Article ID: CBB093646428

When Missionary Astronomy Encountered Chinese Astrology: Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Chinese Calendar Reform in the Seventeenth Century (2020)

unapi

Western missionaries played an important role as go-betweens, promoting communication and interaction between Europe and China in science, culture, and religion. In 1644, the Qing government appointed the Germany Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell head of the Bureau of Astronomy, placing him in charge of reforming the Chinese calendar. In the traditional calendar, in addition to dates based on astronomical calculation, there were annotations attached to each day, which included auspicious and inauspicious days with advice on what to do in daily life according to Chinese astrology. Schall reformed the time arrangements with Western astronomical methods. However, he hoped to go further and proposed to change the annotations on the basis of Western natural astrology. Why did Schall choose to import Western astrology into Chinese astronomy, rather than simply sticking to astronomy? I argue that his views were influenced by both the attitudes of the Roman Catholic Church and the Aristotelianism scholarly tradition. The underlying tensions between Europe and China did not involve conflicts between science and pseudoscience, but between different religious beliefs, as well as different natural philosophies and cosmologies. The encounter of two radically different cultural traditions reflected the complicated relationship between science and belief from a global point of view.

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Authors & Contributors
Ting Chen
Statman, Alexander
Lingfeng Lü
Haohao Zhu
Mori, Giuliano
Tian, Xiaoli
Concepts
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Missionaries and missions
Astronomy
Science and religion
Calendars
Transmission of ideas
Time Periods
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
17th century
Ming dynasty (China, 1368-1644)
18th century
16th century
Edo period (Japan, 1603-1868)
Places
China
Beijing (China)
Europe
Middle and Near East
Japan
Greece
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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