The Imperial Astronomical Bureau and the Official Catholics Community during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties

IF 0.1 0 RELIGION

International Journal of Sino-Western Studies Pub Date : 2022-05-13 DOI:10.37819/ijsws.22.176

Qing-Bo Xiao

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

During the late Ming Dynasty, with the establishment of the Calendar Bureau (历局) by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) and the recommendation of missionaries and Catholics to take part in the revision of the calendar, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau (钦天监) became an important institution for missionaries to stay in China and played an important role in the dissemination and development of Catholicism. Until the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau became a government office with the most official Catholics. Missionaries were not only in charge of the calendar revision, but also converted the officials and astrology students into Catholics through active preaching. The missionaries of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau provided protection for missionaries all over the country, and retired officials returned to their homes to continue spreading Catholicism. Even during the prohibition period, missionaries still stayed and worked in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. The formation of the community of official Catholics in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau could be regarded as the embodiment of the Catholic preaching through sciences during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. There are many studies on Adam von Bell (1591-1666) and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), but less on the official Catholics in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. This article tried to illustrate the basic situation of the official Catholics during the late Ming and early Qing, by discussing the relationship between the Bureau and Catholicism, and analyzes the historical influences of preaching through the Bureau and the sciences.

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明末清初的皇家天文局与天主教会

明朝末年，随着历局的成立(历局) 由徐光启（1562-1633）和传教士和天主教徒的建议，参与修改日历，帝国天文局(钦天监) 成为传教士留华的重要机构，在天主教的传播和发展中发挥了重要作用。直到清朝初，皇家天文局才成为天主教徒最多的政府机构。传教士不仅负责日历的修订，而且通过积极的传教将官员和占星术学生转变为天主教徒。帝国天文局的传教士为全国各地的传教士提供保护，退休的官员回到他们的家中继续传播天主教。即使在禁制期间，传教士仍然留在帝国天文局工作。皇家天文局官教团的形成，可以说是明末清初天主教科学传教的具体体现。对亚当·冯·贝尔（1591-1666）和费迪南德·韦比斯特（1623-1688）的研究很多，但对帝国天文局的官方天主教徒的研究较少。本文试图通过对局教与天主教关系的探讨，来说明明末清初官教的基本情况，并分析通过局教和科学传教的历史影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Sino-Western Studies RELIGION-

CiteScore

0.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

10 weeks

期刊介绍： International Journal of Sino-Western Studies （IJS） is a Chinese-English bilingual academic journal, which is published twice a year in June and December in Finland by Nordic Forum of Sino-Western Studies. It is published simultaneously in printed and electronic online versions. The Nordic Forum of Sino-Western Studies is a university-related research platform based in Helsinki. We aim at encouraging Sino-Western dialogue, research, and enhancement of scholarly activities, e.g, conferences, student & scholar exchange, academic essay prize, and publication. As part of its publication programs, the Forum publishes a new Chinese-English bilingual journal to promote Sino-Western Studies internationally. The articles published in this journal do not necessarily represent the view or position of the journal or of the editorial board. This journal is fully open access, but once any part of this journal is reprinted, reproduced, or utilized in any form or by any means, presently known or hereafter invented, our journal''s name should be mentioned, including quotations in academic works or book reviews. We neither charge APCs nor authors to publish articles in our journal, and the only license term for quoting or dowloading our articles is to mention our journal''s name as the source of origin. Users can use, reuse and build upon the material published in our journal but only for non-commercial purposes.