Imagined civilizations : China, the West, and their first encounter / Roger Hart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hart, Roger (Roger Preston)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ricci, Matteo, 1552-1610.

Ricci, Matteo.

Jesuits--Missions--China--History--17th century.

Jesuits.

Religion.

Missions.

History.

China--Religion--17th century.

China.

China--Social conditions--960-1644.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

vii, 374 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Accounts of the seventeenth-century Jesuit Mission to China have often celebrated it as the great encounter of two civilizations. The Jesuits portrayed themselves as wise men from the West who used mathematics and science in service of their mission. Chinese literati-official Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), who collaborated with the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) to translate Euclid's Elements into Chinese, reportedly recognized the superiority of Western mathematics and science and converted to Christianity. Most narratives relegate Xu and the Chinese to subsidiary roles as the Jesuits' translators, followers, and converts. Imagined Civilizations tells the story from the Chinese point of view. Using Chinese primary sources, Roger Hart focuses in particular on Xu, who was in a position of considerable power over Ricci. The result is a perspective startlingly different from that found in previous studies. Hart analyzes Chinese mathematical treatises of the period, revealing that Xu and his collaborators could not have believed their declaration of the superiority of Western mathematics. Imagined Civilizations explains how Xu's West served as a crucial resource. While the Jesuits claimed Xu as a convert, he presented the Jesuits as men from afar who had traveled from the West to China to serve the emperor. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Science as the measure of civilizations

From Copula to incommensurable worlds

Mathematical texts in historical context

Tracing practices purloined by the three pillars

Xu Guangqi, Grand Guardian

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

Appendix A: Zhu Zaiyu's New theory of calculation

Appendix B: Xu Guangqi's Right triangles, meanings

Appendix C: Xu Guangqi's writings

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-366) and index.

ISBN:

9781421406060

1421406063

OCLC:

856582995