Xu Guangqi

徐光啟                                              (1562-1633)                                                   Xu Guangqi徐光啟
1.	Xu Guangqi can be considered one of the main figures of political and intellectual leaders of the last decades of the Ming dynasty, and certaily the first great Chinese Catholic apologist. He was the right person that Matteo Ricci and the other Jesuits were praying to come across with in order to make Christianity an “incalturated religion in China” Xu Guangqi was born in Shanghai, March 21, 1562 and died in Beijing November 8, 1633. He received the “xiucai 秀才” degree in 1581, “juren舉人” with distinction in Beijing in 1597, Bachelor degree in the Hanlin Academy in 1604. He was appointed a corrector in the Hanlin Academy in 1607 and was promoted to the post of reviser in the Historiographical Board in 1612.  He was promoted further to Assistant Secretary of the Supervisoriate of Imperial Instruction in 1617. Xu was a gifted thinker and scholar in several fields.
2.	In 1596, Xu Guangqi had the first chance of meeting a Catholic missionary, the Italian Jesuit Lazzaro Cattaneo Guo Jujing, in Shaozhou 韶州. At that time Ricci had already left Shaozhou to continue his journey towards Peking. But later, in 1600, Xu Guangqi, on his way to Peking for the metropolitan examinations, met Ricci at Nanjing and was very impressed by the knowledge and holiness of the missionaries. From them, Xu Guangqi found out what Christianity really meant. At 34 he was already quite knowledgeable with Chinese religious spirit, especially its main pillar in Confucianism. However, Xu did not brush Western religion off like many scholars of the time did, nor did he just write a little essay about what he just heard and pushed it off to the corner of his desk. Instead, Xu put his mind into the ideas this new religion offered to him. His knowledge and esteem of Christianity grew so strong that when in 1603, he returned to Nanjing for the celebration of his father’s (Xu Sicheng徐思誠) seventieth birthday, he met again a Jesuit missionary, Fr de Rocha. Xu Guangqi was ready for baptism. On January 5th,1603, he was baptized in Nanjing by Fr Rocha and took the name of Paul. At that time, Ricci had left Nanjing and was already in Peking.
3.	Two years after being baptized, Xu Guangqi passed the imperial examinations and became a member of the imperial Hanlin court. Normally that was a rather high honor for a traditional Chinese scholar. After stepping over that threshold, one was guaranteed a position in the imperial court. But this Shanghaiese was more restless, as he became a patron of the residence of Limatou and the other missionaries in Beijing. A very strong bond of friendship, mutual respect and cooperation arose between Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi.Their frequent conversations in Peking evolved way beyond religion. They discussed astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, weaponry, economics, irrigation, and many other fields. Xu exhibited a zealous interest in mathematics. It was quite a scene: A man in the gowns and caps of the imperial court indulged himself into the tight logic of Western mathematics. He lived in a period when Chinese mathematics had gone into decline. The earlier efforts at algebra had been almost forgotten. Qu blamed some of the failures on a decline interest in practical science in China and became something of a critic of Chinese society. In contrast to many of his colleagues, who knew only Chinese classical literature, Xu was knowledgeable in the fields of astronomy, hydraulics, and geography.    Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (right) in Euclid's Elements of the Chinese edition   《幾何原本》From 1604 to1607, Xu (together with another famous scholar Li Zhizao) collaborated with Ricci on various subjects including the study and translation into Chinese of works on mathematics, hydraulics, astronomy, trigonometry and geography. Xu became the first known Chinese to translate European books into Chinese. Among the most influential was the translation and publication of the multi-volumed Principles of Euclidian Geometry into Chinese (published under the title Jihe yuanben, as dictated by Ricci) Xu and Ricci concluded their revisions and Xu published the work in the final form in 1611, after Ricci’s death. In the preface to “Jihe Yuanben”, Xu Guangqi wrote: “ Mr Ku Wai (another name for Matteo Ricci) propounds three main doctrines: first, self-perfection and service of God. Second, classification of different matters and their explanations. Third, research on natural phenomena and mathematics (as part of physics). Matteo Ricci excels in all these doctrines and understands them without any doubt, so that his explanations are accepted without any doubting.” During the same period (1606-1608), Xu (with the help of Ricci) wrote a work on trigonometry, entitled “Celiang fayi” and another work entitled “Celiang yitong”, which compares the Western method of angular measurement to the ancient Chinese work Jiuzhang. The work “Gou gu yi”, a treatise on right-angle triangles is also attributed to Xu. All four of these works were included in the collection “Haishan xian'guan congshu” compiled by Tan Ying. In 1612, together with Fr Ursis, Xu wrote the “Taixi shuifa” , a treatise on Western hydraulics to improve the method and instruments of irrigation. The following year, while resting in Tianjin, he cultivated the water fields to try out wheat planting and the new irrigation methods in the north. He also planted various species of  flowers , herbs and sugar cane etc. In 1613, Xu and the Jesuits constructed a number of astronomical instruments for improved calculations. Between 1625-1628, Xu also wrote the “Nongzheng Quanshu” (Complete Treatise on Agriculture), one of four greatest agricultural books in China. Together with Fr Ursis, Xu wrote the Taixi shuifa , a treatise on Western hydraulics, later included in Xu's Nongzheng quanshu.                                                   Nongzheng quanshu Xu always maintained an interest in agricultural technology and climate changes. During his recovery in Tianjin, Xu cultivated a model farm. Xu's third grandson Matteo Xu Erdou (1609-1643) presented to the Emperor his grandfather’s work on agriculture.    Xu also believed that adopting Western military armaments would save them from the Manchu, but this idea failed after the Manchu themselves learned to make European cannons.
