Sojourners in a strange land : Jesuits and their scientific missions in late imperial China / Florence C. Hsia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hsia, Florence C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jesuits--Missions--China--History.

Jesuits.

Science--China--History.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (291 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Though Jesuits assumed a variety of roles as missionaries in late imperial China, their most memorable guise was that of scientific expert, whose maps, clocks, astrolabes, and armillaries reportedly astonished the Chinese. But the icon of the missionary-scientist is itself a complex myth. Masterfully correcting the standard story of China Jesuits as simple conduits for Western science, Florence C. Hsia shows how these missionary-scientists remade themselves as they negotiated the place of the profane sciences in a religious enterprise. Sojourners in a Strange Land

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Conventions

Acknowledgments

1. Who Was That Masked Man?

2. Writing Missions

3. Telling Missionary Lives

4. Making Jesuit Science Travel

5. Reading Jesuit Voyages

6. Jesuit Academicians

7. Observational Fortunes

8. Familiar Letters and Familiar Faces

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613078384

9781283078382

1283078384

9780226355610

0226355616

OCLC:

713010300