Statecraft and Intellectual Renewal in Late Ming China: The Cross-Cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi (1562-1633)

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Catherine Jami, Peter Mark Engelfriet, Gregory Blue
BRILL, Jan 1, 2001 - History - 466 pages
This is the first comprehensive work on one of the key figures in early Chinese-Western relations. Xu Guangqi was one of the first promoters of Western science in China, worked together with the Jesuit Matteo Ricci on translations of Western science, was one of the first Chinese converts, a high-ranking statesman, organizer of a major calendar reform, introduced Western weapons into the Chinese army, etc. etc. His astonishingly multifarious activities are now for the first time pieced together within their (Chinese and Western) social, intellectual and cultural context. The result is a composite profile of this complex figure that is solidly anchored in Chinese (and Western) primary sources A major achievement.
 

Contents

A Christian Convert Who
8
Early Jesuit Sources
19
The World of the Shanghai Gentry
72
The Image of Xu Guangqi as Author of Christian Texts
99
Xu Guangqi and Buddhism
155
Xu Guangqis Conversion as a Multifaceted Process
170
A Note on the Context of Xu Guangqis Conversion
186
Xu Guangqis Military Reform Policy into Practice
225
On the Star Catalogue and Atlas of Chongzhen Lishu
311
Who was the Author of the Nongzhen Quanshu?
322
The Influence of
360
The Influence of Euclids Elements on Xu Guangqi
380
An Annotated Chronology
399
Glossary
411
Abbreviations
427
Index
456

Xu Guangqis
263
Xu Guangqis Attempts to Integrate Western
279
About the Contributors
464
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About the author (2001)

Catherine Jami, Ph.D. (1985, Universite de Paris XIII), is Chargee de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris). She works on the history of Chinese mathematics and astronomy and has published extensively on the reception of European science in China during the Ming and early Qing. Peter Engelfriet, Ph.D. (1996, University of Leiden), specializes in Chinese religious and scientific history, including particularly the early Jesuit mission to China. His publications include "Euclid in China" (Brill, 1998) and "Linked Faiths" (Brill, 2000), a festschrift honouring Kristofer Schipper. Gregory Blue, Ph.D. (1989, University of Cambridge), teaches History at the University of Victoria (BC, Canada). His research focuses on the history of Sino-Western relations and on Western interpretations of Chinese history and society.

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