Was Ming Dynasty China Almost Converted To Christianity? | Empire Of Time | Absolute History

China, 1601. Matteo Ricci, a young Jesuit, was the first European to be invited to the imperial court. His aim? To convert the Chinese through science and mathematics. Ricci realized that the Chinese were quite interested in everything to do with the mathematical sciences, and especially astronomy. After his death, another Jesuit, Charles von Bell, would continue Ricci's work. He began drafting a new calendar based on methods used in the Western world. But the civil war and the tragic end of Emperor Chongzhen would throw China into a period of chaos and jeopardize the Jesuits' mission. Who then would claim the mandate of heaven and the right to rule the empire of time? The third day, the inhabitants gathered in masses. They besieged the residence, and we could think they were going to attack. Get out of the way! I couldn't guess how far their anger would take them. So I took a Japanese sword and I rushed to the entrance of the residence, ready to suffer and repel an attack. This is a book written by a Jesuit, Charles von Bell, and it's a introduction to European astronomy. With this book, we can calculate laws and calculate important astronomical phenomena This book will help us to find the way to the top of China. We are the people of the area. It is God who created the world and is responsible for the earth. Are you a member of the Catholic Church? No, I am not, but I am responsible for the earth. I will send a guard to escort you back to your home. This way, they won't be harmed. Although the Manchu Empire was a strong military power, it defeated the Ming Dynasty. But culturally, it was a relatively backward nation. And to rule a country as big as China, it needed to inherit some things. For example, the morality and destiny that the Chinese believe in. But the truth is, the Chinese believe in more than 300 things. So every time they change dynasties, or change emperors, they want to create a new law. Your subject is subject to your greatness. Predictions of a solar eclipse will take place on the first day of the eighth month. Calculated according to the new Western method. Greetings, Your Highness. Rise. Thank you, Your Highness. Your Highness, this is a letter from the Westerners. The data used for this prediction are in this letter. Your subject humbly asks for your greatness to publish a decree so that the Ministry of Rites can publicly examine the accuracy of this prediction of the solar eclipse. Let the Westerners participate in this event. Rise. Thank you, Your Highness. Tang Ruowang also calculated a decree according to the Western method and presented it to them. In fact, at this time, Dorgon may have heard that in the process of reforming Ming and Mo, it has been proven that the method of solar eclipse is not working. So at this time, he is already inclined to use the Western method. In order to consolidate such a victory, Tang Ruowang still decided to use the solar eclipse in 1644. The solar eclipse in 1644 was prepared in advance. He also submitted his own prediction to the emperor. In the process of this solar eclipse, as agreed in advance, the officials of the Ministry of Rites took the lead. Wu Zhu, Chu Kui, Zheng Nan. It's a partial eclipse. 30% of the sun is in the shade. The maximum time is 8 minutes past 12 o'clock. Tang Ruowang won. Then everyone took out their own results to verify. The results of the verification were poor. The solar eclipse and the return were poor. The maximum error of the Western method was about 9 minutes. The solar eclipse was about 21 minutes to 30 minutes. Of course, the results of this observation showed that the Western method's prediction was the most accurate. The solar eclipse and the return were very poor. So this further laid the foundation for Tang Ruowang's victory in China. Legislation is always the most important. Every household must have legislation. So as long as there are conditions, the family must buy a solar eclipse. Some families, like us, all belong to legislation. Boss, this is the solar eclipse. This solar eclipse sold very well. Especially in the past, it sold very well. The people wrote about it. Really? Yes. It was a very good day, right? Look at this. It says clearly what is allowed and what is not allowed. There is also a decree. Yes, yes. Today, when you do something, such as opening a market, getting married, seeking a teacher, it means that you are going to have a child. Yes. Seeking a son. Yes. Generally speaking, we old people are willing to go to the funeral. Today is the funeral. When you become an official, it is best to go to the funeral. Yes, yes. These are all the details about why there should be more water at the gate of the palace. The small one is 15 yuan. The big one is 84 yuan. Okay. Come again next year. Okay, thank you. Goodbye. After the Manchus took Beijing in 1644, Adam Schall presented his calendar to them and they accepted him and gave him charge of being the head of the Astronomical Bureau. And this is really a new era for the Jesuit mission because now a Jesuit is within the Chinese civil service. We should say that being the head of the Astronomical Bureau was not a very high rank, nothing to compare with the Grand Secretaries or President of various ministries. However, this gave Schall direct access to his colleagues and so it was quite a significant position of power. To obey the Emperor's special order, I introduced the system of the Western calendar. I directed the subordinates of my bureau in their efforts to improve the civil astronomical system. Four people, the scholar Song Qingsheng of Shuntian, Li Subai, a student at Imperial College, and two other Confucian scholars. All of them are