4.	In 1607, Xu was appointed a high ranking official in the Hanlin Academy. Soon afterward though , Xu's father died in Shanghai. Xu resigned from his post and returned home to observe the traditional mourning period. Passing through Nanjing on the way to Shanghai, Xu invited Fr Lazzaro Cattaneo to Shanghai. Cattaneo did not arrive until the following year (1608). Xu’s house in Shanghai became the first Catechumenate in China. Xu became a very efficient and holy catechist. He helped more than 200 people to receive Baptism. Fr Cattaneo held many Church liturgies in Xu’s house, which can be called the first Catholic Church in Shanghai. It is impressive that Xu Guangqi would always dress in courtly attire whenever he served Mass, showing a deep respect for the seriousness of the liturgy and giving a deep impression to all participants. Xu’s father had already been baptized in Peking in 1606. Xu had expressly invited him to come to Peking to receive Baptism, taking the Christian name of Leon. His wife and children, one by one, were baptized. His family became a symbol of staunch Shanghaiese Catholicism. His descendants remained staunch Catholics into the nineteenth century. One of Xu’s grand-daughter, Candida (1607-1680) founded thirty churches, two congregations of women catechists and also orphanages. Her extensive work for the poor and in support of missionaries was well known in China. Her son Basil was also a very active Catholic intellectual. Her life, including extracts from her letters and conversations, is given fully by Philippus Couplet in his Histoire d'une dame Chretienne de la Chine (Paris,1688). Xu Guangqi was a very spiritual man. His prayer life was intense and his works of mercy outstanding. He wrote some deep spiritual treatises and poems. In 1622, during one of his frequent visits to Shanghai, Xu collaborated with Fr Francesco Sambiasi (Bi Fangji) in writing a treatise on the soul entitled Ling yan li shuo, printed in 1624. One of Xu’s granddaughter was Ni Guizhen(倪桂珍), mother of the three sisters of the Song family, who are very famous in modern Chinese history, to say the least. Madame Ni Guizhen took her family tradition seriously as she was a devoted Catholic and good mathematician. The great impact her daughters brought to modern Chinese history further indicates the greatness of the Shanghaiese culture started by Xu Guangqi. During the mourning period, Xu Guangqi twice travelled to Macao to visit the beatiful Churches in the Portuguese colony, especially St. Paul's Church, the place where Matteo Ricci had lived for a year. From 1608 to 1609, Xu built a church on the west side of his residence to hold increasingly large gatherings of the faithful. Xu was still in Shanghai mourning his father’s death when Ricci died in Peking in 1610.                           “Xujiahui” hilighted in the centre of Shanghai.
5.	Every resident in Shanghai knows the district called “Xujiahui” 徐家匯, which literally means "Xu family gathering place". Most of what is present day Xujiahui was once the ancestral home of Xu Guangqi and his family. Xu Guangqi and his decendants donated large plots of land to the Catholic Church, including the site of the St. Ignatius Cathedral, built in 1847 and reconstructed in 1906.                           Xujiahui Cathedral(St Ignatius’ Cathedral)   With land donated by Xu Guangqi's family, the Jesuits built an entire one square mile complex that covers most of present-day Xujiahui. In addition to the Cathedral, they also built orphanages, monasteries, schools, libraries and an observatory. Established by the Jesuits in 1850, the Xuhui College was the first educational institution in China to offer a fully western curriculum.
