did not leave the mission where, on 24 February he professed the fourth vow. Ribeiro died in 1640. João da Rocha was born in 1565 in Santiago dos Priscos (Braga), and entered the Society of Jesus in 1583, in Coimbra. In 1586, he sailed from Lisbon. He studied philosophy for three years in Goa (1587–1590), reaching Macao in August 1591. In 1595 he entered China. In June 1622 was elected Vice-Provincial, but died the following year, on March 23, 1623, in Hangzhou. Besides his many administrative and apostolic charges he was known for his competence in Chinese, having translated to Chinese the 1561 catechism of the Portuguese Marco Jorge (Tianzhu shengjiao qimeng , 1619). On these two Jesuits see: Isabel Alexandra Murta Pina, A residência Jesuíta de Nanquim: das origens à restauração (1599–1633) (Dissertation, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2002), to be published by Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon.
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with Chinese collaborators and this was precisely the case of the Tianwenlüe: according to the editio princeps, nine Chinese scholars collaborated with Dias, acting as “proofreaders” of the whole text. The Tianwenlüe contains a preface dated 1615, but as already mentioned, the book was finished in 1614 while Dias was in Zhalan. In principle the main text of the Tianwenlüe (not the final pages on the telescopic observations) could have been prepared at a much earlier date, but the presence of some examples and calculations using the year of 1614 suggests that the text was written around that year. The final pages, since they describe the first observations made with the telescope, could have been written only after 1611. It is very likely that they were written also around 1614. Presumably, the book was published in Beijing because the text occasionally refers to the imperial capital, and Dias lived there most of the year of 1615. As already said, although clearly inspired by Sacrobosco’s Sphere, the Tianwenlüe is an independent composition. The choice of materials, the space allocated for each matter, the sequence of themes, the depth and detail of analysis, differ significantly from Sacrobosco’s text. Furthermore, Dias’ book includes examples prepared for locations or events in China and refers to the Chinese official calendar. In general the text reads like an introduction to astronomical matters for educated Chinese. The language is simple and straightforward and the superiority of Western astronomy is somehow presupposed in the text. The Tianwenlüe contains text and illustrations. Leaving aside the Prefaces,36 the text can be considered to be divided in 6 sections; they are not truly presented as distinct sections, but can be individualized nevertheless. The final two pages, with the telescopic novelties, are put at the end as a kind of colophon. The sequence of materials is the following: [1] The Spheres of the Heavens and the position of the seven celestial bodies. [2] Celestial and terrestrial self-motion and measurements of [and with] the earth’s equator. [3] Solar eclipses. [4] Length of night and day varies according to the sun’s proximity from North Pole. [5] Lunar sky as the first sphere; about lunar self-motion. [6] Lunar eclipses.
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See Magone’s contribution to this volume.
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This list of topics is enough to show some important differences between the Tianwenlüe and the usual texts on the Sphere. First of all, the ordering of contents is different from Sacrobosco’s. More importantly, the Tianwenlüe is much more astronomy-oriented than the usual commentaries on the Sphere. Cosmographic discussions are reduced to a minimum and there is no presentation of basic notions of Aristotelian natural philosophy, such as theory of elements and change, which are frequent in De sphaera literature. The text starts with a discussion on the celestial spheres. One of the very first Questions aims at showing that the apparent fluid nature of the skies (the traditional conception in China) is just that: apparent. The solidity and rigidity of the celestial spheres is affirmed and the planets are thought to be fixed in them, each in its respective sphere. There is also a discussion on the number and function of the different spheres, which is very interesting because a total number of 12 is proposed, including spheres for precession and trepidation. The Tianwenlüe therefore presents a cosmological model different from the one presented by Ricci: one extra crystal sphere is included to account for the “trepidation” of the equinoxes. This feature was present only in the later editions of Clavius’ commentary on the Sphere.37 This point deserves a brief detour that may shed some light on the influences acting on Dias. Reacting to Copernicus’ treatment of precession, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Antonio Magini had adopted in 1589 an astronomical model with 11 spheres. From 1593 onwards Clavius followed this idea introducing one more sphere in his model originally with 11 spheres, that became a 12-sphered cosmos. 38 Dias is introducing this suggestion of Magini in his description; this may indicate an influence of Magini’s admirer and correspondent Giulio Aleni. In the second section a discussion of the most important celestial circles (equator, ecliptic, tropics, etc.) is presented, using the value of ε = 23º 30' for the inclination of the ecliptic, together with a discussion of the diurnal and 37
This has already been pointed out by some historians, for example by Peter Engelfriet, who rates the Tianwenlue, as “a work of exceptional nature” and makes the following observation: “Somewhat paradoxically, in the preface to this work, astronomical demonstration was presented as the most certain for [...] and most solid [...] of disputation. The theological connotation of this kind of reasoning is made quite explicit, with the simile that the material world is like an opulent palace in which the host is invisible. Contemplation of the structure of the heavens points directly to the Creator, in the way Ricci had argued in the Tianzhu shiyi.” Engelfriet, Euclid in China, p. 330. 38 Magini’s model does not consider the Empyrean sphere. See: G.A. Magini, Novae Coelestium Orbium Theoricae congruentes cum observationes N. Copernici (Venice, 1589); Christoph Clavius, In Sphaeram Ioannis de Sacrobosco commentarius (Rome, 1593). See James M. Lattis, Between Copernicus and Galileo. Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 161–173; Michel-Pierre Lerner, Le Monde des Sphères, 2 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1997–1998).
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annual heavenly movements. Explanatory figures illustrate the different notions and definitions. This is followed by an explanation on the length of seasons and some remarks on calendars and the problems with the Chinese calendar. One striking difference between the Tianwenlüe and other De sphaera texts lies in the (comparatively) much larger space devoted to the study of eclipses in the former. Dias’ booklet is of modest dimensions but, starting in the third section, an important part of it is devoted to eclipses. Furthermore, the discussion on eclipses introduces themes that are only found in the more advanced European texts, such as techniques to measure the Sun’s diameter, or an analysis of the effects of refraction. The fourth part of the book is a detailed discussion on the variation of the length of day and night. The variation with latitude and day of year is explained in some detail. All this is standard material in Sphaera texts. What is absolutely novel in the Tianwenlüe is that at the end of this section a table of time of sunrise and sunset is presented, and the length of night and day are calculated for all provinces of China, that is for Beijing and environs, Nanjing and environs, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou. As far as I know it is the first time such a table was published in China. The following section discusses the Moon — its sphere, motion, phases, etc. — and the final section is devoted to the discussion of lunar eclipses. At the end, somewhat disconnected from the previous matters, Dias included two pages with the celebrated description of the Galilean telescopic findings. We will leave matters at this point. It is obvious that a more careful analysis of the text is needed. This must include a comparison of the Tianwenlüe with other Sphere texts that were translated in Asia, for example with Ricci’s translation or with the Sphaera of Pedro Gómez, but this must be made elsewhere. What has been presented is sufficient to highlight not only the contents of the Tianwenlüe, but above all its novelty. Dias’ book is not simply a translation. It is a presentation of Western scientific notions deeply influenced by Chinese preferences and tastes. With the advantage of historical perspective we realize that Dias’ book emphasizes those subjects (solar and lunar eclipses, times of rising and Sun’s setting, calendar, etc.) that was to become the focus of the scientific dialogue between Europe and China in the next decades.39 39
It has already been remarked that Dias’ Tianwenlüe “falls between the end of the first stage and the beginning of the second stage” of the Jesuit’s presentation of Western Science in China, where the first stage is that of “introduction” and the second of “consolidation”. Isaia Iannaccone, “From N. Longobardo’s explanation of earthquakes as divine punishment to F. Verbiest’s systematic instrumental observations. The evolution of European Science in China in the Seventeenth century”, in Federico Masini (ed.), Western Humanistic Culture Presented to China by Jesuit Missionaries (XVII–XVIII centuries) (Roma: Institutum Historicum S. I., 1996), pp. 159–174, cit. in p. 160.
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The Tianwenlüe : The Telescopic Observations
Galileo’s epoch-making telescopic observations were publicized in the Siderus nuncius (1610) and in various letters published by him in the period 1610 to 1612. Jesuits in the Roman College had been deeply involved in the same type of research and gave identical importance to these revelations. In Jesuit circles one of the most thought-provoking utterances on the new discoveries was the one expressed by the old and respected mathematician Christopher Clavius in the 1611 edition of his Commentary on Sacobosco’s Sphere. Clavius’ words not only confirm Galileo’s observations; they signal the dawn of a new cosmological order: 40 “I do not want to hide from the reader that not long ago a certain instrument was brought from Belgium. It has the form of a long tube in the bases of which are set two glasses, or rather lenses, by which objects far away from us appear very much closer, and indeed considerably larger, than the things themselves are. This instrument shows many more stars in the firmament than can be seen in any way without it, especially in the Pleiades, around the nebulas of Cancer and Orion, in the Milky Way, and other places [...] and when the moon is a crescent or half full, it appears so remarkably fractured and rough that I cannot marvel enough that there is such unevenness in the lunar body. Consult the reliable little book by Galileo Galilei, printed in Venice in 1610 and called Sidereal Messenger, which describes various observations of the stars first made by him. Far from the least important of the things seen with this instrument is that Venus receives its light from the sun as does the moon, so that sometimes it appears to be more like a crescent, sometimes less, according to its distance from the sun. At Rome I have observed this in the presence of others more than once. Saturn has joined to it two smaller stars, one on the east, the other on the west. Finally, Jupiter has four roving stars, which vary their places in a remarkable 40
I am following James Lattis’ English translation [Lattis, Between Copernicus and Galileo, p. 198]. The Latin original is the following: “Nolo tamen hoc loco lectorem latere, non ita pridem ex Belgio apportatum esse instrumentum quoddam instar tubi cuiusdam oblongi, in cuius basibus compacta sunt duo vitra, seu perspicilla, quo obiecta a nobis remota valde propinqua apparent & quidem longe maiore, quam re ipsa sunt. Hoc instrumento cernuntur plurimae stellae in firmamento, quae sine eo nullo modo videri possunt: praesertim in Pleiadibus; circa Nebulosam Cancri; in Orione; via lactea & alibi [...] Luna quoque quando est corniculata, aut semiplena, mirum in modum refracta & aspera apparet, ut mirari satis non possim, in corpore Lunari tantas inesse inaequalitates. Verum hac de re consule libellum Galilaei Galilaei, quem Sidereum Nuncium inscripsit, Venetiis impressum anno 1610, in quo varias observationes stellarum a se factas describit. Inter alia, quae hoc instrumento visuntur, hoc non postremo locum obtinet, nimirum Venerem recipere lumen a Sole instar Lunae, ita ut corniculata nunc magis, nunc minus, pro distantia eius a Sole appareat. Id quod non semel cum aliis hic Romae observavi. Saturnus quoque habet coniunctas duas stellas ipso minores, unam verus orientem & versus occidentem alteram. Iuppiter denique habet quattuor stellas erraticas, quae mirum in modum situm & inter se & cum Iove variant, ut diligenter & accurate Galilaeus Galilaei describit. Quae cum ita sint, videant astronomi, quo pacto orbes coelestes constituendi sint, ut haec phaenomena possint salvari.” Clavius, Opera Mathematica, (Mainz, 1611), vol. 3, p. 75.
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way both among themselves and with respect to Jupiter — as Galileo Galilei carefully and accurately describes. Since things are thus, astronomers ought to consider how the celestial orbs may be arranged in order to save these phenomena.”
Widely known throughout Europe and confirmed by Clavius’ authority, for Jesuits living in Europe in 1611 or 1612 these astronomical novelties became the theme of many discussions. But what about if one did not live in Europe? What if one lived in East Asia? One of the most striking aspects of Dias’ book is that it contains a description of these observations, for the first time in China. This is the aspect of the Tianwenlüe that has always captured the historians’ interest. Indeed, for a book written in Beijing in 1614, at a distance from Europe that could not be traversed in less than one year — generally even more — this is a surprising achievement; it reveals a phenomenal speed of transmission of information in the scientific network of the Society of Jesus. The description presented by Manuel Dias is accompanied by a drawing of Saturn, with the two little “stars” on each side. The description is the following: “Most of what has been explained hitherto is based upon observations made by the naked eye. But the vision of the naked eye is short. How can it measure the least part of the exceedingly small and admirable points of the firmament? Lately a famous Western scientist versed in astronomy has undertaken to observe the mysteries of the sun, moon, and stars. But grieved at the weakness of his eyes, he constructed a marvelous instrument to aid them. With this instrument an object of the size of 1 ch’ih [chi], placed at a distance of 60 li, seems to be right in front of the eyes. Viewed with this instrument, the moon appears a thousand times larger. Venus with this instrument looks as big as the moon. Its light increases or decreases in the same manner as that of the disk of the moon. Saturn with this instrument resembles the figure here annexed, round like a hen’s egg, with two small stars on its side. But whether they adhere to it is not exactly known. This instrument shows Jupiter always to be attended by four small stars moving around it very rapidly; some of them are on its east; some on its west; or {vice-versa} some on its west, some on its east. Or all may be on its east, or all on its west. Their motion, however, is quite different from that {of the stars} of the 28 constellations; because while the stars remain {in the orbit} of the seven planets, these are stars of a special class. The heaven of the constellations with this instrument reveals a great quantity of small stars, close together, the light of which is collected as if formed a white chain; it is what now one calls the Milky Way.” [Dias’] book closes with the hope: “The day that this instrument arrives in China we shall give more details of its admirable use.” 41 41
I am quoting from Pasquale d’Elia, Galileo in China. Relations through the Roman College between Galileo and the Jesuit scientist-missionaries (1610–1640), trad. R. Suter and M. Sciascia (Cambridge,
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A number of observations must be made on this passage: 1. Manuel Dias does not have a telescope and he obviously has never seen one. The instrument has not yet reached China. (Obviously, he has not made observations). He is merely transmitting information. He makes no description whatsoever of the “marvelous instrument”. 2. He gives no indication as to the source of his knowledge of these novelties. He quotes no text, refers to no correspondence, and does not identify his source. 3. Since he had been in Macao since 1604 and entered China in 1610/1611 the only possibility is that he learnt about these novelties while inside China. However, since from his career it is very likely that he had no direct correspondent in Rome, one must conclude that he was informed either by correspondence with Portugal, or by someone in Asia. 4. Galileo’s name is not mentioned. He is referred to by the expression “famous Western scientist versed in astronomy”. This merely reflects that Dias is transmitting second hand information or that he probably felt that the name was irrelevant to his Chinese readers. 5. The observations related transcend the ones that were published by Galileo in the Sidereus Nuncius (1610). Namely, Dias mentions that Venus has phases and that Saturn has a peculiar configuration: “round like a hen’s egg, with two small stars on its side” — which do not appear in Galileo’s book. 6. Curiously, the rough appearance of the moon, with hills and valleys, is not mentioned. Dias limits himself to note that “viewed with this instrument, the moon appears a thousand times larger”. 7. The origin of this information cannot be solely the text that Clavius included in 1611 edition of his Opera. At least, Dias description of Saturn is more detailed than Clavius’, and includes a drawing. Also, the fact that Dias does not describe one of the facts that impressed Clavius the most — the uneven surface of the moon — seems to confirm that he is not using Clavius’ text. 8. Dias is strictly concerned with the observations. He seems to be interested only in the novelty and “spectacular” side of these new findings but not in their consequences. He draws no conclusion of their importance in the cosmological debate; indeed, he makes no mention whatsoever that these observations (especially the phases of Venus) affect dramatically the Ptolemaic model that he himself had described previously in the text. Mass: Harvard University Press, 1960), pp. 18–19. [Originally: Galileo in Cina. Relazioni attraverso il Collegio Romano tra Galileo e i gesuiti scienziati missionari in Cina (1610–1640) (Romae: Apud Aedes Universitatis Gregorianae, 1947).]
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In sum, Dias’ knowledge about the telescopic novelties was surely acquired either by correspondence or by conversations with someone that knew about it. Who could this person be? *** None of the Jesuits that were in East Asia until the writing of the Tianwenlüe in 1614 was a mathematically trained man that had followed the cosmological debate stirred by the publication of Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius (1610) in Europe. In particular, none had made astronomical observations with a telescope. The first Jesuits fully aware of the cosmological and astronomical debates that were sent from Europe to Asia were Jan Vreman (1583–1620/21) and Cristoforo Borri (1583–1632), both of whom sailed from Lisbon on April 1615, reaching Asia after Dias’ book had appeared.42 So, until 1614, Dias or any other Jesuit in China knew about the telescopic observations indirectly — that is, via some text or information sent from Europe — and not by direct experience or by a first-hand account by someone that had actually participated in observations in Europe. In Jesuit circles Clavius’ 1611 edition of the Commentary on the Sphere where these new facts are described was widely known but, as we have already shown, this could not have been Dias’ source of information. Pasquale D’Elia supposes that Dias knew about the telescopic findings via correspondence with the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Antonio Rubino who was in India.43 In fact, Rubino was corresponding regularly with the missionaries in China from where, as he said, “they call me with much insistance”. Rubino was also corresponding with Jesuit scientists in Rome, and thus he is indeed a very 42
Jan (or Ivan) Vreman was born in Split, on April 6, 1583 and joined the Society of Jesus in 1600. He studied at the Roman College (1602–1607), where he had advanced training in mathematics and did important astronomical work. He was in Portugal from ca. 1609 to 1615. According to Cristoforo Borri, he taught mathematics in Coimbra (“Pater Ioannes Vremanus Dalmata è Societate Iesu, Conimbricae olim Mathematicarum professor, et in hac scientia versatissimus”, in C. Borri, Collecta Astronomica (Lisbon, 1631) p. 117). Ugo Baldini (“The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus”, p. 62) says that he taught a mathematics course privatim in Lisbon in 1614–15. On April 5, 1615 Vreman sailed from Lisbon heading to Asia. For the biography of Vreman, see: Juan Ruiz de Medina, “Ivan Vreman, Split 1583 — Nanchang 1620: Un croata entre los misioneros jesuitas de Japón y China”, Revista de Cultura [Macao] (1996), 67–81. Cristoforo Borri is one of the best-known “Jesuit-scientists” of this period. He taught mathematics in Mondovì (ca. 1607 – 1610) and perhaps also in Milan (ca. 1611– 1614). He was known as one of the earliest defenders of a fluid heaven. Sailed to Asia with Vreman (April 5, 1615). Upon his return from Asia (1624), he taught mathematics in Coimbra and Lisbon. On Borri, see: Domingos Maurício Gomes dos Santos, “Vicissitudes da Obra do Pe. Cristóvão Borri”, Anais da Academia Portuguesa de História, 2ª série, 3 (1951), pp. 117–150; U. Baldini, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus”, pp. 64–65; Alexei Volkov’s contribution to this volume. 43 D’Elia, Galileo in China, p. 24.
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likely candidate as the source of information to Dias. Rubino’s letter to Grienberger on November 2, 1612, is especially interesting because in it he reveals that he had already heard about the telescope:44 “Somebody wrote me from Italy that certain occhiali [eye-pieces] have been invented by means of which objects 15 or 20 miles away are seen clearly and many discoveries have been made in the heavens, particularly in the planets. Your Reverence will do me a great favor by sending me these, together with a little treatise on such occhiali, if there is demonstration of the things one sees by them. But if your Reverence does not have the occasion or the money to send me these, please send me in writing and in figures, as clearly as possible, the manner of their construction, so that I may have them made in this land of many officials and abundance of crystals.”
It is quite reasonable to assume that following this or a similar letter, someone in Europe sent detailed information about the new telescopic findings and that Rubino communicated afterwards this to Dias in China. Other similar possibilities are that Dias knew about these novelties from Giulio Aleni or from Francesco Sambiasi, if they continued to correspond with European astronomers. Another possibility is, of course, that Dias knew about these discoveries from Sabatino de Ursis in the period when they were both living in Beijing, which happened to be the period when Dias wrote the Tianwenlüe. In fact, as already said, it is very likely that Sabatino de Ursis was with Dias in Zhalan when the Portuguese Jesuit was putting the final touches in the book. What seems to me a very likely sequence of events is the following. When Manuel Dias was approaching the end of his book of astronomy, someone that had known about the telescopic observations (maybe Rubino) wrote to Sabatino de Ursis with the surprising novelties. In Zhalan, Ursis discussed these matters with Dias and he, fascinated by these new facts, somewhat haphazardly included a brief description in his book. But one should not be carried away with speculations. One should not limit the possibilities to the more mathematically able Jesuits. The description provided by Manuel Dias is general and non-technical; it could have been transmitted even by a Jesuit with a modest knowledge of astronomy. News about the telescope and the new telescopic observations spread at lightning speed in the Jesuit 44
D’Elia, Galileo in China, p. 17. The original is: “Mi scrissero d’Italia che s’inventarono certi occhiali con i quali se veggono le cose distintamente 15 e 20 miglia lontano et si scuoprono molte novità ne’ cieli, principalmente nelli pianeti. Sarà grande charità mandarmeli Vostra Riverenza et insieme qualche tratatello sopra tali occhiali se v’è dimonstratione delle cose che si veggono. E se V.R. non me li può mandare, per non haver commodità o per non haver danari, la prego quanto posso che mi mandi in scriptis et in figuris il modo e l’inventione come si fanno, quanto più chiaramente sarà possibile; ch’io in questi paesi li mandarò fare, perchè non mancano officiali nè molta copia di cristalli.” In Tacchi Venturi, Alcune lettere del P. Antonio Rubino, (1900), pp. 17–18.
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network of schools. By 1611–1612 they had surely reached Lisbon and any missionary heading for Asia could be the herald of these spectacular findings.45 6.
Aftermath of the Publication of the Tianwenlüe
The following is a very preliminary assessment of the impact of the publication of the Tianwenlüe. The complex textual history of the Tianwenlüe after its first edition in 1615 confirms that the text was held in high esteem by Chinese scholars.46 The Tianwenlüe was also rapidly known and used in Jesuit circles. A book list of 1627 (before the appearance of the second edition of the Tianwenlüe, in 1629) already notes “the sphere very clearly and easily explained by the father vice-provincial, Manuel Diaz junior”.47 In fact, within Jesuit circles the appearance of the Tianwenlüe seems to have caused a most interesting effect. This is told by Cristoforo Borri, an Italian Jesuit who sailed from Lisbon in 1615. Borri explains that a book that had recently been published by the Jesuits in China in which the solidity of the spheres was explained (it refers surely to the Tienwenlüe) had caused a great commotion among Chinese scholars. This had been so because the Chinese do not believe in such a cosmological arrangement, claiming that the heavens are tenuous and fluid. So, Francisco Vieira, the Vicerector of the Macao College, asked Borri — who was himself a critic of the notion of solid spheres and had had problems in Europe on account of his ideas — to write a booklet according to the Chinese notions, that is, refuting the idea of rigid celestial orbs. Evidently, Borri was delighted with this turn of events caused by the publication of Dias’ book. 48 45
On the knowledge of the telescopic observations and the telescope itself in Portugal, see Ugo Baldini, “L’insegnamento della matematica nel Collegio di S. Antão a Lisbona, 1590–1640”, and: Henrique Leitão, “Galileo’s Telescopic Observations in Portugal”, em: José Montesinos y Carlos Solís (eds.), Largo Camino di Filosofare. Eurosymposium Galileo 2001 (La Orotava: Fundación Canaria Orotava de la Historia de la Ciencia, 2001), pp. 903–913; Henrique Leitão, “Os Primeiros Telescópios em Portugal”, em: Actas do 1º Congresso Luso-Brasileiro de História da Ciência e da Técnica (Évora: Universidade de Évora, 2001), pp. 107–118. 46 See Rui Magone’s contribution to this volume. 47 List A (of F. Figueiredo, 1627): “[15] la esfera muy clara y facilmente explicada por el P[adr]e Vice-Prov[incial] Manuel Diaz junior”, in H. Bernard, “Les adaptations chinoises d’ouvrages européens. Bibliographie Chronologique”, p. 21. 48 The letter is so interesting that it is worth quoting at some length: “[...] fra li capitoli che al Rè si proposero contro di Noi uno delli più principali fù per causa d’un libro che li nostri haueuano stampato e promulgato per tutto il Regno; il quale era della Sfera et dell’undici Cieli con li suoi eccentrici et epicicli qual Noi quà in Europa comumente seguitauamo; condennandoci li Cinesi per huomini reuoltosi, e perniciosi alla loro Republica in quanto metteuamo con tal dottrina nostra in confusione la loro, che con un solo Cielo sidereo tenue, e liquido, il tutto in sino all’hora haueuano saluato per tanti secoli prima anche che fusse in queste nostre parti da certi Arabi introdotta la durezza e pluralità de Cieli, incassando in quelli gli astri come nodi nella saccola: Et prima anche che Aristotele vi aggiongesse la incorruptibilità: di modo che li Cinesi hanno sempre continuato in
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Another interesting aspect of the impact of the Tianwenlüe is the fact that is was known outside China, more precisely in Japan. The historian of Japanese astronomy Shigeru Nakayama mentions that a Chinese text on astronomy — Tianjing huowen (Queries on the classics of heaven; circa 1675) — was brought into Japan immediately after its first printing and was widely known even before the appearance of the first Japanese edition in 1730. It became an astronomical classic in Japan. The author was You Yi who had learned astronomy from the celebrated scholar Xiong Mingyu , who was a close friend of Manuel Dias.49 The Tianjung huowen became important in the diffusion of Western astronomy in Japan, side by side with other well known books such as the Kenkon bensetsu and the Nigi ryakusetsu .50 In what concerns China, the publication of the Tianwenlüe was just the beginning of a much broader process of transmission of news about the telescope and other astronomical novelties. 51 A few years later, in 1626, Adam Schall published the Yuanjing shuo (On the telescope), a treatise entirely devoted to the new instrument, with various figures illustrating Galileo’s observations and two years later Galileo’s friend Johann Schreck published the Cetian (Brief Explanation of the Measurement of the Heavens, yueshuo 1628) reporting on the new findings and their cosmological implications. tener quel primo Cielo tenue, che da tutto il mondo anticamente si teneua, senza mai hauerllo interrotto con dargli la durezza e pluralità, che di poi li mattematici e filosofi gli furono attribuendo. Intentendo questo il Padre Francesco Vieira che all’hora era Visitatore in Macao mi ordinó facesse un trattato, con che persuadesse alli Nostri Padri della Cina a lasciare l’opinione delli XI Cieli d’Europa, et si conformassero con li Cinesi già che mostraua esser più verissimile la loro opinione che la nostra di quà: togliendomi la difficultà che io ne haueuua del Padre Claudio con dirmi che la ragione per la quale il Padre Claudio me haueua prohibito la tal dottrina, l’istessa ragione dico mostraua che si haueua da tenere, et insegnare nella Cina; perche quella dottrina che a Noi in Europa era anticha, là nella Cina era totalmente nuoua, et perciò ne essemus nouatores sententiarum ci cacciauono fora.” In: D.M. Gomes dos Santos, “Vicissitudes da Obra do Pe. Cristóvão Borri”, pp. 143–144. 49 Shigeru Nakayama, A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969), pp. 101–102. 50 On the Kenkon bensetsu, see: Henrique Leitão and J.M. Pinto dos Santos, “O Kenkon Bensetsu e a Recepção da Cosmologia Ocidental no Japão do Século XVII”, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 54 (1998), pp. 285–318, and José Miguel Pinto dos Santos, “As distâncias dos céus aos infernos na cosmologia Nanban”, Anais de História de Além-Mar, 5 (2004), pp. 415–479. See also Ryuji Hiraoka’s contribution to this volume. 51 The literature on this topic is vast. Besides the book already cited by Pasquale d’Elia, Galileo in China, see vol. III [Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth] of Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959); Keizo Hashimoto, Hsü Kuang-Ch’i and Astronomical Reform. The Process of the Chinese Acceptance of Western Astronomy, 1629–1635 (Osaka: Kansai University Press, 1988). Many other bibliographic indications in E. Zürcher, N. Standaert, A. Dudink, Bibliography of the Jesuit Mission in China, ca. 1580 – ca. 1680 (Leiden, 1991).
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Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe is a remarkable document for various reasons: for what it reveals about the cultural setting which gave rise to it; for what it tells us about its potential readership; for what it highlights concerning the evolving strategies of the uses of science by Jesuits in their apostolic enterprise. It heralds the move from the first initial attempts at presenting Western science to China to a new phase in which Chinese preferences and interests become crucial in the composition of scientific books by the Jesuits in China. Finally, it demonstrates in a remarkable way the versatility and efficiency of the Jesuits’ channels for the teaching and transmission of scientific knowledge. Acknowledgments This work is part of a larger project I am involved in with Rui Magone. It aims at producing a critical edition and English translation of Dias’ Tianwenlüe. My paper is therefore connected with Magone’s, “The textual tradition of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe”, in the present volume, and, needless to say, I am deeply indebted to him for many discussions and clarifications on this matter. I must also thank Isabel Pina for various discussions and very valuable information she gave me concerning Manuel Dias.
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THE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF MANUEL DIAS’ TIANWENLÜE
RUI MAGONE Free University of Berlin, Ostasiatisches Seminar, Sinologie Ehrenbergstrasse 26-28, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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This article will not present any exciting, sensational new findings on the brief astronomical treatise entitled Tianwenlüe composed by the Portuguese Jesuit Manuel Dias Jr. (1574–1659), also known as Yang Manuo , in 1615, the 43rd year of the Wanli period. Rather, it will recapitulate the textual history of Manuel Dias’ Explicatio Sphaerae coelestis — as the Tianwenlüe is sometimes called in Latin —, thus contributing to the “reconnaissance” phase of a project, the final goal of which is to accomplish an annotated English translation of this short, yet very influential, treatise.1 Mainly, this article deals with the following editions of the Tianwenlüe: 1. Editio princeps; (First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies); 3. Qinding gujin 2. Tianxue chuhan tushu jicheng (Imperially approved Synthesis of books and illustrations past and present); 4. Siku quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries); and 5. Yihai zhuchen (Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts). Of all these versions, the least satisfying in terms of editing is the one included in the Complete Library. By taking this inferior edition as its text of departure, the article tries to assess the different versions of the Tianwenlüe, specifically in terms of completeness and reliability.
Complete Library of Four Treasuries (Siku quanshu)
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There is one indication that the Tianwenlüe (Epitome of Questions on the Heavens) by the Portuguese Jesuit Manuel Dias was not an ephemeral and insignificant star in the cultural heavens of late imperial China. As it happens, it was included in the largest book compilation project in the history of mankind, namely the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (Siku quanshu ). In 1771, by order of the Qing emperor Qianlong , more than 350 eminent scholars began to compile a definitive imperial library which would eclipse any previous book project in all of history. These scholars reviewed and annotated over 10,000 books and manuscripts from imperial holdings and from collections all over the empire. Participating in this translation project are Henrique Leitão from the University of Lisbon, Portugal (see his contribution in this volume) and myself. Critical and/or supplementing comments on this paper are most welcome and can be directed to Rui Magone, at the above address, or via e-mail to
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In fact, this project was a major logistical enterprise conducted all over the vast empire, in every province, generating tons of red tape on which books were actually found (or could not be found by any means). The project took almost twenty years to complete: 3,836 copyists transcribed 2.3 million pages by hand into the final result, a library comprising the entire text of a total of 3,461 titles as well as a catalog describing and evaluating each and every title of the collection. Additionally, the catalog also described and evaluated (in self-justifying terms) 7,124 titles which were discarded from the final collection.2 The final collection was divided into four major topical sections, and in the third section termed zibu , commonly translated as the Philosophers’ Branch, there was a sub-section, named tianwen suanfa (Astronomy and Mathematics), including all texts related to the Science of the Heavens. It is in this (On the Structure section that we find — along with the Qiankun tiyi of the Sphere) and other Jesuit astronomical writings — the Tianwenlüe by Manuel Dias. The inclusion of Dias’ text into this prestigious collection shows that in the 18th century his treatise was still deemed important by Chinese literati. Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts (Yihai zhuchen)
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On the compilation of and statistics regarding the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, see: R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries. Scholars and the State in the Late Ch’ien-lung Era (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987); Huang Aiping . Siku quanshu zuanxiu yanjiu (A Study of the compilation of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) (Beijing: Renmin University Press, 1989). 四
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It has been noted that one function of such extensive book compilation projects, commonly called collectanea or congshu , was to preserve the transmission of texts which were too short to be edited as autonomous publications, especially if we consider the fragile nature of the traditional Chinese book, or rather booklet. In this they were rather similar to the tradition of the florilegia in the European Middle Ages. As it happens, the Tianwenlüe is a rather short text of approximately 100 traditional print pages. Normally we would assume that the inclusion of the Tianwenlüe into the Complete Library of Four Treasuries was mainly responsible for this treatise’s preservation down to our age. Looking at modern reprints of Manuel Dias’ text we will discover, however, that these never use the version as included in the Complete Library. The Congshu jicheng (Collected Collectanea), published between 1935 and 1937, remains, also due to its many reprints, one of the most popular “Everyman’s Libraries” in modern China. Integrated into its collection is a version of the Tianwenlüe derived from the Yihai zhuche (Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts), (d. 1810) some time after the a collectanea compiled by Wu Xinglan
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The textual tradition of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe
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Complete Library of Four Treasuries had been finalized.3 Moreover, according to the editors of the Congshu jicheng, the version of the Tianwenlüe reprinted in the Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts was identical with all other versions of this text available in collectanea previous to the Congshu jicheng. Despite this information, the editors chose not to recur to and actually ignored the version accessible in the Complete Library. The same was done by the editors of one of the most useful collectanea for historians of Chinese science and technology, the Zhongguo kexue jishu dianji tonghui (Complete Collection of Classical Texts related to Science and Technology in China), published in 1993. They too favoured the edition included in the collectanea Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts. The fact that the Complete Library enhanced the Tianwenlüe’s prestige but was not directly responsible for its textual preservation gives rise to at least two questions: first, why have later editors and publishers not considered the Tianwenlüe version included in the Complete Library? And second, which version of Manuel Dias’ text was actually included by Wu Xinglan in his Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts collection? On the surface, the first question is rather easy to deal with because we can find the answer in the entry on the Tianwenlüe in the catalog to the Complete Library. In this entry, the catalogers, after giving a rather detailed and appreciative synopsis of Manuel Dias’ text, move on to deconstruct some of its contents: “Before [the main text] there is an author’s preface by Yang Manuo [Manuel Dias], in which he leaves the domain of his actual expertise in order to praise exceedingly the achievements of God. In an attempt to make naïve people rejoice, he then declares the 12th sphere, which is immobile, to be the place where the sages dwell and the actual location of the Heavenly Paradise which all believers of God will ascend to. He therefore uses his mathematical experience in order to prove the fabrication [according to which there exists] God’s paradise. His aim is so extreme that he becomes fallacious and delusive. However, his examinations of the Heavens are in fact superior to the old methods. Hence we cast aside all the absurd and devious doctrines [contained in this text] and included only those skills based on precise evidence. We excised [Yang Manuo’s] “author’s preface” in order to avoid listening to confused words. As for cutting out other passages of bizarre nonsense found intermittently in this text, this would have occasionally disrupted the context. These passages were kept in our version. But as indicated above, we eradicated all heresy in the text.” 4
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This collectanea was printed in the Jiaqing reign (1797–1821), presumably at the end of Wu Xinglan’s life. Qian Xi expanded the original collection in 1850. The Tianwenlüe was already included in the first collection, specifically in the shi -section. See Zhongguo congshu zonglu (Bibliography of Chinese collectanea) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1959–62), vol. 1, p. 162. Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao (Annotated general catalog of the Complete 錢
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In fact, the editors of the Complete Library did more than just suppress Manuel Dias’ author’s preface. Rather, they emasculated the Tianwenlüe by taking away the famous final pages on the telescope. By contrast, the version contained in the Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts collection includes these final pages (but not the author’s preface which was suppressed as well). Time was not sufficient to do a comparative analysis of the different Tianwenlüe-versions, allowing us to assess to what extent the original text was truncated before being included in the Complete Library. In addition, it is only with much more knowledge and perhaps even a comprehensive study of all entries on astronomical works included in the catalog to the Complete Library that we might discover the reasons for the censorship acted upon the Epitome of Questions on the Heavens. For now, I just follow Kent Guy, who has written a substantial book on the Complete Library in which he speculates that the “[...] Catalog editors’ reluctance to acknowledge the contributions of the Jesuits to Chinese astronomy reflected the restriction on Jesuit residence in China first issued late in the Kang-hsi [Kangxi] reign and reinforced during the Yung-cheng [Yongzheng] and early Ch’ien-lung [Qianlong] reigns”.5 A more philological than ideological reason for these textual omissions could be the one suggested by both John Henderson and Chu Ping-yi, namely that the catalog also served Confucian scholars as a platform to allow the integration of Western astronomy into indigenous tradition while exorcising the otherness contained within the cultural package of Western science and Christendom, thus creating or rather rejuvenating a “Chinese” astronomical tradition compatible with their own culture.6 For the purpose of this paper suffice it to say that later generations disregarded the Tianwenlüe text as included in the Complete Library for the simple reason that it was not a reliable version of the original text. 3.
