Chapter 58 239 Xu Guangqi Studying Western Learning

The four-way army led by Yang Gao was almost completely wiped out in Sarhu, and the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty were shocked.Everyone gathered outside the palace gate, calling on Ming Shenzong to increase its troops, allocate military pay, and resist Houjin.Xu Guangqi, an official of the Imperial Academy, made three memorials in a row, arguing that to save the country from crisis, the only way is to select talents, train recruits, and volunteer to train soldiers.Ming Shenzong heard that Xu Guangqi was familiar with military affairs, so he approved him to go to Tongzhou for military training.

Xu Guangqi is from Shanghai.Before he was born, the coastal areas of Shanghai were severely harassed by Japanese pirates.When Xu Guangqi was a child, he often heard his father talk about the local people's heroic resistance to the Japanese invaders, and his patriotic passion grew in his heart. When Xu Guangqi grew up, he passed Nanjing because he was taking the imperial examination. He heard that a European missionary, Matteo Ricci (sound dou), came there and often talked about Western scientific knowledge.Some scholars in Nanjing like to make friends with Matteo Ricci.Xu Guangqi got to know Matteo Ricci through someone's introduction.The scientific principles he heard from Matteo Ricci were things he had never read in ancient books before.Since then, he has developed a strong interest in Western science.

Matteo Ricci disseminated scientific knowledge mainly for the convenience of missionary work.He felt that in order to expand his missionary work, he must obtain the support of the Chinese emperor.At that time, the Ming Dynasty did not allow priests to preach in Beijing.Matteo Ricci asked the local ministers to speak for him in front of Ming Shenzong. He also went to Beijing, and through the eunuch Ma Tang, he gave Ming Shenzong a Bible, a picture of the Virgin Mary, and several new chime bells. Ming Shenzong didn't understand the Bible, and he didn't know who the Holy Mother was.But he was very interested in the new chime bell, so he ordered Ma Tang to bring Matteo Ricci into the palace.

When Ming Shenzong received Matteo Ricci, he asked Ricci to talk about Western customs and customs.Matteo Ricci was originally an Italian. In order to boast of himself, he described himself as a person from the "Atlantic Country".Someone searched the map of the world and could not find any "Atlantic country", so they suspected that Matteo Ricci's origin was unknown and asked Ming Shenzong to drive him away.But Ming Shenzong did not listen to this opinion, and rewarded Matteo Ricci with some property, allowing him to stay in the capital to preach.With the emperor's support, it was very convenient for Ricci to contact court officials.

A few years later, Xu Guangqi passed the Jinshi examination and also went to Beijing to serve as an official in the Imperial Academy.He believed that learning Western science was good for the country's prosperity, so he decided to take Matteo Ricci as his teacher and learn from him scientific knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, measurement, and weapon manufacturing. Once, Xu Guangqi went to study with Matteo Ricci.Matteo Ricci told him that there is a mathematical work in the West called "The Elements of Geometry", which is an important work written by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, but it is very difficult to translate it into Chinese.Xu Guangqi said: "Since there is such a good book and you are willing to teach me, no matter how difficult it is, I will translate it."

After that, Xu Guangqi rushed to Matteo Ricci's place every afternoon as soon as he left the Imperial Academy, and cooperated with Matteo Ricci in translating "The Elements of Geometry", which was narrated by Matteo Ricci and translated by Xu Guangqi.At that time, no one had translated foreign mathematics works, and it was not easy to translate the original works accurately.It took Xu Guangqi more than a year to scrutinize and revise word by word, and finally completed the translation of the first six volumes of "Elements of Geometry". In addition to "Elements of Geometry", Xu Guangqi also cooperated with Matteo Ricci and another Western missionary Xiong Sanba to translate scientific works on surveying and water conservancy.Later, on the basis of studying ancient Chinese calendars, he absorbed the latest scientific knowledge of astronomy in Europe at that time, and his research on astronomical calendars reached a very high level.

Xu Guangqi is not only fond of science, but also very concerned about the sufferings of the people.One year, his father died, and Xu Guangqi returned to Shanghai to mourn.In the summer of that year, a flood hit the south of the Yangtze River, and the flood flooded the rice and wheat.After the water receded, there was no harvest on the farmland.Xu Guangqi was very anxious about this.He thought, if he didn't replant some other crops, what would he do to overcome the famine next spring?Just at this time, a friend brought a batch of sweet potato seedlings from Fujian.Xu Guangqi tried to grow sweet potatoes on the wasteland, and after a while, the sweet potatoes grew lush and verdant.Later, he specially compiled a pamphlet to promote the method of growing sweet potatoes.The sweet potatoes that were originally only grown along the coast of Fujian were transplanted to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

This time, Xu Guangqi put forward the idea of ​​training soldiers, which was approved by Ming Shenzong. He was full of hope and wanted to train new soldiers as soon as possible and strengthen national defense.Unexpectedly, all departments of the imperial court were thoroughly corrupt. The military training office had been established for a month.Later, I managed to get some military pay, and when I arrived in Tongzhou, I inspected the more than 7,000 recruits recruited there, most of whom were old, weak, and disabled.He was so disappointed that he had to ask to resign. In 1620 AD, Ming Shenzong died, and his son Ming Guangzong Zhu Changluo also died of illness. Shenzong's grandson Zhu Youxiao came to the throne, which was Ming Xizong.Xu Guangqi returned to the capital again. Seeing that the threat of Hou Jin was getting worse, he tried his best to build more Western cannons.For this matter, there was a conflict with the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Xu Guangqi was excluded from the court.

When Xu Guangqi returned to Shanghai, he was already in his sixties.He was very interested in studying agricultural science. After returning to his hometown, he personally participated in labor and did some experiments in his own field.Later, he wrote his daily research results into a book called "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".In this book, there are detailed records of agricultural techniques such as agricultural tools, soil, water conservancy, fertilization, seed selection, and grafting in our country. It can really be called an agricultural encyclopedia in ancient my country!