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Chapter 9 The third section Tang Ruowang and the early Qing calendar dispute

Christianity in China 周燮藩 4940Words 2018-03-20
After the Qing soldiers entered the customs, Jesuit priests such as Bi Fangji and Qu Shawei continued to be active in the Nanming court, while Tang Ruowang and others stayed in Beijing for the northern missionary affairs, so as not to be banned by the Qing court.Tang Ruowang thus became the most famous Jesuit priest in China in the early Qing Dynasty.Tang Ruowang, a native of Cologne, Germany, came to China with the French missionary Ginny Court in 1620, arrived in Guangzhou in 1622, and then went to Beijing to learn Chinese, and was sent to Xi'an to preach. In 1629, Xu Guangqi presided over the revision of the calendar and recommended Long Huamin and Deng Yuhan to participate in it.The following year, Deng Yuhan died in Beijing. On the recommendation of Xu Guangqi, Luo Yagu and Tang Ruowang were transferred from Kaifeng and Xi'an to Beijing to participate in the editing work of "Chongzhen Almanac".Tang Ruowang was ordered to manage the Calendar Bureau, manufacture astronomical instruments, deduce arithmetic, and translate Western books.At the same time, he took advantage of the opportunity of explaining astronomy to the eunuchs to carry out missionary activities in the palace. Pang Tianshou, the eunuch of the imperial horse, was baptized into the religion. In 1636, Tang Ruowang was ordered to supervise the manufacture of war cannons, casting 20 cannons in two years.In order to seek legal status for Catholics in various provinces, in 1638, he asked Ming Sizong to inscribe the four characters "Qin Bao Tian Xue", and made plaques and distributed them to Catholic churches all over the place to hang. In 1640, he made meritorious service for recasting the cannon.Two years later, he was ordered to teach cannon-making techniques to Bingzhanju, and translated "Fire Attack and Key Points". In March 1644, Li Zicheng led the rebel army into Beijing and ordered Tang Ruowang to stay in the post of Qin Tianjian. In April, the Qing soldiers captured Beijing, and Tang Ruowang surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with his assistant minister Li Jiantai.


Tang Ruowang
After the Qing soldiers entered the capital, they ordered the residents in the city to move out of the city within three days.In order to preserve the almanac, astronomical instruments, missionary classics, calendar books, sacrificial ritual vessels, etc., Tang Ruowang was protected and granted a license by Dorgon, the regent of Shangshu.Duo ErGun ordered to protect the land, not to allow soldiers to disturb. In June 1644, Tang Ruowang made a proposal to predict the minute, second, and starting position of the solar eclipse on the first day of August. In July, the celestial planet, the horizon sundial, the telescope, the map of the earth screen, etc. made by the institute were submitted, and a revised calendar was submitted, and a new volume of the calendar was submitted. In August, after testing by the observatory, Tang Ruowang's new method was calculated, which was closely related to the sky. Since then, he was trusted by the new dynasty. Together with Long Huamin, he was ordered to "according to the new Western method" to test the astronomical phenomena and revise the calendar. In November, Tang Ruowang was in charge of the seal of Qintianjian, and the calendar bureau was merged into Qintianjian. In 1645, Tang Ruowang revised and renamed the "Chongzhen Almanac" edited by Xu Guangqi, and presented it as "Western New Law Calendar".Tang Ruowang was appointed as the first Foreigner Supervisor of Qing Tianjian, and was added the title of Shaoqing of Taichang Temple the following year. In 1651, when Shunzhi was in charge, Tang Ruowang was often called into the palace for consultation, and he was called "Mafa" (Manchu: dear priest). In August, he was granted the title of Doctor Tongyi, his grandfather and father were Doctor Tongfeng, and his grandmother and mother were given the title of Mrs. Erpin. In 1653, he was given the title "Teacher Tongxuan" as a compliment.