First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies (Tianxue chuhan)
Due to the Complete Library’s policy to purchase of any book included in the collection the best and most reliable version available in the empire, we must assume that the editors had such a version to copy, or rather excise from at their disposal. Since the catalogers always took care to mark down the geographical provenience of any edition received by the project, we know that the Complete Library based its version of the Tianwenlüe on an edition submitted to the court by the 5 6
Library of the Four Treasuries) (Haikou: Hainan chubanshe, 1999), p. 546. R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, p. 138. See: Ping-yi Chu, “Technical knowledge, cultural practices and social boundaries: Wan-nan scholars and the recasting of Jesuit astronomy, 1600–1800” (Ph.D., history, University of California, 1994); John Henderson, “Ch’ing Scholars’ Views of Western Astronomy”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 46.1 (1986), pp. 121–148.
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Governor-general of Liangjiang, i.e. the southern Jiangnan and Jiangxi Provinces.7 Unfortunately, no additional data on the received edition are provided by the catalog, not even information on whether Manuel Dias’ text was an autonomous publication or part of a collectanea. The general assumption, as suggested by the Complete Library’s catalog itself, is that the edition received was part of the Tianxue chuhan , also known as First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies, a collection compiled by Li Zhizao (1565–1630) in 1626. This collection, which basically reflects the intellectual production of the Jesuit missionaries and their Chinese associates in the first half of the 17th century, classified its texts into two main branches: li (principles), and qi (instruments). The Tianwenlüe was part of the Qi-branch. According to the entry regarding the Tianxue chuhan in the catalog to the Complete Library, it would seem that the editors of the Siku quanshu, who had a copy of this collectanea, took their version of the Tianwenlüe from the First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies. The likeliness of this provenience is underlined by the fact that their copy was also submitted by the Governor-general of Liangjiang. 8 Moreover, the editors’ attitude towards the First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies was as censorious as towards the Tianwenlüe. Basically, they disregarded the writings included in the li-section, i.e. all books dealing with Christian philosophy or doctrine, and took into account only the texts included in the qi-section. In other words, they retrieved the technical writings contained in the First Collectanea and integrated them as independent works in the library. 4.
Imperially Approved Synthesis of Books and Illustrations Past and Present (Qinding gujin tushu jicheng)
A thorough analysis of the Tianwenlüe version included in the Complete Library makes one wonder, however, about the editors’ policy to purchase the best and most reliable version of any included book available, because in the copy they used there were apparently almost three pages missing!9 Is it possible that a
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Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao, p. 546. On the Complete Library’s book-purchasing policies and logistics, see Chapter 2 of Huang Aiping, Siku quanshu zuanxiu yanjiu, pp. 15–37. Ibd., p. 687. The assumption that the Complete Library’s editors retrieved their version of the Tianwenlüe from the First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies is also reinforced by the fact that all versions of writings from the qi-section included in the Complete Library, such as for example Sabatino de Ursis’ (Chinese name Xiong Sanba ; 1575–1612) Biaodu shuo (Explanation of the Gnomon) and Jianping yishuo (Explanation of the Simple Altazimuth Quadrant), were submitted to the court by the Governor-general of Liangjiang. For these missing pages (marked as missing by the character que ) see Yang Manuo (Manuel Dias), Tianwenlüe (Epitome of Questions on the Heavens), in: Siku quanshu (Complete Library of Four Treasuries) (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1987), vol. 787, (traditional) pp. 41a–43a. These pages are not missing in any of the other extant versions mentioned in this article, including the 三
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somehow incomplete copy was the best version of the Tianwenlüe the editors of the Complete Library could lay their hands upon? In other words, was this the only copy available in the late eighteenth century, which would explain why this textual lacuna could not be efficiently repaired? For once we happen to know that this was not the case. In fact, the editors had a complete version of the Tianwenlüe almost at their finger’s tip because this text had been included in toto in the Qinding gujin tushu jicheng (Imperially approved Synthesis of books and illustrations past and present), the largest encyclopaedia project ever accomplished in imperial China, comprising 10,000 juan, which number 60 million characters on 852,408 pages divided into six main categories and 32 sections. The project was initiated by the Kangxi emperor — actually, it seems to have been a favourite project of his — and completed in 1726–1728.10 We know with certainty that this encyclopaedia was available to the Complete Library editors, as it was made a rule by the Qianlong emperor that private collectors who contributed more than five hundred titles to the Complete , Bao Shigong Library — such as the Hangzhou merchants Fan Maozhu and Wang Qishu — were each to be rewarded with one set of this encyclopaedia.11 Thus, it would have been an easy task for the editors to retrieve for their specific purposes the complete text of the Tianwenlüe contained in this magnum opus, especially since it appears almost right at the beginning of the first of all categories, Qianxiang , “The Heavens”, practically at reading distance from the paratexts to this encyclopaedia.12 So how to explain this unfortunate lacuna? One possible explanation, or rather speculation, is that it was motivated by carelessness. There is one famous anecdote about the Qianlong emperor walking through the stacks filled with the freshly compiled Complete Library of the Four Treasuries and, just for the pleasure of it, pulling out one volume at random from one of the shelves — only to discover that the volume was blank and contained no text at all. Facing a merciless deadline in terms of finishing the project, the copyists took resort to all version contained in the First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies which seems to have been the source for the Complete Library’s edition of the Tianwenlüe. 10 For a short overview of this encyclopaedia, see: Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cambridge, Mass./London: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 559–562; Lionel Giles, An Alphabetical Index to the Chinese Encyclopaedia (London: British Museum, 1911). 11 See: R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, pp. 90–91; Huang Aiping, Siku quanshu zuanxiu yanjiu, p. 33. 12 See Volume 2, pp. 9–24, of the facsmile reproduction of the original edition, Beijing: Zhonghua/ Ba-Shu, 1985. Unfortunately, it is not clear yet — at least not to me — which copy of the Tianwenlüe the editors of this encyclopaedia chose to base their version upon. Typographically, the images included in this version are different in quality from those contained in other versions of Dias’ opus. The most striking feature about the images in this version is moreover the fact that they were supplemented with legends.
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kinds of short cuts instead of copying each and every line.13 Perhaps that is what happened to the Tianwenlüe, but at the present stage of my research this is no more than a tentative speculation. 5.
The Question of Paratexts
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Let us now turn to the second editorial question of this paper, namely: which version of Manuel Dias’ text was included by Wu Xinglan in his Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts collection? Disappointingly, Wu Xinglan’s collectanea does not provide us with any concrete data related to the provenience of its Tianwenlüe-version. We can only venture a far-fetched speculation substantiated by almost no evidence, though once again linked to the compiling of the Complete Library. We know from the extant red tape that some members of the Complete Library’s editing staff profited from this megalomaniac book-collecting project by working on rarely seen texts with the ultimate goal of making copies for themselves or even for sale. Occasionally, these bibliomaniac appetites were so gargantuan that some of the editors would hire a private staff of several copyists to assist them in their purloining activities. 14 As it happens, Wu Xinglan, a member of the Hanlin academy, served in the Complete Library Commission as ).15 This means that he had access to “collating official” (zuanxiuguan the books purchased for this library project, and we should keep in mind that (a) the editors collected about 10,000 titles but used only one third for the final version of the library, and (b) of one title there were often several different editions available. Eventually, so we might surmise, Wu had copies made of those texts he found most interesting and then compiled the Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts collectanea in order to share his textual spoil with a larger audience. In other words, Wu might have looked through the different versions of the Tianwenlüe which had been collected for the Complete Library. He then found a particular edition more reliable than the one eventually chosen by the Complete Library editors. He had a copy made of this version and made that text part of his collectanea. 13
See R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries, pp. 95–104. See ibid., pp. 93–94. 15 See Siku quanshu (Complete Library of Four Treasuries), vol. 1, p. 26; for Wu Xinglan’s biography (which unfortunately omits any information concerning the Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts collectanea and its compilation) see Qingshi liezhuan (Qing biographies) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1987), vol. 7, pp. 2170–2172. In fact, Wu Xinglan is a rather well-known historical figure — even more so through his continuous “appearance” in several documentaries and historical soaps produced in the People’s Republic — due to the fact that he was the teacher of the infamous Heshen (1750–1799). 珅
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This of course is only a speculation which lacks concrete evidence. Besides, even if Wu’s version of the Tianwenlüe was indeed linked to the Complete Library project there is no way to determine its actual provenience, let alone to say how many different editions of Dias’ treatise were eventually collected by the Complete Library editors. The only thing we can say for sure is that Wu Xinglan’s version of the Tianwenlüe is superior to the version included in the Complete Library (but not necessarily to the one contained in the Imperially approved Synthesis) because (a) it contains the two final and most famous pages on the telescope, and (b) there are no pages missing from the main text. A common feature of these three versions (Imperially approved Synthesis, Complete Library, Dust of Pearls) is moreover the fact that they all suppressed Manuel Dias’ author’s preface or any other paratexts attached to the main text of the Tianwenlüe. By contrast, the First Collection of Heavenly Studies Tianxue chuhan includes the paratexts to Manuel Dias’ opus, specifically his author’s preface.16 Another extremely interesting aspect of the First Collection’s version of the Tianwenlüe is the fact that main text’s first page not only reveals to us that Manuel Dias was responsible for the answers to the questions on the Heavens but also provides us with the names of his Chinese collaborators Zhou Xiling , Kong Zhenshi and Wang Yingxiong , who all became jinshi at the palace examination of 1613.17 Furthermore, these three literati also contributed prefaces of their own to the Tianwenlüe. In other words, the version of Manuel Dias’ treatise included in the First Collection comprises the whole main text, his own preface, and three other paratexts, each a preface composed by one of Dias’ Chinese collaborators respectively. None of these paratexts, including Manuel Dias’ avant-propos, reveal much about the composition process of the Tianwenlüe but they do tell us by which date (though not at which place precisely) the final text was accomplished, namely in 1615. In passing we should note that in the Tianwenlüe-version included in the Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts at the beginning of the 19th century, we encounter a slightly different story on the first page of the main text. The author of the Tianwenlüe is still Manuel Dias, but gone are his Chinese collaborators Zhou, Kong and Wang. Instead, we find two other names listed: Wu Xinglan
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Since this would be the subject for another whole paper, I am not providing a translation of Manuel Dias’ preface in this article. Let me only say in passing that the editors of the Complete Library were not totally wrong in their assessment, i.e. unlike in the main text, Dias becomes very theological and philosophical in his preface, linking astronomy — which he classifies into the theoretical and practical domains — to God’s creation of the world and to the Celestial Paradise. 17 See Ming Qing jinshi timing beilu suoyin (Index to the jinshi steles of Ming and Qing times) (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1980), pp. 2590–2592.
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6.
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and Xia Xuanzhou , who acted as “compiler” and “proofreader” for this 19th century edition of the Tianwenlüe but had nothing to do with the Christian mission of the 17th century. Interestingly, here too, as in the Complete Library, all paratexts pertinent to the Tianwenlüe were omitted. At this stage, it is possible to speculate (but not necessarily determine) which version of Manuel Dias’ text was actually included in Wu Xinglan’s Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts collection. Different from the Complete Library, the Tianwenlüe version compiled and proofread by Wu Xinglan and Xia Xuanzhou is complete as far as the main text is concerned. This could be an indication that they recurred to another version of the Tianwenlüe circulating in the Chinese empire at the end of the 18th century. It could have been the First Collection’s version (but a different edition from the one used by the Complete Library, i.e. with no pages missing?) which Wu and Xia denuded of all paratexts, as they were perhaps of the same opinion as the editors of the Complete Library. But if they were of the same opinion, why did they decide to include the final pages on the telescope which were omitted deliberately from the version in the Siku quanshu? It could also have been the version integrated in the encyclopaedia Qinding gujin tushu jicheng (Imperially approved Synthesis of books and illustrations past and present) but then we might wonder why Wu and Xia did not accept the improvements made by the Qing encyclopaedists, for example the legends explaining the single illustrations. Moreover, Wu and Xia’s version of the Tianwenlüe includes the famous image in which Saturn is depicted as a chicken’s egg with two small stars. By contrast, this image is missing in the encyclopaedia’s version of the Tianwenlüe. Or perhaps, to add a final speculation, Wu and Xia worked with almost professional dedication and collated their version by using and comparing different editions of the Tianwenlüe available to them. Editio Princeps
But maybe the Tianwenlüe was in much wider circulation than we assume, and there are other editions of the text which were independent and not necessarily part of a major collectanea. Reading the entry on Manuel Dias in the Dictionary of Ming Biography, we find these lines which seem to indicate that there was at least another edition of the Tianwenlüe in circulation. The relevant passage, written by Luther Carrington Goodrich, reads as follows: “In his conclusion Dias reports the most recent discoveries (1609) made: the observations of Saturn, the four moons of Jupiter, and the Milky Way, all being the work of Galileo and his telescope, though the name of the astronomer is nowhere mentioned. Ten Chinese scholars, including Hsü Kuang-ch’i
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], Yang T’ing-yün [Yang Tingyun ], and Li Chih-tsao ], are listed by name in the book as ‘proofreaders’.” 18 楊
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As we have seen, the Tianxue chuhan edition includes only the names of three Chinese scholars — Kong Zhenshi, Zhou Xiling, and Wang Yingxiong — but does not mention Xu Guangqi, Yang Tingyun, Li Zhizao or other literati involved in the project. Where does Carrington Goodrich have his information from? Going through the list of sources he used for writing his entry on Manuel Dias, we stumble upon the English translation of Pasquale D’Elia’s seminal book Galileo in Cina. In a rather copious footnote dealing with Manuel Dias, D’Elia mentions that the Vatican Library has a copy of the Tianwenlüe (Vatican Library, Borgia Cinese, 324) which the French sinologist Paul Pelliot regarded as the editio princeps of Manuel Dias’ text. This edition seems not merely to be the earliest — only with the original manuscript would we get earlier than this — but also somehow special. Here is why it is special according to D’Elia:
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“The Vatican edition, indeed, possesses some particulars which the other editions do not have. In the first place, since the work is in the form of questions and answers, this edition is the only one which indicates Emmanuel Diaz as he who “answers” these questions, and gives the names of the two official revisers of the work, John da Rocha (Luo Ruwang ) and Pedro Ribeiro (Li Ningshi ), who reached China respectively in 1597 and 1604. In the second place, it is also the only edition which gives the list of nine Chinese literati, all laymen, well known in the history of the Catholic Church in China in the neighbourhood of 1600, who would have been the “proofreaders” . They are: Zhou Xiling , Kong Zhenshi , Wang Yingxiong , Xiong Mingyu , Li Zhizao , Xu Leshan , Yang Tingyun , Xu Guangqi and Zhuo Erkang .” 19 18
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Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644, Luther Carrington/Chaoying Fang (eds.) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), vol. 1, p. 415. 19 Pasquale d’Elia, Galileo in China. Relations through the Roman College between Galileo and the Jesuit Scientist-Missionaries (1610–1640), Transl. Rufus Suter/Matthew Sciascia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 90 (footnote 61). Curiously, not ten (as stated by Carrington Goodrich) but rather nine Chinese literati seem to have been involved in this editio princeps of the Tianwenlüe. I am not sure that this edition is identical with the one listed in Albert Chan, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome. A Descriptive Catalog (Armonk: Sharpe 2002), p. 122, because Chan only lists Kong Zhenshi, Zhou Xiling and Wang Xiong as proofreaders. An interesting feature about the edition mentioned by Chan is that the name of the engraver is given, namely Liu Guangyang from Jingde , Anhui Province. Last but perhaps also least, it should be mentioned that D’Elia’s statement as to the editio princeps being “the only one which indicates Emmanuel Diaz as he who “answers” these questions” is not quite indisputable since the term “tiaoda ” appears in the First Collection’s edition as well. Moreover, even the Dust of Pearls from the Ocean of Arts edition uses the shorter “da ”.
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The textual tradition of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe
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See Zhongguo guji shanben shumu, Zibu , (Union Catalog of Old and Rare Books in Chinese libraries. Philosophers’ Branch) (Shanghai: Guji, 1996), vol. 1, p. 258, and vol. 2, p. 1117. 中
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This edition of course needs to be checked, which — certainly the greatest flaw in this article — I have not been able to do so far. Instead, I came up with a different problem. If Paul Pelliot is right and the Vatican’s copy is to be considered the editio princeps of the Tianwenlüe we may assume that more than one copy of this edition were printed and circulated. In other words: are any other copies of this editio princeps available in other parts of the world, specifically in China? According to the Union Catalog of Old and Rare Books in ) there Chinese libraries (Zhongguo guji shanben shumu exist two print copies of the Tianwenlüe dating from the Wanli period, i.e., the period during which the original book was composed and published. These copies are kept at Shandong Province Library (Shandong sheng tushuguan ) and Nanjing Library (Nanjing tushuguan ) 20 respectively. Unfortunately, since these copies still must be examined it is not possible yet to assess their relationship to the edition(s) mentioned by D’Elia and Chan. Assuming that these extant versions are further copies of the editio princeps, we could generate the following narrative: The Tianwenlüe was published in 1615. Copies of this editio princeps circulated in the empire, and at least three copies of this first edition are still extant, namely in the Vatican and in China. After being included in the First Collection of Heavenly Studies, no more autonomous editions of the Tianwenlüe were published. During the Qing encyclopaedists and later library compilers recurred to the first edition or/and to the Tianxue chuhan edition in order to establish their versions. Finally, in the 19th century a scholar integrated a new version of the Tianwenlüe into his collectanea, presumably (a) because he felt that the Complete Library project had mutilated the text, and (b) because he became aware of the fact that the text did not have enough circulation in the empire. There is however one little detail troubling this wonderfully smooth narrative. Even though the Union Catalog of Old and Rare Books in Chinese libraries is called a union catalog for both old and rare books, it lists in fact only the rare books. In modern China, mainly editions dating from until the end of the 18th century are considered to be rare books. Any book or document dating from the 19th century onwards, unless it has some special feature (e.g., multicoloured prints or handwritten annotations), is not a rare book and therefore not included in the Union Catalog. Thus, though ideally there may have been myriads of copies of different Tianwenlüe-editions in the 19th century of which modern Chinese
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libraries still possess copies, we would not know because these copies are not listed in the Union Catalog. Another problem with the Union Catalog is that for different reasons many of the data provided by the libraries involved at the time of its compilation were far from complete.21 In short, the preliminary straightforwardness of our narrative may be related to the fact that at this stage our information about the different editions of the Tianwenlüe is still extremely scant. 7.
A List of Different Editions
Let me summarize the long and winding road we have travelled so far by putting all the information presented into the right chronological order:
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Tianxue chuhan (First Collectanea of Heavenly Studies) Year of Publication: 1626. Collectanea/Autonomous: Collectanea.
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Editio princeps Year of Publication: 1615. Collectanea/Autonomous: Autonomous. Main Text Complete/Fragmentary: Complete. Paratexts: Author’s preface by Manuel Dias, three prefaces, resp. by Zhou Xiling , Kong Zhenshi and Wang Yingxiong , gives the names of the two official revisers of the work, John da Rocha and Peter Ribeiro . Gives the list of nine Chinese literati who acted as “proofreaders” : Zhou Xiling , , Wang Yingxiong , Xiong Mingyu Kong Zhenshi , Li Zhizao , Xu Leshan , Yang Tingyun , Xu Guangqi and Zhuo Erkang . Extant copies: 1 in Vatican (assuming that D’Elia and Chan refer to the same copy); allegedly two more copies available respectively at the Shandong Province Library and Nanjing Library.22 Problems: Are these all copies of the same edition, or were there several autonomous editions of the Tianwenlüe in the Ming-Dynasty? Do all copies list 9 Chinese literati acting as proofreaders or is the Vatican copy mentioned by D’Elia special? 周
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This information about the Union Catalog’s shortcomings is based on several informal conversations ) with staff members from the Beijing Capital Library (Beijing shoudu tushuguan and the Palace Museum Library (Beijing gugong bowuyuan tushuguan ). 22 Han Qi from the Academy of Sciences in Beijing pointed out to me that the Bodleian Library at Oxford University holds a Ming edition of the Tianwenlüe. I still have to check how this copy relates to the first edition.
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The textual tradition of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe
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Main Text Complete/Fragmentary: Complete. Paratexts: Author’s preface by Manuel Dias, three prefaces, resp. by Zhou Xiling , Kong Zhenshi and Wang Yingxiong . Copy used for this article: Modern reprint of the original edition. Problems: In terms of circulation, how many copies of this collectanea were available in imperial times? 成
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Yihai zhuchen (Pearls of Dust from the Ocean of Arts) [The Standard Version] Year of Publication: Jiaqing reign (1797–1821), presumably at the end of Wu Xinglan’s (?–1810) life. Collectanea/Autonomous: Collectanea. Main Text Complete/Fragmentary: Complete. Paratexts: None.
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Siku quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) Year of Publication: 1790s. Collectanea/Autonomous: Collectanea. Main Text Complete/Fragmentary: Fragmentary, once deliberate (final two pages were excised) and once due to lacuna in the original copy (pp. 41a–43a). Paratexts: None. Copy used for this article: Modern reprint of the original Wenyuange edition. Problems: Which copy did the editors use? Why was the lacuna not repaired with the help of the text available in the imperial encyclopaedia? Why were the final two pages excised?
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(Imperially Qinding gujin tushu jicheng Approved Synthesis of Books and Illustrations Past and Present) Year of Publication: 1723–25. Collectanea/Autonomous: Collectanea or rather Encyclopaedia. Main Text Complete/Fragmentary: Complete but for one illustration in which Saturn is depicted as a chicken’s egg with two small stars. Paratexts: None. Copy used for this article: Modern reprint of the original edition. Problems: Where did the encyclopaedists get their copy from? Who created the legends for the illustrations? Who enhanced the quality of the illustrations? 欽
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Copies used for this article: Modern reprints of the original edition, specifically 1. Congshu jicheng [Collected Collectanea], 1935–37, and 2. Zhongguo kejue jishu dianji tonghui [Complete Collection of Classical Texts related to Science and Technology in China], 1993). Problems: Which copy did the compilers use? Why was the preface not included? And why is this version considered to be the standard version although it lacks all the prefaces?23 *** At its best, this article has revealed that to some extent the textual history of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe can be retraced, though it is still full of lacunae which further research might eventually be able to eliminate. Clearly, it is indispensable to establish a clear picture of how the different editions of the Tianwenlüe depended on each other, before being able to assess the extent of its circulation, transmission and reception. 24 In addition, the article also shows that the Tianwenlüe’s textual history has been heavily dominated by the Complete Library’s partly negative assessment of this short opus. Specifically, this means that in historiographic terms the Tianwenlüe has been regarded as relevant for its use only rather than its essence which explains why modern critical editions still prefer to discard the paratexts written by Manuel Dias and his Chinese collaborators. 23
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According to the Zhongguo congshu guanglu (Extended catalog of Chinese collectanea) (Wuhan: Hubei renmin, 1999), the manuscript collectanea Sibuguo zhai canshu (Fragmentary Writings from the Studio of Penitent Thoughts), compiled by Zhao Zhaoxi in the Daoguang era (1821–1850), also includes a version of the Tianwenlüe, which I have not been able to check yet. 24 That the Tianwenlüe was studied by Chinese literati is confirmed for example by You Yi’s Tianjing huowen (Questions about the Principles of Heaven; composed ca. 1666), which at one place quotes and discusses the Tianwenlüe. See Feng Jinrong (Fung Kam Wing), “You Yi ji qi ‘Tianjing huowen qian houji’ ‘ ’ ” (The former and latter parts of You Yi’s ‘Questions about the Principles of Heaven’), in: Di qi jie Zhongguo kexueshi huiyi wenji (The Colloquia of the 7th International Conference on the History of Science in China) (Zhengzhou: Da Xiang Press, 1999), pp. 286–301. Another example is Xiong Mingyu, one of the Tianwenlüe’s Chinese collaborators — at least according to the editio princeps. In 1648 he wrote a treatise entitled Gezhi cao (Draft on the Investigation of Things), in which he attempted to provide a synthesis of Western and Chinese astronomy. For more details see Feng Jinrong (Fung Kam Wing), “Mingmo Xiong Mingyu ‘Gezhi cao’ neirong tanxi ‘ ’ ” (A descriptive analysis of the late Ming ‘Draft on the Investigation of Things’ by Xiong Mingyu), Ziran kexueshi yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences), 16.4 (1997), pp. 304–328.
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The textual tradition of Manuel Dias’ Tianwenlüe
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However, this is not entirely a problem of historiography. As Yao Licheng has indicated in a very insightful article, it may not be pure coincidence that , instead of Tiānwénlüè Manuel Dias’ text is named Tiānwènlüè (Epitome of Astronomy) as we would normally expect from an astronomical treatise.25 Rather, it was a deliberate choice because the title was intended to refer to the “Heavenly Questions” (Tianwen ), a section of Qu Yuan’s ). Consisting of short (ca. 374 – 278 B.C.) famous Songs of the South (Chuci questions and long answers, this classical text provided an authoritative Chinese matrix to accommodate the European genre of erotapokriseis, or quaestiones literature. More important is however the Tianwen’s reference to the traditional “Nine Heavens” theory (jiu chong tian ), which Manuel Dias and his collaborators exploited — right at the beginning of their treatise — in order to legitimize the Western notion of the 12 celestial spheres (rendered by Dias and his collaborators as shi’er chong tian ).26 By using this title, Manuel Dias’ and his Chinese collaborators were making a clear effort to present Western astronomy in Chinese terms, or rather disguise.27 Their strategy was to eclipse as much as possible the actual context in and out of which Western astronomy had been created.28 25
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There is actually an astronomical treatise entitled Tiānwénlüè (Epitome of Astronomy) by the Ming author Cai Ru’nan (1516–1565). See Zhongguo guji shanben shumu, Zibu, vol. 1, p. 258. 26 Yao Licheng , “Guanyu ‘Tianwenlüe’ zuozhe lai Hua niandai ji qi chengshu Beijing de ruogan taolun ‘ ’ ” (On the Date of the Arrival of Manuel Dias in China and some questions related to the composition of the Tianwenlüe), (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences), 24.2 (2005), Ziran kexueshi yanji pp. 156–164. In his article, Yao also discusses the dichotomy prevalent between the main text and the paratexts of the Tianwenlüe, concluding that originally Dias did not intend to write an author’s preface. Rather, the excessively religious message of Dias’ avant-propos was a ruse, or compromise solution, to circumvent the Church’s regulation, instituted in 1614, according to which all activities not related to spreading the gospel were to be discontinued (ibd., p. 161). Another point that Yao makes in his article is that according to our sources Manuel Dias was not (but all his Chinese collaborators were) residing in Beijing at the time when the Tianwenlüe was finalized, i.e. in 1614–1615. He suggests three solutions to solve this anachronism: (1) After providing the contents and the basic structure of the Tianwenlüe, Dias left Beijing and delegated the final composing and editing phase to his Chinese collaborators; (2) after finishing the manuscript outside of Beijing, Dias sent the text to his Chinese collaborators who gave it the final polishing; or (3) our primary sources are erroneous and in 1614–1615 Dias was actually still in Beijing where he composed and finalized the Tianwenlüe together with nine Chinese literati (ibd., p. 160). 27 In fact, commentators of Qu Yuans Tianwen (Heavenly Questions) did occasionally use their exegetical space to discuss astronomical and cosmographic questions. See John B. Henderson, The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), p. 105. 28 As it seems, Dias and his Chinese collaborators took great care to keep the geographical source of their astronomical knowledge as vague as possible by using terms such as “wu guo ” (my country) or “xiyang ” (the West). Also, Western astronomers are never mentioned by
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Through a detailed analysis of a memorial that Li Zhizao submitted to the throne in 1613, Yao Licheng also shows that the astronomical writings of the Jesuit mission were actually the result of systematic planning and long-term preparation. Apparently, they even made use of the civil service examination to recruit the best literati of the empire to work on the Tianwenlüe. Dias’ Chinese collaborators Kong Zhenshi, Zhou Xiling and Wang Yingxiong were all finalists in the 1613 metropolitan examination where Xu Guangqi served as Associate Examiner (tongkaoguan ). It is very likely that Xu in his function as examiner approached these successful candidates to recruit them for the Tianwenlüe project. Yao Licheng suggests that it was not their astronomical expertise but rather their involvement in the 1613 examination that provided Kong, Zhou and Wang access to the editorial staff of Manuel Dias. A different theory — which remains speculative because it awaits confirmation, or perhaps celun) at this rather deconstruction — is that one of the policy questions ( metropolitan examination may have been related to astronomical or calendrical matters and that Xu Guangqi recruited those finalists who seemed to be most versatile in this field of studies. But this would be indeed an exciting or even sensational new finding and as such well beyond our aims, as stated in the first sentence of this article.29
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name in the text. This strategy explains too why Galileo’s name never appears in the Tianwenlüe. Rather, he is referred to as “a Western scholar of high reputation, who is well-versed in the ) (see two final pages in calendrical methods” (xiyang jingyu lifa yi mingshi the editions mentioned in this article with the exception of the Complete Library, which excised this famous passage on Galileo and the telescope). The general misconception about Galileo being mentioned by name in the Tianwenlüe was already fiercely deconstructed by Pasquale d’Elia in his Galileo in China, p. 90 (footnote 61). However, occasionally it flares up again, see for instance Colette Diény, “L’introduction du télescope en Chine”, in: Nombres, Astres, Plantes et Viscères. Sept Essais sur l’Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques en Asie Orientale, Isabelle Ang / PierreÉtienne Will (eds.) (Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1994), p. 180. 29 There is however no direct method of retrieving the celun-topics for this metropolitan examination. Normally, the most efficient way to access the policy questions is to check the examination record or report (shilu or timinglu ). Unfortunately, at least according to “Civil Examination Primary Sources, 1148–1904”, in Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 2000), p. 630, there are no copies extant from the record of report for this examination. Zhang Chaorui’s (Survey of civil examinations during the Ming dynasty) Huang Ming gongju kao does not cover this exam either. In any case, Dias had top Chinese collaborators at his side working on the Tianwenlüe project. With a single exception, there were all jinshi (Xu Leshan 1571; Yang Tingyun 1592; Li Zhizao 1598; Xiong Mingyu 1601; Xu Guangqi 1604; Kong Zhenshi, Zhou Xiling, Wang Yingxiong 1613). The only exception was Zhou Erkang, who was “only” awarded the juren degree. However, he was a profilic writer and extremely well-versed in the Five Classics. See Zhongwen da cidian (Taibei: Zhongguo wenhua yanjiu suo, 1962–68), Entry nr. 2792.66.
