Hart, Roger (Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Physical Details: 384 pp.
Language: English
Accounts of the seventeenth-century Jesuit Mission to China have often celebrated it as the great encounter of two civilizations. The Jesuits portrayed themselves as wise men from the West who used mathematics and science in service of their mission. Chinese literati-official Xu Guangqi (1562--1633), who collaborated with the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552--1610) to translate Euclid's Elements into Chinese, reportedly recognized the superiority of Western mathematics and science and converted to Christianity. Most narratives relegate Xu and the Chinese to subsidiary roles as the Jesuits' translators, followers, and converts. Imagined Civilizations tells the story from the Chinese point of view. Using Chinese primary sources, Roger Hart focuses in particular on Xu, who was in a position of considerable power over Ricci. The result is a perspective startlingly different from that found in previous studies. Hart analyzes Chinese mathematical treatises of the period, revealing that Xu and his collaborators could not have believed their declaration of the superiority of Western mathematics. Imagined Civilizations explains how Xu's West served as a crucial resource. While the Jesuits claimed Xu as a convert, he presented the Jesuits as men from afar who had traveled from the West to China to serve the emperor.
...MoreDescription Focuses on Xu Guangqi, who collaborated with Matteo Ricci in translating Euclid's Elements, telling the story from Xu's point of view.
Review H. Floris Cohen (2018) Review of "Imagined Civilizations: China, the West, and Their First Encounter". East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (pp. 225-231).
Review Hsia, Florence C. (2015) Review of "Imagined Civilizations: China, the West, and Their First Encounter". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 713-716).
Similar Citations
Book
Hsia, R. Po-chia;
(2010)
A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552--1610
(/isis/citation/CBB001202147/)
Book
Laven, Mary;
(2011)
Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East
(/isis/citation/CBB001202149/)
Book
Hsia, Florence C.;
(2009)
Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China
(/isis/citation/CBB001020040/)
Book
Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia;
(2016)
Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China, 1583–1610: A Short History with Documents
(/isis/citation/CBB927676896/)
Article
Pan, Yi-ning;
(2008)
Matteo Ricci, Li Zhi-zao and the Compilation of Tongwen Suanzhi
(/isis/citation/CBB000952303/)
Article
Yang, Zezhong;
(2004)
Matteo Ricci and the Introduction of Projection Geometry from the West.
(/isis/citation/CBB000401198/)
Article
Ma, Lai-ping;
(2011)
Some Issues on Evaluation of Matteo Ricci
(/isis/citation/CBB001250705/)
Book
Jami, Catherine;
(2012)
The Emperor's New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662--1722)
(/isis/citation/CBB001250505/)
Article
Standaert, Nicolas;
(2011)
Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001221355/)
Article
Zeng, Zheng;
(2004)
Matteo Ricci's Contribution to the Fusion of Chinese and Western Mathematical Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB000401220/)
Article
Rusk, Bruce;
(2007)
Old Scripts, New Actors: European Encounters with Chinese Writing, 1550--1700
(/isis/citation/CBB001021334/)
Article
Pan, Yining;
(2006)
The Attempt at Merging Chinese and Western Mathematics: A Case Study on the Compilation of the Tongwen Suanzhi (1614)
(/isis/citation/CBB001020781/)
Book
Jami, Catherine;
(2012)
The Emperor's New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662--1722)
(/isis/citation/CBB001450389/)
Article
Stefano Salvia;
(2020)
The Battle of the Astronomers: Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest at the Court of the Celestial Emperors (1660–1670)
(/isis/citation/CBB046191643/)
Article
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite;
(2015)
“Like the Hebrews in Spain”: The Jesuit Encounter with Muslims in China and the Problem of Cultural Change
(/isis/citation/CBB036947771/)
Article
Jami, Catherine;
Han, Qi;
(2003)
The Reconstruction of Imperial Mathematics in China During the Kangxi Reign (1622--1722)
(/isis/citation/CBB000470589/)
Book
Fontana, Michela;
(2011)
Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court
(/isis/citation/CBB001033388/)
Article
Sun, Chengsheng;
(2011)
The Transmission of Crystalline Spheres Theory to Late Ming China and Its Influence
(/isis/citation/CBB001210026/)
Essay Review
Criveller, Gianni;
(2012)
[Essay review]
(/isis/citation/CBB001566450/)
Article
Anagnostou, Sabine;
(2002)
Jesuit Missionaries in Spanish America and the Transfer of Medical-Pharmaceutical Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB000740636/)
Be the first to comment!