On Diwei Of Xiong Renlin

Matteo Ricci and other Western missionaries came to China in the late Ming dynasty. They not only brought to China the Catholic, but also many comparatively more advanced Western world geography knowledge. These knowledge attracted a group of Chinese scholars. They learned the knowledge with interest, and wrote many books that had something to do with it. Diwei, compiled by Xiong Renlin, is the representative one in these books.Diwei is a book on world geography, which was written by Xiong Renlin in 1624. In the book, Xiong Renlin not only gave a detailed introduction to the continent of Asia, Europe. Africa, America and Australia and the location the customs Of the many a countries of the continents, but also and gave an introduction to the oceans of on the world and the Chinese overseas routes at that time. In addition, there is a map of the world in the book, which is not the same with the maps from Diego de Pantoja and Matteo Ricci.The thesis is a research mainly on the author's life, on the background the resources the publication the spread of Diwei, and on the influence of Diwei. Besides, the thesis is a research on some things which are written in Diwei. All the above mentioned study is discussed in four part of the thesis.The first part is about the background of Diwei. In this section, at first, the author introduces the process of the knowledge of Chinese people on the history and geography of Asia, Africa and Europe; and then the author introduces the imput and influence of the world geography knowledge which are brought to China by Matteo Ricci, Diego de Pantoja and other western missionaries. At the end of the section, the author analyzes how the Chinese scholars react to the geography knowledge and why they liked or dislikes it.The second part of the thesis is on Diwei and it's author Xiong Renlin . In this section, the author studies the life of Diwei's author and the life of Xiong Renlin's friends whom were metioned in his works; the thesis also studies the publication and republication and the spread and influence of Diwei.The third part of the thesis is on the content resources of Diwei. In this section, the author compares and analyzes the relationship between Diwei, Zhifangwaiji and another geographical works which mainly were written in Ming Dynasty.The four part of the thesis is the research on some geographical names and things that mentioned in Diwei, such as Xierde, Jinba, linuo and dabushou.