RESTORING THE UNITY OF THE WORLD: FANG YIZHI AND JIE XUAN’S RESPONSES TO ARISTOTELIAN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY LIM JONGTAE Interdisciplinary Program in History and Philosophy of Science College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
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In this article I will examine how a group of mid-seventeenth century Chinese literati responded to the religious and philosophical implications of the Jesuits’ science. As is well known, the Jesuit missionaries, who entered China to evangelise it, introduced to Chinese literati Western learning, which consisted of the science, philosophy and Christian theology of medieval and early modern Europe. Thus Chinese literati were faced with the demanding task of finding reasonable ways of understanding an intellectual tradition that was totally foreign to them. According to the account widely accepted among modern historians of science, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Chinese literati responded to Western learning by drawing a rather clear division between its scientific and the Christian– Aristotelian parts; and they adopted the former while denouncing the latter. Although this picture does give the overall pattern of how the Chinese dealt with Western learning, it nevertheless oversimplifies the complex issues posed by Western learning and Chinese approaches to it. Most of all, this picture supposes that the Chinese considered the scientific part of Western learning to be something neutral and thus easily separable from its philosophical and religious “absurdities”. But this does not conform to what actually happened; Western science as presented by the Jesuits was deeply imbued with Aristotelian philosophy and was very often used to support the Christian world picture. The Christian–Aristotelian aspects of Western scientific knowledge were not hidden to Chinese literati, including even to those who acknowledged the overall reliability of Western science. Consequently, to reasonable-minded literati, adopting Western science was not just a straightforward task of separating undesirable philosophical overtones from it, but a task that required a direct confrontation with Western science as a whole, which embodied the Christian–Aristotelian vision of the world. In this respect, the cases of Fang Yizhi (1611–1671) and Jie Xuan (ca.1613 – after 1697), prominent literati philosophers of the mid-seventeenth
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century, provide us with a good example to illuminate the complex nature of literati’s responses to Western scientific knowledge. Although they were exceptionally favourable to Jesuit science, they nevertheless found in it something unreasonable, for which they proposed their own alternatives. In examining their research about Western science, special emphasis will be put on understanding Fang Yizhi’s famous dichotomy of zhice vs. tongji , a dichotomy that constitutes the core of his creative approach to the tension between the Christian–Aristotelian and the Chinese traditions. 1. Fang Yizhi, Jie Xuan and Their Colleagues
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Little research is yet available about the lives and the academic endeavours of these literati as a group or school, except for the research that deal with them independently. A notable exception is Zhang Yongtang’s research in which he studies all of the figures mentioned above. See: Zhang Yongtang, Mingmo Fangshi xuepai yanjiu chubian: mingmo lixue yu kexue guanxi shilun : , Taipei: Wenjing wenhua shiye youxian gongshe, 1988 [hereafter referred to as Shilun]; Mingmo Qingchu lixue yu kexue guanxi , Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1994 [hereafter referred to zailun as Zailun]. For the life of Fang Yizhi, about whom considerable research have been conducted, see, for example, Peterson, Willard J., Bitter Gourd: Fang I-chih and the Impetus for Intellectual Change, New Heaven: Yale University Press, 1979. For a brief account of Fang’s life, Peterson, “Fang I-chih: Western Learning and the ‘Investigation of Things’ ”, in William Theodore de Bary et al. (eds.), The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 369–376, will be useful. About the other figures mentioned above, no comprehensive research comparable to those about Fang Yizhi is available. Short biographies of You Yi, Jie Xuan and Fang Zhongtong are included in a collection of biographies of astronomers edited by Ruan Yuan (1764–1849) in the late eighteenth century; see Ruan Yuan, Chouren zhuan , juan 36, , Shanghai: Guji Chubanshe, 1995–1999, [hereafter in the Xuxiu siku quanshu referred to as XXSKQS] vol. 516, pp. 354–355. Zhang Yongtang also gave general surveys of the lives and thoughts of Jie Xuan and You Yi; “Jie Xuan de wuli yanjiu ji qiyu xixue de guanxi ”, in Zhang Yongtang, Shilun, Chapter 5, pp. 188–195; “You Yi de qiongli zhi xue ”, in Zhang Yongtang, Zailun, Chapter 2, pp. 49–103. 揭
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Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan were representative of literati natural philosophers, who constituted a dynamic academic network around the Jiangxi province during the Ming-Qing dynastic transition. Fang Yizhi, with his intellectual charisma and established reputation in the academic world, led the group. He set its intellectual agenda and encouraged the academic activities of his followers. Jie Xuan, once an ardent Ming loyalist, became Fang Yizhi’s disciple after meeting him in 1659; he eventually gained fame through brilliant achievements in the field of cosmology. Also included in this group were Fang Yizhi’s three sons, notably the second one, Fang Zhongtong (d. 1698), and Jie Xuan’s close friend, You Yi (ca. 1612 – after 1684).1 The origin of the group can be traced to several pro-Jesuit literati-officials who pioneered syncretistic approaches to Western science and the Chinese
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In 1619, for example, Fang Kongzhao, accompanied his young son Yizhi, visited Xiong Mingyu, who introduced Western learning to them. Fang Kongzhao and Huang Daozhou collaborated on Yijing studies and Western astronomy while imprisoned in Beijing around the year 1640. For biographical information about these literati, see: Fung Kam-Wing , “Mingmo Xiong Mingyu fuzi yu xixue ”, in Law Ping-min et al. (eds.), Mingmo Qingchu Huanan diqu lishi renwu gongye yantaohui lunwen ji , Hong Kong: Zhongwen daxue lishi xi, 1993, pp. 117–135; Zhang Yongtang, “Xiong Mingyu de gezhi zhi xue ”, in Zhang, Zailun, Chapter 1, pp.5–48; Zhang Yongtang, “Fang Kongzhao Zhouyi shilun hebian yishu de zhuyao sixiang ”, in Zhang, Shilun, Chapter 1, pp. 1–68. Xiong Mingyu began to write an earlier draft of his major work, the Gezhi cao , in the late Wanli period (1573–1620). It was published in 1648 as a part of the Hanyu tong together with his son, Xiong Renlin’s geographical work, the Diwei . Fang Kongzhao began to write the Zhouyi shilun hebian , in the 1640s; it was completed after his death by his sons and disciples in 1657. Xiong Mingyu, Gezhi cao in the Zhongguo kexue jishu dianji tonghui-tianwen juan , Zhengzhou: Henan jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996; Fang Kongzhao, Zhouyi shilun hebian, in XXSKQS, vol. 15. Fang Yizhi wrote a considerable part of the Wuli xiaozhi in the early 1640s, but it was only published in 1666 after revisions by his sons and Jie Xuan. The draft of Jie Xuan’s Xuanji yishu was completed in about 1675, according to the date of Qiu Weiping’s preface. You Yi’s Tianjing huowen, according to the dates of the prefaces included in a Japanese edition (1730), was completed in about 1672. As for the date of the Sequel, You Yi showed its draft in 1681 to Lin Yunming , who recorded about it in his preface. The editions of these works that 馮
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natural studies in the last decades of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The main figures were Xiong Mingyu (1579–1649), Fang Kongzhao (1585–1646). They shared a deep (1591–1655) and Huang Daozhou interest in Western learning, and occasionally collaborated on researching issues concerning it.2 Their sporadic accomplishments in the political chaos immediately preceding the fall of Ming (1644–1645) were continued by the rising generation of scholars, consisting mainly of their sons and disciples — the central figure of which was Fang Kongzhao’s son, Yizhi.3 Based on the achievements of these senior scholars, Fang Yizhi articulated his own agenda that would guide the academic enterprise of the younger generation of literati. Their intellectual enterprise became more active in the chaotic period after the fall of the Ming dynasty. The solidarity among the group and its vitality were considerably enhanced during this period. Jie Xuan joined the group, followed by You Yi, once Xiong Mingyu’s disciple. They collectively conducted research about Western learning and natural studies, inquiring into, for example, the celestial dynamics and the nature of light. The collaborative nature of their research left definitive marks on their major works, especially on Fang Yizhi’s (Preliminary Records of the Principles of Things, 1666), Wuli xiaozhi Jie Xuan’s Xuanji yishu (Description of the Legacy of the Ancient Armillary Sphere) and You Yi’s Tianjing huowen (Dialogues on the Patterns of Heaven) as well as its Sequel (Houji ).4 They freely adopted the
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ideas of their colleagues into their own works and participated in completing others’ works by revising them and adding their own commentaries. Jie Xuan’s work, for example, was an outcome of his discussion with Fang Yizhi, who in turn incorporated a considerable part of Jie’s ideas into his own work. And both works were heavily annotated by other members of the group.5 What gave these scholars such intellectual unity was, first of all, their common interest in the study of natural phenomena. They were all strong advocates of scientific learning such as mathematics, astronomy and other fields of natural studies. Their curiosity touched virtually all realms of the universe, literally from heaven down to earth. Xiong Mingyu, a precursor of the group who exerted great influence on Fang Yizhi, summed up his comprehensive interest in the world of things as follows: “From the grand phenomena such as the fixed position of heaven and earth, the beautiful arrangement of stars, and the luxuriant transformation caused by the changes of qi, down to the minute things such as plants, trees, and worms, I observed one by one the images that naturally are, found out the reason-whys of them, and finally disclosed the principles that render things not to be in other ways than they are...” 6
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I will quote in this article are: Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, in the Wenyuange siku quanshu , Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983–1986 [hereafter referred to as SKQS], vol. 867, pp. 741–983; Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, in the Siku quanshu cunmu congshu , Jinan: Qilu shushe, 1995 [hereafter referred to as SKCC], zibu , vol. 55, pp. 379–492; You Yi, Tianjing huowen, in SKQS, vol. 793, pp. 565–645; You Yi, Tianjing huowen houji, in SKCC, zibu, vol. 55, pp. 326–378. On the origin of Jie Xuan’s work, see various prefaces to Xuanji yishu, especially those of Qiu Weiping, Fang Zhongtong and He Zhirun . Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, “Yuanshu ”, pp. 383–384, 387–388. Xiong Mingyu, Gezhi cao, “Zixu ”, p. 58. 何
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As a result, the scholars of the group mostly left works devoted to the study of natural phenomena. These works vividly convey their collective enthusiasm for natural phenomena; the prefaces and commentaries attached to the texts contain detailed reports about discussions, debates, and even systematic experimentations on the issues of astronomy, meteorology and optics. They intended to promote the position of natural studies in Chinese literati learning. They presented their research on natural phenomena as constituting the (investigation of things) — which in the traditions of the core of gewu Daoxue learning of the Song (960–1279) and Ming dynasties was considered to be the supreme endeavour of Confucian literati to fathom the heavenly principle. As has been pointed out in various studies, this conceptualisation of gewu represented the main academic agenda of Fang Yizhi; it was aimed at criticizing the intuitionalism of the Wang Yangming school, a dominant
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On Fang Yizhi’s conceptualization of the gewu, see Peterson, “Fang I-chih: Western Learning and the ‘Investigation of Things’ ”, pp. 376–382. Fang Yizhi’s position can be traced back to those of Fang Kongzhao and Xiong Mingyu. See: Zhang Yongtang, “Fang Kongzhao Zhouyi shilun hebian yishu de zhuyao sixiang”, in Shilun, pp. 31–38; “Xiong Mingyu de gezhi zhi xue”, in Zailun, pp. 31–35. On Fang Yizhi’s allusion to the Zuozhuan, see: Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, juan 1, “Yuanti ”, p. 765; “Preface to the Xuanji yishu”, in Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, “Yuanxu ”, p. 383. Zhang Yongtang, “Xiong Mingyu de gezhi zhi xue”, in Zailun, pp. 10–12. 體
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school of the Daoxue learning in the Ming period. Opposed to the definition of the gewu given by Wang Yangming’s followers, that only stressed cultivation of one’s mind at the expense of the study of external things, Fang Yizhi instead revived the Cheng-Zhu tradition of the Song dynasty with its emphasis on the world of things and phenomena.7 With this greater interest in the world of things, they welcomed the new Western learning, in particular its knowledge of nature, as presented by the Jesuit missionaries. Indeed, enthusiasm for Western learning was another important feature that characterized the scholarship of Fang Yizhi’s group. They found in Western learning a store of solid knowledge, which they considered the Chinese tradition to have failed to develop due to its general neglect of investigation of concrete matters. They adopted much of Western knowledge, often in spite of the apparent conflict with its Chinese counterpart; what they accepted from Western knowledge include the Western theory of a round earth, the Western astronomical system and the geographical descriptions of the world outside of China in the Jesuit geographical texts. They acknowledged the contribution of Western learning to their accomplishments. Western knowledge, they thought, gave them a better vantage point that enabled them to pioneer a new path of knowledge that past generations in the Chinese tradition had never dreamed of. They often expressed their trust in the foreign learning by equating ), a prince from the barbarian state the Jesuits to the Viscount of Tan (Tanzi of Tan. According to the record of Zuozhuan (Zuo Commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals), it was from the Viscount of Tan that Confucius gained knowledge about the ancient Chinese sages, knowledge that had been lost to the Middle Kingdom.8 Some of the literati around Fang Yizhi had the opportunity to benefit from personal contact with the Jesuits. Xiong Mingyu established a friendly relationship with some of them in Beijing around 1614 when he wrote favourable prefaces to two of their works: Qike (Seven Overcomings) by Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618) and Biaodu shuo (Treatise on the Gnomon) by Sabatino de Ursis (1575–1620). This experience inspired him to conduct systematic research on Western astronomy, the outcome .9 Fang Yizhi and his of which was his cosmological treatise, Gezhi cao
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son Zhongtong also enjoyed close contact with the Jesuits, notably Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) and Nikolaus Smogulecki (1611–1656), who informed the Chinese of the main issues in Western astronomy that were hardly comprehensible through written texts only.10 An overview of the intellectual characteristics of Fang Yizhi’s group as described above provides a glimpse of the tension with which the Chinese scholars had to cope — the tension between the two elements that they adopted as the main ingredients of their intellectual program. On the one hand, these scholars’ interest in the natural world was guided by the prescription for true literati learning, especially that of the Cheng-Zhu tradition. On the other hand, Western knowledge eagerly accepted by them had the potential to subvert that tradition. As is well known, the Jesuits from the early stage of their mission in China criticised the Cheng-Zhu learning for its apparent atheistic bent and recommended as an alternative the ancient version of Confucianism, which the Jesuits thought preserved the belief in the Lord of Heaven and thus compatible with the Christian faith.11 The apparent conflict between the Cheng-Zhu tradition and the missionary agenda hidden in Western knowledge required Fang Yizhi and his colleagues to engage in a complex process of negotiation between the two. The puzzling intellectual position of these literati who were caught between the two conflicting elements was reflected in their ambivalent attitude toward Western learning. Although among late Ming scholars, Fang Yizhi and his colleagues acted exceptionally favourably toward Western learning, their enthusiasm was not without reservation. In his preface to Jie Xuan’s Xuanji yishu, Fang Yizhi revealed his complex attitude toward Western learning: “Once the men from the Great West entered [China], we can rely on them as [did Confucius to] the Viscount of Tan. Yet there still remain unsolved mysteries that they could never settle.” 12
After this laudatory comparison between the Jesuits and the Viscount of Tan, Fang nevertheless cast doubt on the reliability of Western knowledge. Not only traditional Chinese knowledge of nature but Western learning as well had shortcomings, awaiting corrections that would be made thanks to the research of 10
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Fang Zhongtong in his youth learned astronomy from Adam Schall, and then, together with Xue (1600–1680), from Smogulecki. See Fang Zhongtong’s preface to Jie Xuan’s Fengzuo Xuanji yishu, p. 387. Fang Yizhi also mentioned the two Jesuit astronomers especially favouring Smoguleki who informed him and his son of some aspects of the Copernican theory. See: Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, juan 1, “Jiuzhong ”, p. 766; “Suicha ”, p. 769. 11 On the Jesuits’ attitude toward the Confucian tradition, see Gernet, Jacques, China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 15–63. 12 Jie Xuan, “Yuanxu”, Xuanji yishu, p. 383.
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Fang Yizhi and his colleagues. Fang Yizhi concluded the preface of Xuanji yishu with the self-praise of his group’s accomplishments, which “settled the mysteries that had been unsolved for thousands of years” and, thus, “far surpassed the scholars of the West”.13 Fang Yizhi’s ambivalence toward Western learning poses a set of questions about the complex process of negotiation he carried out between both traditions. Which aspects of Western learning disappointed those scholars who were exceptionally supportive of it? Which elements of the Chinese tradition did Fang and his colleagues mobilise in criticising Western knowledge of nature and suggesting their own alternative to it? On what points did they find their own accomplishments superior to those of Western knowledge which they incorporated into their research? 2. Western Learning in Fang Yizhi’s Dichotomy of zhice vs. tongji
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An answer to these questions was suggested by Fang Yizhi in his famous remark in the preface to his Wuli xiaozhi: “The learning from the Far West is detailed in zhice, but deficient in speaking about ‘tongji’. This being so [...] their zhice is still not adequate”.14 This remark has attracted researchers’ attention because of Fang’s seemingly clear judgment on Western learning in terms of a simple dichotomy of zhice vs. tongji. Yet there still remains much ambiguity in the remark that defies simplistic understanding of modern researchers. Zhice and tongji, originally coined by Fang Kongzhao, represented two types of intellectual endeavour that corresponded to two aspects of reality. The first term, zhice, means ‘measurement’ (ce ) of things and phenomena in terms of their ‘material aspects’ (zhi ). It includes a variety of practices — measurement, calculation, classification and reasoning — through which one investigates properties and behaviours of concrete things and phenomena. In contrast, the second term, tongji, points to metaphysical comprehension (tong ) of ‘the subtle action [of the Dao]’ (ji ) that penetrates all things and 13
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Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, “Yuanxu”, p. 383. It should be noted that there were individual variations in these scholars’ evaluation of Western learning. Xiong Mingyu, the most faithful follower of Western learning among them, did not explicitly criticize it, not even its religious doctrine. Generally, skepticism about Western learning became more noticeable in the works of the younger generation. Shi Yunli shows this when he compares Xiong Mingyu and Jie Xuan’s attitudes ”, of Western natural philosophy. See Shi Yunli, “Huanyou quan ji qi yingxiang in the Zhongguo tianwenxueshi wenji , vol. 6, Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1994, pp. 247–250. 14 Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, “Zixu ”, p. 742. The translation is of Peterson’s except for the terms at issue, tongji and zhice, for which he used ‘comprehending seminal force’ and ‘material investigation’, respectively. See Peterson, “Fang I-chih: Western Learning and the ‘Investigation of Things’ ”, p. 382.
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phenomena in the universe.15 The main point of Fang Kongzhao in this dichotomy was that the two types of endeavour were inseparable in the proper intellectual practice of Confucian literati; the literati’s efforts on behalf of metaphysical penetration have to be based on the study of concrete things because the utmost principle, the goal of the Confucian intellectual endeavour, reveals itself through the images and numbers (xiangshu ) of concrete phenomena; on the other hand, the practice of zhice without proper metaphysical guidance would result in sheer absurdities.16 Fang Yizhi reiterated his father’s point: “One should not be ignorant of the principle in the middle [of things] by undermining tongji in the course of one’s zhice, nor should one neglect the concrete matters by undermining zhice in the course of one’s tongji.” 17
It is clear that the dichotomy had wide applicability across various intellectual issues that they had to deal with. Firstly, while emphasizing the importance of zhice, Fang Kongzhao criticized the Chinese intellectual tradition, especially the Wang Yangming school, for its obsession with empty metaphysical discourse while neglecting the study of more concrete matters.18 Secondly, Fang Yizhi’s famous remark cited above shows another usage of the two terms being applied to the evaluation of Western learning. He maintained that the Westerners made mistakes that were completely opposite to those made by their Chinese counterparts; the Westerners failed to show their competence in speaking about tongji despite their excellence in the practice of zhice. Indeed, the proper use of the two terms constituted the core of Fang Yizhi’s approach to the tension between Western and Chinese traditions. The dichotomy of zhice vs. tongji provided him with a convenient conceptual framework within which he could investigate a desirable balance point between the two traditions. What, then, was the balance point found by Fang Yizhi and his colleagues? What did Fang actually mean when he praised the Westerners’ zhice while doubting their competence in tongji? An answer, apparently attractive to us, would be that the Chinese accepted Western scientific knowledge while keeping its religious implications at a distance. Understanding Fang’s remark in this way 15
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Fang Kongzhao and Yizhi often used the term, tongji, not just refering to the cognitive practice of literati to comprehend (tong) the ji, but also to the penetrating (tong) action of the ji itself. For an example of the latter, see the passage of Fang Kongzhao quoted in the note 40 of this article. In fact, they were not so attentive in their dual usages of the term. It perhaps reflected their view that literati’s comprehension of the ji was made possible by, or was actually a case of, the penetration of the Dao through all things including the minds of the literati who were trying to comprehend the action of the Dao. 16 For Fang Kongzhao’s usage of the two terms, see Zhang Yongtang, “Fang Kongzhao Zhouyi shilun hebian...”, in Shilun, pp. 39–44. 17 Fang Yizhi, “Tianjing huowen xu ”, in Zhang, Shilun, “Appendix”, pp. 241–242. 18 Zhang Yongtang, “Fang Kongzhao Zhouyi shilun hebian...”, in Zhang, Shilun, pp. 39–44.
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seems to be obvious when the simplistic appearance of Fang’s dichotomy is taken into consideration. It also conforms to what modern researchers have often presented as the overall pattern of acceptance of Western learning by the academic society of late imperial China — adopting only the scientific part of Western learning while being critical of its religion.19 There is, of course, no question that Fang was sceptical about the religious implications attached to Western scientific knowledge. And there is clear evidence of Fang Yizhi using this dichotomy in an attempt to discredit Christian theology. A well-known example was Fang’s attitude toward the Western concept of ‘quiescent heaven’ (jingtian ) — the immobile outermost heaven that was believed to be the residence of God in medieval European cosmology. In a section of Wuli xiaozhi devoted to the Aristotelian system of ‘the nine-layer heaven’, Fang Yizhi gave a brief comment on ‘quiescent heaven’. What he accepted in this Western concept was its astronomical function as “an immobile criterion for calculation [of the celestial motion]”, in particular the precession of the equinoxes. As for its role in Christian theology, however, Fang did not hide his discomfort with the concept of the Christian Creator, pointing out the confusion that the Jesuits caused between the Christian God and ‘the majestic and restless heaven’ (yu mu buyi zhi tian ) mentioned in one of the Confucian Classics, the Shijing (Book of Songs). He then concluded, “the Westerners are detailed in zhice but not good at tongji”.20 Such examples, however, are too obvious to exhaust the complexities of Fang’s approach to Western learning. Did Fang Yizhi and his colleagues approve of what remained of Western learning after removing its religious implications? Did they think of Western zhice as being immune from of the fallacy of Western tongji? As can be seen in the last part of Fang Yizhi’s remark, even in Western zhice, Fang discovered certain errors that were related to the Westerners’ incompetence concerning tongji. This requires a reconsideration of Fang’s criticism of the Westerners’ failure in speaking about tongji. Fang’s criticism was not only directed at the religious disparities but also at the general philosophical foundation of Western learning and even its scientific knowledge.
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For example, Gernet presented the pattern as follows: “...whereas the Jesuits had sought to use the prestige of the sciences of Europe to reinforce the authority of religion, the Chinese rejected that religion, wishing to retain only the scientific knowledge”. And he quoted Fang Yizhi’s remark mentioned above as a typical example. Gernet, China and the Christian Impact, p. 59. 20 Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, juan 1, “Jiuzhong”, p. 766. Fang detailed his theory of the precession of the equinoxes, originally devised by his father, Fang Kongzhao, in another section of his work titled “Suicha ”, pp. 767–770.
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3. Jie Xuan’s Achievements That Surpassed Western Knowledge To make the point clear, various cases in which Fang and his colleagues criticized Western knowledge of nature and proposed their own alternatives will be examined forthwith. For this purpose, Jie Xuan’s cosmological theories will provide appropriate examples, for Jie Xuan was recognized by his colleagues as the most competent in cosmological matters within the group. In fact, Fang Yizhi enumerated eight achievements of Jie Xuan that “far surpassed Western scholars’ knowledge of nature” in his preface to Jie Xuan’s Xuanji yishu:
5. 6. 7. 8.
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On the universal leftward revolution of the heavenly qi. On the retrogression of beads on a rotating plate — a demonstration of the primacy of the leftward revolution of qi. On the roundness of the planets and their rotation around their own axes. On the revolution of Venus and Mercury around the whirlpool of the sun’s qi. On the irregular motions of outer planets caused by their interaction with the sun’s qi. ) caused by the motion of the On the ‘year difference’ (suicha heaven of fixed stars in relation to the immobile quiescent heaven. On the fallacies in Western concepts of the nine concentric spheres and the three meteorological layers. On the phenomena of ‘fatter light and thinner image’.21 歲
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Most of Jie Xuan’s achievements were concerned with the world system and celestial dynamics. In the last point, he proposed a new optical theory that contradicted Western geometrical optics. This theory was also closely related to the cosmological issue as will be clear in the following discussion. Jie Xuan’s world picture was summed up in his famous cosmographical diagram included in You Yi’s Tianjing huowen houji [Figure 1].22 In this picture, Jie Xuan presented the universe as a grand vortex of qi that was revolving leftward, or from east to west. Driven by the diurnal rotation of the outermost 21
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Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, “Yuanxu”, p. 383. Fang Yizhi did not ascribe these achievements solely to Jie Xuan, mentioning the contribution of his own sons. It is true that the discussion with Fang Yizhi and his sons helped Jie Xuan to articulate his ideas. But the collaboration of Jie Xuan and his colleagues often caused confusion concerning the priority of certain ideas. For example, in the preface of You Yi’s Tianjing huowen, Fang Yizhi attributed the optical theory of ‘guangfei yingshou’ (point 8 in the list) to his son, Zhongtong, while Jie Xuan in Xuanji yishu claimed the theory to be ‘his own’ and, thus, minimised Fang Zhongtong’s contribution. See Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 4, “Rixiao guanfei ”, pp. 443–444. 22 Similar but much cruder pictures were included in Jie Xuan’s Xuanji yishu, juanmo , p. 487, and You Yi’s Tianjing huowen, juan 1, p. 567.
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layer of qi, this revolution of qi dragged all of the celestial objects in the same direction, much as a whirlpool of water does to a boat floating on it. Jie Xuan emphasized this leftward revolution to be the primary motion of the universe, to which all complex celestial motions were reduced [Point 1]. The other achievements of Jie Xuan listed above were the consequences of the theory or auxiliary devices to demonstrate how the complex celestial motions could be explained as mere effects of the leftward revolution of qi. The most famous among them was Jie Xuan’s explanation of the apparent eastward (or rightward) revolutions of the planets, such as the annual revolution of the sun around the ecliptic.
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Figure 1. Jie Xuan’s universe presented as a grand vortex of qi. (You Yi, Tianjing huowen houji, , in SKCC, zibu, vol. 55, p. 372).
Instead of supposing that the celestial spheres revolved eastward along with the planets as was done in Western astronomy, Jie Xuan explained the planets’ apparent motion as the result of their falling behind the leftward revolution caused by the resistance of the planets’ weight [Point 2]. Another consequence of the revolution of qi, Jie Xuan continued, was the rotation of the planets and fixed stars on their own axes [Point 3]. He reasoned that every celestial object,
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which was spherical in shape, was driven to rotate on its own axis while falling behind the revolution of qi. He found evidence of the planets’ rotation in the revolution of the four satellites around Jupiter. What drove the satellites, he suggested, must be the small whirlpool of qi created around Jupiter due to the planet’s rotation on its own axis. He applied the same whirlpool mechanism even to the sun and the neighbouring two planets, Mercury and Venus, which, according to the Tychonic world system, revolved around the sun [Point 4]. Consequently, these planets had to be considered to be satellites of the sun that were caught in the whirlpool of the sun’s qi, and, thus, the spheres of these planets could not be counted as concentric celestial spheres as in the Western (in fact, the Aristotelian) theory of the ‘nine concentric spheres’ [Point 7].23 Jie Xuan’s optical theory, though it takes a relatively minor position in Fang Yizhi’s list, played a crucial role in their criticism of Western scientific knowledge. Indeed, the nature and behaviour of light was one of the gravest issues on which Jie Xuan and other members of the group actively focused their intellectual endeavour. They proposed the concept of ‘fatter light and thinner ) mainly to oppose the basic assumption of image’ (guangfei yingshou Western geometrical optics — propagation of light rays in a straight line.24 Jie Xuan summed up the point as follows:
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“When light illuminates an object, the light tends to overflow (yi ) outside the shape and number (xingshu ) of the object. Thus, it is impossible to take the image by using straight lines [from the light source].” 25
Jie Xuan and his colleagues supported this striking conclusion with various optical phenomena that appeared too subtle to be treated in a neat geometrical way. In an experiment using a sheet of paper with small holes, Fang Yizhi observed that the images of light thrown on the ground after passing through the holes 23
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Jie Xuan outlined his theories of celestial dynamics in the first section of his work. Xuanji yishu, juan 1, “Xiangwei yizheng ”, pp. 391–397. According to the note of Qiu Weiping, this section constituted the original draft of Xuanji yishu, which Jie Xuan later revised and enlarged with the help of his colleagues. See ibid, p. 397. Although Jie Xuan’s cosmological thought has not been fully studied, several studies exist, especially those of Shi Yunli, about some of his theories. See: Shi Yunli, “Zhongguoren jiezhu wangyuanjing huizhi de diyifu yuemiantu ”, Zhongguo keji shiliao , 12(4) (1991), pp. 88–91; “Jie Xuan de chaoxi xueshuo ”, Zhongguo keji shiliao, 14(1) (1993), pp. 90–95; “Jie Xuan dui tianti zizhuan de renshi ”, Ziran bianzhengfa tongxun , 17(1) (1995), pp. 53–57. 24 For an overview of European optics through the early modern period, see Lindberg, David C., “The Science of Optics”, in Lindberg (ed.), Science in the Middle Ages, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978, pp. 338–368. It seems that the China Jesuits introduced little about ancient and medieval European philosophical approaches to light and vision, but rather focused on the mathematical aspect and on its astronomical uses. 25 Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 4, “Rixiao guanfei”, p. 443.
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became larger as he gradually lifted the paper higher, to the extent that the images from different holes overlapped indistinguishably. This showed, commented Jie Xuan on the same experiment, that ‘the body of light’ (guangti ) tends to grow bigger than that of the light source, in this case, than the light at the holes. Jie Xuan added a variety of phenomena that showed the subtlety of light in his work, and one of the most curious among them was that light took a roundabout path around an object (suiwu qufu ), which blocked its propagation. Jie Xuan visualized this point in Figure 2, in which sunlight travels through curved paths around the earth at the centre of the figure.26
Figure 2. The behaviour of sunlight (the dotted lines from the sun in the lower part of the diagram) around the earth (the small circle at the centre). (You Yi, Tianjing huowen houji, in SKCC, zibu, vol. 55, p. 372).
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Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, juan 1, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun ”, p. 771; Jie Xuan, “Rixiao guanfei”, p. 443. Some researchers highlight the modern nature of the optical ideas proposed by Fang and Jie. Dai Nianzu , for example, maintains that Fang Yizhi discovered “diffraction of light” several decades earlier than in Europe during his experiment of the small holes. He also interprets, though implicitly, that Jie Xuan’s insight into the roundabout path of light rays anticipated Einstein’s theory of general relativity. See Dai Nianzu et al., Guangxue shi , , vol. 2, Changsha: Hunan jiaoyu chubanshe, in the Zhongguo wulixueshi daxi 2001, pp. 116–122. But Dai’s interpretation of Fang’s experiment is based on a misreading of the text. For a criticism of Dai’s position, see Wang Yongli et al., “Fang Yizhi ‘guangfei yingshou’ shoude shiyan yanjiu “ ” ”, Ziran kexueshi yanjiu, 21, nr. 4 (2002), pp. 332–337. 方
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Based on these subtle behaviours of light that deviated from the Western assumption of the rectilinear propagation of light, Fang Yizhi questioned the reliability of optical measurement: “Light can be measured, yet the measurement is not accurate” (buzhun ).27 This radical position held crucial implications for other fields of knowledge, and cosmographical issues in particular. This is because the basic configuration of the universe in Western astronomical system, including the magnitude of the celestial objects and their distance from the earth, was determined mainly by optical observations using the principles of geometrical optics [Figure 3].
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Figure 3. The Western optical method for estimating the sun’s magnitude. (Manuel Dias, Tianwen lue, in Zhongguo kexue jishu dianji tonghui-tianwen juan 8. . Zhengzhou: Henan jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996, p. 350).
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Fang Yizhi, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun”, p. 771.
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Matteo Ricci’s (1552–1610) Qiankun tiyi (Structure of Heaven and Earth, ca. 1605 –1608) and Manuel Dias’ (1574–1659) Tianwen lue (Epitome of Questions on the Heavens, 1615) were the main works in which the optical methods used in astronomical measurements were expounded. Relying on the theory of ‘fatter light and thinner image’, Jie Xuan and his colleagues had doubts about Western measurements, especially as regarded the estimate of
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sun’s diameter at about 160 times that of the earth.28 It was, they argued, sheer exaggeration of the sun’s real magnitude. The point made by such criticism would be understandable if, for example, the roundabout path of sunlight around the earth in Figure 2 is taken into consideration. The real sun, much smaller than the Western estimate, emits light, which ‘overflows’ to the opposite side of the earth. This makes the vanishing point of the earth’s image much closer to earth than expected by the Western theory, which assumes that the light travels only in a straight line. Fang Yizhi pointed out that insofar as Westerners extended two straight lines tangent to the earth’s surface from this vanishing point, they could not avoid exaggerating the size of the sun’s body.29 This review of Jie Xuan and Fang Yizhi’s ‘achievements’ shows how far their vision of the universe diverged from Western knowledge. There is no doubt that their theories were still based on it. The configuration of the celestial objects in Jie Xuan’s universe was basically drawn from Western astronomy, especially from the Tychonic world system. Nevertheless, the overall picture of their universe does not look quite Western. They disagreed with Western knowledge on some crucial points and suggested alternatives that made their universe look quite different from the Western one. 4. The Grand Unity of the World One important source that provided Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan with materials for their own alternatives was ironically the Western texts themselves. They noticed some major inconsistencies in Jesuit texts, in which Jesuit authors often provided conflicting explanations on the same topic. Those internal conflicts not only convinced those literati that Western knowledge could be wrong, but also gave them numerous options to consider. The measurement of the sun’s diameter is a case in point. In Manuel Dias’ Tianwen lue, Jie Xuan found two different methods for measuring the sun’s diameter. The first method was that of geometrical optics that produced the estimate mentioned above. But Dias soon introduced another method based on the assumption that the sun occupied half a degree of the ecliptic.30 Qiu Weiping 28
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The optical method to estimate the sun’s diameter was detailed in: Matteo Ricci, Qiankun tiyi, juan xia, “Riqiu da yu diqiu ”, in Zhu Weizheng (ed.), Li Madou zhongwen , Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2001, pp. 534–549; Manuel Dias, zhuyi ji Tianwen lue, in Zhongguo kexue jishu dianji tonghui-tianwen juan 8 — , Zhengzhou: Henan jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996, pp. 349–350. 29 Fang Yizhi, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun”, p. 771. 30 Manuel Dias, Tianwen lue, p. 350. The point Dias made in suggesting the second estimation was that the sun was still found to be much larger than the earth as was in the case of the optical measurement.
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(1614–1679), a colleague of Jie Xuan, calculated that half a degree of the ecliptic amounted to 130,000 li, about five times the diameter of the earth. Between these two estimates, they concluded that the second and more modest one was reasonable.31 Another major issue on which Jesuit texts showed inconsistencies involved the cosmological system. Although based on the Aristotelian concept of the concentric crystalline spheres, Jesuit authors often introduced new scientific achievements of Renaissance Europe to highlight the rapid progress of European science. Among the novelties that the Jesuits introduced were the discoveries of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Whatever intention the Jesuits had in mind, the internal conflict between the new Western discoveries and the Aristotelian belief in the inalterability of the celestial world was seen by the scholars of Fang Yizhi’s group. They again made their own decision that favoured the new Western discoveries over old Aristotelian doctrines.32 These examples reveal that Fang Yizhi and his colleagues had their own criteria for screening out certain parts of Western knowledge. And they often made it explicit on what points they were dissatisfied with Western knowledge. Fang Yizhi attributed one of the main defects in Western learning to Westerners’ obsession with precise measurement and fast calculation — allegedly the superior point of Western learning. He ascribed this obsession to the intense competition among Western academic schools, which made Western scholars strive toward ) while often closing their eyes to the principles ‘fast calculation’ (jiesuan underlying the phenomena. This was viewed as the reason why Western knowledge, though seemingly accurate, often turned out to be groundless. As seen in the case of Western optical measurement, Westerners wrongly assumed the rectilinear propagation of light, which certainly made the calculation convenient but totally untenable.33 Jie Xuan applied a similar criticism to the Western astronomical model. Westerners, being ignorant of the principle of the universal leftward revolution, made vain attempts to devise a series of celestial mechanisms corresponding to each of the complex planetary motions. Jie Xuan then concluded: 31
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Jie Xuan mentioned the two Western estimations of the sun’s diameter in Xuanji yishu, juan 4, “Rixiao guangfei”, p. 442. He cited the Tianxue chuhan edited by Li Zhizao (1565–1630) in 1626, a collection of the major Jesuit works including Dias’ Tianwen lue. Qiu Weiping’s calculation was quoted in detail in Fang Yizhi, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun”, p. 770. 32 On the general account of the changing astronomical models of the Jesuits in China and the Chinese response to them, see Sivin, Nathan, “Copernicus in China”, Studia Copernicana 6, Warsaw: Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Science, 1973. This article is included in Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections, Aldershot: Variorum, 1995, Chapter 4. 33 Fang Yizhi, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun”, p. 771.
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“The more exact their theory, the dimmer their knowledge of the principle; the more ingenious their calculation, the more incorrect their knowledge of the reason-why.” 34
Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan noticed that something essential was absent from the Western zhice. Exact calculation alone did not guarantee that an investigator arrived at the proper knowledge of things. Qiu Weiping made this point clear in his critical comment on the Western optical theory: “[The practice of] measuring [the sun’s magnitude] by means of straight lines is called zhice. [But] once it is impossible to get it by straight lines, one would be able to do zhice [in a proper sense] only after doing something other than zhice.” 35
34 35
Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 1, “Xiangwei yizheng”, p. 391. Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 4, “Rixiao guanfei”, p. 446.
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Although he did not make it explicit what “something other than zhice” meant, it is without question that he was suggesting certain methodological principles that would guide one’s zhice toward a proper path. It is not difficult to guess what they thought constituted a reliable method, for they often gave detailed descriptions about the process of their argumentation on the issues of natural knowledge. One of the main features of their discourse that these descriptions reveal was their frequent use of reasoning from everyday experience. Indeed, the works of Fang Yizhi and his colleagues were full of careful observations of natural phenomena that they happened to experience in their everyday life. They used these observations as solid evidence to refute Western knowledge and to support their own explanations of natural phenomena. The reliance on everyday observation in their study of natural phenomena is noticeable particularly in the discussion about the behaviour of light. To refute Western geometrical optics, they suggested much evidence from their experience of everyday optical phenomena. For example, Xiong Renlin (1604–1666), the son of Xiong Mingyu, used his observations to criticize the Western measurement of the sun’s magnitude. According to his calculation, the Western estimate gave the sun’s diameter twice as large as the empty space between the sun and the earth. But this was untenable, he pointed out, considering the commonsensical observation of the heat emitted by familiar objects in everyday life; “For a light the size of a finger, its heat is unbearable at half an inch or less; the heat of a torch the size of a fist is unbearable at three inches or less”. Thus, he concluded, if the sun were so close to the earth as in the Western estimate, people on earth could not bear the searing heat of the sun. His use of everyday experience was also applied to explaining the reason for Western fallacy. Westerners’ exaggeration of the sun’s magnitude was caused
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by a kind of optical illusion, which one could often experience when watching a hanging light at a temple on a mountain from a distance; the light usually looks much larger than the body of light, for the observer tends to see both the light and the lantern frame as the body of light.36 As is clear in Xiong Renlin’s argument, appeals to everyday experience were often applied to the realm beyond the reach of human experience, such as celestial phenomena. In this case, the use of everyday experience took the form of analogical reasoning. In fact, Fang Yizhi and his colleagues frequently employed analogies to ensure the validity of intellectual processes from the known to the unknown realms of the universe. The champion of analogical reasoning among the scholars of Fang Yizhi’s group was none other than Jie Xuan, who earned his reputation as a competent cosmologist mainly through brilliant use of analogy. He freely used the power of analogy in crossing the boundaries between different realms of the universe — the heaven, the earth, the myriad things and the human body. In Jie Xuan’s world system, for example, the diurnal revolution of the outermost layer of qi, the motive power of all celestial motions, was the macrocosmic counterpart of human respiration, the motive power of the circulation of qi throughout the human body. The paths of planetary motions were likened to the rivers on earth, through which boats could move freely. These paths of the planets such as the ecliptic were inclined slightly on the celestial equator, just as mountains have peaks and valleys, and rivers have meanderings.37 Jie Xuan often articulated his analogy to such an extent that it looked like systematic experimentation. In an example that made him famous in Chinese academic circles, Jie Xuan likened the universe to a round plate into which several concentric hollow lanes were carved. If beads were put in each lane and the plate then rotated around its centre, the beads would fall behind the rotating plate. Jie Xuan devised this miniature model of the universe to demonstrate the primacy of the leftward revolution of heavenly qi, that is, to explain the apparent rightward motions of the planets in terms of the leftward revolution of heaven.38 36
譬
Xiong Renlin’s discussion was quoted in Fang Yizhi, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun”, p. 770. The translation of Xiong’s remark is by Willard Peterson. See Peterson, “Fang I-chih: Western Learning and the ‘Investigation of Things’ ”, p. 389. As pointed out in Qiu Weiping’s discussion, Xiong made mistakes in his calculations, which, according to Qiu, amounted to only one-third of the distance between the sun and the earth. Fang Yizhi endorsed Qiu’s calculation but still found Xiong’s point valid, for the sun would still be located too close to earth even in Qiu’s calculation of the Western theory. See Fang Yizhi, “Guangfei yingshou zhi lun”, p. 770. 37 Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 1, “Xiangwei yizheng”, p. 392. 38 Ibid., p. 393. After listing the major theories of Jie Xuan including the ‘experiment’ of the rotating plate, Ruan Yuan characterized Jie Xuan’s scholarship as follows: “Jie Xuan used analogy (pi ) in varied issues, making his words reasonable”. Ruan Yuan, Chouren zhuan, juan 36, p. 354.