6.	Xu rose steadily through the imperial bureaucracy, taking temporary retirements to his farm in Tianjin on three occasions due to illness.    In 1629, Xu Guangqi used his knowledge of astronomy and mathematics to predict an eclipse accurately.  In the same year in July , the Department of Ceremonies decided to create a new department for the compilation of the calendar, under the direction of Xu. Some  Western missionaries such as Nicolaus Longobardi (Italian) , J. Terrenz (Swiss) , Johann Adam Schall von BELL (German), Jacobus Rho (Italian) took part in succession in correcting the imperial calendar. From 1629 to 1643 until the end of the Ming Dynasty, a total of 137 manuscripts related to the calendar were completed.  These manuscripts mainly introduced the astronomical theory of Tycho Brahe (a European astronomer) and also mathematical theories of geometry and trigonometry. Because of his knowledge of astronomy and his accurate prediction of an eclipse in 1629, Xu was given the task of correcting the imperial calendar using knowledge gained from the West. He became President of the Board of Ceremonies in 1630, and helped missionaries with the translation of texts, both religious and secular, until he died of illness in Beijing on Nov. 8, 1633. He is regarded, along with Li Zhizhao and Yang Tingyun, as one of the three pillars of the early Chinese Catholic church, and in 1983 Shanghai opened a park named Guangqi Garden in his honor. Up until his death Xu Guangqi was an example of a rare combination of the East and the West: the imperial court of China awarded him with many titles and presents to his family while his tombstone had Latin carved on it by Church groups. His tomb is located in Guangqi Park just a short walk from the Xujiahui Cathedral.                                               Guangqi Garden          Xu Guangqi’s statue and (at the back) the tomb in the form of a mound.
7.	Xu Guangqi is considered the greatest Chinese Catholic apologist. In 1616 Xu wrote an eloquent defense of the work of Catholic missionaries. The occasion was the accusations against foreign missionaries presented to the Emperor by a high ranking official in Nanjing, Shen Huai, in the 44th year of Emperor Wenli (1616). At that time, anger against the Pope’s condemnation of Chinese rites and the fear of the Manchu occupation of Korea and parts of Northern China, made all foreigners in China suspicious people. In the memorandum to the Emperor, Shen Huai, advised the Emperor repeatedly that Catholicism should be banned for the following reasons. 1)   Western missionaries were spies,   2)   Catholicism taught Chinese not to respect parents and worship ancestors,   3)   Western missionaries stole proprietary Chinese knowledge,   4)   Catholicism practiced weird customs like baptism and allowed male and female followers to study in the same room (forbidden by the conservative Chinese society).   Anti-Catholic officials seconded the motion, while Catholic officials like Xu Guangqi opposed it. Shen Huai arrested dozens of missionaries in Nanjing, on July 21 and August 14 and questioned them relentlessly. Urged by the Anti-Catholic movement, Emperor Wenli passed a law on December 28,1616, deporting all foreign missionaries back to their homeland. The prohibition of missionaries’ preaching , closure of Catholic churches, deportation of missionaries to Macau marked the beginning of the so called  “Nanjing persecution”. Xu presented a memorial to the Emperor, the Bianxue shugao in response to Shen Huai's charges. In it Xu declared that the missionaries were sheng xian zhi tu (disciples of the sages) and argued that Christianity was a positive influence on China, and not incompatible with loyalty to the emperor and the ideals of Confucianism. Missionaries and Chinese Catholics received sanctuary at Xu's estate, as well as with the families of Li Zhizao and Yang Tingyun.
8.	Xu Guangqi was a scientist, a scholar, a high ranking political figure and a very devout Catholic. He was just the kind of person that the Jesuit missionaries hoped to attract to Christianity during the Ming Dynasty.  The Jesuits consciously targeted the Chinese intelligentsia, reasoning that it would be impossible to reach the Emperor or the Chinese masses and make Christianity an integral part of Chinese culture, without the help of the Chinese intelligentsia. Xu is the perfect model of Ricci’s ideal that by accepting Christianity, nothing is destroyed of all traditional cultural values. Everything is perfected. In this regard, it is highly enlightening to consider the reaction of all the Chinese Catholic Scholars to the news of the discovery of the Xian stele. In 1625, the Jesuit priest Trigault was the first to see the stele. As soon as he made the announcement of the discovery, the scholars’ reaction was a sense of great spiritual comfort and of national pride: the teachings that Master Ricci transmitted to us were already known to the Chinese a thousand years earlier! Xu’s contribution to China, to the Chinese Church and to the whole world is admirable. Xu is truly our ancestor in faith.