Tang Ruowang was the president of the Society of Jesus in Beijing. As his political status rose, the missionary activities in Beijing also gradually developed. In 1650, Shunzhi granted Tang Ruowang a piece of open space next to the original Catholic Church in Xuanwu Gate to rebuild a new church.The empress dowager rewarded silver taels for building the church, and the princes and ministers contributed to each other. In 1652, the new church was completed, and the Shunzhi imperial pen personally inscribed the plaque "Admiration for the Way of Heaven". In 1654, the land on both sides of Matteo Ricci's tomb outside Fuchengmen was given as the church cemetery in the future, and Tang Ruowang built a Church of Our Lady on the site. In 1657, Shunzhi inscribed "Tongxuan Jiajing" in his own handwriting, and granted it as the temple of Xuanwumen Church, and there is an inscription on the Imperial Catholic Church to show his favor.Since then, Tang Ruowang has successively been allowed to invite about 20 missionaries to various places to preach publicly in batches.

After Tang Ruowang and other priests gained the trust of the imperial court and took charge of the Qintianjian, they deliberately rejected the three calendars of "", "" and """, which caused a dispute between the old and new calendars. In 1657, Wu Mingxuan [xuanxuan], an official of the dismissed Huike Branch, was the first to attack, and wrote twice to say that Tang Ruowang's calculations were wrong.After being tested by the minister, what Wu Mingxuan said was not true, so he was convicted.Tang Ruowang was awarded the Tongzheng Envoy, the first rank of the Jin Dynasty.In the following year, the emperor awarded Tang Ruowang Guanglu doctor again, and rewarded his ancestors with three generations of first-rank seals. In April 1661, Tang Ruowang's 70th birthday, many ministers presented poems to congratulate him. Shunzhi was admitted to Qintianjian because Pan's filial son was Tang Ruowang's righteous grandson.When Wu Mingxuan impeached Tang Ruowang, Huizhou Xin'an Wei Yang Guang responded first. In 1659, he wrote articles such as "Repelling Evil", "Ji Xi Ji" and "Ten Treatises on the Absurd", attacking the fallacies of Catholic doctrine and the Western calendar. In 1660, he wrote to the Ministry of Rites again, accusing the new calendar cover of engraving "according to the new law of the West", which was the right of stealing to the West.Not allowed. In 1664, Yang Guangxian continued the debate.Yang Guangxian pointed out, "For those who occupy the capital, only Ruowang four people, but today they gather dozens of people and don't know how to avoid it. Now they know their secrets, gold can serve ghosts and gods, and the Han people are willing to be clues. What's more, his teaching is mainly based on conspiring to seize the country of man... His conspiratorial conquest of Japan can be relied on by ship merchants; he has already conquered the Lusong country, and he has the reference of Shen (氵隺), the former Minister of Rites of the Ming Dynasty. According to. Such a murderous man with wolfish ambitions, and the fierceness of firearms and knives, how can Anke be the same as China?" ("Yan Cishu") This is no longer a calendar dispute, but a fierce political one. struggled.