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It seems obvious to us that an analogy itself does not constitute a solid scientific explanation. But Jie Xuan and his colleagues apparently felt little burden in their heavy use of analogy. On the contrary, they even emphasized the importance of analogical reasoning as a necessary requirement for a good Confucian pointed out in the preface of You Yi’s Tianjing philosopher. As Huang Shi huowen houji:
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“Those who penetrate (tong ) the heaven, earth, and human beings are called the true scholars (ru ). What has to be penetrated is none other than the Principle (li ). If one penetrated the Principle [...] one could judge even the most strange and mysterious affairs in the great universe in terms of the usual things of one’s everyday life.” 39
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You Yi, Tianjing huowen houji, p. 326. Fang Kongzhao’s remark was quoted in Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, juan 1, “Tianxing yuanli ”, p.753. In this remark, the term tongji contains the meaning of “the ji that penetrates (tong) [all things]”, which is different from the usage mentioned earlier, that is, “the comprehension (tong) of ji”. 象
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Competence in analogical reasoning was presented as a clear indication of one’s comprehension of the Principle of the universe. In this sense, their analogical reasoning was backed by their belief in the grand unity of the world. What made up the things in everyday life also made up the remote heaven. What regulated daily phenomena also regulated the behaviour of the stars. Indeed, the universe was a great continuum of qi. All things in the universe were made of the same qi, each representing a different phase in its ever-changing cycle. And the universe as a whole was working as a subtle network, in which all the elements were associated through the mutual correspondence and resonance. The Chinese called this pattern or order that regulated the subtle workings of this grand network the Dao or the Heavenly Principle. It was obvious to Fang Yizhi and his colleagues that one could not comprehend the Dao by the practice of zhice alone, which dealt mainly with the properties of things and phenomena in their individuality. As Fang Kongzhao pointed out, ), “If one made measurement sticking only to the materialised qi (qizhi it would show only [the things] that are not in mutual resonances, while the tongji that [renders the things] in their mutual resonances would become more hidden”.40 Thus, the practice of zhice without comprehension of the Dao would necessarily lead to sheer absurdity. From Fang Yizhi’s perspective, this was precisely why Westerners failed to attain true knowledge of nature. Westerners failed to, or were even unwilling to, go beyond the level of discrete knowledge about individual things. On the contrary, they built up a philosophical system (the Aristotelian one) to give metaphysical justification to the discrete state of knowledge and the separation of things from the indivisible whole. As a result, the universe represented
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by Westerners was full of metaphysical distinctions: among the four elements, between the celestial and the terrestrial realms, and, above all, between the Creator and the created. The intellectual endeavours of Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan concerning Western learning can be characterized as resistance to these distinctions in Western philosophy, in favour of the unity of the universe. Jie Xuan proposed his theory of the leftward revolution of the universe to oppose the divisions among the crystalline spheres of Aristotelian philosophy. He announced, “There are not two heavens, but only one heaven; there are not two motions, but only one motion; there is not the additional rightward revolution, but only one leftward revolution”.41 Nor was the Aristotelian distinction between the celestial and the terrestrial realms tenable, because both heaven and earth belonged to things, which consisted of the same qi. Consequently, Jie Xuan maintained that not only the myriad things on earth but the celestial objects as well would undergo the never-ending cycle of spontaneous generation and destruction.42 He employed the power of the universal qi that pervades all things and the processes of the universe to nullify the major metaphysical distinctions in the universe drawn by Westerners. This shows why the scholars of Fang Yizhi’s group persistently rejected Jesuits’ equation of qi to air, which is only one of the four terrestrial elements (water, fire, earth and air) in Aristotelian philosophy. In fact, they accepted a considerable part of the Western explanation of natural phenomena using the theory of the four elements. They even approved, though partly, of the Jesuits’ exclusion of metal and wood, two of the Chinese five phases (wuxing : metal, wood, water, fire and earth) from the elements, for they were not pure substances from the Western viewpoint but just composites of the elements as were other myriad things.43 What they were not willing to accept was the Jesuits’ reduction of qi to being just one of the elements. You Yi, who left one of the most systematic discussions concerning that issue, instead proposed that each element (a notion rendered by xing in Jesuit texts) represented a different stage in the condensation process of qi. The element of earth, having concrete and tangible form (xing ), represented the most coalesced state of qi; fire and water were qi of dryness and wetness, which were less coalesced and 41
Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 1, “Xiangwei yizheng”, p. 392. Jie Xuan, Xuanji yishu, juan 6, “Xingqi shizhong ”, pp. 481–482. Jacques Gernet shows the point of conflict between the Christain–Aristotelian and the Chinese concepts of the universe in more general terms. See Gernet, Jacques, “Space and Time: Science and Religion in the Encounter between China and Europe”, Chinese Science, 11 (1993–1994), pp. 96–97. 43 On the Jesuits’ criticism of the Chinese concept of qi and the five phases, see Elman, Bejamin A., On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005, pp. 118–122. 終
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thus much more subtle; What Westerners called the element air was none other than the primordial form of qi, “which was not yet coalesced and thus was subtly working in the perpetual generations of the heaven, the earth, and the myriad things” (tiandi wanwu shengsheng zhi ji ).44 It is noticeable that You Yi was skilfully undermining the foundation of the Western theory — the metaphysical definition of the elements as pure substances irreducible to anything else — by restoring the universality of qi from its belittled position in the Jesuits’ philosophy. Nor was their opposition between the four Western elements and the Chinese five phases justifiable. Wood and metal, although not comparable to earth, water and fire in their subtleties, were still useful in comprehending the changes of the world, because they represented certain phases, and thus properties, of qi. Fang Yizhi concluded his discussion about the elements by stating that not only the theories of the four elements and the five phases, but any other theory would be acceptable if and only if one comprehended the fact that “the two are in the one”. This was the ultimate teaching of the grand yi , which epitomised the order, or the subtle unity of things, working behind the spontaneous transformation of qi.45 5. Conclusion
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”, p. 641. ”, p. 759. 行
五
行 行
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45
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You Yi, Tianjing huowen, juan 4, “Sixing wuxing Fang Yizhi, Wuli xiaozhi, juan 1, “Sixing wuxing shuo 四
44
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In spite of the criticism they levelled against Western learning, it would not be fair to depict Fang Yizhi, Jie Xuan and their colleagues as blind adherents of the Chinese intellectual tradition. On the contrary, they were open to any source of knowledge, including the teachings of the Cheng-Zhu tradition, their experience in everyday life, and learning from the Far West. They relied on all of these sources but especially Western learning to build up their own system of knowledge, to the extent that a considerable amount of the elements that made up their world picture was adopted from Western knowledge. It is also true, however, that the overall picture of the universe that Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan presented and the basic methodology that sustained their enterprise still resembled those of the Chinese tradition, particularly that of the Cheng-Zhu school of the Song dynasty. What made the Chinese vision of the universe different from the Western one was, most of all, the different sense in comprehending and representing the order of things. The Christian–Aristotelian tradition ascribed the order, or the purpose of the hierarchically divided universe, to something external to the world, i.e., the Divine Providence who created the universe and would maintain it until the Last Judgment. In contrast, Fang Yizhi and Jie Xuan
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found the source of order in what they called the profound ji (shenji ), the subtle action of the Dao, which was internal to the processes of the universe. Because the point of tension was formed around the conflicting sense of the order of things, it was not sufficient for the Chinese to only remove the ‘religious absurdities’ among Western knowledge. More important was the restoration of the internal unity of the universe by deconstructing the metaphysical divisions in Western philosophy, thereby allocating proper positions to the elements from Western learning in the self-sufficient network of qi.
TRADITIONAL VIETNAMESE ASTRONOMY IN ACCOUNTS OF JESUIT MISSIONARIES ALEXEI VOLKOV Center for General Education and Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University 101, Sect. 2, Kuang Fu Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
1.
Introduction
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Zhang’s study was interrupted by his untimely death soon after he returned to China from Vietnam; his only published paper on the topic is “Yue li shuo run kao ” (Sur la concordance des dates néoméniques du calendrier annamite et du calendrier chinois de 1759 à 1886 [Zhang Yong’s translation of the title]), Xinan yanjiu , 1 (1940), pp. 25–35. Hoàng Xuân Hãn, “Lịch và lịch Việt Nam”, Tập san khoa học xã hội, 9 (1982), pp. 1–106; Idem, “Calendrier et calendriers vietnamiens”, ibid., pp. 134–144. Han Qi , “Zhong Yue lishi shang tianwenxue yu shuxue de jiaoliu ” (The Interaction Between Astronomy and Mathematics in China and Vietnam in the Past), Zhongguo keji shiliao (Historical Materials for [the Study of] the Science and Technology in China), 12 (1991), 2, pp. 3–8. See: Ôhashi, Yukio, “Originality and Dependence of Traditional Astronomies in the East”, in Chan, Alan K.L. et al. (eds.), Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine, Singapore: Singapore University Press and World Scientific, 2002, pp. 394–405; Idem, “On the History of Vietnamese Mathematics and Astronomy”, in Li Zhaohua (ed.), Hanzi Wenhua quan shuxue chuantong yu shuxue jiaoyu (History of Mathematics and Mathematical Education using Chinese Characters), Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2004, pp.112–123; Idem, “On the History of Mainland South-East Asian Astronomy”, in Jiang Xiaoyuan (ed.), History of Science in the Multiculture: Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, Shanghai: Jiao Tong University Press, 2005, pp. 77–86; Idem, “Mainland South-East Asia as a Crossroad of Chinese Astronomy and Indian Astronomy”, a paper presented at the First International Conference on History of Exact Sciences along the Silk Road, Xi’an, P.R. of China (July 31 – August 3, 2005), an unpublished manuscript retrieved on July 16, 2006 from www.indianshm. com/articles/pdf/Mainland%20Astronomy.pdf. 越
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The exploration of traditional Vietnamese astronomy began with Zhang Yong’s (1911–1939) study of the mathematical and astronomical books preserved in the library of the Ecole française d’extrême-orient (French School of the Far East, hereafter EFEO) in Hanoi in 1938.1 A detailed investigation of Vietnamese calendars by Hoàng Xuân Hãn (1908–1996) was published in 1982.2 This work apparently remained unknown to Han Qi , who published a short outline of the history of Vietnamese mathematics and astronomy in 1991,3 and to Ôhashi Yukio , the author of the most recent publications on the topic.4
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However, a large number of primary sources remain unexplored, and a number of questions, unanswered.5 Even though traditional Vietnamese science is conventionally considered an offspring of the Chinese tradition, not much is actually known about its contents and the social circumstances of its functioning in Vietnamese society prior to the French colonization of the country in the 19th century. One way to obtain more information concerning this topic is to explore the writings of the Jesuit missionaries active in Vietnam as early as the 17th century; however, I am not aware of any publications on the interaction between Jesuit scholars and their Vietnamese counterparts related to astronomy. In particular, it is not known whether the Jesuits tried to use their astronomical expertise to convince the Vietnamese literati of the supremacy of Western learning, including both natural sciences and religion. This question is especially interesting given the considerable and well-studied contribution of the Jesuit experts in astronomy and mathematics to the initial success of the Jesuit mission to China. The present paper is devoted to the works of two Jesuit missionaries, Christoforo Borri (1583–1632) and Giovanni Filippo de Marini (1608–1682), who visited Vietnam in the 17th century. Their works provide brief yet valuable descriptions of astronomy as practiced in Vietnam before the introduction of Western science, and offer a glimpse at the way in which Jesuit missionaries employed their scientific expertise while interacting with the Vietnamese astronomers and authorities. The reader will see that the exploration of the Western sources provides interesting and sometimes unexpected answers to the questions concerning Vietnamese astronomy that cannot be answered solely on the basis of the analysis of the available Vietnamese sources. 2.
Christoforo Borri and His Description of Vietnamese Astronomy
Christoforo Borri was an outstanding figure in the history of the early Catholic mission to Vietnam due to his exceptional expertise in astronomy and to his interaction with Vietnamese astronomers during his stay in Cochinchina (that is, in the central part of modern Vietnam). Borri’s description of Vietnam was one of the earliest publications presenting the country to the European reader (Fig.1).6 5
6
The sources are currently preserved in the library of the Institute of Han–Nom Studies (Hanoi, Vietnam), National Library (Hanoi), EFEO (Paris) and other institutions; see Tran Nghia, Gros, François, Catalogue des livres en Han–Nom, Hanoi: Edition des sciences sociales, 1993. Borri, Christoforo, Relatione della nvova Missione delli PP. della Compagnia di Giesu, al Regno della Cocincina, scritta dal Padre Christoforo Borri Milanese della medesima Compagnia, Che fu vno de primi ch’entrorono in detto Regno. Alla Santità Di N. Sig. Vrbano PP. Ottavo, In Roma Per Francesco Corbelletti, MDCXXXI.
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Figure 1. The cover of the Italian edition of Borri’s Relatione (1631).
Borri’s biographies found in the articles authored by Maybon,7 Randles8 and Lerner,9 appear to be essentially based on the data collected by Sommervogel,10 while Baldini11 extensively used archival materials and publications of Portuguese researchers.12 The most complete biography is found in Dror’s introductory article to a recent re-edition of the 1732 English translation of Borri’s book.13 The available biographical data can be summarized as follows. The original form of Christoforo Borri’s last name was Burro or, in Latinized form, Burrus;14 7
Maybon, Charles B., “Notice sur Cristoforo Borri et sur les éditions de sa ‘Relation’ ”, Bulletin des amis du vieux Hué (hereafter BAVH), 18 (1931), nos. 3–4, pp. 269–276, esp. pp. 269–272. 8 Randles, W[illiam] G.L., “Le ciel chez les Jésuites espagnols et portugais (1590–1651)”, in Giard, Luce (ed.), Les jésuites à la Renaissance: Système éducatif et production du savoir, Paris: Puf, 1995, pp. 129–144, esp. pp. 138–141. 9 Lerner, Pierre-Michel, “L’entrée de Tycho Brahe chez les jésuites ou le chant du cygne de Clavius”, in Giard, Les jésuites..., pp. 145–185, esp. pp. 157–163. 10 Sommervogel, Carlos, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, Bruxelles: O. Schepens / Paris: A. Picard, 1890–1898, t. 1, cols. 1821–1822. 11 Baldini, Ugo, “The Portuguese assistancy of the Society of Jesus and scientific activities in its Asian missions until 1640”, in: História das Ciências Matemáticas, Portugal e o Oriente / History of Mathematical Sciences, Portugal and East Asia, Lisbon: Fundação Oriente, 2000, pp. 49–104. 12 E.g., dos Santos, Gomes, “Vicissitudes da obra de Cristovao Borri”, Annais da Academia Portuguesa de Historia, II, (1951), 3, pp. 119–150. 13 Dror, Olga, “Phantasmatic Cochinchina”, in: Dror, Olga, and Taylor, Keith W., Views of SeventeenthCentury Vietnam: Christoforo Borri on Cochinchina and Samuel Baron on Tonkin, Ithaca, N.Y.: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2006, pp. 23–73. 14 Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 269; his name reads “Burro” on the first page of his treatise De astrologia universa tractatus (manuscript edition, 1612) written when Borri worked in Italy; see Lerner, “L’entrée...”, p. 160. Dominique Le Jeunhomme (1590–1630?) also mentions his original Italian
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he changed his name to Brono when travelling in Asia and to [Christóvão] Brono, Bruno, or Boro when working in Portugal.15 Borri joined the Society of Jesus in 1601, taught mathematics in the college of Mondovì in 1606–1609,16 and philosophy — “and perhaps mathematics”, as Baldini suggests, — in the Collegio di Brera in Milan in 1611–1614;17 Lattis suggests that Borri may also have taught mathematics in Rome while studying philosophy at the Collegio Romano (although without holding a chair).18 Even though the exact position of Borri in the Collegio Romano remains unknown,19 there exists evidence that, at least in 1612, he had certain connections with this institution and, in particular, participated in discussions of the work of Galileo.20 As a number of authors suggest, Borri lost his teaching position due to his astronomical theory of “liquid heavens” depicted in the treatise De astrologia universa tractatus (1612) that was not well received by his superiors, in particular, by the General of the Society, Claudio Aquaviva (1543–1615).21 Baldini quotes archival documents proving that the crucial decision was indeed made by Aquaviva,22 while Dror discusses a name as Burro: “[...] autrefois quand il estoit en Italie nommé Burro, maintenant, parce que Burro signifie un asne, il se nomme Bruno (je dis cecy parce que peut-estre quelqu’un aura ouy parler en Italie du P. Burro, mathématicien) [...]”, see Le Jeunehomme, Dominique, “Relation d’un voyage de la Flesche a Lisbonne en 1627”, in: Auguste Carayon (ed.), Documents inédits concernant la compagnie de Jésus, Poitiers: H. Oudin, 1864, vol. 4, document D, p. 39. A short biographical note on Dominique Le Jeunehomme (or “de Jeune-Homme”, also known as Domingo de S. Nicolao), is found in Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 4, col. 799; for his biography and a description of his missionary work see Disney, Anthony, “Jesuits going East: The experiences of Fathers Dominique Le Jeunhomme, Agostino Tudeschini and Tranquillo Grasetti. En Route to the China mission in the early seventeenth century”, Review of Culture (Macao), 21 (1994), pp. 235–248, esp. pp. 236–240. 15 Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 1, col. 1821; both are mentioned in Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 269. 16 Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, p. 65, n. 44, suggests “ca. 1607 – 1610”. 17 Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, p. 65, n. 44. Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, p. 24, suggests that Borri started teaching at Brera at 1609 and was expelled some time later, but not earlier than 1612 (pp. 27–28). 18 Lattis, James M., Between Copernicus and Galileo: Cristoph Clavius and the collapse of Ptolemaic cosmology, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. 192, 208. Dror in her description of this period of Borri’s life (“Phantasmatic...”, pp. 24–26) does not mention Borri’s connections with the Collegio Romano. 19 The title page of his De astrologia universa tractatus of 1612 provides his title as “Collegio mathematicarum scientiarum Doctore praestantissimo”, see Lattis, Between..., p. 208; however, Dror, on the basis of the information provided in a publication of U. Baldini, believes that this manuscript was produced when Borri worked in Milan. 20 Lattis, Between..., p. 192, mentions that in his Tractatus of 1612 Borri supports Galileo’s claim of the existence of mountains on the moon. 21 Biography in Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 1, cols. 480–491. 22 Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, pp. 64–65, n. 44, mentions Borri’s “public attack on solid heaven”. The date of Borri’s removal from office was, according to Baldini, 1614 (ibid.), while some authors mention 1612. The conflict provoked by Borri’s theory of “liquid heavens” was reported in the Relation of P. Dominique Le Jeunehomme cited in Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 1, col. 1822; see also Randles, “Le ciel...”, p. 139, Lerner, “L’entrée...”, pp. 157–163, and Engelfriet, Peter M., Euclid in China: The genesis of the first translation of Euclid’s Elements in 1607 & its reception
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letter of Borri depicting a rather complex situation in which Aquaviva found himself experiencing pressure from an unidentified high-ranking Jesuit whom Dror tentatively identifies as Christoph Clavius (1538–1612).23 In turn, Lattis demonstrated that Borri’s theory of liquid heavens represented an early attempt to introduce the Tychonic cosmology, and that Borri, intentionally or not, was expressing cosmological convictions supported by the powerful (and later canonized) Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (Roberto Bellarmino, 1542–1621),24 that included the concept of liquid heavens eventually accepted by Rome in 1630s.25 Borri thus may have played a particular part in the complex political configuration comprising Aquaviva, Bellarmine, and other influential Jesuits,26 and the sanctions imposed on him by Aquaviva may be understood as a message sent to Bellarmine and his followers by the latter’s opponents defending the failing Ptolemaic cosmology. Baldini acknowledges that it remains unclear whether Borri himself requested to be sent to China or was sent there intentionally by his superiors;27 in the former case it would indeed have been a wise decision, given the mounting tension around the Copernicus–Galileo case that culminated in the official condemnation of Copernicus’ theory in 1616 and in Bellarmine’s “Declaration” to Galileo of the same year. However, the latter option may offer an interesting lead for the following reason. As early as the 1590s, the Jesuits from Macao requested that Rome send professional astronomers to its Chinese mission. Consecutive requests were made by Emmanuel Dias (Senior) (1559–1639)28 up to 1723, Leiden etc.: Brill, 1998, p. 332. The relevant excerpt in the Relation of Jeunehomme (reproduced also by Sommervogel) reads: “Un certain Père de Lombardie, autrefois quand il estoit en Italie nommé Burro, [...] jadis enseignant en Italie, inventa une opinion touchant les cieux qu’ils estoient liquides, et qu’il n’y avoit que trois cieux [...]: ce qui desplut grandement à Rome du temps de P. Claudio Aquaviva; dont il en tira une pénitence et un petit mot au bout”; see Le Jeunehomme, “Relation...”, p. 39. 23 Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, pp. 25–26. For the birthdate of Clavius, I follow Lattis, Between..., p. 12 and p. 233, n. 35. 24 Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 1, cols. 1151–1254. 25 See Lattis, Between..., pp. 94–102, 208–211 and p. 263, n. 102. On Bellarmine’s astronomical scholarship, see Baldini, Ugo, and Coyne, George V. (introduction, commentary, and notes), The Louvain lectures (Lectiones Lovanienses) of Bellarmine and the autograph copy of his 1616 Declaration to Galileo, Città del Vaticano: Specola Vaticana, 1984. 26 The involvement of Clavius in Borri’s case suggested by Dror seems unlikely if Borri, as a number of modern scholars believe, continued teaching until 1614, while Clavius died in 1612. For the appreciation of Galileo’s observations by Clavius and his disciples, see D'Elia, Pasquale M. Galileo in China, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1960, pp. 7–14. 27 Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, p. 65, n. 44. 28 Biography in: Pfister, Louis, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les jésuites de l’ancienne mission de Chine 1552–1773, Chang-hai: Imprimerie de la mission catholique, orphelinat de T’ou-se-we, 1932, Tome 1, p. ii, no. 20; Dehergne, Joseph, Répertoire des jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800, Roma: Institutum Historicum, Paris: Letouzey & Ané, 1973, p. 77, no. 255.
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in 1599, by Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) in 1605 and 1608, by Sabatino de Ursis (1575–1620) and Niccolò Longobardo (1559–1654) in 1610, and by João Rodrigues (1561–1633) in 1612.29 In 1612 Longobardo, then the Superior of the Chinese mission in Macao, dispatched Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) to Rome to present the needs of the mission to the Pope and to General Aquaviva, and to request that Jesuits with astronomical background be sent to China. Trigault reached Rome in November or December, 1614.30 It will probably never be known whether Trigault’s request was related to Borri’s almost immediate departure for China, or whether it was a mere coincidence.31 However, there is no doubt that Borri’s astronomical expertise may have been highly appreciated in China, while his departure from Italy certainly saved him from unnecessary troubles there related to his involvement in the Copernicus–Galileo affair.32 Borri left for China in 1615; most likely, he departed from Lisbon in March or April, 1615, and arrived in Macao in 1617.33 Upon arrival, his original destination changed: as Borri himself reports, the growing tension between the first Jesuit missionaries and the authorities in Cochinchina as well as the so-called Nanjing persecution of Jesuits in China in 1616–1617 made his superiors in Macao send him to Cochinchina instead of China.34 The members of the first Jesuit mission in Cochinchina had been there since 1615; in his book Borri mentions only two Jesuits active in Cochinchina prior to his arrival in 1618,35 the
29
D'Elia, Galileo..., pp.5–7, 20–22. D’Elia suggests that the first request was made by Ricci in ca. 1595 (p. 6). 30 D'Elia, Galileo..., pp. 21–23. 31 See also Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, p. 29, esp. n. 55. 32 Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, pp. 28–29, suggests that one of the reasons for Borri’s travel may also have been his interest in the study of magnetic declination; on this aspect of Borri’s work see below. Moreover, in Macao Borri was approached by F. Francisco Vieira (?–1619), the Visitor, who requested him to write an astronomical treatise destined for the missionaries which would argue against Ptolemaic theory; see Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, p. 30. This event suggests that Borri’s appointment to China’s mission may have been made on purpose and was not a mere punishment, especially given that Vieira arrived in Macao simultaneously with Borri and it would be rather unlikely if such an important request were made by him immediately upon his arrival without specific instructions from his superiors. 33 For the logistics of the transfer of the missionaries to the East and Southeast Asia, see Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, pp. 91–93. See also Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, p. 30, for evidence supporting 1617 as the date of Borri’s arrival. 34 Borri, Cristoforo, Relation de la Cochinchine, tr. par [Auguste] Bonifacy, BAVH, tome 18 (1931), nos. 3–4, pp. 285–402, esp. pp. 344–345; see also Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 144. On the Nanjing persecution see, for example, Dudink, Ad, “Opposition to the introduction of Western science and the Nanjing persecution (1616–1617)”, in Catherine Jami, Peter Engelfriet, and Gregory Blue, Statecraft and Intellectual Renewal in Late Ming China: The Cross-Cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), Leiden etc.: Brill, 2001, pp. 191–224. 35 Borri, Relation... (1931), pp. 339–341.
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Italian Francesco Buzome,36 and the Portuguese Francisco de Pina,37 even though the mission included several other members.38 Borri departed for Macao in 1622,39 played an important role in the defense of Macao during the Dutch attack of June 23–24, 1622,40 left Macao in 162341 on an order of General Mutio Vitelleschi (1563–1645),42 and returned to Europe in 1624.43 Some authors have claimed 36
Also known as François (or Francisco) Busomi (Buzom, Buzomy). An Italian, he arrived in Cochinchina in 1615 and left in 1639, died in Macao in 1639; see de Montézon, F.-M., Estève, Ed. (eds.), Voyages et travaux des missionnaires de la compagnie de Jésus, publiés par les pères de la même compagnie pour servir de complément aux lettres édifiantes. II. Mission de la Cochinchine et du Tonkin, Paris: Charles Douniol, 1858, p. 386. 37 Also known as Francesco (or François) de (or di) Pina. Born in 1585 or 1586 in the city of Guarda, arrived in Cochinchina in the end of 1616 or in the beginning of 1617; Jacques, Roland, Portuguese pioneers of Vietnamese linguistics prior to 1650, Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2002, p. 24, suggests “no later than 1618 (maybe in 1617)”. De Pina died on December 15 or 16, 1625, at Da Nang in Cochinchina; see de Montézon and Estève, Voyages..., p. 386; Cadière, Léopold, “Annotation à la ‘Lettre’ de Gaspar Luis”, BAVH, 18 (1931), nos. 3–4, pp. 409–432, esp. pp. 413–414; Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 6, col. 762, and a short mention in Dehergne, Répertoire..., p. 203. Montézon and Estève erroneously mention him as Italian while Sommervogel does not make this mistake; see the biography of de Pina and a discussion on his nationality in Jacques, Roland, Les missionnaires portugais et les débuts de l’Eglise catholique au Viêt-Nam, Reichstett: Dinh Huong Tung Thu, 2004, tome 1, p. 80; Jacques’ principal source is Schütte, J.F. (ed.), Monumenta Historica Japoniae I. Textus catalogorum Japoniae, vol. 111 of the Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu, 1975, pt. 2, p. 855 (no. 24). De Pina is mentioned as Italian in Bonifacy’s translation; see Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 341; compare with Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 140. 38 De Montézon and Estève, Voyages..., p. 386, mention two other Portugese Fathers, André Fernandez (arr. 1616 – dept. 1624) and François (Francisco) Barreto (arr. 1617 – dept. 1639). Jacques, Portuguese pioneers..., p. 28, mentions two individuals with the last name Fernandez: one Manoel Fernandez who stayed as Superior of the mission in Hoi An in 1622–1624, and one Antonio Fernandez who stayed in Hoi An in 1616 or 1617 and was fluent in Japanese. The Father Pierre Marquez (arr. 1618), half-Portuguese and half-Japanese, was working with the members of the Japanese Catholic community in Hoi An; he is mentioned by Cadière, “Annotation...”, p. 412. 39 De Montézon and Estève, Voyages..., pp. 378, 386, suggest 1621 as the date of his departure. Borri explicitly specified the time of his departure from Vietnam as 1622 in his book; see Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 396 and Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 179. Given that the Portuguese ships were sailing from Cochinchina to Macao only during the south monsoon period (April/May – October) and that Borri was involved in the defense of Macao against the Dutch in June 1622, one can conclude that he departed in April or May, 1622. 40 Le Jeunehomme, “Relation...”, pp. 41–44, contains a story about the event most likely told to Le Jeunehomme by Borri himself during the former’s stay in Portugal. This description differs from the conventional story as found, for example, in Jacques, Portuguese pioneers..., pp. 81, 283: Le Jeunehomme mentions only four Dutch ships participating in the incident (instead of 14), the number of the Dutch soldiers involved is more than 900 (instead of 800), etc. 40 Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 271. 41 Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu, vol. 111 (Monumenta Historica Japoniae I), Romae, 1975, p. 1141. 42 Le Jeunehomme, “Relation...”, p. 43. The reasons for Vitelleschi’s requests remain unknown. Lattis, Between..., p. 208, claims that “Borro seems to have proven unsuited to missionary work and returned to the West”, without providing any evidence for his claim. Such evidence, however, exists: Daniello Batoli in his Dell' Historia della Compagnia di Giesù la Cina, terza parte dell' Asia,
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that on his way to Portugal Borri visited Japan, China, Ethiopia, Madagascar and even Australia.44 This idea may have originated from the title of a book he supposedly authored.45 Borri’s reputation as a great traveler was somewhat ironically reflected in the phrase of Jeunhomme:46 “[...] the gentleman [i.e., Borri], having covered so many seas and lands everywhere in the Orient and in Africa, has forgotten his native Italian and does not recall his Latin”.47 It is also known that on his way to and/or from Asia, Borri conducted observations related to magnetic declination; Borri’s map of the variation in the Earth’s magnetic field was referred to by Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680) in his book on magnetism.48 Rome: Stamperia del Varese, 1663, p.750 (as quoted in Jacques, Portuguese pioneers..., p. 52, n. 28), states that Borri’s superiors called him back to Macao as a disciplinary measure, since his contribution to the mission was judged inadequate. Yet given the successful application of Borri’s astronomical expertise for the work of the Cochinchina mission reported in the letter of Gaspar Luiz and in Borri’s own book (see below), as well as his interest in learning the local language for preaching, one cannot but strongly doubt the “inadequacy” of Borri, especially if one takes into account the fact that Borri, according to Le Jeunhomme, was appointed the Minister of the Jesuit College in Macao and was replacing the Rector at the moment of the Dutch attack in June 1622: “[...] le P. Bruno, mathématicien duquel j’ay parlé cy-devant, estant Ministre du college et comme Recteur, par la maladie et vieilesse du P. Recteur”, see Le Jeunehomme, “Relation...”, p. 42; moreover, according to Borri himself (as reported by Le Jeunhomme), the reason for his transfer to Europe was an unidentified disease: “P. Bruno, très-homme de bien, et qui malgré luy reçut le commandement du P. Général, pour des maladies de cure difficile de retourner des Indes”, ibid., p. 44. The possible reasons for Borri’s departure are discussed at length in Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, pp. 32–41; Dror conjectures that behind the decision of Borri’s return to Europe was a negative evaluation of his work by one of his fellow-missionaries, Buzomi or, most likely, de Pina. 43 According to Sommervogel, he stayed in Goa for some time in 1623; see Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 1, col. 1821. Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 270, draws on Sommervogel and acknowledges that the date of Borri’s return to Europe remains unknown, while Randles, “Le ciel...”, p. 139, believes that Borri had returned to Europe by 1623. Both Lerner, “L’entrée...”, p. 158, and Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, p. 65, n. 44, suggest 1624 as the date of Borri’s return to Portugal, while Monumenta Historica... (ibid.) mentions 1625. Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, p. 44, found a phrase in Borri’s account suggesting that he returned to Europe no later than 1624, thus corroborating Baldini’s suggestion. 44 Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 271. 45 Relazione a sua Santità delle cose dell’India Orientale, del Giappone, della China, dell’Etiopia, dell’Isola di san Lorenzo, del Regno di Monomotapa, della Terra incognita Australe listed in Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., col. 1822 (no. 3). See also a detailed discussion of Borri’s journey from Asia to Portugal in Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, pp. 42–44. 46 In this paper all translations from French are mine, if not stated otherwise. 47 Quoted from Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., col. 1822, n. 4: “[...] le bon homme ayant couru tant de mers, et de terres, de tout l’Orient et l’Afrique, il s’est oublié de son Italien maternel, et ne se souvient de son Latin.” The context suggests that this remark may have been provoked by the fact that the book on navigation Borri tried to publish in Rome, the Tratado da arte de navegar, pelo Rdo Pe Cristovão Brono, da Companhia, was written in Portugese. See Le Jeunehomme, “Relation...”, p. 40. 48 Kircher, Athanasius, Magnes sive de arte magnesia, Roma, 1649, pp. 502–503; see: Alan Cook, “Rome and the Royal Society, 1660–1740”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, vol. 58, no. 1,
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After his return to Europe Borri taught mathematics in Coimbra (1626–1627) and Lisbon (1627?–1628),49 and was invited to Madrid by King Philip II of Spain to explain his discoveries related to the compass.50 In 1931 Borri published his Collecta astronomica51 and in 1632 he left the Society and attempted to join other religious orders, in particular the Cisterians,52 but soon died due to an unspecified cause.53 Borri’s aforementioned account on his travel to Cochinchina was published in Rome in 1631 (the same year as his astronomical collection); it instantly became a great success, and was translated into major European languages (Fig.2).54
2004, pp. 3–19, esp. p. 10 and p. 18, n. 24; Szczéniak, B. “A Note on the Studies of Longitudes Made by M. Martini, A. Kircher and J.N. Delisle from the Observations of Travellers to the Far East”, Imago Mundi, vol. 15, 1960, pp. 89–93. 49 According to Randles, “Le ciel...”, p. 139, Borri occupied the chair of mathematics and astronomy of the University of Coimbra in 1626–1627, whereas Lerner, “L’entrée...”, p. 158, implicitly suggests that Borri started working in Portugal as early as 1624; Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 271, mentions both Coimbra and Lisbon. Baldini relies upon archival documents suggesting that Borri resided in Coimbra from summer 1626 or even earlier, and stayed there as late as November 1627, yet was teaching in Lisbon in the academic year 1627–1628; see Baldini, “The Portuguese...”, pp. 64–65, nn. 43–44. 50 Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 271, n. 3, mentions the treatise Tratado da arte de navegar... (see above) as demonstrating Borri’s expertise in navigation without mentioning the date of publication; this treatise, supposedly published in 1628, was reprinted in 1940 as the Arte de navegar pelo padre mestre Cristóvão Bruno, prefácio por A. Fontoura da Costa, [Lisboa:] Divisão de publicações e biblioteca, Agência geral das colónias. 51 According to Randles, “Le ciel...”, p. 138, n. 45, and Lerner, “L’entrée...”, p. 159, n. 36, the treatise was published in Lisbon in 1931; on the circumstances of the publication see Randles, “Le ciel...”, pp. 139–140. See also Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., col. 1821, n. 2, who on p. 470 cites a line of the treatise suggesting that the book was ready for press as early as 1629. 52 Some authors specified that Borri entered the Cistercian Order in 1632, taking the name of Father Onofrio; see, for example, the entry “Christopher Borrus” by Otto Hartig in the Catholic Encyclopaedia, on-line version, retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02689a.htm on January 30, 2007. Other authors have suggested a different version of Borri’s relationships with various orders; see, for example: Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., col. 1821; Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 272. Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, pp. 56–57, provides a detailed review of various accounts. 53 Dror, “Phantasmatic...”, p. 56, comparing various descriptions of the event, mentions apoplexy suggested by some authors as the reason for Borri’s death. 54 For the first French translation, see Relation de la nouvelle Mission des Peres de la Compagnie de Iesus av Royavme de la Cochinchine. Tradvite de l’italien dv Pere Christofle Borri Milanois, qui fut vn des premiers qui entrerent en ce Royaume. Par le Pere Antoine de la Croix, de la mesme Compagnie, a Rennes, chez Iean Hardy, Imprimeur & Libraire, rue Saint Germain. On the translations of Borri’s book see Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 272–276. The most recent publication of Borri’s book found in Dror and Taylor, Views..., pp. 85–185, is an annotated reproduction of the English translation originally published in 1704 and reprinted in 1732; the name of the translator is unknown; see Maybon, “Notice...”, p. 275.
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Figure 2. The cover of the French edition of Borri’s Relatione (1631).
3.
