Quick Answer: Who Was Xu Guangqi?
Xu Guangqi (徐光启, Xú Guāngqǐ, 1562–1633) was a late Ming scholar-official who collaborated with Matteo Ricci (利玛窦, Lì Mǎdòu) on Euclid’s Elements, assembled a wide-ranging work on agriculture and directed the start of an imperial calendar reform.[1][2][3][4][6]
- Geometry: He and Ricci published a Chinese translation of the first six books of Euclid’s Elements in 1607.
- Agriculture: Editors prepared his compilation for publication after his death.
- Calendar: He led the Ming reform project from 1629. Its work continued under other officials.
The books, editions and government projects belong to different timelines. Each shows a different kind of collaboration.
Xu Guangqi left work that other people could read, edit and put to use. A Chinese geometry book, an agricultural compilation and an astronomical reform show three ways he worked with others. Their publication and adoption dates help explain what he contributed.
A Ming Official and Catholic Collaborator
Xu was born in Shanghai and earned the highest examination degree in 1604. His career in the Ming dynasty took him into government work that included agricultural administration, defense and calendar matters. Xu had been baptized as Paul in 1603, the year before he earned the degree. His conversion and his official career both shaped the contacts through which he was able to work with Jesuits.[2][3]
In the history of Christianity in China, Xu was a convert and a patron of missionary scholarship. In the history of government, he was an official with his own priorities. His biography describes interests in water control, agriculture and the organization of frontier agriculture. Geometry and astronomy fit within those concerns about how practical work was organized and carried out.[2][3]
What Xu and Ricci Translated in 1607
The Chinese Elements appeared in 1607 under the title Jihe yuanben (几何原本, Jǐhé Yuánběn). Ricci gave an oral rendering from a Latin edition prepared by Christopher Clavius. Xu wrote and shaped that material in Chinese. Their collaboration covered six books of a fifteen-book edition.[1][2]
A geometry book of this kind gives readers a sequence to follow. It establishes definitions and then builds propositions with diagrams and proofs. The project made that way of organizing reasoning available through a Chinese text. The early Qing mathematical astronomer Mei Wending later treated the new geometry as a subject to study alongside Chinese mathematics. His reception of the book shows how the translation entered an existing field of scholarship.[1][2]
The Library of Congress catalogue dates one digitized expanded edition to 1611. That date identifies the surviving edition in the catalogue. The date 1607 identifies the original publication of the collaboration.[1][2]
How the Agricultural Treatise Reached Print
The Nongzheng quanshu (农政全书, Nóngzhèng Quánshū), often rendered Complete Treatise on Agriculture, is much broader than a planting guide. Its subjects include cultivation, agricultural implements, water management and preparation for scarcity. Grouping those subjects together gave readers material on the equipment, water supply and public planning on which cultivation depended.[3][4][5]
Xu died in 1633. Chen Zilong (陈子龙, Chén Zǐlóng) and other editors prepared the work for publication in 1639. The 1639 date belongs to the edition prepared by his successors. A citation to the treatise can therefore identify both Xu as its compiler and the edition that supplies the passage.[4][5]
Calendar Reform Across Two Dynasties
The Chongzhen emperor put Xu in charge of calendar revision in 1629. The project brought officials and Jesuits into a bureau where they translated astronomical materials and tested instruments and methods. In 1631 the team used a telescope to observe a solar eclipse and later a lunar eclipse. Those observations were part of a larger program to test methods and prepare astronomical calculations for the official calendar.[6]
Li Tianjing continued the work after Xu’s death. The team submitted parts of the Chongzhen lishu (崇祯历书, Chóngzhēn Lìshū), an astronomical compendium, in several installments. During the early Qing, Adam Schall von Bell drew on that work to prepare a new calendar. This episode in Chinese calendar reform therefore spans a late Ming project, a succession of officials and a separate stage of implementation under the next dynasty.[6]
FAQs About Xu Guangqi
Did Xu Guangqi translate all of Euclid’s Elements?
The collaboration covered the first six books of the Latin edition by Christopher Clavius. The 1607 publication was a Chinese edition of that part of the work.
Did Xu Guangqi publish his agricultural treatise?
Xu compiled the work. Chen Zilong and others prepared it for publication after Xu died, and the first edition appeared in 1639.
Did Xu Guangqi introduce the Gregorian calendar to China?
Xu directed a reform that brought European astronomical methods into Chinese calendrical work. Officials used those methods to calculate an imperial Chinese calendar. The project continued after his death and informed a calendar adopted under the Qing.
Sources
[1] Library of Congress, Chinese Rare Book Collection. Ji he yuan ben, six juan
[2] Journal of Chinese History, Cambridge University Press. Science, Religion and Sino-Western Exchanges
[3] History of the Ming. Chapter 251: Xu Guangqi
[4] Kyushu University Institutional Repository. 明末奉教士人の社会関係と天主教受容：徐光啓を中心に
[5] Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO Library. The Story of FAO
[6] Zhang Baichun, East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine. The Introduction of European Astronomical Instruments and Related Technology into China in the Seventeenth Century