Explanations And Studies Of The Qing Dynasty's Scholars On The Western Astronomy

Yi Mei (literally A Companion to Mei's Treatises) , also entitled Shuxue (Mathematics), written by Jiang Yong (1681-1762) in 1741, is a Chinese treatise on mathematical astronomy in the 18th century that studies and comments on Mei Wending's treatises on western astronomy and calendar. In the masterpiece Jiang explained, reviewed and revised the main part of Mei's study. Some of his points of views supported Men's idea, while some of them developed on the basis of Mei's idea. There are, of course, some points of views against Mei's. Jiang developed his astronomical system mainly based on the old western theories and reasoning methods which were introduced into China in the Jusuit missionaries'translations. It fully reflects his admination to the western astronomy.This thesis consists of seven parts. The content of each part is as follows: Part one is designed to introduce the background of this study, to summarize the research literetures, to explain the main thought of our study, to describ Jiang's biography, and to present the general idea of the treatise Yi Mei.Part two discusses the main concepts and theory about the cosmism and planet movements in Yi Mei, and compares the Mei Wending's understanding to them with that of Jiang Yong.Part three introduces the studies of Mei Wending and Jiang Yong on the law of the change in the length of a tropical year, compares the differences of their opinions on it, and then analyzes the comments and criticises of Mei Juecheng (the grandson of Mei Wending and official astronomer) , Qian...