Research On Ferdinand Verbiest's Scientific Thoughts

In the period of the end of Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing dynasty, western learning spread into China which is an important Cultural Exchange in Chinese history. This exchange mainly lead by Jesuits from Europe. Although these Jesuits aim at mission work, they bring in many Modern scientific knowledge since European Renaissance. Among the missionaries, Ferdinand Verbiest had been living in China 30 years since the Kang Xi era. He bring in and spread knowledge about western astronomy, math, geography, physics, mechanics and cannons, and he also dedicated on Calendar Reform, making astronomical instrument. In fact, he pushed forward the Chinese science Modernization.In this paper, I made a research on the development of European science and religion before Ferdinand Verbiest came to China, and how he studied in Europe. He was well educated in Aristotle style in University of Leuven. He might have heard from some new thought and experienced some new theories against the traditional ones, especially about cosmology.However, he still held the traditional opinions about the cosmos, which was influenced by Christian church.Not long after he arrived at China, an event in the history of Chinese and western culture exchange happened, that is Kangxi Calendar Lawsuit. Went through all the twists and turns, the advanced technology of western astronomy beat the conservative scholar Guangxian Yang, who claimed "let us Chinese people have unsatisfied calendar rather than westerners staying in our country", and won the acceptance by the Kangxi Emperor. During Ferdinand Verbiest's tenure, he wrote books, spread western modern scientific knowledge,and did lots of experiments.In the analysis of his work in China, five perspectives of scientific thoughts came as follows. First, he pursued accuracy; Second, he had a spirit of anti-superstition; Third, paid attention to observation and experiments; forth, he had a scientific Attitude and approach toward research; fifth, he had a correct understanding to the relation between science theory and technology.In this paper, there will be an argument about the social and academic impact brought in by the Jesuits like Ferdinand Verbiest in that era. They help the development of Astronomy, geography, physics, as well as the practical science of Chinese academia. This trend was not Widely recognized, but a few open-minded scholars began to research western knowledge and comparison between China and western world.Then, there is another dispute, that is whether or not he brought out-dated science knowledge? And after research on the history perspective of his behavior, and also the position of the knowledge in both China and Europe, the conclusion of this paper is, compared to the European situation, he didn't bring in the most advanced knowledge. At last, this paper tried to response to the question "why the western scientific knowledge did not lead the Chinese science especially Chinese astronomy to the way of modernization?"...