excellent in science and literature and passionate about astronomy. So in the end, he carried out a big illusion. It was like this, he eliminated a lot of the old officials And as many people as possible, those who were in the Bureau, those who had a close relationship with them, even those who had already joined the Church, were placed in the Astronomical Bureau. This made the Astronomical Bureau a very important treasure in China, in Beijing. At some stage, an examination was set for astronomers and the idea was only those who understood and could apply his method would be kept inside the Bureau. So that after the examination, he effectively introduced a number of Christians within the Chinese institution. That was one of the sources of conflict. The Han Chinese had already had the humiliation of being conquered by the Manchus and we must realize these were to them radically foreign people, outsiders who spoke a language quite unrelated to Chinese. Now they find the Manchu emperor giving a job over them to another foreigner who actually has the cheek to write on his manual of methods, 西洋心法, the new methods from the West. So a governing group of foreigners is imposing yet another foreigner on them. They were not happy about that. He was quite convinced that he had the right method and he was quite keen on defeating anyone who could be an enemy of his method. where in 1633, Galileo was made to endure all that he had done to convince people that the earth moved round the sun. And in a small room near here, where this happened, the part of the story of Western science could have ended under threat of torture by the Holy Office. But in fact the momentum for heliocentrism was already very strong. So in 1633, Galileo was forced to abjure his idea. In a sense for the China Jesuits it did not make that much of a difference because they had never used the heliocentric model to using the model of Tycho Brahe for whom the earth is still immobile at the centre of the universe and the sun goes round the earth but then the five planets revolve round the sun. So they were able to use a model that was both compatible with the dogmas of the church and were also good for calculation and prediction of the movements of planets. to the Manchus than to the Chinese because smallpox was endemic in China but it was unknown to the Manchus until they invaded China. I think about a decade a Chinese scholar who did not have a position in the civil service called Yang Guangxian had written various pamphlets attacking the Jesuits. He then went to Shunzhi and Yang Guangxian wrote a few pamphlets He then collected all the pamphlets and the book that he collected was called The Unconditional. The content of the pamphlets could be divided into three parts. The first part was about their religion. It was different from Confucianism. They changed the name of the pamphlet they published to The Unconditional. He said that this pamphlet was a sign of China and that it was a gift to the Westerners. This was the first part of the pamphlet. The emperor of China, Mr. Sheng, is the descendant of the people of Judea. The meaning of the pamphlet is very different. For Yang Guangxian, he thought that the law was important and that it should be the responsibility of the Chinese. It should not be the responsibility of the Chinese. In 1664, Charles was impeached and he was put in jail. All the Jesuits who were with him in China were also arrested. In the pamphlet, there are 24 articles about the activities of the Jesuits in China in the 17th century. The 24 articles were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Tarawa case was a big case in China in the 17th century. Tarawa was in prison for more than a year. From August of the 3rd year of the Kangxi dynasty to the end of the 4th year of the Kangxi dynasty, he wrote a secret script. The rebels like Tarawa conspired to rebel and spread the false theory of astronomy. Yang Guangxian accused you of conspiring to rebel. Shut up! Tarawa was already in poor health, so the people of Nanhuai helped him. If he needed help, he would ask for it. We don't need help. May I ask where are our soldiers? Where are our soldiers? Our soldiers are in the Our soldiers are in Who is our He was acquitted but his position was Yes, yes. But there are more than 30 people involved in this case. There are more than 40 officials, not to mention their families. Emperor Shunzhi and Empress Xiaoxian's previous and subsequent deaths are all because of your negligence and the wrong judgment of the previous emperor. It's unforgivable! Come on! Take him away! He's sick. He needs water. Water! Father! Why did you abandon me? Where are you? Shut up! I'm here. I'm in the city of Yan. You're here. I, Meng Lu, hereby order to put the prison of Emperor Shunzhi and Empress Xiaoxian in the city of Yan. At first, he was sentenced to death for his negligence. But because of the abnormal phenomenon, he was pardoned. Most of the missionaries in the country were sent to Macao. They were sent to Macao to prepare for the execution. Five legislators, including Li Zubai, were beheaded. In the end, Emperor Shunzhi was pardoned in July of the fourth year of Kangxi. But in July of the fifth year of Kangxi, Emperor Shunzhi died of illness. In the end, Yang Guangqian was in charge of the court and organized the execution. Then the new law was passed. Three months ago, an opinion was placed at the entrance of our residence by the Ministry of Rites, saying that it was forbidden and punishable by a heavy penalty if any civil or civil servant tried to enter our residence. Kangxi had to find ways of gaining power. And he decided to try his hand with astronomy, which we have to realize was significant, but they were much more urgent affairs of the