Borri’s “Astronomical” Chapter
Borri’s description of the activities of Vietnamese astronomers is found in Chapter 6 of the second part of his Relation.55 Borri’s account can be summarized as follows: in 1620, Borri knew that a lunar eclipse was going to happen on December 9, but a representative of the local authorities (identified by Borri as rione, “a district [chief]”)56 was unaware of the coming eclipse and promised to adopt Catholicism if the eclipse were to happen. The eclipse did happen, and Borri won the bet. This case was presented in Borri’s account as a major event, and the whole of Chapter 6 was accordingly entitled “How did God open another door for Christianity with the help of the scholars found among those Gentiles”. In the opening part of the chapter Borri provides a historical parallel with the case of Dionysius the Areopagite who was converted into the Christian faith “by the means of a marvellous eclipse”.57 55
Borri, Relation... (1931), pp. 372–381. Bonifacy in his translation suggests “capitaine de la route”, while stating that this term rione is not Italian; see Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 376, n. 124. The English translator suggests “commander of the ward”; see Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 164. Dror also notes that rione in Italian means “neighborhood, quarter” (ibid., n. 3). 57 Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 372; Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 162. 56
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Borri’s description is interesting for several reasons. Firstly, he states that astronomy and astrology were taught at specially established institutions (“universities”) designed for large numbers of students (“they have [...] spacious halls for studying it”).58 Secondly, we learn that the astronomers worked under direct patronage of the members of the royal family, and that each astronomer most likely worked for only one of them. This may explain why the court astronomers of King Sãi (Sãi vương , the second Nguyễn Lord, personal name Nguyễn Phước Nguyên , 1563–1635)59 and those of his son, Prince ?] (?–1631), the official heir and the [Nguyễn Phước?] Kỳ (or Kì) [ Governor of Quang Nam Province since 1614,60 did not share the same opinion concerning the lunar eclipse of December 9, 1620 (see below). Thirdly, Borri states that the local “mathematicians” (that is, astronomers) were skilful enough and usually made only relatively small errors when predicting eclipses, even though the cases he described demonstrate considerable flaws in their computations. We shall see below that de Marini estimated rather negatively the skills of the astronomers he observed in Tonkin (Northern Vietnam) some 30 years later. In his account Borri mentions a reform of the calendar which, he claims, would be necessary to improve the accuracy of the prediction of eclipses. Bonifacy believed that Borri spoke of the Gregorian reform of 1582, thus suggesting that according to Borri the solution of the problem would have been the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the Vietnamese.61 It is more likely, however, that Borri did not mean to replace the Vietnamese calendar by the Gregorian one, but rather suggested adjusting the calendar which was used at that time in Cochinchina. Hoàng Xuân Hãn demonstrated that the Yuan dynasty Shou shi (Vietnamese Thụ thì) Calendar promulgated in China in 1281 was used in Vietnam as early as 1306, even though it was not officially sent to Vietnam by the Yuan emperor until 1311 (and re-sent in 1324 and 1334). In 1339 the name of the calendar was changed to Hiệp kỉ , and in 1401, to Thuận thiên , although the calendar remained virtually the same. In China the Ming dynasty changed the name of the Shou shi Calendar to Da tong (Vietnamese reading ðại thống) (1384), without making major changes in the calendar itself, and this version of the Shou shi Calendar was used in Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 373; Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 162. See Cadière, Léopold, “Tableaux chronologiques des dynasties annamites”, BEFEO, 5 (1905), pp. 77–145; for the biography of Sãi vương, see pp. 134–135; see also Han Ton That, “Généalogies des Nguyễn avant Gia-Long (1)”, BAVH, 7 (1920), no. 3, pp. 295–328, esp. pp. 317–321; and Orband, Richard, “Les Tombeaux des Nguyễn”, BEFEO, 14 (1914), no. 7, pp. 1–74, esp. p. 3. Cadière points out that the name “Sãi Vương” was given to the King by “Western historians” (p. 134). 60 For a short biography of Prince Kỳ, see Han Ton That, “Généalogies...”, p. 322; see also Orband, “Les Tombeaux...”, p. 19. 61 Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 373, n. 121. 59
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Vietnam during the Chinese occupation of the country in 1407–1428. After the liberation of the country, the same calendar was used, but under different names. Hoàng Xuân Hãn thus argued that during the entire period 1306–1644, the calendar used in Vietnam was actually the Yuan dynasty’s Shou shi Calendar, known under different names in Vietnam and in China.62 This means that by the 1620s, when the events described by Borri took place, the discrepancies between the predicted positions of celestial bodies and their actual positions may indeed have been considerable. Borri may have become aware of the deficiency of the Chinese calendar when he arrived in Macao; the report compiled by Sabatino de Ursis in 1612 in Macao depicted the main problems with the Chinese astronomical system, in particular the lack of precise astronomical tables needed for the calculation of eclipses.63 It is not known whether Borri had an opportunity to read de Ursis’ document when he stayed in Macao, but it is plausible to assume that prior to his travel to Cochinchina he became well aware of the report, or at least of its principal ideas, through personal communications with de Ursis himself, as well as with other Jesuit scholars in Macao. As an expert in astronomy, he must have quickly realized that the Vietnamese calendar had similar problems. In this case, the reform he was writing about most likely was similar to those suggested by de Ursis. 4.
Borri’s Description of Ceremonies Related to Eclipses
In his “astronomical” chapter Borri offers a description of ceremonies that took place during eclipses. According to him, the Court astronomers would inform the King about a coming eclipse well in advance, and the King would send relevant orders to all the provinces; immediately before the beginning of the eclipse, the people would gather together outside of every town and village, while the main gathering took place at the Royal Court, where the King was dressed in mourning clothes and led a solemn procession; “all of them raised their eyes at the sun or moon to be eclipsed, and made [...] gestures of reverence while addressing some words of sympathy to the celestial bodies [...]”.64 At the first sight the reader may have the impression that Borri’s description was based on his personal observations of the ceremony: “I knew already this custom, and for the first time we had to deal with this particularity was the lunar eclipse on 62
Hoàng, “Calendrier...”, pp. 142–143; see also: Zhang, “Yue li...”; Ôhashi, “Mainland South-East...”, p. 2. 63 D’Elia, Galileo..., pp. 63–82; see also Hashimoto Keizo, Hsü Kuang-Ch’i and astronomical reform, Osaka: Kansai University Press, 1988, pp. 17–18. 64 Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 374; Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 163.
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December 9, 1920 [...]”.65 However, this statement contradicts Borri’s own claim that this eclipse was not predicted by the royal astronomers and therefore could not have been accompanied by the described ceremony. Moreover, at the time Borri was staying at the Jesuit residence in Pulocambi near modern Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh province,66 while the ceremonies related to the eclipses took place at the residence of the Governor of the Quang Nam Province, Prince Kỳ, in Cacciam (Cả chàm, Kẻ Chàm), near Hoi An.67 Borri also mentions the solar eclipse of May 21, 1621 predicted by Vietnamese astrologers but invisible in Vietnam; once again, since the eclipse did not happen, it would be impossible for Borri to have seen all the stages of the ceremony, even if he were allowed to participate in it. One can ask whether Borri may have had the opportunity to observe the ceremonies accompanying other solar and lunar eclipses. An inspection of the data concerning the solar eclipses that took place from January 1618 to May 162268 shows that only the eclipse of May 21, 1621, was observable at the longitude of central Vietnam (ca. 108º E) and the latitudes corresponding to the Northern part of China. However, as Borri himself correctly concluded, it could not have been observed at the latitude where he was located (ca.16º N, since, as we shall see later, on May 21, 1621, he was in Hoi An).69 As far as the lunar eclipses are concerned, among the 12 lunar eclipses that occurred from January 1618 to May 1622,70 only six were visible in Cochinchina. Most certainly Borri was able to observe the eclipse on December 9, 1620, that he depicts in his book. As for the other 65
Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 376; compare with the translation in Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 162. This Jesuit mission was located at the place called Nước Mặn (literally “Salted water”) and identified by R. Jacques (Portuguese pioneers..., pp. 284–285) as the site located ca. 25 km to the North from modern Qui Nhon. In this paper I adopt the coordinates 13°47' N, 109° 11' E for this site. On the origin of the toponym “Pulocambi”, see Jacques, Portuguese pioneers..., p. 82. 67 Also spelled as “Cachao”, “Cacham”, “Cacciam” in various contemporary Western sources, and identified by R. Jacques (Portuguese pioneers..., pp. 25–26, 81) as the place called Chợ Tổng, near the village Phú Chiêm, commune of ðiện Phương, district of ðiện Bàn, near modern Hoi An. In this paper I adopt the coordinates 15°53' N, 108° 20' E for this site. 68 They are: Jan 26, 1618 (13:45, 44.7S, 9.7W); Jul 21, 1618 (19:43, 40.4N, 106.3W); Jan 15, 1619 (20:36, 8.1S, 130.3W); Jul 11, 1619 (10:28, 1.3S, 18.6E); Jan 04, 1620 (20:49, 44.9N, 146.4W); May 31, 1620 (20:32, 67.8N, 58.5E); Jun 30, 1620 (03:45, 65.1S, 102.3E); Nov 24, 1620 (04:15, 68.5S, 50.6W); May 21, 1621 (08:52, 63.1N, 36.2E); Nov 13, 1621 (14:22, 55.9S, 49.7W); May 10, 1622 (13:54, 13.5N, 28.7W). Retrieved on August 01, 2006, from the web-page “Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC” at http://sunearth. gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEcat/SE1601-1700.html. 69 See the maps of the total and annular solar eclipses that occurred in 1601–1620 and 1621–1640, posted on the web-site “Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus (NASA’s GSFC)”, at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1601.GIF and http://sunearth.gsfc .nasa.gov/eclipse/SEatlas/SEatlas2/ SEatlas1621.GIF, respectively. 70 I used the list of lunar eclipses compiled by Fred Espenak (NASA/GSFC) and posted at http://sunearth .gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEcat/LE1601-1700.html. 66
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eclipses, the moon was very low above the horizon during the eclipses of December 31, 1618 (UT 11:18), of January 29, 1619 (moreover, the latter eclipse occurred right before sunrise, UT 23:05), and of April 25, 1622. During the partial eclipse of February 9, 1618 (UT 14:32), the moon was high enough above the horizon, yet it is not certain whether Borri had already arrived in Cochinchina by that date, and it is also uncertain whether he was in Cacciam at that time and whether he, a newcomer, would have been permitted to observe the ceremonies at the Court. The penumbral eclipse of May 24, 1622 (UT 19:17), was also observable in Cochinchina, but on this day Borri most likely was either already in Macao or on the ship heading to Macao, given his active participation in the events of June 23–24, 1622. The total eclipse of December 9, 1620, was perfectly visible in Cochinchina: the moon was almost at the zenith at the moment of the greatest eclipse (Fig.3).
Figure 3. The sky on December 9, 1620, UT 17:18, at 15º 53' N, 108º 20' E.71
71
To find the position of the moon I used the YourSky computer program developed by John Walker and available at http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/.
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To conclude, most likely Borri himself witnessed only two events: (1) the lunar eclipse on December 9, 1620, and (2) the preparations for the solar eclipse on May 21, 1621, that was not predicted correctly by the Vietnamese astronomers (see below) and was invisible in Vietnam. In either case he could not observe the full version of the ceremony, since in the first case, according to him, the lunar eclipse was not predicted at all and, moreover, he stayed far away from the Royal Court. In the second case, the eclipse simply did not happen. This suggests that Borri’s description was either based on reports of unidentified Vietnamese informants, or on the accounts of fellow Fathers.72 The latter option appears the most plausible, since Borri was not the only Jesuit discussing eclipses with local officials. There exists a document providing an alternative description of the events that happened during the lunar eclipse of December 9, 1620, and a part of Borri’s account corroborates this description; we now turn to this document in the following section. 5.
De Pina and Prince Kỳ
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In his book Borri describes the events that took place on December 8 and 9, 1620, at the residence of “the Prince”, that is, supposedly, at the residence of the abovementioned Prince Kỳ in Cacciam.73 The protagonists of the story were Francisco de Pina and an official identified as Ông nghè , a “Master of Ceremonies” at the Court of Prince Kỳ. According to Borri, the court astronomers did predict the lunar eclipse, yet they made a mistake in specifying the date as December 8. De Pina informed the official in advance that the prediction of the astronomers was wrong and told him the correct time of the eclipse; the official apparently did not fully trust the Father, since he delivered the message to the Prince only after the Court astronomers’ prediction turned out to be wrong. This account may explain why the population in the area where Borri stayed was unaware of the coming eclipse: according to Borri, the astronomers of the King simply did not know about the eclipse, and the respective orders were not published. The description of de Pina’s activities states that the astronomers of the Prince calculated the time of the eclipse with a considerable mistake; if they relied upon the contemporaneous Chinese methods, the prediction, indeed, could The first Jesuit Fathers of the Mission in Cochinchina, the Portuguese Jacques Carvalho and the Italian Francesco (François) Busomi (Buzomi), arrived in 1615. The only solar eclipse which was observable in Southern China between 1615 and 1618 was the one that occurred on March 29, 1615, UT 07:02. It remains unknown, however, whether it was predicted by the Vietnamese astronomers and whether Carvalho and Busomi arrived prior to March 29, and thus were able to observe the related ceremonies. As far as the lunar eclipses that occurred in the interval January 1615 – December 1617 are concerned, five of them were observable in Cochinchina: April 13, 1615; October 6, 1615; March 3, 1616; February 20, 1617; August 16, 1617. 73 Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 378–379; Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 165.
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not have been correct, since the Chinese astronomers also failed to predict the exact time of the eclipse.74 Borri’s description, however, differs from the account provided in another document, namely, in a letter of Gaspar Luiz (Gaspard Louys, or Gasparo Luigi, 1586–?) of December 17, 1621, addressed to the General of the Society, Mutio Vitelleschi.75 This letter contains a long description of the events that happened at the Royal Court of Cochinchina on December 9, 1620, and a very short mention of the solar eclipse of May 21, 1621.76 The editor of the letter, Cadière, assumes that the part depicting the eclipse most likely was based on a report sent to Luiz by de Pina. The description provides a slightly different version of the relevant events. More specifically, the letter does not mention the astronomers of the Prince but the astronomer of the King (that is, of Sãi vương). According to Luiz (and, presumably, to de Pina) the King (and not the Prince) was informed about the coming lunar eclipse by his astronomer in advance, but the time of the event was predicted incorrectly. In the following part the accounts of Borri and Luiz — or de Pina — do not differ much: an unidentified Father (apparently, de Pina himself) informed the Master of Ceremonies about the correct time of the eclipse; he, in turn, informed the King about it when it became clear that the Royal astronomer had made a mistake. The description of the ceremonies related to the eclipse contains a large number of details; this may suggest that the author of the report (presumably, de Pina) observed the ritual himself or drew upon a description of an individual who was present at the ceremony. Since the ritual was repeated during two consecutive nights, de Pina and/or his informant may have observed an incomplete version of the ritual on the night from December 8 to December 9, 1620, as well as a complete version of it on the following night. 74
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See He Bingyu [= Ho Peng Yoke] and Zhao Lingyang , Ming shi lu zhong zhi tian wen zi liao (Astronomical records in the “veritable records” of the Ming [dynasty]), Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 660–661; esp. see the records of day 16 of month 11 of year geng-shen (1620). 75 For a biography of Luiz see Sommervogel, Bibliothèque..., t. 5, col. 184. 76 The original title is “Relaçaõ da Misaõ da Cochinchina escrita de Macao a 17 de Dezembro de 1621”; it was published in Italian under the title “Lettera scritta L’Anno MDCXXI. Della Missione della Cocincina” in the collection Lettre annve d’Ethiopia, Malabar, Brasil e Goa. Dall’ Anno 1620. fin’ al 1624. Al Molte Reuer. In Christo P. Mvtio Vitelleschi Preposito Generale de la Compagnia di Giesu, in Roma, per Francesco Corbelletti, MDCXXVII, pp. 97–118. I used the French translation of the Italian translation of the letter published in Histoire de ce qvi s’est passé en Ethiopie, Malabar, Brasil, et es Indes Orientales. Tirée des Lettres escrites és années 1620 iusques à 1624. Addressée au R.P. Mvtio Vitelleschi, General de la Compagnie de Iesus. Traduite de l’Italian en François, par vn Père de la mesme Compagnie, a Paris, chez Sebastien Cramoisi, ruë Sainct Iacques, aux Cigoignes, MDCXXVIII, pp. 122–148, reproduced photographically in BAVH, 18 (1931), nos. 3–4, in non-paginated plates following p. 407 (in the references below I use the original pagination of the French publication of 1628).
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The major contradiction between the two accounts is as follows. If the eclipse was predicted by the astronomers of King Sãi, as suggested by Luiz on the basis of de Pina’s account, then one would expect that the administrators of all provinces, including the province of Pulocambi in which Borri stayed, would have been informed about the coming event in advance. This, however, would contradict Borri’s claim that the officials in his province did not know about the eclipse. If we assume that the letter of Luiz erroneously (or on purpose, for some reasons) mentions Prince Kỳ as “King”,77 another problem would appear: could it be that the Prince and the King performed the rituals related to eclipses independently? In what follows, I suggest tentative answers to these questions. 6.
The Solar Eclipse of May 21, 1621
Borri’s account of this event can be summarized as follows: the astronomers of the King calculated the date and the time of the solar eclipse (presumably, an event much more important than the lunar eclipse) as May 22, 1621. Borri believed that this date of the eclipse was calculated correctly; however, he discovered that the eclipse, supposedly calculated by the Vietnamese astrologers according to a Chinese method, was predicted for the latitudes corresponding to the Northern part of China and would not be visible at the latitude of Cochinchina.78 It is interesting that the date of the eclipse was miscalculated by both Borri and his Vietnamese counterparts: the actual date of the eclipse was May 21, 1621.79 Ironically, Borri was not aware of his own mistake since the eclipse, indeed, was not visible in Vietnam.80 The King’s astronomers contacted Borri in order to confirm that their calculations were correct; Borri decided not to tell them that the eclipse would not be visible in Cochinchina, intending to reveal the truth at the moment when the information about the eclipse would have been published by the astronomers officially in order to demonstrate one more time the superiority of the Western science. In response to their request, he showed them 77
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This assumption is consistent with the fact that the Master of Ceremonies mentioned by both authors most certainly belonged to the Court of the Prince; see Cadière, “Annotation...”, pp. 415–416. 78 In China it was visible; see He Bingyu and Zhao Lingyang, Ming shi lu..., vol. 2, p. 662, record of the first day of the fourth month of year xin-you (1621). 79 Dynamical time of the greatest eclipse 08:53:44; annular; lat. 63.1N, long. 36.1E, path width 18 km, central line duration 00m18s. Retrieved from the web-site “Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus (NASA's GSFC)” at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEcat5/SE1601-1700.html on January 24, 2007. 80 See the map of solar eclipses posted on the above-mentioned web-site at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa .gov/eclipse/SEatlas/SEatlas2/SEatlas1621.GIF. Bonifacy noticed Borri’s error in his translation, yet did not discuss its implications; the only conclusion he made is that the reader “can forgive him [= Borri] for this slight error” (peut lui pardonner cette légère erreur); see Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 377, n. 126.
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unidentified Western astronomical tables that gave them the impression that their prediction of the eclipse was correct. The astronomers reported to the King that the eclipse was coming, and the King, in turn, published the relevant orders. However, Borri reports, the astronomers of the Prince as well as the Prince himself were not sure whether the eclipse was indeed going to happen. The Prince, according to Borri, personally approached him and asked his opinion on the matter, and Borri revealed to him that the eclipse would not be visible in Vietnam. Thus Borri was “responsible for the victory of the Prince and his astrologers [= astronomers] over his father the King and his astrologers”.81 Accordingly, unlike his father, the Prince did not publish the orders related to the ceremonies to be conducted during the eclipse in his domain, and when the moment came and the eclipse did not happen, his decision proved to be correct. In turn, the King stayed outside of the Palace and waited for the eclipse for two consecutive days. When he finally understood that his astronomers were wrong, he punished them. This episode contains several elements pertaining to our topic. Firstly, it suggests that by the early 1621 Borri had been transferred to the premises of the mission located near Hoi An, since the astronomers of the King and Prince Kỳ himself visited him several times, which would have been impossible if he were still staying in Pulocambi some 300 km away from the residence of Prince Kỳ near Hoi An. Apparently, once transferred to Hoi An, Borri no longer needed de Pina as his representative, and, instead, communicated directly with the Prince and his astronomers. Secondly, this account clearly demonstrates that the teams of astronomers employed by King Sãi and Prince Kỳ did not follow the same methods when calculating eclipses, and actually competed with each other. Thirdly, the fact that Prince Kỳ did not order the ceremonies to be conducted, and thus effectively cancelled the orders of King Sãi in his domain, may suggest a scenario that could explain the events that took place in December of 1620. One can conjecture that the lunar eclipse of December 9 was not predicted by the astronomers of the King (unlike those of the Prince), and thus the orders concerning the appropriate ceremonies were not issued throughout the territories under his rule, including the province of Pulocambi where Borri stayed at that time. The person described in the letter of Luiz was not King Sãi but Prince Kỳ, who may have been “promoted” by either de Pina or Luiz in order to increase the importance of the event. Fourthly, the actions of the two Jesuits may suggest that they attempted to build strong connections with Prince Kỳ who was the official heir and the future would-be King of Cochinchina, and who, at least in these two episodes, clearly disobeyed his father’s orders and probably disagreed with him upon other issues, possibly including those related to Catholic religion. 81
Borri, Relation... (1931), p. 380.
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The letter of Luiz opens with a sentence stressing the importance of astronomical expertise in missionary work: “We converted again more than two hundred persons, among them there are several most important people of the country, and there are many of those who are eager to follow them. What helped these conversions the most, after the good life of our Fathers, was the knowledge of mathematics.” 82
It is difficult to judge whether this paragraph was written by Luiz or by de Pina, but in either case it suggests that the prediction of eclipses and the related propaganda of superiority of Western science and religion were considered by these two Jesuits as pertaining directly to their missionary work. However, the case of the solar eclipse of May 1621, apparently much more important, is only mentioned briefly in Luiz’s report, in just one phrase at the very end of his account of the lunar eclipse: “A similar thing happened to the solar eclipse”83, without any identification of the event. There are two possible reasons for this, not necessarily mutually exclusive. First, if the ship carrying de Pina’s letter to Luiz departed directly after the eclipse, the missionary probably did not have time enough to present the details of the event; second, as Borri’s and de Pina’s accounts of the lunar eclipse of 1620 may suggest, each of the two Fathers may have stressed his own role at the expense of the other actor involved. 7.
Giovanni Filippo de Marini and His Description of Ceremonies Related to Eclipses
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Giovanni Filippo de Marini (1608–1682),84 also known as Philippe de Marini or de Marino, stayed in Tonkin (i.e., in the part of the Northern Vietnam controlled by the Trịnh Lords) in 1647–1658, and in Cochinchina (the Central part of modern Vietnam, controlled at that time by the Nguyễn Lords), in 1671–1674.85 The book published by de Marini in Rome in 1663 was entitled “The Missions of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus of the province of Japan, and especially of that of Tonkin”.86 A (partial) French translation was printed in 1666 under
82
Louys [= Luiz], Histoire..., p. 122. “Il arriua le semblable à l’Eclipse du Soleil”, Louys [= Luiz], Histoire..., pp. 125–126. 84 See the record on de Marini (no. 243) in Dehergne, Répertoire..., pp. 72–73; compare with the approximate birthdate of de Marini mentioned in Marillier, André, Nos pères dans la foi: notes sur le clergé catholique du Tonkin de 1666 à 1765, [Paris:] Eglises d’Asie, 1995, vol. 1, pp. 55–62. 85 De Montézon and Estève, Voyages..., pp. 391, 387, respectively. 86 Delle Missioni de padri della compagnia di Giesv Nella Prouincia del Giappone, e particolarmente di quella di Tonkino, Libri cinqve, Del P. Gio: Filippo de Marini Della medisima Compagnia, Alla santita di N.S. Alessandro pp. Settimo, in Roma, Per Nicolo Angelo Tinassi, MDCLXIII. 83
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the title New and curious History of the kingdoms of Tonkin and Lao.87 The original book contained five chapters, while the French translation included only chapters 1 and 5.88 De Marini describes the ceremony related to eclipses as follows: “[...] I can, [...] tell you about one of their ridiculous superstitions and ceremonies practiced at the moment when a solar eclipse begins. They [= the inhabitants of Tonkin] are stupidly convinced that in the sky there is a Dragon [...] wishing to devour the Sun and the Moon. So that the people in such moments [...] fill the air with mixed noise, sounds of voices and of instruments [...] in order to scare off and to drive away this harmful and dangerous beast [...]. And in so doing they follow the custom of the Emperor of China, Hú Vù, who imposed upon all his vassals such a ceremony. For this reason all those of the Court, no matter what their category and condition, [be they] the Mandarins of Letters or Mandarins of the Sword, together with the King himself, prepare to observe the very beginning of the eclipse under the guidance of the Mathematician [...]. If the eclipse is that of the Sun, they go to a very spacious courtyard in the middle of which there is a large pool filled with water, and which the King approaches being followed by the whole Court and by a large group of soldiers of his Guard wearing weapons; and he arrives there having the look of a sad and melancholic man who sympathizes to the unfortunate destiny of someone dying, and who gives himself the hardship of providing ways to liberate [the dying person] from the rigours of death. He observes attentively the eclipse in the water and stays immovable in this state while the heavenly body is becoming completely dark and then recovers its original splendour. And at that time, as if he believes that [the Sun] escaped from an extreme danger and almost resurrected, the King gets back his good mood and his calm face and after having looked at the sky in a very respectful way, he thanks it and returns his very humble gratitude to it, and washes his face with the water in which he observed the process of the eclipse and which, according to their vain superstitions, cannot but produce miraculous effects, as if the two celestial
87
Histoire nouvelle et curieuse des royaumes de Tunquin et de Lao. Contenant une description exacte de leur Origine, Grandeur & Estenduë; de leur Richesses & leurs Forces; des Mœurs, et du naturel de leurs Habitants; de la fertilite de ces contrees, & des rivieres qui les arrosent de tous cotez, & de plusieurs autres circonstances utiles & necessaires pour une plus grande intelligence de la Geographie. Ensemble la Magnificence de la Cour des Roys de Tunquin, & des Ceremonies qu’on observe à leur Enterrements. Traduite de l’Italien du P. de Marini Romain, a Paris, Chez Gervais Clouzier, au Palais, sur les Degrez en montant pour aller à la Sainte Chapelle, à la seconde Boutique, à l’Enseigne du Voyageur, M.DC.LXVI. 88 Moreover, the original book contained a number of elements not found in the translation, for example, the meticulously rendered pictures of a “Mandarin”, and of a “Soldier” from “Tum Kino”, and the list of the Jesuit fathers who worked in Tonkin in 1626–1660; see de Marini, Delle Missioni..., pp. 1–2.
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bodies had come down there and transmitted to him their beneficial influences; after that, he returns back to his palace being the happiest man in the world.” 89
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Some elements of this description are worth discussing at greater length. Given that de Marini stayed in Tonkin from 1647 to 1658, and in Cochinchina from 1671 to 1674, and that his book was published in Rome in 1663, the ceremony he described could only be that of Tonkin. It remains unknown whether the ceremonies practiced in Tonkin and Cochnichina differed, yet Borri’s description also mentions a dragon as the reason for eclipses,90 thus suggesting that the ceremonies in both Vietnamese kingdoms may have been similar. The Chinese emperor “Hú Vù” is most likely Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398), the , first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), temple name Tai zu also known under his era name as Hongwu Emperor (hence “Hú Vù”).91 The ceremony of observation of eclipses thus may have been introduced to Vietnam during the Chinese occupation of the country in 1407–1428 at the latest. The question concerning possible modifications of the ceremony after the end of the Chinese occupation remains unanswered. De Marini’s statement of the introduction of the rites by Hongwu Emperor also suggests that prior to the early 15th century, the ceremonies and practices related to eclipses in Vietnam may have been somewhat different from those described by the Jesuits. De Marini begins his description as if he were intended to describe only solar eclipses, yet he states that the Dragon could devour both the Sun and the Moon, thus suggesting that he speaks about lunar eclipses as well. However, a few lines below he returns to solar eclipses, writing “if the eclipse is that of the Sun”; meanwhile the ceremony related to the lunar eclipse is not described. De Marini’s description differs from that of Borri; in particular, de Marini describes the use of the pool in the imperial courtyard and the washing of the emperor’s face with the water in which the eclipsed sun was reflected. Borri does not mention any of these details of the ceremony. Moreover, when Borri says “all raise their eyes to the sun, or to the moon, which is about to be eclipsed”, his phrase tacitly suggests that he describes the lunar eclipse rather than the solar one, since it would be impossible to look at the non-eclipsed sun without special eye protection. Conversely, the observation of the solar eclipse reflected in water described by de Marini appears more realistic, since this technique makes it
See de Marini, Delle Missioni..., pp. 100–101. My translation is based on the French translation in de Marini, Histoire nouvelle..., pp. 183–181 (the pagination in this edition is erroneous; a second page with number 181 appears after page 184). 90 Borri, Relation... (1931), pp. 374–375; see also Dror and Taylor, Views..., p. 163. 91 This conclusion is drawn on the basis of my inspection of the names of the Chinese Emperors ruling prior to de Marini’s stay in Vietnam.
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possible to observe the sun even at the early stages of an eclipse.92 The detailed description suggests that de Marini either witnessed the ceremony himself or relied upon a description by someone well familiar with the ceremony.93 8.
De Marini on the Prediction of Eclipses
De Marini’s book contains a description of a wrongly predicted eclipse similar to that discussed by Borri. It reads as follows: “They [...] devote themselves to the study of Astrology and to the knowledge of the trajectories of the Planets, to know for real the position of the birth of the Moons, and most of all of eclipses, of which they are capable of publishing the exact days, but not the position and the hour, nor the beginning nor the end [of the eclipse], nor the time for which the Planet will remain obscured, nor other similar circumstances. The Mathematician makes mistakes very often, and one day when he cooperated with the Superior of this Mission to predict one [eclipse], he made a mistake of one day; but he was surprised when he learned that the Father had observed the hour and all the circumstances in the position [he] specified, so being afraid to miss another one and in order not to lose his reputation at the Court, he secretly confessed his ignorance and took several lessons from the Father, and in doing this he was hiding under the appearance of false and criminal humility the passion he had to keep the quality of the Master which he obtained over all others who were exercising the profession of Astrology.” 94
This account depicts a rather poor state of astronomy in the Kingdom of Tonkin. Unlike their Cochinchinese counterparts who, as the accounts of Borri and de Pina suggest, were able to predict the hour of the eclipse (even though incorrectly), the Royal Astronomer of Tonkin could not predict the hour of the eclipse or its duration. Moreover, de Marini mentions an episode that makes us think of the one discussed by Borri. The details are so similar that one may wonder whether de Marini knew the story found in Borri’s book; however, the protagonist of the 92
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In China, a basin filled with water was used to observe eclipses by Jing Fang (77 BC – ?); see Qutan Xida , Kai yuan zhan jing , in Ren Jiyu (gen. ed.), Zhongguo kexue jishu dianji tonghui , Zhengzhou: Henan jiaoyu, 1993–1995, Tian wen juan , vol. 5, p. 124. Certain sources mention using a bowl of oil for the same purpose during the solar eclipse of October 15, 1129; see Bo Shuren (ed.), Zhongguo tianwenxue shi (A history of Chinese astronomy), Taibei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1996, pp. 199–200. 93 As the aforementioned list of eclipses suggests, de Marini may have observed two solar eclipses when staying in Northern Vietnam, on August 2, 1655, and on June 1, 1658. The fact that de Marini observed the mathematical computations performed by the court astronomers (see de Marini, Delle Missioni..., p. 100; Histoire nouvelle..., p. 182) suggests that he may have had an opportunity to obtain first-hand information concerning the ceremony. 94 De Marini, Delle Missioni..., p. 100; de Marini, Histoire nouvelle..., p. 182.
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story was a Superior (presumably, of the Tonkin mission), and therefore neither Borri nor de Pina may have been involved in the event. De Marini’s description therefore refers to an episode different from the one related by Borri.95 What is most important for the present discussion is the fact that the strategy adopted by the unidentified Jesuit Father was almost identical to the one used by Borri and de Pina, even though the report of de Marini does not provide any information concerning the further repercussions of the scholarly discussions between the Jesuit and the Royal Astronomer, such as, for instance, the direct contacts with the authorities reported by Borri. 9.
Conclusions
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The sources discussed above suggest that the Vietnamese version of Chinese traditional mathematical astronomy was actively practiced in Vietnam as late as the early 17th century. However, the institutional setting of astronomical studies in Vietnam did not involve competition with an alien tradition, unlike China where both Chinese and Islamic astronomical Bureaus functioned concurrently for a long period of time. Astronomy played an important role in the social life and, in particular, in the life of the Royal Court in both Southern and Northern Vietnam. However, unlike China, the full-fledged astronomical reform (mentioned by Borri in his book and most probably proposed by him to the Vietnamese authorities) was not considered seriously by the rulers despite the errors systematically committed by the local astronomers. One of the main reasons for this was probably the fact that among the Vietnamese officials there were no figures (1562–1633), a high-level functionary and a similar to Xu Guangqi Catholic convert interested in Western scientific disciplines. The data provided in the accounts of Borri and Luiz also suggest that the astronomers of the King and Prince were involved in a complex political game led by their masters, and that the prediction of eclipses played a crucial role in this. No later than December 15, 1610, when the Western prediction of an eclipse proved to be more accurate than those made by the Chinese Imperial Astronomical Bureau,96 the Jesuits of the Chinese mission realized the importance of predictions The identity of the Jesuit Father who may have been credited with the involvement in the episode deserves a separate study. An obvious (and yet somewhat unlikely, as it will be shown below) candidate appears to be Alexandre de Rhodes (1591–1660) who visited Tonkin in 1627–1630 and was appointed the Superior of the Cochinchina Mission in 1640; in his well-known book he mentions numerous discussions he had with local astronomers and geomancers (whom he indiscriminately calls “mathematicians”); see de Rhodes, Alexandre, Voyages et missions du père A. de Rhodes, S. J., en la Chine et autres royaumes de l’Orient, avec son retour en Europe par la Perse et l’Arménie, Lille: Desclée [et] De Brouwer, 1854, pp. 111–113, 185. 96 See D’Elia, Galileo..., pp. 67–68.
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and observations of eclipses for the cause of evangelization. The comparison of the predictions of eclipses took place several times, and this strategy proved to be working successfully, especially in the well-known case of the prediction of the solar eclipse on the 29th of April, 1669, by Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688).97 Given that the results of the comparisons and their implications for their missionary work were promptly reported by the Jesuits working in China to the authorities in Rome, it would not seem too far-fetched to conjecture that Borri had known about this particular way of dealing with local authorities by the time he left for Macao, and that he certainly was aware of the importance of the observations of eclipses when heading to Cochinchina. Exactly how the interaction between Borri and de Pina went remains unknown, yet it seems rather clear that through their observations of eclipses, de Pina and Borri gained the respect and trust of the presumed heir of the Cochinchinese throne, Prince Kỳ, by May of 1621. Borri’s return to Europe and de Pina’s premature death apparently slowed down the work of the Mission in this direction, even though de Marini’s report of a prediction of an eclipse by an unidentified Jesuit, as well as other reported cases, suggests that the strategy was not completely aborted. Certain Jesuits eventually became “Royal Astronomers” and their positions within the Court were strong enough to influence decisions of the kings that were important to their Mission. Such was the case of the Father Juán António Arnedo (Jean de Arnedo, 1660–1715).98 When in Cochinchina, Arnedo correctly predicted a solar eclipse in 1695, and was appointed the Court Astronomer, King’s Commissioner for Imported Goods, and an Editor of the Official Calendar.99 There exist documents suggesting that he was able to stop the prosecution of missionaries in 1700 and to obtain their liberation from prison in 1704.100 However, it appears that as early as the first half of the 17th century, astronomical activities were no longer considered important by a number of missionaries, including, for instance, Alexandre de Rhodes (1591–1660). The latter, while presenting “mathematical” (i.e., astronomical) books to the highest Vietnamese 97
See, for example, Golvers, Noel, “Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623–1688) and the Astronomical Bureau in Beijing”, Review of Culture, 21 (1994), pp. 201–212, esp. pp. 208–210. 98 Arnedo arrived in Cochinchina in 1669 and was the Superior of the Mission in 1701, 1708, 1712 and 1714; see: Montézon and Estève, Voyages..., p. 386; Dehergne, Répertoire..., no. 48; Pfister, Notices..., pp. vi; 412. 99 Pires, Benjamin Videira, S.J., “D. João V’s diplomatic mission to Cochin-China”, Review of Culture, 11/12 (1991), p. 5–18, esp. p. 6. 100 A brief description of the events is found in Bonifacy, Augustus, Les débuts du Christianisme en Annam: dès origines au commencement du 18e siècle, Hanoi: Imprimerie Tonkinoise, 1930, p. 87; it was reproduced by Lange, Claude, Eglise catholique et la société des missions étrangères au Viêt-nam, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004, p. 71. The actual events can be more complicated, as the biographical note in Pfister, Notices..., p. 412, suggests.
