| Paul, Xu Guangqi 徐光啟 |
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Portrait of Xu Guangqi. |
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| Born | April 24, 1562 Shanghai County, Ming Dynasty China[1] |
| Died | November 8, 1633 (aged 71)[2] |
| Resting place | Shanghai, People's Republic of China |
| Nationality | Ming Dynasty Chinese |
| Other names | Paulo Xu (Baptismal Name)[3] |
| Education | Jinshi Degree (1604)[3] |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Spouse | Wu[4] |
| Children | Xu Ji (徐驥)[4] |
| Parents | Xu Sicheng (徐思誠) (Father)[5] |
| Relatives |
Candida Xu (Granddaughter)[6] (Xu Zhun)[7] (Xu Maheux)[8] |
| Xu Guangqi | |||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 徐光啟 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 徐光启 | ||||||||
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| Courtesy name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 子先 | ||||||||
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Xu Guangqi (simplified Chinese: 徐光启; traditional Chinese: 徐光啟; pinyin: Xú Guāngqǐ; Wade–Giles: Hsu Kuang-ch'i, 1562–1633), was a Chinese scholar-bureaucrat, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician in the Ming Dynasty. Xu was a colleague and collaborator of the Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Sabatino de Ursis and they translated several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of Euclid's Elements. He was also the author of the Nong Zheng Quan Shu, one of the first comprehensive treatises on the subject of agriculture. He was one of the "Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism".
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Xu Guangqi was born into a relatively poor family in Shanghai on April 24, 1562.[9] His father, Xu Sicheng, was in difficult financial situation when Guangqi was a child, and had to support the family with a small vegetable farm, but apparently still earned enough to be able to send his son to school at the age of six.[10] Xu received the equivalent of his bachelor's degree at nineteen, but did not receive higher degrees until his thirties. Afterwards, he spent the majority of his time in positions of high office serving the Ming court.[11] He held positions equivalent to Prime Minister and Education/Foreign Affair Minister (礼部尚书兼殿阁大学士). He lived in a period when Chinese mathematics had gone into decline. The earlier efforts at algebra had been almost forgotten. Xu blamed some of the failures on a decline in interest of practical science in China and became something of a critic of Chinese society.
He was a colleague and collaborator of Matteo Ricci, the Italian Jesuit. Together they translated several classic Western texts (most notably part of Euclid's Elements) into Chinese, as well as several Chinese Confucian texts into Latin.[12] Ricci's influence led to Xu being baptized as a Roman Catholic in 1603, under the name "Paul Xu Guangqi".[12] His descendants remained as Catholics and Christians into the 21st century.
From 1607 until 1610, Xu was forced to retire from public office, and returned to his home in Shanghai. It was during this time that he experimented with Western-style irrigation methods.[11] He also experimented with the cultivation of sweet potatoes, cotton, and the nu zhen tree.[11] He was called once more to serve the Chinese bureaucracy, where he rose to a high rank and became known late in his career simply as "The Minister".[12] Yet he continued to experiment and learn of new agricultural practices while he served his office, promoting the use of wet-rice in the Northeast of China.[11] From 1613 until 1620 he often visited Tianjin, where he helped organize self-sufficient military settlements (tun tian).[11]
Xu Guangqi's tomb still exists in Shanghai in Guangqi Park just a short walk from the Xujiahui Cathedral in the Xujiahui area on Nandan Road (南丹路).
Xu Guangxi was especially worried about the ability of his country to defend itself, especially in the face of the threat of invasion from the Manchus. He wrote a book on military techniques and strategies entitled Cook Xu's Words in response to the criticisms he faced for daring discuss military matters in spite of being a mere scolar.[13]
Xu Guangqi put forward the concept of a "Rich country and strong army" (富国強兵), which would be adopted by Japan for its modernization in the end of the 19th century, under the name Fukoku Kyohei.
In 1607, Xu and Ricci translated the first parts of Euclid's Elements into Chinese, introducing his countrymen to new concepts in mathematics and Western logic. Chinese scholars credit Xu as having "started China's enlightenment".[12]
After followers of Xu and Ricci publicly predicted a solar eclipse in 1629, Xu was appointed by the Emperor as the leader of an effort to reform the Chinese calendar. The reform, which constituted the first major collaboration between scientists from Europe and from the Far East, was completed after his death.[12]
Xu Guangqi wrote the Nong Zheng Quan Shu, an outstanding agricultural treatise that followed in the tradition of those such as Wang Zhen (wrote the Wang Zhen Nong Shu of 1313 AD) and Jia Sixia (wrote the Chi Min Yao Shu of 535 AD).[14] Like Wang Zhen, Xu lived in troubled times, and was devoted as a patriot to aiding the rural farmers of China.[11] His main interests were in irrigation, fertilizers, famine relief, economic crops, and empirical observation with early notions of chemistry.[11] It was an enormous written work, some 700,000 written Chinese characters, making it 7 times as large as the work of both Jia Sixia and Wang Zhen.[15] Although its final draft was unfinished by Xu Guangqi by the time of his death in 1633, the famous Jiangnan scholar Chen Zilung assembled a group of scholars to edit the draft, publishing it in 1639.[15]
The topics covered by his book are as follows:[15]
Xu Guangqi's granddaughter, Candida Xu (Chinese: 徐甘第大, Xu Gandida) (1607-1680), a devout Christian, was recognized as an important patron of Christianity in Jiangnan during the early Qing era. The Jesuit Philippe Couplet, who worked closely with her, authored her biography, which was originally written in Latin, and published in a French translations as Histoire d'une dame chrétienne de la Chine, Candide Hiu (1688).[16]