At the beginning of Kangxi's accession to the throne, the conservative forces represented by Obai assisted the government, which was at odds with Western missionaries.In July 1664, Yang Guangxian accused Tang Ruowang and others of conspiring to rebel with the Ministry of Rites, with heresy to confuse the public, and the calendar was fallacious.He said in "Please Punish the Evil Religion": …Tang Ruowang, a Westerner, originally conspired against the crimes of the law thief, Jesus, and came to Beijing privately in the next season without paying tribute from the other country.The state minister Xu Guangqi was greedy for his wonderful artifacts, and instead of banning them by the sea law, he recommended them to the court, and practiced heresy in the name of repairing the calendar.As of today, the conspiracy is gradually unfolding.Li Zubai, the official of the calendar, wrote the demon book "Tianxue Biography", saying that all countries in the East and West are descendants of cults, and those who came to China are like Fuxi's family; Home country, follow other countries?Such a demonic book is an unforgivable crime.Tang Ruowang was the mastermind, Li Zaike was the one who asked for the preface, Xu Zhijian was the one who wrote the preface, and Nan Dunbo, An Jingbo, Pan Jinxiao, and Xu Qian were the passers-by.They also spread evil parties in Jinan, Huaian, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Jiangning, Suzhou, Changshu, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Jinhua, Lanxi, Fuzhou, Jianning, Yanping, Tingzhou, Nanchang, Jianchang, Ganzhou, Guangzhou, Guilin, Chongqing, Baoning, Wuchang, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Jiangzhou, Kaifeng, and thirty halls of the capital. [aoao] is filled with tens of thousands of people, and it is used as a nest, and it is connected to and from the sea.Ruowang used the calendar to hide in the Golden Gate and peep into the secrets of the court.If it wasn't for the collusion between the inside and outside, why did the party set up the Catholic Church in a key place in the capital, and spread the demon book to confuse the people of the world? ... All kinds of rebellious schemes will not happen overnight. If they are not eliminated quickly, it will really cause trouble for raising tigers.

In August, 73-year-old Tang Ruowang was arraigned by the Ministry of Rites. Tang Ruowang suddenly suffered from impotence and was unable to answer questions.By October, Li Zubai, Pan Jinxiao, etc. were arrested according to the decree, Nan Huairen, Li Leisi, An Wensi, etc. were imprisoned, and Tang Ruowang was imprisoned by the Ministry of Rites.Two months later, Tang Ruowang was dismissed from office and transferred to the prison of the Ministry of Punishment. Other officials were dismissed and sent to the army, and priests from various provinces were also detained.Yang Guangxian wrote the two books "Ten Misunderstandings of Western Law" and "Choice of Discussion", and repeatedly wrote to accuse Western missionaries of not distinguishing good or bad from the calendar. Unfavorable timing, Tang Ruowang misused the five elements of "Hong Fan", implicating his mother and Shunzhi to death.Therefore, the Ministry of Rites and Punishment discussed and punished Tang Ruowang for the crime of murdering treason and sentenced him to Ling Chi, Li Zubai and other seven people were punished for the same crime, and Pan Jinxiao and other five people were all executed. In March 1665, Ao Bai, the assistant minister, convened more than 200 ministers to finalize the case. It coincided with five consecutive days of earthquakes in Beijing.The Empress Dowager ordered the priests to be released, and the priests were detained in various provinces and sent to Guangdong for placement. More than 30 people who served in Qintianjian were dismissed or migrated. Zhongguan Zheng Liu Youtai and other five believers were beheaded, and religious officials such as Yu Shi Xu Zhijian, Taiwanese Xu Zuan (zuanzhuan) Zeng, and Futai Tong Guoqi were all dismissed.Tang Ruowang was exempted, and died of illness in the South Church of the Catholic Church in Xuanwumen in July 1666.