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dignitaries and court astronomers upon his arrival to Vietnam, persistently tried to shift the focus of his conversations from astronomical to religious issues.101 This served to abandon the strategy of using astronomical expertise to establish strong social connections with the authorities while aggressively pushing forward the agenda of “grassroots-focused” evangelization. Although he reported this as highly efficient in terms of the number of converts it produced, it eventually led to increasing tension between the Vietnamese authorities and the Jesuit Mission. Acknowledgments
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See de Rhodes, Voyages..., pp. 111–113, 185. See also the account of Giuliano Baldinotti (1591– 1631), who visited Tonkin (Northern Vietnam) in 1626 and had a discussion with the King of Tonkin on “mathematical questions related to the Sphere”; see the letter of Baldinotti published in Dias, Manoel, Lettere dell'Ethiopia, dell'anno 1626 sino al marzo del 1627, et della Cina dell' anno 1625 sino al febraro del 1626, con una breve relatione del viaggio al regno di Tunquim, nuovamente scoperto, mandate al molto rev. padre Mutio Vitelleschi, generale della Compagnia di Gesù, Roma: appresso l'erede di B. Zannetti, 1629, reproduced (with a French translation) in “La relation sur le Tonkin du P. Baldinotti”, BEFEO, vol. 3 (1903), no. 1, pp. 71–78, esp. pp. 72, 75–76. Baldinotti may have been referring to the treatise In Sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius by Clavius, which was extensively used by Jesuits in China to teach their Chinese students; see Dudink, “Opposition...”, p. 199. It is also possible that Baldinotti actually means the treatise Tianwen lüe (Brief account of the Questions concerning the Heavens) composed in 1614 by Manuel (Emmanuel) Dias (Junior) (1574–1659) and presenting the main points of Ptolemaic astronomical theory, which Dias contrasted with the theories on which the Datong calendar was based; see Dudink, “Opposition...”, p. 201. 大
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The first draft of this paper was read at the Sixth International Symposium on the History of Mathematics and Mathematical Education using Chinese Characters (ISHME), Tokyo, Japan, August 2005, while some parts of it were included in the paper “Transmission of scientific knowledge: conventional picture and overtones. The case of Chinese and Western mathematics education in traditional Vietnam” read at the International conference “The Transmission, Education and Changes of Science and Technology in East Asia” (Taiwan National University, July 2005). I would like to express my gratitude to the National Institute of Pedagogical Research (INRP, Paris) and to the Leading-Edge Research Projects Foundation , grant 95N2521E21) of the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) ( for the financial support of my work in French libraries in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and to the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) where the final version of the paper was completed. I am deeply grateful to Luis Saraiva and Catherine Jami for their encouragement and support, and to Catherine Jami, Lucille Chia, and Joseph W. Dauben for numerous suggestions and corrections.
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TOMÉ PEREIRA (1645–1708), CLOCKMAKER, MUSICIAN AND INTERPRETER AT THE KANGXI COURT: PORTUGUESE INTERESTS AND THE TRANSMISSION OF SCIENCE CATHERINE JAMI REHSEIS, CNRS, Université Denis Diderot Paris VII Case Courrier 7064, 2 Place Jussieu, 75251 Paris Cedex 05, France
The study of the transmission of scientific knowledge from Europe to China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — or in the terms of Chinese history, the late Ming, early and mid-Qing period — has long focused on a few ‘giants’1 of the Jesuit mission, who are also those who made the most obvious contributions to the transmission of science: Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) and the translation of Euclid’s Elements of geometry, Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) and the Calendar Reform, Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) and the new astronomical instruments at the Imperial Observatory. It has become usual to state the following paradox: despite the Portuguese patronage of the Jesuit mission to China, and the fact that Portugal was the nation best represented among missionaries, none of these ‘giants’ were Portuguese. In recent years, less famous Jesuits have also been studied. The prosopographic approach has also proved fruitful for our understanding of what shaped the knowledge that circulated between Europe and China. Among others, the works of Ugo Baldini, Liam Brockey, Pierre-Antoine Fabre, Antonella Romano and Nicolas Standaert,2 1
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This term is borrowed from the title of Dunne, George H., Generation of Giants: The Story of The Jesuits in China During the Last Decades of the Ming Dynasty, Notre Dame (Indiana): University of Notre Dame Press, 1962. See a.o.: Baldini, Ugo, “The Portuguese Assistancy of the Society and scientific activities in its Asian mission until 1640”, in L. Saraiva (ed.), História das ciências matemáticas: Portugal e o Oriente, Lisbon: Fundação Oriente, 2002, pp.49–140; Brockey, Liam, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007; Fabre, Pierre-Antoine & Antonella Romano (eds.), “Les jésuites dans le monde moderne. Nouvelles approches historiographiques”, Revue de Synthèse, 120 (1999), pp. 247–491; Romano, Antonella, 2002, “Arpenter la ‘vigne du Seigneur’? Note sur l'activité scientifique des jésuites dans les provinces extra-européennes (XVIe– XVIIe siècles)”, Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 52 (2002), pp. 73–101; Standaert, Nicolas (ed.), Handbook of Christianity in China, Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2001; Standaert, Nicolas, Methodology in View of Contact Between Cultures: The China Case in the 17th Century, Hong Kong: Centre for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. 187
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have helped us to understand the China Jesuits as a group in which individuals, while sharing some important features, differed in the education they had received, their attitudes towards evangelisation and the use of the sciences in its service, as well as in the priorities they observed in their loyalties towards the various European institutions to which they belonged. The present paper focuses on one particular individual, Tomé (or Tomás) Pereira (1645–1708, Chinese name Xu Risheng ), who is not regarded as one of the ‘giants’ of the transmission of Western science to China, nor of the mission. Indeed in some respects he may have been closer to the ‘average’ China Jesuit. On the other hand, his career at the court of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662–1722) was quite outstanding. Focusing on him allows interesting insights into the context and conditions of the circulation of scientific knowledge and practice, as well as into the status of the sciences. A close look at Pereira’s career and role in China leads one to challenge two long-lived assumptions concerning Jesuit missionaries in China. First, the international dimension of the Society of Jesus: its members could, in apparent contradiction to their ecclesiastical commitments, give priority to the interests of their nation over those of the Society at large. Secondly, it is not the case that science and science alone was the key to the protection and survival of the China mission, especially during the reign of the Kangxi emperor in whose service Pereira spent thirty-five years. 1. Biographical Outline
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Pereira was born (as Sancho da Costa Pereira) in S. Martinho do Valle, in the diocese of Braga, Portugal, on 1 November 1645. After completing his primary education in Braga, he went to Coimbra; he entered the Jesuit noviciate there in 1661, when he was in his sixteenth year. In 1666, aged 20, and not yet ordained as a priest, he left Lisbon for the East Indies, never to return to Europe. He completed his studies in Goa and Macao, becoming a Master of Arts; this was a remarkable achievement. Although the level of education was relatively high in the Society of Jesus, there were not that many Masters of Arts among its members.3 In 1671, Pereira was in Macao when Ferdinand Verbiest, then Administrator of the Calendar (zhili lifa ), mentioned his name to the emperor during a conversation on Western music. Verbiest seems to have recommended Pereira also as an expert in the calendar.4 The following year, an imperial edict calling
Pfister, Louis, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les jésuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine, 2 vols., Shanghai: Imprimerie de la mission catholique, 1932–34, p. 382. Golvers, Noël, The Astronomia Europaea of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (Dillingen, 1687): Text, Translation, Notes and Commentaries, Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1993, p. 312, n. 3.
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Pereira to Beijing was issued.5 On 6 January 1673, he arrived in the capital, where he spent the rest of his life in the service of the emperor. The main landmarks in these thirty-five years are the following: in 1680 Pereira pronounced his final vows, only then becoming a professed Jesuit.6 In 1685 and again in 1696 he followed Kangxi in his annual trip to ‘Tartary’ (Manchuria); it seems, however, that Pereira never mastered the Manchu language as well as he did Chinese, despite the fact that the emperor was bilingual and encouraged the use of his native language. In 1688, following the death of Ferdinand Verbiest, he became the Superior of the Jesuit house in Beijing and was appointed acting Administrator of the Calendar at the Astronomical Bureau (Qintianjian ). He shared this responsibility with a Belgian confrere, Antoine Thomas (1644–1709), until 1694, when Claudio Filippo Grimaldi (1638–1712) took up the position in place of both of them. Also in 1688, the emperor appointed him as an interpreter in the embassy that was to negotiate the new frontier with some Muscovite envoys. It was only on 27 August 1689 that a treaty was signed: Pereira played an important role as a go-between in the negotiations. It is usually thought that it was in recognition for this and other services by the Jesuits that the Kangxi Emperor published the ‘Edict of toleration’ of 1692.7 From 1692 to 1695, Pereira was both Vice-Provincial and Vice-Visitor for the Chinese Vice-Province of the Society of Jesus.8 In 1705–1706, he was at the forefront of the crisis during the disastrous visit of the Papal legate Charles Maillard de Tournon (1668–1710) to Beijing, which resulted in the gradual loss of imperial favour for the court Jesuits, and, eventually led, several years after Pereira’s death on 24 December 1708, to the proscription of Christianity in China.9 This sketchy biography brings out some interesting points. Pereira spent two thirds of his life in Asia, and more than half of it at the Kangxi court. Before setting sail for Goa, he had never left Portugal, and all his life was spent within the Portuguese Assistancy of the Society of Jesus, which spread beyond Portugal’s maritime empire, as far as China. In this respect, his experience contrasts with those of the most famous China Jesuits, who all appear as international figures within Europe itself. The first foreign language that Ricci, Adam Schall and The edict was dated 11 September 1672 (Kangxi 11/ 7th intercalary/20); Golvers, Astronomia Europeaea, 312, n. 2. On the final vows, pronounced at least ten years after the three customary vows, see Rouleau, Francis A. & Edward J. Malatesta, “The ‘Excommunication’ of Ferdinand Verbiest”, in J. Witek (ed.), Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623–1688): Jesuit Missionary, Scientist, Engineer and Diplomat, Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1994, pp. 485–494, p. 486, n. 3. Standaert, Handbook, pp. 496–497. Dehergne, Joseph, Répertoire des jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800, Rome & Paris: IHSI / Letouzey & Ané, 1973, pp. 318, 322. Standaert, Handbook, pp. 358–361, 497–498.
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Verbiest had had to learn in order to work in Asia was Portuguese; they had all travelled across Europe before setting sail from Lisbon. Pereira, on the other hand, had experience neither of Europe beyond his native country, nor of the Society of Jesus beyond the Portuguese Assistancy. In the China mission, on the other hand, his experience was only that of a court Jesuit: contrary to most of his confreres, he never worked as a missionary in the provinces. Also, he witnessed the years during which the Jesuits secured imperial protection for the mission, as well as the beginnings of the unravelling of this protection that followed shortly. 2. Serving God and the Emperor: Musical Clockworks A Frenchman who gave an account of the Jesuits’ life in Beijing in the early 1700s described Pereira’s lot as follows: “F. Pereyra has been the Emperor’s first music teacher. Of all the FF., he is the one that has the honour of seeing him and who talks to him most often. He is machinist and armourer of the emperor; he fixes and maintains H.M.’s arms and keeps them clean. He also works on watches, clocks and dials...” 10
Indeed Pereira’s technical skills were as important as his musical talents in gaining him status at court and the emperor’s favour, which he seems to have retained throughout the thirty-five years he spent in Beijing. Little seems to be known however, about how he acquired these skills, or indeed about his training before he was called to the court, where he arrived in 1673. In any case, when he was in Macao his reputation as a musician came to the knowledge of Verbiest, whose main concern in recommending Pereira to the emperor was the reinforcement of the mission, and the use of all talents among his confreres in order to cultivate imperial favour and protection. He was on the watch for opportunities to bring more Jesuits into China, and to Beijing in particular. Pereira’s journey from Macao to Beijing, escorted by Chinese officials, was one of those occasions when the Society of Jesus could augment its prestige in the empire, by the display, in all the towns they went through and to all local magistrates, of the honours that its members were granted by the emperor. After his arrival in the capital, Pereira served the emperor as a musician and an instrument maker. However he also used these skills directly in the service of religion: thus his first achievement, in 1673, was to build a large clock for one of the capital’s churches, with a spectacular carillon that, according to Verbiest, attracted much attention from the population:
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Quoted by Pinot, Virgile, La Chine et la formation de l'esprit philosophique en France (1640–1740), Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1932, pp. 23–24.
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“Because this clock echoes far and wide, and makes the name of our church resound all through the imperial city, a big crowd flocks to view our church. However, what amazes them most is the musical prelude that precedes the striking of the hours. [...] I cannot describe how the novelty of this contraption enraptures the mind of the spectators, even to the extent that the square in front of our church, although it is very spacious, cannot hold the crowd that flocks together in thick and disorderly waves, so that our church and the square, especially on certain public holidays, is filled every hour with always different sightseers who succeed one another like ebb and flow. Although the greater part consists of heathens, they honour the statue of our Saviour with genuflections and by repeatedly bowing their heads to the ground.” 11
This carillon seems to have been modelled on the one depicted in Kircher’s Musurgia universalis (1650), a book on which Pereira relied in much of his musical work in China.12 No less than twelve copies of the book had been brought to China when Verbiest travelled there in the late 1650s.13 Thus Pereira’s mechanical skills were placed directly in the service of evangelisation. The carillon would certainly attract larger crowds than any accurate calendar or treatise on geometry might have done, reaching layers of the population that were not educated enough to appreciate the Jesuits’ scientific skills. The work from which the above quotation is taken, the Astronomia Europaea (1687), is Verbiest’s account of the rehabilitation of the Jesuits and of their astronomy by the young Kangxi Emperor in 1668–1669, after they had been impeached in 1664, and of their subsequent favour with him.14 A chapter is devoted to music, thus turning it into one of the ‘mathematical sciences [that] present[ed] some specimen of their skill to the Emperor’:15 “[...] Father Tomé Pereyra [...] offered an invention of ingenious harmony to the [emperor]. It was a musical sphere in which several melodious bells played Chinese songs with a most charming sound and great precision, while a little bird hopped around inside. This sphere, with a diameter of about 1 foot, was made 11
Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 127–128. Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 12, nr. 41, p. 500. 13 Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 136, n. 8. Verhaeren, Hubert, Catalogue de la bibliothèque du Pé-Tang, Beijing: Imprimerie des Lazaristes, 1949. Reprint, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1969, nr. 1921–1923, lists three copies, one of which belonged to the Hangzhou house. In 1661, another copy had been sent to Gabriel de Magalhães by a member of his family. Verbiest mentioned the work in a letter he wrote in 1661; Josson, Henry, and Léopold Willaert, Correspondance de Ferdinand Verbiest de la Compagnie de Jésus (1623–1688), directeur de l'Observatoire de Pékin, Bruxelles: Palais des Académies, 1938, p. 110. 14 Golvers, Astronomia Europaea; on the Calendar Case (1664–1669) see Chu, Pingyi, “Scientific Dispute in the Imperial Court: The 1664 Calendar Case”, Chinese Science, 14 (1997), pp. 7–34. 15 Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 101. 12
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of iron threads and as very well balanced on its horizontal axis. At both poles this axis was inserted in a little cogwheel and the latter, by gearing with the cogs of two bigger wheels, turned around two drums of reasonable size which were fixed onto them. The convex surface of these drums was divided into scores containing several Chinese tunes, and little pins were distinctly and very neatly placed as musical notes at harmonic interval. While the drum turned around, the pins lifted up very light levers, and at the same time little hammers attached to the levers; these hammers struck the bells, cast in melodious bronze, and very well made to the correct musical proportions. The bells, in fact, intoned several Chinese tunes with a most agreeable sound, as the drums were moved more or less to the inside over a determined distance. The outside of the instrument was in the shape of a magnificent Palace, and only the bells, one in each tower, could be seen from the outside; the rest of the mechanism was hidden inside the walls of the building. The Emperor enjoyed it very much, and much praised this ingenious work; he also had another tune he liked to hear plugged in on the drums.” 16
Two years later, in 1681, Pereira completed another musical automaton of the same kind, which, according to Verbiest, was up to the standards of those found in European courts. 17 No automaton corresponding to this description seems to be extant in the Beijing Palace Museum collection. This was one of many devices that the Jesuits made for emperors. Verbiest’s description reveals Pereira’s main employment at court: he was employed to fix clocks and watches. In this capacity he succeeded another Portuguese Jesuit, Gabriel de Magalhães (1610–1677).18 Magalhães had trained himself in this craft once he was in China, ‘for the love of religion’.19 Pereira, on the other hand, was already versed in it when he arrived, so that the aging Magalhães handed over his instruments to him soon thereafter.20 3. The Miraculous European Art of Music Pereira also made and played musical instruments in the service of God. Thus in 1681 the organ he built for the church attracted crowds, who wanted to see and hear it, as well as other instruments that to them were exotic curios.21 Verbiest’s chapter on music describes how Pereira’s musical talent was revealed to the emperor. This famous scene, of which Verbiest was an eyewitness, 16
Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, pp. 124–125. Josson & Willart, Correspondance, pp. 366–367. 18 Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 127; Standaert, Handbook, p. 844. 19 Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 127. 20 Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 319, n. 13. 21 Josson & Willart, Correspondance, pp. 306–307. 17
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took place in 1679, that is, only six years after Pereira had arrived at court:22 “[...] [The Emperor] ordered [Father Tomé Pereyra] to play an organ and a European harpsichord that we once had presented to him, and he took much delight in the European music. Soon, he had his own musicians perform a Chinese song which, after having practised it for a long time, the Emperor himself performed perfectly on another musical instrument. Father Tomé Pereyra followed the Emperor and his musicians in their performance with his voice and with his pen. He wrote their whole song directly down in our musical notes or European characters, and put it before our eyes on a small piece of paper; it was in complete accordance with the musical harmony, with the proportionate intervals, long, short, etc. Thereupon, at the request of the Emperor, he repeated their whole song without words so perfectly in accordance with the long and short intervals, with crescendos and decrescendos, as if he had practised it for many days, although he had never heard before! The Emperor, observing this, was astonished and could hardly believe his ears [...]. When after several trials, he saw that [Father Pereyra’s] performance was perfect in all its measures, he said: ‘This European art is miraculous indeed (he said this in Manchu), and this man here (he pointed at Father Tomé Pereyra) has an exceptional talent, truly admirable!’ A little later he personally gave us twenty-four bolts of silk or damask cloth — as it is commonly called — and he said: ‘Have yourself new clothes made of this, because the ones you are wearing now are not suitable’.” 23
Here Pereira displayed skills that the emperor had not previously encountered among the Jesuits in his service. One would like to know what was the Manchu word that Verbiest rendered by ‘mirabilis’ (miraculous), a translation that no doubt suited his purpose of showing Kangxi as attracted to their religion, rather than just impressed by their skills. Silk was a common gift from the emperor to those who served him: here it is a token of the high regard in which he held Pereira’s performance. Thereafter the latter seems to have taught the emperor to play a tune on a harpsichord. It is not clear, however, how far the harpsichord lessons went, for Kangxi’s main interest seems to have been Western musical harmony rather than the practice of Western music. This is related to the function of music in state and other rituals, which it was an imperial prerogative to define. Thus Pereira, like his confreres who worked as official astronomers, came to contribute to a work that was intended to define the rules for ceremonies that some Jesuits, and all missionaries from other orders condemned as ‘superstitious’.24 22
On this date, see Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 312–313, n. 8. Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 125–126. 24 Standaert, Handbook, pp. 680–688; Romano, Antonella, “Observer, vénérer, servir: une polémique jésuite autrour du Tribunal des mathématiques de Pékin”, Annales, 59, no. 4 (2004), pp. 729–56. 23
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Pereira’s name appears as one of the two Western authors of a section of the Exact meaning of pitchpipes (Lülü zhengyi , printed in 1723). This work was part of a larger compendium on mathematics, astronomy and musical harmony, the Origin of musical harmony and calendrical astronomy, imperially composed ) that Kangxi had commissioned in 1713. (Yuzhi lüli yuanyuan The mention of Pereira’s name is all the more remarkable as in the other parts of the compendium, the only authors mentioned are Chinese and Bannermen, while we know that some treatises written by Jesuits we used in the compilation work.25 While the Jesuits had then fallen out of favour, and the emperor was eager to appropriate their knowledge, in musical harmony Chinese and Western learning remained separated. Western learning was therefore ascribed to Westerners, contrary to the situation of mathematics, for which a synthesis was worked out under imperial supervision.26 Studies by Gerlinde Gild-Bohne and by Wang Bing have thrown light on the composition of the treatise that was to become the section of the Exact meaning of pitchpipes devoted to Western musical harmony. Wang Bing has identified five different copies of a manuscript entitled the Essentials of pitchpipes (Lülü zuanyao ), all in Beijing: two in Chinese and one in Manchu, kept at the Library of the Imperial Palace Museum; two kept at the old National Library. 27 She has concluded that these manuscripts were produced between 1680 and 1707, and that Pereira was their author. She has also shown how the content of the imperial treatise was adapted from Pereira’s work, with the contribution of Teodorico Pedrini (1670–1741), a Lazarist priest sent by the Pope who succeeded Pereira as the emperor’s music teacher from 1711 onwards. Pereira wrote his treatise in Chinese, and Kangxi later had it translated into Manchu. One can further specify that the Chinese version predated 1690, whereas the Manchu version was completed no sooner than that year: in May 1690, Kangxi asked that it be translated into Manchu.28 In fact the Essentials of the 25
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Jami, Catherine, and Qi Han, “The reconstruction of imperial mathematics in China during the Kangxi reign (1662–1722)”, Early science and medicine, 8, no. 2 (2003), pp. 88–110. 26 Jami, Catherine, “The Yuzhi shuli jingyun (1723) and mathematics during the Kangxi reign (1662– and Huang, Yilong (eds.), Jindai Zhongguo kejishi 1722)”, in Yang, Cuihua lunwenji (Science and Technology in Modern China), Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica & Institute of History, National Tsing-hua University, 1991, pp. 155–172; Jami, Catherine, “L’empereur Kangxi (1662–1722) et la diffusion des sciences occidentales en Chine”, in P.-E. Will & I. Ang (eds.), Nombres, astres, plantes et viscères: sept essais sur l'histoire des sciences en Asie orientale, Paris: Collège de France, 1994, pp. 193–209. 27 Wang, Bing , “ ‘Lülü zuanyao’ zhi yanjiu ”, Gugong bowuyuan yuankan , 102 (2002), pp. 68–81, pp. 69–71. 28 Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. Fr. 17240, f. 277r.; Landry-Deron, Isabelle, “Les Leçons de sciences occidentales de l'empereur de Chine Kangxi (1662–1722): Textes des journaux des Pères Bouvet et Gerbillon”, Diplôme de l'EHESS, EHESS, Paris, 1995, 2 vols., vol. 2, p. 90.
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pitchpipes was most likely written as lecture notes for tutoring on the subject that Pereira gave to the emperor before Verbiest’s death, that is, 1688.29 Gerlinde Gild-Bohne, on the other hand, has shown that two European works served as sources or models for Pereira’s treatise, although the latter is by no means a straightforward translation. These works are Gioseffo Zarlino’s Istitutione harmoniche (1558)30 and Kircher’s Musurgia universalis (1650), which Pereira had used to build musical clockworks. 31 Composing treatises adapted to the emperor’s demand, rather than translating a specific European work, seems to have been the predominant practice among the Jesuits who worked for Kangxi, although there were exceptions to this rule. 4. Defending Portuguese Interests Since the end of the fifteenth century, Portugal had the monopoly of patronage (Padroado) of missions in the Eastern hemisphere. This was still enforced in the seventeenth century. Therefore the Jesuit mission in China, while being part of the Society, and structured according to its hierarchy, was also dependent on Portuguese royal patronage. On the other hand, the presence of Jesuits at the court was vital to Portuguese interests in Macao. Thus, when Adam Schall was impeached from his position of imperial astronomer and tried in 1664, during Kangxi’s minority, martial law was enforced in the city, where trade was severely restricted. The Portuguese sent an embassy in order to plead for the reopening of trade; it reached Beijing in 1670. A second embassy, in 1678, seems to have succeeded in gaining the Portuguese a monopoly of the China trade for a few years. In both cases, the court Jesuits acted as interpreters and as advisers to the ambassadors.32 Thus Portuguese trade did derive some benefit of the crown’s patronage of the Jesuit mission of China. However, as we shall see below, as the maritime power of Portugal declined, the interests of the Society and those of the Padroado would sometimes turn out to be contradictory.
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On the Jesuits’ tutoring to Kangxi in ‘Western learning’, see Jami, Catherine, “For Whose Greater Glory? Jesuit Strategies and Science During the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722)”, in Xiaoxin Wu (ed.), Dialogues and Encounters: Changing Perspectives on Chinese–Western Exchanges from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Historica Institute / The Ricci Institute of Chinese–Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco, 2005, pp. 211– 226. 30 Verhaeren Catalogue, nr. 3542. 31 Gild-Bohne, Gerlinde, Das Lülü Zhengyi Xubian: Ein jesuiten Traktat über die europaïsche Notation in China von 1713, Göttingen: Edition Re, 1991, pp. 116–118. 32 Fu, Lo-shu, “The two Portuguese embassies to China during the K’ang-his period”, T’oung Pao, 43 (1955), pp. 75–94.
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Some conflicts within the mission resulted from the fact that Jesuits coming from various parts of Europe, who had had different trainings in the sciences, had contradictory views on what were the licit means to protect and promote the mission. Thus since the late 1640s, Gabriel de Magalhães strongly opposed Adam Schall’s taking office as imperial astronomer.33 The former’s opposition continued against Verbiest after 1669. In Magalhães’ view, by computing the calendar, Schall and Verbiest actively contributed to the organisation of Chinese rites, which he regarded as mere superstition. Also, several Jesuits argued that accepting an official position, together with the riches and honours that went with it, was incompatible with the vow taken by professed Jesuits to renounce ambition for secular dignities. Both Pereira and Grimaldi seem to have criticised Verbiest on this issue. The special dispensation granted to Verbiest by the Pope did not put an end to this conflict.34 In fact Verbiest’s position within Beijing officialdom gave him much more influence than his Portuguese confreres, while most of the time one of them was his ecclesiastical superior. Thus there was a clash between the Jesuit hierarchy and the hierarchy induced by insertion into the Chinese civil service — the very niche that, according to Schall and Verbiest, and to most historians, was to ensure protection of missionaries working in China. Another major disagreement between Pereira and Verbiest, that was to have consequences long after the latter’s death, was the means that could be used to ensure the reinforcement of the mission by new arrivals. In the late 1670s, Verbiest had sent to Europe a letter that his confreres had circulated widely, calling for support. Louis XIV’s decision to send Jesuits to China was the most important outcome of this letter. Although the six French Jesuits who set sail from Brest in 1685 were sent to China with the title of ‘the King’s Mathematicians’, and as correspondents of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Portugal regarded the expedition as a breach of its monopoly over Asia missions. Verbiest supported the French, and arranged that the emperor should summon them to the capital in the autumn of 1687, thus reversing the decision of the Ministry of Rites (which was in charge of foreigners) to expel them. Pereira opposed Verbiest on this.35 Verbiest’s death in January 1688, just a few weeks before the five Frenchmen reached Beijing, left Pereira as superior of the Jesuit house in Beijing, in a position to enforce his allegiance to Portugal. This was by no means a personal choice on his part: a few months earlier he had been 33
Romano, Antonella, “Observer, vénérer, servir: une polémique jésuite autrour du Tribunal des mathématiques de Pékin”, Annales, 59 (2004), pp. 729–756. 34 Rouleau & Malatesta, “The ‘Excommunication’ ”, pp. 489–490. 35 Josson & Willart, Correspondance, pp. 542–543.
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appointed Vice-Visitor for Northern China, precisely with the task of ‘dealing with the French intruders’.36 The Society’s hierarchy in China was also concerned about Verbiest’s succession. It is very likely that the arrival, in particular, of Jean de Fontaney (1645–1710), whose skills as an astronomer must have been known to them, made it urgent to provide a possible candidate for the Astronomical Bureau from within the Portuguese mission. Claudio Filippo Grimaldi, who had long worked with Verbiest as an astronomer and instrument maker, had been sent to Europe by Kangxi in 1686 as his envoy to Moscow and Rome.37 The Visitor, Francesco Saviero Filippucci (1632–1692), chose José Soares (1656–1736), a Portuguese who had been in China for several years. Despite the latter’s protest that he had no gift for mathematics, he was sent to Beijing, where he was to remain until his death.38 While he never worked as an astronomer, he served the emperor as a clockmaker and a stonecutter.39 It was Pereira who introduced the five French Jesuits to Kangxi; they were as yet unable to speak either Chinese or Manchu. According to them, he deliberately sabotaged their enterprise by minimising their competence in the emperor’s eyes. This is corroborated by a report from the Ministry of Rites: “We communicate respectfully: [...] [W]e have now allowed de Fontaney, Le Comte, Visdelou, Bouvet and Gerbillon, and the armillary sphere and other instruments that they bring, in a total of more than 30 trunks, small, medium and large, to reach the Ministry. Once they had arrived at the Ministry, we made it our duty to put de Fontaney and the others in relation with the Astronomical Bureau for information and clarification. It may well be that they are not versed in astronomy.” 40
The assessment given in this report may well have stemmed from Pereira. While staying in Beijing, the French were under his authority. As the size of their luggage suggests, they were richly equipped with scientific books and instruments, which Pereira forbade them to use, ordering: “That no one leaving the college or travelling could take with him any instrument of mathematics under any pretext. 36
Sebes, Joseph, The Jesuits and the Sino–Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), Rome: IHSI, 1961, pp.138. Masini, Federico, “Bio-bibliographical Notes on Claudio Filippo Grimaldi S.J, Missionary in China (1638–1712)”, in A. Forte & F. Masini (eds.), A Life Journey to the East: Sinological Studies in Memory of Giuliano Bertuccioli (1923–2001), Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, pp. 185–200, pp. 188–190. 38 Brockey, “The Harvest of the Vine”, pp. 233–234. 39 Madrolle, Claudius, Les premiers voyages français à la Chine: la Compagnie de la Chine, Paris: A. Chamallel, 1901, p. 148. 40 Wu, Xiangxiang (ed.), 1966, Tianzhujiao dongchuan wenxian xubian , Taipei: Xuesheng shuju, 1966, 3 vols., vol. 3, p. 1727. 編
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That during travels one would not take the latitude of places or any other observation that might induce suspicion in the Princes in whose territories we are to work only to the salvation of souls.” 41
Such bans made it impossible for the French to carry out the tasks for which Louis XIV had so generously endowed them. In fact Pereira very likely wanted the Beijing mission to keep all the instruments brought by the French: as the local superior, he assumed that he should have control over all the funds and goods available in the residence. Moreover his concern that local officials might regard the collection of cartographic information by foreigners as undesirable was quite a reasonable one. In short, he defended both discipline and the interest of the mission, which in his view were indissociable. De Fontaney, on the other hand, held that he and his companions owed obedience first and foremost to the King of France, to whom ‘[their] superiors had given [them]’ back in Paris:42 in his view the scientific expedition was to be given priority over the evangelising mission. Just like Pereira, his loyalty went to those on whose financial support he depended. After giving audience to the French Jesuits, with Pereira as their interpreter, the emperor decided to keep two of them in his service: Jean-François Gerbillon (1654–1707) and Joachim Bouvet (1656–1730), the two most junior among the group. De Fontaney understood this decision to reflect Pereira’s own choice as to whom he was least disinclined to keep in Beijing, rather than a well-informed decision on the emperor’s part: “It is certain that I was marked first on the Portuguese’s papers [...]. F. Le Comte and F. Visdelou were those who had most practised mathematical observations, and I had indicated it. F. Gerbillon was more accommodating than us all to F. Pereyra. F. Bouvet thought of Tartary, the emperor learnt about this and kept him to this end.” 43
Pereira’s attitude in this case might also be explained by his eagerness to keep internal dissensions hidden from the emperor. For this purpose it was essential to move de Fontaney out of Beijing: as the superior of the French mission, the latter was the main challenge to Pereira’s authority. Moreover he seems to have regarded himself as a possible candidate as Verbiest’s successor.44 In any case, the emperor would have been unlikely to appoint a newcomer who knew neither Chinese nor Manchu: past experience must have made him aware that only 41
Achivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Jap.-Sin., 127, ff. 145v–146r. Quoted in Landry-Deron, Isabelle, “Les Mathématiciens envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV en 1685”, Archive for the history of exact science, 55 (2001), pp. 423–63, p. 445. 43 Quoted in Landry-Deron, “Les Leçons”, vol. 1, p. 39. 44 Landry-Deron, “Les Mathématiciens”, pp. 439–441. 42
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someone familiar with China’s customs and institutions could aptly fulfil the position. Accordingly, he chose Claudio Filippo Grimaldi (1638–1712) to take up the position of Administrator of the calendar. On the one hand, Grimaldi had been Verbiest’s assistant at the Astronomical Bureau since 1671; on the other hand he had some mastery of the Manchu language as well as of Chinese.45 Since Grimaldi was not in China, Kangxi appointed Antoine Thomas (1644–1709), who had been Verbiest’s assistant since 1685, to fulfil the new Administrator’s task until his return, together with Pereira. According to Jesuit sources, the emperor had first nominated Pereira as Verbiest’s successor, but the latter declined the honour and then put forward both Grimaldi’s name and the proposal that Thomas and himself should jointly deputize for him interim.46 Gerbillon, while acknowledging Pereira’s musical talent, and his skill for repairing clocks and music instruments, judged him too ignorant in astronomy for this appointment. In fact Pereira acted as an interpreter while Thomas did the technical work, as the latter’s language skills seem to have been limited.47 The three French Jesuits who left Beijing at the end of March 1688 took with them a good part of the scientific equipment that they had brought from France, and thereafter they did not fail to use it as they travelled: “The three fathers, who did not have to show so much consideration for the Portuguese, had not felt obliged to leave the mathematical instruments that the King had given them for his service. Father Fontaney took the best part of them to Nanjing, firmly resolved to make there all the observations for which the Emperor had with great pleasure given them all freedom, far from being induced to the suspicions that the Portuguese were talking about.” 48
Giving primacy to the Padroado over all other considerations was not a feature specific to Portuguese Jesuits: Filippucci, the Visitor who had appointed Pereira to deal with the French, was Italian. It was he who, a couple of years after the French’s arrival, expressed the view that the China mission should be run by Portuguese, or at least by Jesuits whose loyalty to the Padroado was beyond doubt.49 Clearly the dominant view in the Jesuit hierarchy of the Portuguese Assistancy was that obedience was more important than scientific skills. Pereira’s career at the court shows that scientific skills were indeed not the only key to imperial favour. 45
Golvers, Astronomia Europaea, p. 267, n. 102. Rodrigues, Francisco, Jesuítas portugueses astronómos na China, 1583–1805, Macao: Instituto cultural de Macau, 1990, p. 17. 47 De Thomaz de Bossierre, Mme Yves, Jean-François Gerbillon, S.J. (1654–1707): Un des Cinq Mathématiciens Envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV, Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation, 1994, p. 41. 48 ARSI, Jap.-Sin., 127, ff. 157r–157v. 49 Brockey, “The Harvest of the Vine”, p. 167. 46
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The antagonism between the French and the ‘Portuguese’ — i.e. those defending the Portuguese monopoly — lasted throughout the Kangxi reign. However both sides had to work together for the emperor. Thus, when in May 1688 Kangxi appointed Pereira to accompany the delegation that was to sign a peace treaty with the Muscovites, and ordered him to select another Jesuit to go with him, the Portuguese Jesuit chose Jean-François Gerbillon as his companion. Because of unrest in the region, the delegation was called back to Beijing; they set out again a year later. This time, they headed for Nerchinsk, where a treaty was signed on 22 August 1689; this treaty demarcated the frontier, stipulated that the settlement of Albazin, which the Qing armies did not control, should be destroyed, while allowing trade across the border and making provision for embassies to be exchanged.50 The two Jesuits’ mediation and that of a Latin–Russian interpreter made communication possible between the two parties: they helped prepare the multilingual treaty. Both Pereira and Gerbillon left accounts of the negotiations, in which each emphasised his personal role; in fact the hierarchies of both the Qing court and the Society of Jesus gave authority to Pereira over his confrere who was still a newcomer, and had apparently little knowledge of Chinese or Manchu at the time. Pereira’s account was a report written for the Society’s hierarchy,51 whereas Gerbillon’s was intended for a broader readership. Jean-Baptiste Du Halde eventually published it in his famous Description de la Chine (1735): the 1688 false start and the 1689 journey and negotiation form the first two of Gerbillon’s eight ‘Trips to Tartary’.52 The two leaders of the Qing delegation sent to Nerchinsk were both protectors of the Jesuits. Tong Guogang (d. 1690), a maternal uncle of the emperor, had received baptism in 1672;53 Songgotu (Suo’etu , d. 1703?), the son of one of the regents, had supported Kangxi against Oboi in the late 1660s; he remained very influential until his disgrace in 1703.54 Tong Guogang, who had probably long been acquainted with Pereira, acted as his protector, whereas Songgotu seems to have favoured Gerbillon.55 Thus rivalries within the Society paralleled court factions. Spence, Jonathan, “The K’ang-Hsi Reign”, in W. Peterson (ed.), The Cambridge History of China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, vol. 8, part 1, pp. 120–182, pp. 150–153. 51 Sebes, The Jesuits and the Sino-Russian Treaty. 52 Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste, Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise, 4 vols., The Hague: H. Scheuleer, 1736, 4 vols., vol. 4, pp.103–259; on this work see Landry-Deron, Isabelle, La preuve par la Chine: La “Description” de J.-B. Du Halde, jésuite, 1735, Paris, Editions de l’EHESS, 2002. 53 Hummel, Arthur W., 1943, Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing period, 1644–1912, (ECCP) Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943, 2 vols., pp. 794–795; Standaert, Handbook, p. 444. 54 ECCP, 663–666. 55 Sebes, The Jesuits and the Sino–Russian Treaty, p. 141.