state. So this was something in which it was relatively easy for him to have a say on. He decides to use the Jesuits to check on the calendar that is going to be edited for the following year. So they went to the man who had been his, basically his trainee and who was now the main expert in astronomy, Ferdinand Verbiest, who was a Flemish Jesuit. On the 27th day of the 11th month of the 7th year of Kangxi's reign, we had the unexpected visit of four officials sent by His Majesty. His Majesty wanted to know if the calendars were correct. My answer was that they were full of errors and that I had solid arguments to prove it. And I pointed out the errors that these calendars contained. At this stage, the young emperor, well, he doesn't really have the elements to judge, and so he asks Kangxi, how can I check myself, which of you is right, which of you is wrong? And at this stage, Verbiest decides that, well, probably a prediction of the length of the shadow of a gnomon at a given time would be quite a good test because the calculations are technical, but the person who is going to watch the umbra does not need to be an expert. Mr. Cao is going to show us how it was done at that time. Through the shadow. Yes, through the shadow. This is the shadow, right? Yes, this is the shadow. the shadow of the gnomon is transformed into a thin line. The thinner the line, the more accurate the data is. Yes, the more accurate. Yes, now let's take a look. You can imagine that it is very simple to calculate You just need to calculate the sum of these numbers and you can calculate the shadow length. But when you actually observe it, you need to use some small instruments such as a mirror to accurately measure the shadow length. So I think that using the shadow length to verify the law is not a typical way in the past. Now we can see that there is a shadow here, right? Yes. In fact, the gnomon is the most important instrument used in ancient China to measure the return year length. I use this method to make a mark Make a mark. Then when I move and look to the south, I use this method to measure the shadow length. This is equivalent to the centerline of the measurement. Yes, the centerline of the measurement. It is its origin. Yes, yes, yes. 40 meters. This means that its height is five times larger. The accuracy of the data that appears is the accuracy of the data that appears in the data. Yes, yes. Today, the sun is setting. It is 12 o'clock. The time is 12.29.58. Nowadays, if I have two long numbers to multiply or divide, I just take my mobile phone, open the calculator, enter the numbers, press the equals button, and I get the results straight away. When I was a kid, there were no electronic calculators. I had a choice. Either I did a long multiplication, perhaps followed by a long division, which took ages and was quite difficult, or else I used logarithms. The wonderful thing about logarithms is this. I've got two long numbers to multiply. All I do is I look up the logarithm of each number, which is another number, in my logarithm tables, I add the two logarithms together, and hey presto, that's the multiplication done quickly and much less chance of error. And the Jesuits were able to use logarithms in the lengthy and complex calculations they had to do when they were using their tables to predict eclipses, which was a great help to them. The competition is around the corner. You'd better get ready and be on your toes. This is the Emperor's invitation. If you don't do it well, you'll be beheaded. Hurry up. At noon, I believe it's like this. You have a calendar and you measure the eclipses. The people of Nanhuai say where the eclipses should be. The people of Yangguang say where the eclipses should be. The people of Nanhuai are more accurate. Of course, the people of Yangguang lose. It's ridiculous. If the people of Nanhuai and the people of Yangguang use logarithms, it's impossible to predict the eclipses. So, why did the people of Nanhuai in the matter of the Kangxi domain? Of course, their method may be more accurate. But more importantly, it may be that the people of Kangxi stand on their side because the people of Kangxi need their victory. The emperor decided that never again did he want to see such a disgrace that people at his court were completely incompetent in such an important subject. Yes. The astronomical instrument that Gu Guanxiang established was made by the people of Nanhuai in 1673 and 1674. It is very symbolic. It symbolizes at least two aspects. One is symbolic. You can see it on the astronomical instrument. On the one hand, it is a western instrument. But in terms of decoration, dragon, phoenix, all kinds of things. It symbolizes the power of the imperial dynasty. So it is a combination of western astronomy, advanced astronomy and the power of the emperor It symbolizes two aspects. From these two aspects, we can see the great advantage of Kangxi. The famous teacher brought western science to China. In fact, it was a cross between Chinese and western science. In 1773, the Pope dissolved the Society of Jesus. There remained a few priests in Beijing. At that time, there were about probably 200,000 Christians. So this really was the closure of an era of unprecedented and really quite unique exchange of scientific knowledge between civilizations. Unique because they took place on equal terms. In general, the pulse you see is a signal pulse. But if you change the sound, in terms of image, it's like our heart. There is a regular beep, beep, beep. The change of time is very stable. This stability is more stable than that of all the atoms we know today. It is equivalent to setting a perfect stage The next step is for scientists to apply their ideas and observations to demonstrate their own talents.