During the period of the Qintianjian teaching case, governors of various provinces also arrested priests, and in May 1665 the Beijing Interrogation Office was released.Jinnige in Shanxi, Li Fangxi in Shaanxi, Wang Ruwang in Shandong, Nie Boduo in Jiangxi, and Nie Duzhen in Zhejiang were all detained.There are 31 missionaries in Xiejing from all provinces, including 25 Jesuits, four Dominicans, and two Franciscans.Soon, these priests were released, and 25 of them were imprisoned in the Guangzhou Jesuit Church and were not allowed to preach. Yang Guangxian declared: "It is better to have no good calendar in Zhongxia than to have Westerners in Zhongxia. Without a good calendar, it is like the Han family does not know the method of combining new moons, and solar eclipses are mostly on dark days, but they still enjoy the four hundred years of the country. Westerners, I am afraid that they will spend money to clean up the hearts of the people in the world, like a house [cuo wrong] under the accumulated salary, and the disaster will never end." ("Solar Eclipse and Astronomical Experience") After Tang Ruowang resigned, Yang Guangxian Bu was the deputy of Qintian Supervisor, and soon promoted to supervisor, and took Nantang, where Tang Ruowang lived, as a private residence.The post of deputy supervisor was filled by Wu Mingxuan.However, it is an undisguised fact that the old law is erratic, and the 1669 calendar they made had many errors. In 1668, Kangxi ordered Yang Guangxian and Nan Huairen to measure the shadow of the sun at noon according to what they had learned.Later, I went to the observatory to measure the astrology, which is also based on Western methods.In this regard, Yang Guangxian argued strongly: "China is the calendar of Yao and Shun. How can there be a sage who has lost Yao and Shun and adopted the Catholic calendar? Moreover, China uses a hundred quarters to calculate, and the Western calendar uses ninety-six. It is not good for future generations." However, Kangxi dismissed Yang Guangxian and Wu Mingxuan successively for the crime of slander, and reappointed Nan Huairen as Qin Tianjian. After the Obai Group was eliminated in 1669, Nan Huairen and others filed a letter to lodge an injustice. The imperial court decided to punish Yang Guangxian with death.Tang Ruowang resumed his original title and the title of Tongwei teacher (changed "Xuan" to "Wei" because of taboo), Li Zubai and others were sympathetic to the original officials, and Xu Zhijian, Pan Jinxiao and others were reinstated as original officials.The missionaries sent to Guangzhou were ordered to be released in December 1670. Min Mingwo and En Lige, who were familiar with the calendar, came to Beijing to serve, and the rest were sent to live in the churches of various provinces.Regarding missionary activities, except Nan Huairen and others who can preach on their own as usual, other provinces have issued notices to continue to strictly prohibit missionary activities in order to prevent believers from building churches and developing believers.


Nan Huairen
The revival of Catholicism during the Kangxi period was thanks to the Belgian priest Nan Huairen.In 1669, Nan Huairen served as the deputy supervisor of the Qintian Supervisor, and was in charge of the supervisory affairs of the Qin Tianjian. In 1674, six astronomical instruments for the observatory were made: celestial body, equatorial theodolite, ecliptic theodolite, horizon theodolite, horizon alodolites, and chronometers.In the same year, Nan Huairen was promoted to the supervisor of Qintian Supervisor, and was added the title of Shaoqing of Taichang Temple. In 1678, he wrote "Kangxi Yongnian Calendar", and added the title of Tongzheng Shi to Tongzheng.From 1674 to 1676, the Qing government ordered Nan Huairen to supervise the construction of Western new-style cannons in order to suppress them, with a total of 120 large and small cannons. In 1680, he was ordered to cast 320 war cannons, which were completed the following year. He wrote "Shenwei Tushuo" and submitted it in 1682. It was highly appreciated by Kangxi, and he was given the title of Youshilang of the Ministry of Processing.Since then, missionaries often went to the mainland to preach on the basis of the relatives of the Minister of Industry.After Nan Huairen became the vice president of the Jesuit Chinese Missionary Society in 1676, he actively asked the Jesuits to send missionaries to China to carry out missionary work.It happened that King Louis XIV of France, in order to fight against Portugal, expand French power, and try to contact China and Tsarist Russia, specially selected Bai Jin, Zhang Cheng, Li Ming, Liu Ying, and Hong Ruohan from French Jesuit priests to China.All five were proficient in astronomy, calendar calculation, geography, etc., and had connections with the newly established French Academy of Sciences.Bai Jin and others came to Beijing with astronomical instruments in 1688. After being introduced by Xu Risheng, a Portuguese priest who worked in Qin Tianjian, Zhang Cheng and Bai Jin were ordered to stay in Beijing and the other three went to other provinces to preach. In 1689, Xu Risheng and Zhang Cheng were ordered to participate in the negotiation of the "Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk" as Latin translators. In 1690, Bai Jin and Zhang Cheng succeeded Xu Ri as court teachers, entered the palace to teach Western learning for Kangxi, and set up a laboratory in the palace. In 1693, Kangxi suddenly suffered from malaria while studying anatomy. Zhang Cheng and Bai Jin presented with the quinine cream they brought to restore their health. Kangxi therefore had a better impression of the missionaries.The year before, the Dominican priests who built a new church in Lanxi were banned by the governor of Zhejiang. Xu Risheng, Zhang Cheng and others reported the achievements of the missionaries in making artillery and handling diplomacy, and asked for the lifting of the ban.That year, Kangxi issued an edict, promising to "keep all Catholic churches in place as before, and those who offer incense and worship are allowed to walk as usual without being prohibited." In 1697, Kangxi ordered Bai Jin to go to France to recruit learned priests to China. In 1699, he came to China with 10 French priests including Lei Xiaosi, Marosell, and Bardomin.Since then, Jiang Youren, Feng Bingzheng, Qian Deming and Song Junrong have come to China one after another. In 1708, Kangxi ordered Bai Jin, Du Demei, Lei Xiaosi, Fei Yin and other missionaries to go to various parts of the country to measure and draw the "Huangyu Quanpan Map", which took nine years to complete.While these missionaries were highly valued, missionary activities also made great progress. In less than 40 years from 1664 to 1701, the number of baptized Christians almost doubled.According to statistics in 1701, there were 117 missionaries in 13 provinces across the country, 114 priest houses, 250 churches and churches, and 300,000 believers.