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The Nerchinsk treaty seems to have represented the peak of Pereira’s career. It is usually said that it was in part as a reward for the role played by the two Jesuits in the negotiations that Kangxi issued the famous ‘Edict of Toleration’ of 1692. Still, while working for the emperor, Pereira did not fail to defend the Portuguese power when he had the opportunity. Thus he had been instructed by Verbiest, before the latter’s death, to discuss with the Muscovite envoys the possibility of opening a land route between Europe and China through their territory. However he chose not to carry out these instructions, despite the fact that they reflected the wish of the Society’s General as well as that of the Kangxi emperor, who had sent Grimaldi back to Europe for this purpose. The opening of such a route would have meant the final loss of Portuguese control over the circulation of Jesuits in Asia. Leaving aside his breach of loyalty to the emperor, in this direct conflict of interests between his religious order and his fatherland, Pereira unambiguously chose the latter.56 In 1690, the emperor decided to resume the study of Western learning that he had started about twenty years earlier under Verbiest’s tutorship. This time, he had four tutors: while Thomas and Pereira taught him arithmetic and algebra in Chinese, Gerbillon and Bouvet took up Euclidean geometry and practical geometry in Manchu. As the emperor’s interests also included instruments and their use, Pereira’s expertise was also put to use. Here collaboration once more vied with competition between him and the French. Thus one day, according to Bouvet: “[The Emperor] stopped to consider quite at length the repeater clock and all its movements, of which F. Pereyra gave him the explanation. His Majesty considered in particular the pieces that make it repeat the hours. Then His Majesty, having asked who was the inventor of this clock, we (Gerbillon and Bouvet) told him that it was a famous French clockmaker [...]”.57
While it was Pereira who had the competence to explain how the clock worked, Gerbillon and Bouvet did not fail to emphasise its French origin. The image that Kangxi formed of French instruments was an important stake in the eyes of all the Beijing Jesuits: de Fontaney alleged that ‘the Portuguese fathers at court, in order to minimise the industry of the French, erase[d] their names from the watches, clocks and pendulum clocks, and put others’.58 Since Pereira was in charge of maintaining the imperial collection, he was in a good position to carry out such falsification. However it is not known whether the signature on any of the instruments extant at the Palace Museum nowadays has been altered in this manner, and thus whether any evidence substantiates de Fontaney’s allegation. 56
Sebes, The Jesuits and the Sino–Russian Treaty, p. 139–141. BnF Ms. Fr. 17240, f. 276 v; Landry-Deron, “Les Leçons”, vol. 2, p. 86. 58 BnF Ms. Fr. 25060, f. 238 v; quoted by Landry-Deron, “Les Leçons”, vol. 2, 208, n. 94. 57
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5. The Emperor’s Reminiscence of a Loyal Servant
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Whereas his confreres did not always draw a flattering picture of Pereira, another actor in this story seems to have held him in both esteem and affection: this is none other than the Kangxi Emperor, whom Pereira served for thirty-five years. In the Maxims of fatherly advice (Tingxun geyan ), a collection 59 of ‘conversations, observations and aphorisms’ written for his sons’ edification, he recorded two anecdotes involving Pereira: “Even when joking about small details one should still be cautious to remain within reason. Formerly, my eldest son was in charge of the workshops at the Hall of the Cultivation of the Heart60; one day he came in with Pereira. As we were talking, my eldest son teased Pereira: ‘Can I shave your hair?’ ‘If you want to shave it, shave it,’ replied Pereira pretending not to care. At that moment I was wary about my eldest son being an unjustly rebellious man, as he said cunningly: ‘I have memorialised to my imperial father that it should be shaved. If I want your hair shaved, I can indeed have it shaved.’ Could it be allowed that foreigners should say that I have their hair shaved as a joke? At the time I also laughed, saying: ‘If my son wants to shave [your hair], let him first petition to me; then he can shave it.’ Upon hearing my words, Pereira changed colour with sadness, his eyes filled with tears, and he was speechless. A few days later he came to see me on his own, and said to me, weeping: ‘How come Your Majesty is in such a mind? What has it got to do with your imperial son whether we foreigners shave our hair? Your Majesty is still thinking, and you have not yet handed down the edict. If you really issue this order, your subject will be greatly pained’.” 61
When the Manchus conquered China in the 1640s, they had forced Chinese men to adopt their hairstyle: front of the head shaven and remaining hair worn in a plait. This had caused fierce resistance among the Chinese and hence much bloodshed. As non-Chinese subjects of the Qing however, the Jesuits were allowed to wear their hair in their own fashion. Kangxi’s point here is that by furthering his son’s joke instead of rebuking him, he had unwittingly offended a man who served him loyally: he cautions his sons against such mistakes. 59
Spence, “The K’ang-Hsi Reign”, p. 176. The Yangxindian is a set of buildings in the Forbidden City where the imperial workshops were housed during the Kangxi reign; it was the place where the Jesuits saw the emperor. 61 Yingyin Wenyuange Siku quanshu , Taipei: Taipei shangwu yinshuguan, 1986, (SKQS), 1500 vols., vol. 717, p. 638. 書
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The image of Pereira with his eyes full of tears, however, seems difficult to reconcile with his confreres’ accounts of him. The maxim continues with another reminiscence: “Later, when I was unwell in the 47th year (1708), Pereira, believed nonsense from outside and wrongly assumed that my illness was incurable. He went to the Hall of Cultivation of the Heart, greatly crying and lamenting his misfortune. Then he went back, and upon arriving home he passed away.”
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Jesuit sources, on the other hand, recount a different story: ‘the emperor himself attributed the sickness which undermined Pereira’s health to the rigours with which Tournon had treated the well-merited and venerated missionary’.62 They emphasise Kangxi’s support to the Jesuits against the papal legate, and suggest that Pereira succumbed to unjust persecution. Thus there are two competing edifying stories about Pereira’s end. Did he die of despair because he saw his life’s work jeopardized, or of grief upon hearing of his master’s supposedly fatal illness? We have a double image for our edification: an exemplary Christian but also the personification of loyalty to one’s sovereign (zhong ) — one of the Chinese cardinal virtues. The emperor’s maxim concluded by a moral: “Thus with one word one may win over somebody’s heart, and with one word one may lose it.” 63
Here Kangxi takes Pereira as the prototype of the loyal servant that one should not run the risk of losing by causing him either offence or grief. This may be more telling about the emperor’s way of relating to those in his service than about the Jesuit himself. However, another edifying anecdote, recounted by Pedrini, Pereira’s successor as court musician, confirms that Kangxi held Pereira in more than common esteem: when Pedrini was introduced to the emperor and first played music for him in 1711, the latter, his eyes filled with tears, expressed his emotion at hearing such beautiful music, of which he had been deprived since Pereira’s death.64 This final touch would plead for Pereira’s own view that scientific skill put in the service of the emperor was by no means the only way to his heart, and thereby to the safety of the missionary enterprise. The underlying assumption, however, is that the emperor’s decisions were governed by sensibility rather than by sense. Most historical sources, however, point in the opposite direction: 62
Sebes, The Jesuits and the Sino–Russian Treaty, p. 138. SKQS, vol. 717, pp. 638–639. 64 Allsop, Peter & Joyce Lindorff, “From the Qing Court to the Vatican: Teodorico Pedrini’s Half Century of Letters”, paper to the Workshop Music and inter-cultural contact in the early modern period, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 18 June 2005. 63
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though certainly not devoid of sensibility, Kangxi’s policy towards the Jesuits, as towards most other matters, was overwhelmingly dictated by sense. * * * A historian, rather than siding with one of two parties of a quarrel, and passing moral judgment on the other, will see in all that I have discussed evidence of the complexity of the Jesuits’ situation in China. Here the conflicts of loyalties on the European side — in Pereira’s case, to his country and to his religious order — have been emphasised. Other elements are needed to fully grasp this complexity. In particular, the tensions between the Chinese and their Manchu rulers need to be taken into account. Further, a historian of science, rather than blame those whom they see as having prevented the glorious progress and diffusion of science — represented here by the work of Verbiest and the French Jesuits —, will conclude, I hope, that Pereira’s life and career, and above all his attitude towards the sciences highlight the political, social and cultural intricacies in which the sciences, their developments and their circulation, are inevitably caught — as is the case with all human activity.
THE YUZHI LIXIANG KAOCHENG HOUBIAN IN KOREA SHI YUNLI University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge CA3 9AF, UK
1.
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In 1742, a new canonical book on calendrical astronomy was completed at the Beijing Bureau of Astronomy under the directorship of Ignatius Kögler (1680–1746) and Andre Pereira (1689–1743). The book was entitled the Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian (Later Volumes of the Thorough Investigation of Calendrical Astronomy Imperially Composed, hereafter LKH), named after the famous Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng (Thorough Investigation of Calendrical Astronomy Imperially Composed, hereafter LK), another canon of official astronomy of the Qing dynasty published about twenty years earlier. The new book comprised ten juan, which can be divided into three major parts, in the same way as the LK. The first part, juan 1 to 3, is the “theoretical”1 section devoted to the , or mathematical principles, wherein the motions of the sun so-called shuli and the moon as well as the process of their eclipses are demonstrated to reveal the underlying principles for practical calculations. The second part, juan 4 to 6, is the “practical” section devoted to so-called bufa or computational methods, wherein two sets of different but identically functioning methods are given for the predictive calculations of the sun, the moon and lunar and solar eclipses: firstly a set of algorithms derived from the principles explained in the first part of the book, and then the procedures based on pre-calculated tables. The third part, juan 7 to 10, contains the pre-calculated tables needed in the second set of methods introduced in the “practical” portion. The most outstanding feature of the new book is that it includes some elements of Newton’s astronomy, namely (1) Newton’s value for the length of a tropical year; (2) all the equations of the moon included in Newton’s Theory In this article, I propose a dichotomy between the techniques (or technical aspect) and theories (or theoretical aspect) of calendrical astronomy in the following way: while techniques refer to the algorithms for concrete calculations, theories denote the underlying principles of these algorithms, especially the demonstrations, with geometrical models if needed, of various motions and processes involving the sun, the moon and the five major planets. 205
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of the Moon’s Motion (hereafter TMM); (3) the procedures for calculating these equations except that for calculating the equation of center of the moon; (4) lunar tables that rely on these equations. As an indispensable basis of Newton’s astronomy, the first two laws of Kepler are adopted to describe the motions of the sun and moon, while Kepler’s equation and some of its approximate solutions are also introduced in great detail and applied in practical calculations. Besides, various important results obtained by Gian Domenico Cassini (1625–1712) are also incorporated in the book with clear acknowledgement of his name, including (1) his value of the ecliptic obliquity, (2) his theory and table of atmospheric refraction, (3) his method for measuring the solar parallax and the measured result, and (4) his procedures for the calculations of eclipses and the related tables. In short, the LKH was equipped with the most up-to-date achievements of contemporary Europe in predictive astronomy related to the positional calculation of the sun and the moon.2 Since the book took advantage of such important European achievements from Kepler to Newton’s time, positional astronomy of the sun and moon thus witnessed a very remarkable advancement: as compared with the theory of the LK, the precision of the positional calculation of the sun improved more than ten times, whereas the lunar theory became over four times more accurate in longitudinal calculation and nearly ten times more accurate in latitudinal calculation, which directly laid down a sound foundation for the improvement of the predictive calculation of solar and lunar eclipses.3 Although the new book was adopted together with the LK as the infrastructure of Qing official astronomy, its reception among literati and astronomers 敬
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For the compilation of and the new knowledge in the LKH, see Hashimoto Keizô , Daenhô no tenkai. Rekishô kôsei kôhen no naiyô ni tsuite ―― (The Development of elliptical Methods. On the contents of the Later Volumes of the Established System of Calendrical Astronomy), Tôhô gakuhô (Journal of Oriental Studies), vol. 42 (1971), pp. 245–272; Lu Dalong, Guimao yuan Calendar (1742–1911) and Isaac Newton’s Theory of the Moon’s Motion, in Celina A. Lértora Mendoza et al., The Spread of the Scientific Revolution in the European Periphery, Latin America and Eastern Asia, Proceedings of the XXth International Congress of History of Science (Liège, 20–26 July 1997), Volume V, Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 1999, pp. 169–179; Han Qi, “The Compilation of the Lixiang kaocheng houbian”, in Luis Saraiva (ed.), History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia II, Lisboa: EMAF-UL, 2001, pp. 147–152; Shi Yunli and Xing Gang, “The First Chinese version of the Newtonian Tables of the Sun and the Moon”, in Chen, K-Y., Orchiston, W., Soonthornthum, B., and Strom, R. (eds.), 2006, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Oriental Astronomy, Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai University, 2006, pp. 91–96. Shi Yunli , “Lixiang kaocheng zhong de zhongxincha suanfa ji qi ri yue lilun de zongti jingdu ” (The calculation of the equation of center in the Later volumes of the thorough investigation of calendrical astronomy and the accuracy of its theory of the sun and moon), Zhongguo keji shiliao (China historical materials on science and technology), 24 (2003), pp. 132–146. 後
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outside the Bureau of Astronomy was not without problem. The most important issue incurred was the incoherence between the geometrical models applied in the two books: while a combination of circular motions was adopted in the LK for the description of the motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets, the schemes employed in the LKH for the description of both solar and lunar motions were elliptic orbits. The issue became even more unsettled after the French Jesuit Michel Benoist (1715–1774) openly suggested in his Diqiu tushuo (Explanation of the World Map, presented to the throne in 1760 and published outside the court in 1799) that the heliocentric scheme was a more reasonable arrangement of the celestial bodies. To the leading Chinese minds of the time, the inconsistency of the Jesuit astronomers in cosmological models convincingly disproved the reliability of the Western approach of astronomical studies. They thus concluded that the right way of pursuing astronomy was not to study the true arrangement of the celestial bodies and the shape of their orbits as the Western astronomers did, but only to observe the heavenly motions in order to achieve accurate techniques of calculation.4 In other words, the issue of inconsistency determinately changed the Chinese understanding of astronomy as a science — both its goal and its methodology. Since the LKH was very soon introduced into Korea, where the LK had long been officially promulgated as well, it is very interesting to see how Korean astronomers responded to the new book. Did they notice the same issue as their Chinese counterparts did? If so, what would their response be? This paper gives a review of the Korean reception of the book in an attempt to answer these questions. In general, I would like to present the paper both as a case study of the indirect circulation of Western learning in East Asia, i.e. the circulation through books from China, and as a comparative study of the reception of the Western learning in different countries of the same area. The Transmission of Western Astronomy from China to Korea
In most periods up to the twentieth century, the Chinese social and cultural systems were taken as models by Korean rulers. As in China, every Korean dynasty set up its own institution in charge of astrological, calendrical and time-keeping service for the king. This institution played a very important role in traditional Korean society. For this reason, astronomy became a highly developed field of knowledge.
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Shi Yunli and Lü Lingfeng , “Cong ‘gouqiu qigu’ dao ‘danqiu wubi’: shiqi-shiba shiji ’ ‘ ’: 17–18 Zhongguo tianwenxue fazhan de yitiao guiji ‘ ” (From “While Seeking for the Reasons” to “Only Seeking to be Blameless”: A Trajectory of the Development of Astronomical Thought in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century China), Kexue jishu yu bianzhengfa (Science, Technology and Dialectics) 2005, 1: 36–40. 发
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Rulers and astronomers were always very keen to learn astronomy from China. At latest from the sixth century on, Chinese astronomy was introduced into Korea with eagerness and had very profound impact on the development of science and civilization in Korea.5 In 1603, a world map published by the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552– 1610) in Chinese was brought back to Korea from Beijing by Yi Kwang-jŏng , a diplomat.6 In the notes printed around the map, basic knowledge of astronomy from Europe such as the structure of the universe according to the Ptolemaic model, the sphericity of the Earth, the sizes of different celestial spheres and bodies, as well as the reason for lunar and solar eclipses, was presented with simple illustrations.7 Response to this knowledge soon appeared in a book by Yi Su-gwang (1563–1628) completed in 1614, where the author recalls:
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“Once I saw the diagram of the heavens drawn by the European Feng Baobao , which indicates that the heavens are in nine layers. The highest heavens are those of the fixed stars and planets, and then we have the heaven of the sun. The lowest is the heaven of the moon. The doctrine seems to be quite reasonable.” 8
9
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For a survey of the transmission of astronomy from China to Korea before the 20th century, see Shi Yunli , “Gudai Zhongguo tianwenxue zai Chaoxian bandao de liuchuan he yingxiang ”, Da ziran tansuo , 16 (1997), pp.119–124. Jeon Sang-woon, A history of Science in Korea, Seoul: Jimoondang Publishing Company, 1998, p. 356. Zhu Weizheng , Li Madou zhongwen zhuyi ji (Matteo Ricci’s Collected Works and Translations in Chinese), Shanghai, Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2001, pp. 169–226. Yi Su-gwang , Chibong yusŏl (Classified Notes of Yi Su-gwang), Seoul: Chosŏn Kosŏ Kanhaenghoe, 1916, k. 1, 21a. Park Seong-Rae, “Portugal and Korea: Obscure Connections in the Pre-Modern Sciences before 1900”, in: Luís Saraiva (ed.), History of Mathematical Sciences: Portugal and East Asia II, Singapore, World Scientific Publication Co. Pte. Ltd., 2004, pp. 166–174. 石
5
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Besides, he also mentioned some geographical knowledge about such European countries as England and Portugal,9 which was obviously acquired from the notes around Ricci’s map as well. Here the name “Feng Baobao” must be the , misread by Yi Su-gwang Chinese name of Matteo Ricci, Li Madou presumably because of both the resemblance of the Chinese characters in the names (ma and feng , bao and dou ) and the bad quality of printing on the map. No matter what the reason actually was, this marked the beginning of a new era in the history of astronomy in Korea ― the era under the influence of “Sino–European astronomy” ― although more substantial transmission of Western astronomy into Korea did not happen until 1631 when Chŏng Tu-wŏn (1581~?) and Yi Yŏng-hu contacted João Rodrigues (Lu Ruohan , 1561–1634), a Jesuit missionary in China, and brought back to Korea a number of books on Western astronomy and a few astronomical instruments of
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The Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian in Korea
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European origin.10 In this era, China became the most important, if not the only, window for the Korean reception of astronomical knowledge from Europe.11 In 1644 when the Korean authorities learnt from an emissary returning from China that the new Qing dynasty had adopted a civil calendar based on the “Western method”, they ordered the Bureau of Astronomy, Kwansanggam , to study the details of the new calendar as well as its underlying theories and calculation techniques. Groups of astronomers were dispatched to Beijing for this purpose; the task, proved very difficult because the Qing government forbade their own astronomers to teach astronomy to foreigners. After nearly ten years, Korean official astronomers finally grasped the necessary techniques and in 1651 they began to calculate their own civil calendar for the following year with the new system.12 By then, however, they still had no idea about the techniques for the calculation of planetary motions. In addition, they often ran into technical difficulties in astronomical computations. Therefore more astronomers were sent to Beijing for new knowledge whenever it was thought necessary and a new practice was formed soon. Every year, a number of “Officials going to Beijing” (puyŏngwan ) from the Bureau of Astronomy, selected by examination, were dispatched to study astronomy in China. Around 1741, this practice became a somewhat fixed rule. In 1762, the rule underwent an amendment: from then on the “Officials going to Beijing” should be sent every three years. Eight years later, it was stated that the “Officials going to Beijing” could be sent whenever the Bureau of Astronomy ran into any difficulty and was in need of a consultation with astronomers in China. In 1791, the frequency of the trips was fixed to every other year. Usually the “Officials going to Beijing” would consult officials from the Qing Bureau of Astronomy privately. They also had the opportunity to visit different churches in Beijing and to meet Jesuit astronomers there. For example, Hong Tae-yong (1721–1783) left a very detailed description of such a meeting between an “Official going to Beijing” and Augustin von Hallerstein (1703–1774) that he had witnessed by himself. Other Jesuit astronomers who had contacts with Korean astronomers in the early and mid-Qing period include Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666), Ignatius Kögler and Andre Pereira. Besides, the Chosŏn government also encouraged their emissaries to Beijing 10
備
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Park Yong-dae et al., Chŭngbo munhŏn pigo (Documents for Reference; enhanced and supplemented version, 1908), reprint, 1957, Seoul: Kojŏn Kanhaenghoe, k. 1 and 242; Park Seong-Rae, “Portugal and Korea”. 11 For a general survey of the history of the transmission of Western astronomy into Korea, see Shi Yunli , “Xifa chuan Chao kao (shang) (xia) ( )”, Guangxi minzu xueyuan xuebao , 10 (2004), pp. 30–38 and 42–48. 12 Shi Yunli, “Xifa chuan Chao kao”.
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to buy astronomical books and instruments. Those who made remarkable contributions in this respect were officially praised and rewarded.13 The system of “Officials going to Beijing” turned out to be very beneficial to the development of Chosŏn calendrical astronomy. In 1705 and 1708, the royal astronomer Hŏ Wŏn was sent to Beijing and eventually learnt from an officer at the Beijing Bureau of Astronomy techniques hitherto unknown to Korean astronomers, including the techniques for calculating the positions of the sun, the moon and the five planets, as well as those for calculating lunar and solar eclipses.14 In 1706, the techniques that he had thus learnt were applied to the calculation of civil calendars by royal astronomers. In 1710, he completed the first Korean work on Western techniques of calendrical astronomy, the Sech’o yuhwi (Categorized Collection of Detailed Workings); it is basically a set of instructions for calculating a civil calendar using the tables provided in the Xiyang xinfa lishu (Treatises on Calendrical Astronomy According to New Western Method, 1629–1644), without touching upon any theoretical aspect of the “Western method” introduced in the latter. If it had taken more than sixty years for Korean royal astronomers to take up the technical aspect of the Xiyang xinfa lishu, some more decades were still needed for them to command the theoretical aspect of the compendium. This can be seen from their response to the LK. Largely a compact version of the Xiyang xinfa lishu, this work was promulgated in 1724 by the Qing government as the official version of calendrical astronomy. The first Korean response to this change was not seen until four years later when the Bureau of Astronomy memorialized the king, asking that someone should be sent to China to buy the book and to learn the new system. In the following year, a copy of the book was purchased from Beijing and the king agreed that the book be reprinted in Korea. If the Korean royal astronomers had obtained a good understanding of the theoretical part of the Xiyang xinfa lishu, they should have encountered no difficulty in digesting the LK. However, after a few days of study, the officials of the Bureau of Astronomy found that “the new method is so difficult that [they were] not able to understand it although [they had] spent so many days and nights on it”. Therefore, they petitioned that more astronomers should be sent to Beijing to learn it.15 13
Shi Yunli, “Xifa chuan Chao kao”. Hŏ Wŏn , Hyŏnsang sinbŏp sech’o yuhwi (Classified Collection of New Methods for Calculating Celestial Phenomena), pp. 3–4, reprint in Yu Kyŏng-no (ed.), Han’guk kwahak kisul charyo taegye ch’ŏnmunhakp’yŏn (A Great Compilation of Korean Historical Works in Science and Technology, Astronomy Volumes), Seoul: Yŏgang Ch’ulp’ansa, 1986, vol. 9. 15 Wu Han , Chaoxian Lichao shilu zhong de Zhongguo shiliao , Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980, p. 4429 and 4431. 篇
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We have no idea how long it took for Korean royal astronomers to grasp both the technical and theoretical respects of the LK. However, thanks to the “Officials going to Beijing” system, they became more and more responsive to new changes in calendrical astronomy in China. This was manifested by the Korean reception of the LKH. The work was known to Korean astronomers very shortly after its publication in China and they adopted it very quickly. 3.
Early Reception
The process of the introduction of the LKH into Korea is well documented in the official records of the Chosŏn dynasty:
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“[In the 17th year of King Yŏngjo (1743),] the Translator Officials of the last delegation [to Beijing] An Myŏng-yŏl , Kim Chŏng-ho and Yi Ki-hŭng purchased the LKH in ten volumes and presented it to the throne. The Royal Calendar Request Officer purchased a copy of the new method [of calendrical astronomy] of the Qing [i.e. the LKH] and presented it to the throne.” 16
In the 7th month of the following year the officials who had contributed to the introduction of the new method were rewarded by the king:
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“Since the Translator Officials An Myŏng-yŏl et al. purchased and contributed the new method the LKH, and the Astronomer Official An Kuk-pin learnt the newly composed methods [of calendrical astronomy], the King bestowed rewards on them all.” 17
The book was officially adopted immediately, but together with the LK, because the calculation of the five planets is not discussed in the former:
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“The new method devised in the LKH was adopted. [...] After the jiazi year of King Yŏngjo’s reign (1744), the calculation of the motion of the sun and moon as well as that of solar and lunar eclipses was done with Dai Jinxian’s [i.e. Kögler] method [i.e. the method from the LKH], while Mei Juecheng’s method [i.e. the method from the LK] was still applied for the calculation of the five planets, except that Dai Jinxian’s table of the mean motion of the sun was now used in the computation of the mean motion of Venus and Mercury, because their epicycles are carried on the same deferent as that of the sun.” 18
However, Korean royal astronomers at the time did not go to the trouble of generating new tables by adjusting the tables in the LKH to the longitude and latitude of their own capital. The only thing they did, as they had always done 16
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Park Yong-dae et al., Chŭngbo munhŏn pigo, k. 1, p. 3b. Wu Han, Chaoxian... Zhongguo shiliao, pp. 4525–4526. 18 Sŏ Ho-su et al., Kukcho yŏksanggo (An Investigation of Calendrical Astronomy of the Present Dynasty), reprinted in Han’guk kwahak kisul charyo taegye ch’ŏnmunhakp’yŏ, vol. 8, p. 26. 考
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before with other systems of calendrical astronomy introduced from China, was to make a direct use of the LKH first and then to rectify the results which otherwise would be valid only for Beijing. For example, “when the Bureau of Astronomy needed to calculate the uncorrected time of the maximum phase of a solar eclipse, the time for Beijing was first calculated, and then 42 minutes were added to obtain the time for Hanyang ”,19 the capital of the Chosŏn dynasty. Needless to say, the royal astronomers would not always content themselves only with the command of the technical aspect of the “Western method”: after several decades of efforts, they gradually acquired a good knowledge of its theoretical side. In the astronomical section of the Munhŏn pigo completed around 1770, a succinct summary of both the cosmological outline and the geometrical models of the motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets as explained in the LK is provided.20 Up to 1791, the contents of the LK and that of the Shuli jingyun (Essential Principles of Mathematics), which had been commissioned at the same time as the LK, were part of the curriculum for civil examinations21 for examinees in astronomy; the two works were also used as textbooks for the training of lower officials at the Bureau of Astronomy.22 This is a convincing indication that by then the LK (including both its technical and theoretical parts) and the knowledge of mathematics necessary for its understanding and application (mostly geometry, trigonometry and logarithms) were mastered at least by the higher officials at the Bureau of Astronomy and thus became the real foundation of official astronomy in Chosŏn Korea. Equipped with a more competent knowledge of “Sino–European” astronomy, Korean astronomers now began to make efforts to apply it to their local needs. Thus, an equatorial armillary sphere and a horizontal sundial were constructed in 1789 on the basis of the designs provided in such Chinese books on Western astronomy as the Celiang quanyi (Complete Meaning of Measurement, 1631, a part of the Xiyang xinfa lishu), Lingtai yixiangzhi (An Explanation of the Newly Built Astronomical Instruments of the Imperial Observatory, 1674) and the Shuli jingyun. However the two instruments were adapted to the 19
Sŏ Ho-su et al., Kukcho yŏksanggo, p. 56. Park Yong-dae et al., Chŭngbo munhŏn pigo, k. 1. 21 For a general description of the education and civil examination system of Chŏson Dynasty, see Lee Ki-baek, A New History of Korea, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1984, pp.180–182. For the education and examination in so-called chapkwa (miscellaneous disciplines) , “Shiba shiji dongsuan yu including astronomy and mathematics, see Horng Wann-Sheng zhongsuan de yi duan duihua: Hong Jeongha vs. He Guozhu vs. ”, Hanxue yanjiu , 20, 2 (2002), pp. 57–80. 22 Sŏng Chudŏk , Sŏun’gwanji (Annals of the Bureau of Astronomy), k. 1, p. 15a and 21b, reprinted in Han’guk kwahak kisul charyo taegye ch’ŏnmunhakp’yŏ, vol. 8, pp. 295–630. 究
志
研
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漢
學
雲
書
國
何
柱
悳
周
成
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altitude of the North Pole in Seoul.23 In the same year, a new table indicating the times of the transit of major fixed stars for different fortnightly periods was compiled in accordance with the geographical latitude of Seoul.24 In 1791, the Bureau of Astronomy re-measured the altitudes of the North Pole in Hanyang and other provincial cities, and recalculated the length of day and night as well as the times of sunrise and sunset in these places.25 The first Korean scholar who ever tried to write an independent work on the basis of the LKH was Sŏ Ho-su (1736–1799). He came from a family class (high officials in civil and military services), belonging to the yangban the aristocratic class in Chosŏn Korea. His father Sŏ Myŏng-ŭng (1716– ) in the 1787) was a high rank official.26 Sŏ Ho-su ranked first (changwŏn Civil Examination of Erudite Level (munkwa ) in 1765; he became first the Associate-editor (pukŏi ) and then Editor (kŏi ) of the Office of Special Advisors (Hungmun’gwan ), and took part in the compilation of the Munhŏn pigo. He visited China twice in 1776 and 1790 as the vice-envoy to Beijing, to congratulate the Qianlong Emperor on his birthday, which enabled him to have personal contacts with a number of Chinese scholars. In 1780, he became an Associate Librarian (chigchehak ) of the Palace Library (Kyujanggak ) and made a significant contribution to the expansion of the library through his effort in systematic purchase of books from China, including the famous (A Collection of Books Qing encyclopedia Gujin tushu jicheng from Antiquity to the Present). He assumed the position of Minister of Rites (yecho p’ansŏ ) for some years, and his Yulyŏ T’ongŭi (Comprehensive Discussion of Musical Harmony) in 1793 may have been composed in response to this assignment.27 He also compiled a royally commissioned book on agriculture entitled Haedong nongsŏ (Treatise on Farming in Korea, 1798–1799) which has been assessed as an “attempt to systematize the whole range of Korea’s agricultural science” by modern historians.28 Several of Sŏ Ho-su’s unpublished manuscripts bear witness to his good expertise in astronomy, including the Honkae t’onghŏn tosŏl chipchŏn (Collected Commentaries on the Illustrated Explanation of the Astrolabe and Its Cosmographical Basis) and Yŏksang kosŏng pohae (Supplementary Explanation of the LK). His Yŏksang kosŏng 23
Sŏng Chudŏk, Sŏun’gwanji, k. 4, pp. 7a–12b. Sŏng Chudŏk, Sŏun’gwanji, k. 4, p. 2b; Sŏ Ho-su et al., Kukcho yŏksanggo, p. 64–142. 25 Sŏ Ho-su et al., Kukcho yŏksanggo, p. 28–54. 26 Lee Ki-baek, A New History of Korea, p. 235. 27 Yun Pyŏng-t’ae et al., Han’guk kosŏ mongnok (A Catalogue of Ancient Korean Books), Seoul: Taehan Min’guk Kukhoe Tosŏgwan, 1968, p. 566. 28 Lee Ki-baek, A New History of Korea, p. 241. 錄
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29 30
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Yun Pyŏng-t’ae et al., Han’guk kosŏ mongnok, p. 1153 and 1413. See the prefaces to the book in Sŏ Ho-su et al., Kukcho yŏksanggo, pp. 3–11.
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hupyŏn pohae (Supplementary Explanation of the LKH) was probably the first Korean treatise directly connected to the LKH. The manuscript of this last treatise used to be preserved in the Chunggyŏng mun’go (Library of Middle Capital) in Kaesŏng together with those of the two others.29 However, we do not know whether they are still extant. Fortunately, in the last few years of his life, Sŏ masterminded, and maybe also partly compiled, two other works on astronomy, from which we may have an idea of his contribution to the reception of the LKH. In 1795, Sŏ Ho-su was appointed Director of the Bureau of Astronomy. After taking office, he designed a new program to train the lower officials of the Bureau of Astronomy. He also organized the compilation of the Kukcho yŏksanggo (An Investigation of Calendrical Astronomy of the Present Dynasty), which was completed in 1796. The book was intended to be a detailed record of the development in calendrical astronomy during the Chosŏn dynasty, with a stress on the most recent improvements. In the part devoted to lunar and solar eclipses, several steps of the algorithms from the LKH were discussed in detail, because they were deemed problematic by the authors of the book. Without basic knowledge of the underlying theory of eclipse calculation in the LKH, it is impossible for an astronomer to spot these errors and inadequacies and to provide his own remedies. The book does not attribute this part of the work to any specific author as it does in a number of other passages. It is very likely, however, that this part of the work was authored by Sŏ Ho-su himself, considering both his familiarity with the LKH and his leading role in the compilation of the book.30 Also under the directorship of Sŏ Ho-su, another book entitled Ch’ilchŏng poppŏp (Calculating Methods for the Seven Governors, i.e. the sun, the moon and the five planets) was completed by a group of astronomers at the Bureau of Astronomy in 1798. Just like the Sech’o yuhwi compiled by Hŏ Wŏn in 1710, the book is also a manual prescribing the detailed steps of the necessary calculations in calendrical astronomy on the basis of the pre-calculated tables given in both the LK and the LKH. This book gives us a very clear concept about how the techniques from these two books were used in combination by Korean royal astronomers at the time. Exactly as shown above, the algorithms and tables of the LKH are applied to the calculation of the positions of the sun and moon as well as to the predictive calculation of both solar and the lunar eclipses. All the Newtonian equations of the moon as introduced in the LKH are adopted in the calculation of the motion of the moon. The book was revised with a few additions by Nam Pyŏng-gil (1820–1869) in 1861 under a new title, Ch’ubo
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ch’ŏmnye (Succinct Routines for Astronomical Calculations), but its core content never changed.31 That competent command of both technical and theoretical aspects of the “Western method” brought obvious confidence to the Korean royal astronomers in this period is exemplified by the following anecdote. After Sŏ Ho-su finished his Honkae t’onghŏn tosŏl chipchŏn, he sent the manuscript to the Chinese scholar-official Weng Fanggang (1733–1818) in an attempt to obtain a preface from him. Weng enjoyed high prestige for his alleged expertise in calendrical astronomy because he was said to devote himself to the study of the calendar behind the chronology of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu, ). After he had seen Sŏ Hŏ-su’s book, however, he only wrote a short colophon on a separate sheet of paper, rather than in front of the book, as a way to express his “sentiment of modest prudence in not daring to write a preface”. His excuse was that he “had never invested serious efforts in the study of calendrical astronomy”, and “generally no one would dare to write any preface to a book the topic of which he had not learnt in detail”. While expressing his own opinion on this affair, Sŏ Ho-su criticized Weng and the emptiness of contemporary scholarship in China:
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Yu Kyŏng-no (ed.), Han’guk kwahak kisul charyo taegye ch’ŏnmunhakp’yŏn, vol.9, Front Matters, pp.4–6. Sŏ Ho-su , Yŏnghaenggi (Record of a Trip to Beijing), reprint in Yŏnghaengnok sŏnjip (Selected Records of Trips to Beijing), Seoul: Sŏngyun’gwan Taehakkyo Taedong Munhwa Yŏn’guwŏn, 1962, p. 514. 行
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“Both Minister Ji [Yun (1724–1805)] and Vice-Minister Tie [Bao (1752–1824)] said that Mr. Weng has profound expertise in calendrical astronomy. At the very beginning, however, when I learnt that he was devoting himself to the study of the arrangement of the syzygies and intercalary months during the Spring and Autumn period, I already had the suspicion that he does not understand the new method. Now when I see his colophon, the emptiness and shallowness of his scholarship is testified. Generally speaking, nowadays scholars and officials in China only use prosody, calligraphy and painting as ladders to fame and promotion. The study of the rites, harmonics and mathematics is only a fashionable guise for them. Those who do have the slight will to pursue true studies also never do more than pick up the trivial parts of Gu Yanwu (1613–1682) and Zhu Yizun’s (1629–1709) scholarship. From this I realize that the pureness and soundness seen in the scholarship of Li Guangdi (1642–1718) or the delicateness and profoundness seen in the scholarship of Mei Wending (1633–1721) only occur in every other generation, and you cannot expect anything more than this. It is said that the director of the [Chinese] Bureau of Astronomy Chang Xi and the Western scholar An Guoning , (André Rodrigues, 1729–1796) are both very eminent for the study of calendrical astronomy. But to them I did not have an opportunity to pay a visit. How regrettable!” 32
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Although Sŏ’s criticism was not directed against professional Chinese astronomers, his words still reflected his confidence in his knowledge of the “Western method”. 4.