During this period, the Russian Orthodox Church, another faction of Christianity, also gradually invaded the interior from the Northeast of China. In 1665, Russian armed personnel invaded the Yaksa region on the left bank of Heilongjiang in my country, and Yermogen, the abbot of the Russian Kiliansk Monastery, built the Church of the Resurrection of Christ there. In 1671, he built the Monastery of the Merciful Savior on the Grinding Stone Mountain.This is the beginning of the Orthodox Church entering China. In 1685, when the Qing army recovered Yaksa, the Orthodox monk Maxim Leontief came to Beijing with some prisoners of war and stationed in Hujiaquan Hutong in the northeast corner of the city.In order to take care of the religious life of the prisoners of war, the Qing government rebuilt a Guandi Temple in the alley into an Orthodox church and named it Saint Sophia Church. Because there is an icon of Nicholas hanging in the church, it is also called Nicholas Church, commonly known as Luo Temple Temple, also known as the Russian North Pavilion. In 1700, Tsar Peter I issued an order to send Russian Orthodox missionaries to Beijing. In 1715, the first missionary group entered the Luocha Temple with a Russian caravan and called itself the Beijing Orthodox Church General Assembly. After the "Sino-Russian Kyakhta Boundary Treaty" was signed in 1727, the Missionary Corps became a permanent institution, performing official diplomatic functions, and rebuilt the Dedication Church in Dongjiaomin Lane, Beijing, also known as the Russian South Pavilion.By 1860, Tsarist Russia had sent 13 batches of missionaries to China, totaling 155 missionaries.Since 1807, the Tsarist Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed guardians to each group of missionaries.According to the instructions of the Russian Orthodox Supreme Council of Religions in 1780 and the order of the Tsarist Russian government in 1818, the mission of the missionaries was mainly to handle Sino-Russian diplomatic affairs and collect intelligence data.Therefore, they had little interest in preaching. By 1860, there were only about 200 Orthodox Christians recorded in China.However, when they forced the Qing government to sign the unequal "Sino-Russian Treaty of Aihui" and "Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing", they played an important role as an advisor to the Tsarist Russian government. After 1860, the Missionary Corps stationed in Beijing was directly appointed by the former Tsarist Russian government, but was instead dispatched by the Supreme Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, and its diplomatic functions were transferred to the Russian Diplomatic Minister in China.After that, they began to take advantage of the rights seized by unequal treaties to preach inland on a large scale.


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