Further Appropriation
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Ch’oe Han-gi , Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ (A Collectanea of Ch’oe Han-gi’s Works), reprint, Seoul: Sŏngyun’gwan Taehakkyo Taedong Munhwa Yŏn’guwŏn, 2002. 崔
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農
崔
During the first half of the nineteenth century, Korean astronomers began a more profound assimilation of the “Sino–Western” astronomy as they tried to work more independently. They began to blend what they had learnt from both China and their own tradition to create something that could be properly claimed to belong to themselves. During this period, the LKH was largely appropriated in the writings of Ch’oe Han-gi (1803–1874). Ch’oe Han-gi was from a low yangban family, and was famous for his thirsty eagerness in purchasing and reading a wide variety of books from China. He was more a generalist thinker than a specialist in astronomy. His broad interest in science and technology can be seen from the range of his works, which include Nongjŏng hoeyo (General Explication of Agriculture, 1830), Ŭisang isu (Principles and Constants of Calendrical Astronomy, 1839), Sŭpsan chinbŏl (Ferry for Learners of Mathematics, 1850), Simgi tosŏl (Illustrated Explication of Intelligent Devices, 1842) and Chigu chŏnyo (Description of the Nations of the World, 1857). However, his major pursuit in scholarship seems to have been the establishment of a general system of natural philosophy on the basis of an ontology constructed around the central concept of qi , which can be seen from his Ch’uch’ŭngnok (Discourses on Epistemology, 1836), Kihak (The Study of Qi, 1857), Unhwa ch’ŭkhŏm (On the Measurement and Test of the Motions and Changes, 1860) and Sŏnggi unhwa (On the Motions and Changes of the Stars and of Qi, 1867).33 The Ŭisang isu was Ch’oe Han-gi’s only book on mathematical astronomy. It was not published and has been preserved only as an incomplete manuscript. The author’s preface is dated to late 1835, which must have been the date of the basic completion of the work. From the “Conventions” (pŏmnye ) following this preface, we know that the book must have consisted in three parts: (1) Preparatory knowledge on plane and spherical trigonometry excerpted from the Shuli jingyun and the LK, and on the geometry of ellipse adapted from the LKH; (2) Section on the sun, the moon and lunar and solar eclipses based chiefly on the LKH; (3) Section on the five planets based on the LK. Unfortunately, the last part is obviously missing from the manuscripts known to us.
The Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian in Korea
217
Ch’oe Han-gi held a progressivist view of the development of mathematical astronomy. As a philosophically oriented scholar, he attached heavy intellectual and moral values to this progress. So he argued: “What can [recent developments in astronomy] add to the ancient studies? It is nothing but the new understanding of principles that prevents people from remaining negligent, as well as the knowledge of the predictability of [celestial] events that prevent people from being trapped in heterodoxy. Therefore, after you understand the secrets [of celestial events], you will not see any miracle in them; after you exhaust their origins, you will see them as ordinary things. Now that calendrical astronomy has been cultivated in a very clear way and conforms very well to practical measurements, there is no space left for those who used to attribute astrological significance to celestial events. It can also help those who have obstacles in their intelligence to widen their sight of knowledge. How can a blockhead understand its benefits for the culture and administration of a nation?” 34
It must have been for the same reason that he decided that he would “confine [the book] to the explanation of the principles and constants, rather than devote it to the tables and calculations”.35 Accordingly, the book does not contain a so-called “practical” section as both the LK and the LKH. None of the tables from these two books were incorporated in it either. Since the third part of the manuscript is lost, we have no idea how the theory of the five planets was presented. As for the part devoted to the sun, the moon and the lunar and solar eclipses, it is basically a copy of the “theoretical” section of the LKH except for some comments by Ch’oe Han-gi himself and various deletions of diagrams, paragraphs and passages deemed unnecessary. Another difference is that the part of the LKH devoted to the discussion of basic properties of ellipses as well as to the derivation and solution of Kepler’s equation was moved to the first part of the book as preparatory knowledge in geometry concerning the ellipse. As far as the cosmological system is concerned, the Tychonic scheme of the universe from the LK still remains in the book. By the time he wrote the preface to the book, however, Ch’oe Han-gi had become convinced that the earth was rotating daily on its axis, and that the orbits of the sun and of the five planets were elliptic. He expressed his opinion on these two issues very clearly in his Ch’uch’ŭngnok. In a section titled “The right rotation of the earth”, he remarked: “How superb is the doctrine of the [rotating] earth. It clarifies the correct arrangement of the universe, and makes the long night of thousands of years break into daylight. Calendar makers say that the heaven has a leftward rotation, but it is 34 35
Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, p. 219. Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, p. 219.
218
SHI Yunli
only for the convenience of mathematical treatment. Despite this, a scholar must know the rightward rotation of the earth so that to see the internal connection of the celestial motions. [...] After the importation of the world map into China, people there were skeptical about the roundness of the earth at first but ended up believing in it. And gradually they realized that it was an unchangeable truth. However, they are now still adhering so stubbornly to the [old] theories of calendrical astronomy that they do not feel easy with the argument for the mobility of the earth. The Western countries also have the rotating earth theory, which has been applied in their calendrical astronomy for a long time. Some scholars in China discussed this doctrine. It does not seem easy to account for the motions of the Seven Governors from the standpoint of a rotating earth as compared with accounting for them from the perspective of a stationary earth. In fact, however, this is nothing more than a replacement of the diurnal rotation of the heaven with the daily rotation of the earth. Although a talk about it provides no benefit [for calendrical astronomy], its principle cannot be left without discussion. The doctrine of the diurnal rotation of the earth is really more reasonable in accounting of the fact that the further a heavenly body is, the slower its motion appears and vice versa. Besides, rotation is particularly pertinent in the explanation of the mechanism of tides.” 36
文
錫
容
大
洪
金
This point of view reflects the influence of previous Korean advocates of the geo-kinetic doctrine from Kim Sŏk-mun (1658–1735) to Hong Tae-yong (1731–1783).37 On the other hand, it also reflects the new contemplation of Ch’oe Han-gi himself on the issue, especially the connection between the rotation of the earth and the mechanism of the tides. In his “Notes on the Contents” of the Ŭisang isu, he singled out the issue again: “There is an old doctrine advocating that the left rotation of the Seven Governors is not the result of their own daily motion, but is rather due to the rotation of the earth from west to east, one circle a day. Recently there are quite a few exponents of this doctrine. They try to account for the motions of the
清
内
說
轉
回
球
地
の
者
學
科
朝
る
け
お
に
ア
シ
ア
東
報
學
鮮
久
晴
川
里
論
概
說
仁
動
建
地
鮮
金
究
云
石
究
通
研
法
较
证
比
辩
的
然
讯
朝
輝
陳
自
说
动
地
朝
中
纪
世
七
十
容
研
國
韓
成
立
志
大
學
方
到
東
周
道
洪
の
說
轉
地
小
朝
李
薮
Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 1, p. 119. For the development of the geo-kinetic idea in late Chosŏn dynasty, see e.g. Yabuuti Kiyosi , “Richô gakusha no chikyû kaitensetsu ” (Chosŏn Scholars’ Theory of the Earth’s Rotation), Chôsen gakuhô (Journal for Chosŏn Studies), 49 (1968), pp.427–445; Ogawa Haruhisa , “Higashi Ajia ni okeru chitensetsu no seiritsu ” (The Development of the Theory of the Earth’s Rotation in East Asia), Tongbang Hakchi (Journal of Korean Studies), 23–24 (1980), pp. 375–387; Shi Yunli “Cong Huang Daozhou dao Hong Taewong: shiqi shiji Zhong-Chao didongshuo de bijiao yanjiu —— ‘ ’ ” (From Huang Daozhou to Hong Taewong: a Comparative Study of the Geo-kinetic Theories in Seventeenth an Eighteenth Century China and Korea), Ziran bianzhengfa tongxun (Journal of Natural Dialectics of Nature), 19 (1997), pp. 60–65; Chen Hui , “Chaoxian didongshuo gailun ” (An Introduction of the Geo-kinetic Doctrines of Chosŏn Korea), in: Jin Jianren (ed.), Hanguo yanjiu (Korean Studies), no. 7, Beijing, Xueyuan chubanshe, 2004, pp. 274–293. 黄
37
从
36
219
The Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian in Korea
luminaries with the doctrine, but do not end up in success. Perhaps the doctrine has a long history. There are still some scholars who believe it more reasonable. Although presently we adopt the view of a resting earth for the convenience of mathematical treatment, those who want to pursue mathematical astronomy should explore in that direction as well after they understand this book. In such a way we can reach not only more deliberated theories in mathematical astronomy, but also a guarantee that our study is not unbalanced.” 38
In other words, he was reminding his readers not to concentrate too much on mathematical astronomy at the cost of ignoring the real mechanism of the universe. He adopted a similar approach to the issue of the shape of planetary orbits. In the section entitled “Elliptic shape of the orbits of the sun and the planets” of his Ch’uch’ŭngnok, he argued for the generality of the ellipticity of planetary orbits and highlighted its significance for cosmological discourse: “The orbits of the sun and the planets are all ellipses. Hence we can know that the heaven is not in an exactly spherical shape. Since the sun is at a different distance from the earth at the summer and winter solstices, we can therefore believe that the earth is not at the center [of the universe]. According to the LKH, Westerners such as Cassini and Lalande were keen on calendrical astronomy and versed in the measurement and test of the orbits of the various luminaries. When these astronomers tested the elliptic orbits with practical observations, it was found that the two are mostly in conformity. We can know from them that the heaven is not exactly spherical in shape.” 39
In fact, the LKH did not say anything concerning the shape of the orbits of the five planets. It also seems that by the time he wrote neither Ŭisang isu nor Ch’uch’ŭngnok, Ch’oe Han-gi had yet read Michel Benoist’s Diqiu Tushuo, where the elliptic shape of all planetary orbits is introduced, together with the heliocentric model of the universe.40 Therefore the generalization of the elliptic orbit among the planets might have been worked out by Ch’oe Han-gi himself. In the Ŭisang isu, he also suggested that one could apply the elliptic orbits to the five planets instead of the deferent-epicycle models. He argued that “these methods are different but their underlying principle is identical”,41 though he did not give further deliberation on how this might be obtained, especially when a geocentric system was used. 38
Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, pp. 215–216. Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 1, p. 120. 40 Sivin, Nathan, “Copernicus in China”, in Science in Ancient China, Researches and Reflections, IV, Variorum (revision of an earlier version published in 1973 in Studia Copernicana 6, Warsaw, Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences); Chen Meidong, , Zhongguo kexue jishu shi. Tianwen juan (The History of Science and Technology in China, Astronomical Volume), Beijing, Kexue chubanshe, pp. 720–721. 41 Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, p. 222. 卷
學
文
天
史
術
技
學
科
國
中
東
美
陳
39
220
SHI Yunli
42
蘭
善
要
紀
憲
時
李
天
談
By 1857, Ch’oe Han-gi had become a whole-hearted believer in heliocentrism. This can be seen from his Chigu chŏnyo, where the heliocentric system was introduced in great detail.42 In his Unhwa ch’ŭngŏm he argued again for the truth of both the rotation and revolution of the earth.43 By the time he wrote his (Discussion about the Heaven),44 Sŏngki unhwa, he had even read Tantian a Chinese translation of John F. Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy (1849) done by the famous scientific translator Li Shanlan (1811–1882) and the English missionary Alexander Wylie (1815–1887) in 1859.45 The Sŏngki unhwa was actually an attempt at building a system of natural philosophy on the basis the astronomical knowledge contained in Tantian.46 Nevertheless, none of these new developments meant that he would discard the old mathematical astronomy included in his Ŭisang isu. In the “Notes on the Contents” of his Sŏngki unhwa, he still referred his readers to that book “on the trigonometric calculation of angles and sides in both plane and spherical triangles, as well as the calculation of the angle corresponding to the area of an elliptic segment”.47 In the manuscript of the Ŭisang isu, we can see some insertions obviously made long after the book was completed. One insertion is the initial constants for the sun, the moon and the five planets to the epoch of the winter solstice of 1860, which “was transcribed from Nam Pyŏng-gil’s Sihŏn Kiyo (An Epitome of the Shixian [System of Calendrical Astronomy])”,48 a work completed in 1860, as we will see later. Another insertion mentioned both the rotation and the revolution of the earth, which indicates that the insertion was made after Ch’oe Han-gi acquired a clear knowledge of the twofold motion of the earth. The handwriting style of both of these insertions evidently differs from that of the other parts of the whole manuscript. This means that Ch’oe kept revising the manuscript whenever he learnt any piece of new knowledge that he thought necessary to add to the manuscript. Obviously, even after his knowledge of general astronomy was updated, he still believed in the validity of the knowledge included in the Ŭisang isu in some respects. At least he still treated the book as an indispensable source of calendrical astronomy useful for practical calculations, while the new books such as Tantian did not provide enough knowledge in this direction at all.
Chen Hui, “Chaoxian didongshuo gailun”. Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, pp. 77–79. 44 See his preface to the book; Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, p. 103. 45 This work is a typical modern textbook on general astronomy based on modern celestial dynamics. Chen Meidong, Zhongguo kexue jishu shi, Tianwen juan, pp. 749–755. 46 Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, pp. 103–212. 47 Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, p. 105. 48 Ch’oe Han-gi, Chŭngbo myŏngnamnu ch’ongsŏ, vol. 5, p. 220. 43
221
The Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian in Korea
5.
Final Re-Editions
科
書
大
判
曹
說
圖
贊
參
左
量
府
義
正
學
解
解
詳
草
細
鏡
玉
段
演
草
古
細
術
緝
經
算
術
章
解
異
算
股
勾
解
圖
要
述
股
勾
無
九
算
測
政
議
刑
科
文
哲
秉
判
試
參
廣
曹
吏
增
南
Ch’oe Han-gi’s attitude towards the knowledge in his Ŭisang isu foreshadowed the fact that both the LK and the LKH would survive in Korea for another period of time even though new knowledge of astronomy as introduced in such Chinese books as Tantian had found its way into the academic circles in Korea. This is even more the case when we move our focus to the Bureau of Astronomy, where the interest was more technically oriented because of the Bureau’s responsibility as an institution in charge of an important facet of the royal rites, i.e. the calculation of civil almanacs and the prediction of the portentous phenomena such as solar and lunar eclipses. Knowledge from both the LK and the LKH was taken as the only working basis until 1895, when the Gregorian calendar was promulgated in Korea. The best examples of the role of the two works in official Korean astronomy in this period were the works by Nam Pyŏng-gil and his elder brother Nam Pyŏng-ch’ŏl (1817–1863). Unlike Ch’oe Han-gi, the Nam brothers belonged to a still prosperous yangban family. Nam Pyŏng-gil was successful in the Augmented Civil Examination (chŭnggwangsi ) of the Erudite Level (munkwa , or taekwa )49 in 1850, and was promoted to a number of high posts such Acting Minister of Per), Minister of Punishments (Hyŏngjo p’ansŏ ) sonnel (Ijo p’ansŏ and Vice-Councilor of the State Council (Ŭijŏngbu chwach’amch’an ).50 In about 1860, he was appointed to the Directorship of the Bureau of Astronomy, maybe on account of his great interest in mathematics and astronomy. He wrote quite a number of books on mathematics including Ch’ŭngnyang tosŏl (Exact Mean(Illustrated Explanation of Measurement), Sanhak chŏngŭi ing of Arithmetic, 1867), Kujangsul hae (Explanation of the Procedures of the Nine Chapters), Mui hae (Explanation of the Equivalence [of the Chinese and Western Methods for Solving the Quadratic Equation]), Kugo sulyo tohae (Illustrated Explanation of the Gougu [i.e. right triangle] Method), Kugo sansul sech’o (Detailed Demonstration of the Calculation of Gougu), Jipko Yŏndan (An Elaboration on the Jigu [suanjing ]), and Okkyŏng sech’o sanghae (A Detailed Explanation of the Ceyuan Haijing).51 He also wrote very extensively on astronomy 49
Lee Ki-baek, A New History of Korea, p. 181. Horng Wann-Sheng , “Shuxue wenhua de jiaoliu yu zhuanhua: yi Hanguo shuxejia Nan Bingji (1820–1869) de ‘Suanxue zhengyi’ wei li 1820–1869 ” (Transmission and Transformation of Mathematical Cultures: A case study of Korean mathematician Nam Pyŏng Gil's Sanhak Chongyi), Shida xuebao (Bulletin of the Normal University), vol. 48–1 (2003), pp. 20–36. 51 Horng Wann-Sheng, “Sino-Korean Transmission of Mathematical Texts in the 19th Century: A Case Study of Nam Pyŏng-gil’s Kugo Sulyo tohae”, Historia Scientiarum, vol. 12-2 (2002), pp. 87–98. 吉
秉
南
家
學
數
國
韓
以
：
化
轉
與
流
交
的
化
文
學
報
學
大
師
例
為
》
義
正
學
算
《
的
）
（
數
生
萬
洪
50
222
SHI Yunli
表
漏
更
陽
儀
度
夫
大
卷
曆
憲
時
士
説
圖
儀
度
量
量
考
食
日
秋
春
太
表
新
星
中
and left a number of works such as Chungsŏng sinp’yo (New Tables of the Transit Times of Major Stars, 1864), T’aeyang kyŏngnup’yo (A Table for Measuring the Daily and Nightly Times), Ch’unch’u ilsik ko (A Study of the Solar Eclipses in the Spring and Autumn Annals), and the Ch’ubo chopye mentioned above. On the basis of Mei Wending’s work on the application of planispheric projection in the solution of spherical triangles, he even invented an instrument named yangdoŭi (Instrument for Angle Measurement) which was actually an mechanical calculator based on Mei Wending’s theory. His Yandoŭi tosŏl (Illustrated Description of the Instrument for Angle Measurement) is a treatise on this instrument.52 His Sihŏn kiyo has been discussed above. Some historians of mathematics see “no trace of the metaphysical view, (literati-official) or a dominant characteristic of the works of sadaebu yangban scholars” in Nam Pyŏng-gil’s mathematical works.53 The titles on astronomy above convey to us a similar impression of Nam Pyŏng-gil’s preference for tackling technical problems. His approach to the LK and the LKH in the Sihŏn kiyo provides us with a more concrete example of the predominantly technical taste in his scholarship in astronomy. As mentioned above, after the adoption of the Qing dynasty’s calendar, the Shixian li , in Korea in 1651, the calculation techniques of this system became a requirement in the Civil Examination of astronomy. For a long time, however, there was no standard textbook on Western astronomy for students to use. Although the contents of the LK and Shuli jingyun had been adopted in 1791 as requirements for examinations, the standard textbooks available from the Bureau of Astronomy were still those based on outdated traditional Chinese astronomy. Therefore, when Nam Pyŏng-gil took the directorship of the Bureau, he decided to compile a book to fill up this gap, which gave rise to the Sihŏn kiyo in 1860.54 The work is in two kwon or volumes (Chart 1). It is basically a mixture of theories, elementary constants and algorithms taken from both the LK and the LKH. More specifically, while sections 1.7–1.8, 1.11–1.14 and 2.1–2.5 are based on the LKH, other sections are based on the LK, except that the final values for of the epoch and tropical year in sections 1.5 and 1.6 are adopted from the LKH.
52
Jeon Sang-woon, A History of Science in Korea, pp. 104–107. Horng Wann-Sheng, “Sino–Korean Transmission of Mathematical Texts”. 54 See Nam Pyŏng-gil’s own colophon as well as the prefaces to the book by Cho Tu-sun (1796–1870) and Kim Pyŏng-ik , in Nam Pyŏng-gil , Sihŏn Kiyo (An Epitome of the Shixian System of Calendrical Astronomy), reprint in Han’guk kwahak kisul charyo taegye ch’ŏnmunhakp’yŏ, vol. 10, pp. 1–286, esp. pp. 3–10 and 285–286. 淳
要
鬥
紀
憲
時
哲
秉
南
翼
炳
金
趙
53
223
1.5.
Yŏkwŏn
1.6.
Sesil
元
差
差
徑
氣
度
行
蒙
行
例
星
清
恒
算
星 太
要
紀
憲
(Motion of the Sun) (Motion of the Moon)
度
行
例
算
(Calculation of Saturn)
例
度
例
(Calculation of Jupiter)
例
(Calculation of Mars)
例
(Calculation of Venus) (Calculation of the Phases of the Five Planets)
例
段
星
算
(Calculation of Mercury) 目
行
算
星
算
星
算 算
1.21. Osŏng tanmok sallye
(Calculation of the Fixed Stars)
(Motion of the Five Planets)
例
星
星
木
星
1.20. Susŏng sallye
水
1.19. Kŭmsŏng sallye
(Motion of the Fixed Stars)
(Calculation of the Moon)
算
1.18. Hwasŏng sallye
火
1.17. Moksŏng sallye
金
1.16. T’osŏng sallye
(Atmospheric Refraction)
(Calculation of the Sun)
例
太 算
星
離 五
1.15. Osŏng sallye
土
1.14. Wŏlli sallye
月
1.13. T’aeŭm haengdo
陰
躔
日
1.12. Ilchŏn sallye
陽
恒
1.10. Hangsŏng sallye
1.11. T’aeyang haengdo
(Diurnal Parallax)
度
Hangsŏng haengdo
半
1.9.
地
Chi pangyŏng ch’a
Ch’ŏngmonggi ch’a
論
總
食
(Calculation of the Solar
法
又
、
本
例
算
食
日
2.4. Ilsik sallye (ponbop; wubop) Eclipse — Original method; other method)
法
(Calculation of the Lunar Eclipse Occurring
例
算
食
帶
例
算
2.3. Wŏlsik taesik sallye Across the Horizon)
(General Discourse on the Eclipses)
(Calculation of the Lunar Eclipse) 食
食
2.2. Wŏlsik sallye
月
2.1. Kyosik ch’ongnon
交
(Eclipses)
月
食
革
(Epoch)
(Tropical Year)
1.7.
交
沿
法 度
緯
體 曆
(Celestial Coordinate Systems)
五
實
(Geographical Coordinate System)
1.8.
2. Kyosik
(Evolution of the Calendrical System)
(Configuration of the Heavens)
象
Kyŏngwido
天
1.4.
地
Ch’ŏnsang Chich’e
嵗
1.2. 1.3.
曆
Yŏkpŏp yŏnhyŏk
經
1.1.
.
(On the Seven Governors)
政
1. Ch’ilchŏng
七
Table 1. Table of Contents of the Sihŏn Kiyo
時
The Yuzhi lixiang kaocheng houbian in Korea
法
又
、
法
本
例
算
食
帶
食
日
2.5. Ilsik taesik sallye (ponbop; wubop) (Calculation of the Lunar Eclipse Occurring Across the Horizon — Original method; other method)
224
SHI Yunli
書
全
算
曆
庵
勿
書
全
，
庫
鼎
四
文
閣
淵
文
印
梅
Mei Wending Wu’an lisuan quanshu (Complete Collection of Mei Wending’s Works on Calendrical Astronomy and Mathematics), reprint in Yingyin Wenxian ge Siku quanshu , Taipei, Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan, 1986, vol. 794, j. 16, and j. 17. 景
55
例
算
理
數
躔
日
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Although Nam Pyŏng-gil tried to keep a “theoretical” basis for his book as the authors of both the LK and the LKH did, his emphasis was clearly not on this aspect. The sections devoted to the “theoretical” descriptions of the motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets, i.e. those sections named “Haengdo” (motion), turn out to be extremely brief. For example, the LKH devotes 156 pages to the explanation of the so-called “Mathematical theory of the sun” (richan shuli ), including discussions on why and how an elliptic orbit has been adopted since Kepler in the account of the motion of the sun, in what respects this new model was different from and similar to the old Tychonic model, how the mean motion and the equation of center of the sun were defined in the new model, what the relation was between the mean and true motion of the sun in the new system, how to describe this relation quantitatively (i.e. how to derive Kepler’s equation), how to calculate true motion from mean motion with geometric methods (i.e. how to obtain an approximate solution of Kepler’s equation), and which method was acceptable in the case of the sun. In the Sihŏn kiyo, however, only a little more than two pages with similar density of characters are devoted to the “theoretical” description of the motion of the sun. Similarly, while the LKH devotes another 212 pages on the theoretical discussion of the motion of the moon, Sihŏn kiyo devotes only another two pages to the topic. Where the authors of the LKH try very hard and at great length to give justifications for their adoption of any new data, new model or new mathematical treatment, Nam Pyŏng-gil just describes them as accepted facts. On the other hand, however, the algorithms taken from the “practical” sections of both the LK and the LKH for practical calculations in calendrical astronomy are explained step (exemplifying by step in great detail in the sections entitled “Sannye” calculation). Wherever needed, Nam borrows explanations from the “theoretical” sections of both the LK and the LKH when required to make the concept and mathematical procedure involved at every step intelligible to his readers. Just as in the LK and the LKH, the cosmological framework described in Nam’s work is still the geocentric model, with a spherical and immobile earth surrounded by twelve heavens. The Seven Governors are carried on the nine inner heavens, while the three outer heavens are for the fixed stars, the south– north and east–west components of the precession of the equinoxes respectively. The Tychonic scheme of the universe, given at the beginning of the planetary theories of the LK, does not appear in Nam’s book. Following the argument of Chinese astronomers such as Mei Wending55 and the authors of the LK itself, Nam Pyŏng-gil stressed that although “the Western method also indicates that
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the sun is at the center of the deferents of the five planets, that arrangement is merely a hypothetical scheme (ch’asang )”.56 Like Chinese astronomers, he believed that the actual scheme of the five planets was that while each planet was revolving on an epicycle (seryun ), the center of the epicycle was revolving on a geocentric deferent. In his opinion, since the epicycle had the same radius as the geocentric deferent of the sun and its center was always in the same direction as the mean sun, astronomers could replace it with the deferent of the sun by centering the planetary deferents on the sun. In this way, as he insisted, one could say that the supposed geo-heliocentric scheme was equivalent to the real geocentric one.57 Also like the compilers of the LKH, Nam Pyŏng-gil kept silent on the issue of how to accommodate the elliptic orbits of the sun and the moon and the deferentepicycle models of the five planets with one uniform model of the universe, although he argued that “the underlying principle regarding the equation of center [of a planet] is roughly similar to that of the sun and moon”.58 In his mind, the elliptic model was nothing but another mathematical procedure used to deal with the inequality of the motion of the sun:
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“Is it acceptable that the underlying principle [of the elliptic model] in the description of the apogee and perigee is primarily the use of the eccentric heaven, whereas its method in the mathematical treatment of the equation of center is nothing more than Guo Shoujing’s (1231–1316) method of pile summing and interpolation (t’ajŏk ch’och’a )?” 59
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Nam Pyŏng-gil, Sihŏn Kiyo, p. 107. Nam Pyŏng-gil, Sihŏn Kiyo, pp. 107–108. 58 Nam Pyŏng-gil, Sihŏn Kiyo, p. 101. 59 Nam Pyŏng-chŏl, Sihŏn Kiyo, p. 17. 57
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However, someone who just hopes to command practical techniques for calculations in calendrical astronomy would have found no problem in following Nam Pyŏng-gil’s prescription. Nam Pyŏng-ch’ŏl was as successful as his younger brother in his career as an official. He passed the Civil Examination at the Erudite Level in 1837, and was then appointed to a number of high positions successively, including those of Minister of Rites (Yejo p’ansŏ ), Minister of Military Affairs (Pyŏngjo p’ansŏ ), Minister of Personnel (Ijo p’ansŏ ) and Official of Special Advisor (Hongmun’gwan taejaehak ). Like Nam Pyŏng-gil, he was very keen on mathematics and astronomy as well. Presumably, his interest in these subjects was influenced by Nam Pyŏng-gil. In mathematics he left a work on the Ceyuan haijing (Sea Mirror of the Circle Measurement, 1248) entitled Haegyŏng sech’o hae (Explanation of the Exemplifying Calculations in the Sea Mirror, 1861).
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In astronomy he published two works. While his Ŭigi chipsŏl (Collected Descriptions of Instruments) describes the structure and use of a number of astronomical instruments, including those designed or constructed by himself and his friends, his Ch’ubo sokhae (Continued Explanation of the Algorithms in Astronomy) is devoted to calendrical astronomy which is related to our topic. From these works it is clear that he also concentrated on technical aspects of astronomy, presumably also under the influence of Nam Pyŏng-gil, then Director of the Bureau of Astronomy. Ch’ubo sokhae was completed in 1862, about two years after Nam Pyŏng-gil’s Sihŏn kiyo. According to the author, the book was actually a follow-up of the Tuibu fajie (Explanation of the Algorithms in Astronomy, 1843) by Jiang Yong (1681–1762), a Chinese scholar whom Nam Pyŏng-ch’ŏl admired very much. He praised the lucidity of the Tuibu fajie and acclaimed the book as “a true guide for the students of calendrical astronomy”. In his opinion, the most important feature of Jiang Yong’s work was its presentation: “The book explains the celestial configurations through algorithms, and reveals underlying theories through constants, so that as soon as one reads the texts, one will immediately acquire in one’s mind a clear understanding of both the theories of the Seven Governors and the diagrams illustrating mathematical operations involving trigonometry.” 60
The only problem was, as he pointed out, that the algorithms included in Jiang Yong’s book were based on the LK, since the book had been completed before the publication of the LKH. Therefore, Nam decided to compile a new book on the calculation of the sun, the moon and the lunar and solar eclipses, using the methods from the LKH but written in the same style and format as the Tuibu fajie. That is why he named this new book sokhae, or a continued explanation. This new work is in four volumes (kwon), divided into four sections that deal with the calculation of the sun (kwon 1), the moon (kwon 2), the lunar eclipse (kwon 3), solar eclipses and the fixed stars (kwon 4). It is basically a commentary on the algorithms of the “practical” part of the LKH, except for the section on the fixed stars, which is in fact a commentary on the relevant algorithms taken from the “practical” part of the LK. Each section begins with the constants to be used, followed by the algorithms. Comments are given on every constant and every step of calculation, clarifying the astronomical meaning and the historical improvements of the constants, as well as the key concepts and mathematical treatments involved at every step. Compared to Nam Pyŏng-gil’s book, the Ch’ubo sokhae is even less open to the theoretical dimension of Western astronomy. 60
Nam Pyŏng-chŏl, Sihŏn Kiyo, pp. 325–326.
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One may be able to make one’s own calculations by following the prescriptions in the book step by step. It is very doubtful, however, whether by reading it one can really “acquire immediately in one’s mind a clear understanding of both the theories of the Seven Governors and the diagrams illustrating the trigonometric operations”, especially for a beginner. Although some operations are originally based on very complicated geometrical operations and configurations, not one single diagram is provided throughout the book, let alone any thorough demonstration of the geometrical principles behind all the algorithms. 6.
Concluding Remarks
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Although the Jesuit compilers of the LKH tried very hard to fill in both the cosmological and mathematical gaps between the LKH and LK to uphold, at least apparently, the coherence of the theories in the two books, they still failed in averting themselves from the criticism of Chinese scholars thereafter. This was true especially after the introduction of the heliocentrism by Michel Benoist. The most famous criticism was that by Ruan Yuan (1764–1849), one of the most influential writers within the scientific circles in China after the mid-18th century, who argued: “Since the Europeans, attracted by the Emperor's civilizing virtue, came from afar and translated their techniques for pacing the heavens, we have had the mathematics of deferents and epicycles. [...] And then, not very long after, there was a change. For what has all along been called circles they have substituted ellipse techniques, and they hold that the earth moves and the sun is static. This means that the Westerners were unable to firmly maintain their previous arguments. [...] From Tycho’s time to the present only somewhat over a century has passed, but how many times have they changed his methods! I cannot imagine how much further they will go. They are certain to surpass these beginnings, boasting of knowledge that only they have, inventing absurd theories.” 61
Finally, an overwhelming majority of Chinese astronomers in Ruan’s period accepted a common belief that any geometrical and cosmological model that the Westerners contrived was just a purely mathematical treatment, as Ruan Yuan put it: “Generally speaking, these [models] are simply hypothetical figures, used to demonstrate why and how we could use the plus or minus equations [to correct the mean motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets]. However, in view of the capability of these models to tell the reasons for the irregular motions of the heavenly bodies, undiscriminating people mistakenly believe that there are
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Ruan Yuan , Chouren zhuan (Biographies of Mathematicians and Astronomers), Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 1991, pp. 609–610. English translation from Sivin, “Copernicus in China”, with my own changes. 阮
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truly such circles in the blue heavens. This is really a great delusion! [...] As long as the figure is borrowed for illustrating computational principles, then it is fine to say that the model is an ellipse with the equal area planetary motion on it, and there is also no any impropriety even in saying that the earth moves while the sun is static!” 62
But even so, Ruan Yuan still thought that the heliocentric system was too absurd. So he continued: “However, as a doctrine it [i.e. the heliocentrism] goes too far to the degree that the proper order of the up-there and the down-here is reversed, and the roles of the kinetic and the static are topsy-turvy. Never has there been any instance worse than this in being so heretical and unedifying.” 63
From the too frequent changes of the Western astronomy in cosmological models and the heresy of the heliocentric model the Westerners ended up with, Ruan Yuan saw the serious risk in following the Western approach in astronomy. So he advised his readers: “When ancient calendar makers studied the motion of the Seven Governors, they only talked about the inequalities and irregularities of the sun, the moon and the five planets, rather than the reasons for these inequalities and irregularities. This is really because that the way of Heaven is too subtle for human power to spy out. Therefore, they only spoke of what is so rather than pressed further to seek for why it is so. Such was the prudence of the ancient people when they established their teachings. [...] [Western astronomy] being so, you might still say that the Westerners' discourses on celestial phenomena can clarify the reasons. But how can [these discourses] be superior to only talking about the inequalities and irregularities? Only talking about what is so rather than why it is so, which can make us unmistakable forever!” 64
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In other words, the incoherence discerned by Chinese scholars such as Ruan Yuan in Western astronomy convinced them that not only should they withdraw their previous faith in its superiority in revealing the underlying principles of the heavenly motions, but they should even stop pursuing astronomy in the Western way. Ruan Yuan’s argument turned out to be overwhelmingly appealing to contemporaneous literati. Leading mathematicians and astronomers in the period such as Li Rui (1768–1817) and Xu Guilin (1778–1821) shared his view.65 Ruan Yuan, Chouren zhuan, pp. 609–610. English translation from Sivin, “Copernicus in China”, with my own changes. 63 Ruan Yuan, Chouren zhuan, pp. 609–610. English translation from Sivin, “Copernicus in China”, with my own changes. 64 Ruan Yuan, Chouren zhuan, pp. 609–610. English translation from Sivin, “Copernicus in China”, with my own changes. 65 Shi Yunli and Lü Lingfeng, “Cong ‘gouqiu qi gu’ dao dan qiu ‘wubi’ ”.
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To them the only acceptable part of Western astronomy was the advanced techniques in instruments and observation. Therefore, Xu Guilin argued that the only way astronomers in China could take for sure was to combine the Western school which never techniques with the old cosmology tenet of the Xuanye tried to imagine the possible orbital arrangement of the Seven Governors.66 For this reason, Western astronomy was adopted and studied by Chinese astronomers and literati of the period only insofar as it provided a set of pure mathematical techniques or even a craft in tackling the practical problems they came across either in calendrical astronomy or in evidential studies (kaozheng xue ). This situation would not undergo a substantial change until 1840, when a new bout of transmission of Western science began in the gunpowder smoke of the Opium War. It seems that the incoherence issue did not trouble Korean astronomers to the same extent. While those who were closely connected to the Bureau of Astronomy such as Sŏ Ho-su, Nam Pyŏng-gil and Nam Pyŏng-chŏl simply concentrated on the technical aspects of both the LK and the LKH without any word about the cosmological gap between the two books, Ch’oe Han-gi, a scholar outside that institution, also seemed to be quite settled even after he was converted to heliocentrism and Newtonian astronomy. It appears that from the very beginning he made a very clear demarcation between the mathematical and physical dimensions of astronomical studies, but he believed that both dimensions had their own functions and therefore could be treated separately. In his opinion, physical and mathematical studies of astronomy were equally important and as a scholar one had to keep a balanced knowledge in both directions. Compared to Chinese scholars such as Ruan Yuan, Li Rui and Xu Guilin, his emphasis on the physical study reveals great open-mindedness, and total independence from the mainstream trend the astronomical thought represented not only by the leading thinkers in astronomy in China, where the only source of Western astronomy lay for Korea, but also by the Korean royal astronomers in the Bureau of Astronomy, who were supposed to be the dominant experts in astronomical issues in the country. Acknowledgments This paper was completed during my tenure of a Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Needham Research Institute. My thanks go to Dr. Jun Yong-Hoon for his important help and discussion during the production of this paper, and to Dr. Catherine Jami for her constructive comments and suggestions.
66
Shi Yunli and Lü Lingfeng, “Cong ‘gouqiu qi gu’ dao dan qiu ‘wubi’ ”.
