Why did Emperor Kangxi love science but not advocate it? What is the reason behind this?
Above _ Emperor Kangxi, Aisingiorro Michelle Ye (1May 4, 654-1February 20, 722)
In many people's eyes, the Qing Dynasty is synonymous with backwardness and closure. The emperor of the Qing court regarded science and technology as "strange skills and cunning", but in fact the emperor of the Qing Dynasty was not completely closed. On the contrary, Emperor Kangxi systematically studied western science and technology and made extraordinary achievements.
In A.D. 1664, the famous "calendar" broke out in the Qing court. At that time, the Qing court had begun to adopt the western calendar brought by missionaries such as Tang Ruowang in the late Ming Dynasty, but this calendar was impeached by health official Yang Guangxian. At that time, it was the fifth year of Kangxi, and it was still in the stage of Ao Bai and other parliamentary ministers. Therefore, Ao Bai took the opportunity to turn the calendar bill into a political purge. Tang Ruowang and others were first sentenced to beheading, but later they were spared the death penalty because of the comet arrival (really lucky)
Above _ Tang Ruowang (1592—1666) was born in Cologne, the Holy Roman Empire.
This incident had a great psychological impact on the young Emperor Kangxi. After he took office, an important measure was to rehabilitate Tang Ruowang and others, because Yang Guangxian became Qin's army supervisor after bringing down Tang Ruowang. However, all kinds of astronomical phenomena predicted by him are completely nonsense, and there are often irrelevant mistakes, which makes Emperor Kangxi fully realize the magic of western calendars and astronomy. He has consulted the missionary Ferdinand ferdinand verbiest for many times on this issue, and also had a confrontation between the eastern and western calendars.
Above _ Yang Guangxian (1597- 1669), Qing Zheng.
Emperor Kangxi asked Ferdinand ferdinand verbiest and Yang Guangxian to measure the shadow of the sun in public. Ferdinand ferdinand verbiest's measurement is completely correct, while Yang Guangxian's school is full of loopholes. Since then, the western calendar of the Qing court has been successfully promoted, and Emperor Kangxi has been widely exposed to western science and made great achievements in astronomy.
For example, Kangxi once watched the stars with Li Guangdi, a college student. Kangxi asked Li Guangdi a profound question: "Do you know the geometry of stars?" Li Guangdi said honestly: "The 28-year-old constellation minister can't know everything yet." Emperor Kangxi casually pointed and asked his ministers, what star is this? It is estimated that ministers are at a loss at this time. Your majesty casually pointed to anyone who might know. As a result, Kangxi said unhurriedly, "This is the old star."
Don't think Kangxi is talking nonsense. Kangxi once pointed out the mistakes of Liao history on the issue of old disabled children, because Liao history said that Liao countries could see old disabled children, but the north could not. Because of studying western science, Kangxi became the first group of people who insisted on the truth that the earth was round in the history of China.
Above _ Ancient Theory of Heaven, Circle and Place
Kangxi completely abandoned the idea that the sky was round and opposed adding all kinds of false descriptions to the sky, such as what purple stars were refuted by him. It can be said that the scientific spirit of Emperor Kangxi is still very rigorous. Emperor Kangxi gradually realized the importance of mathematics in the process of studying astronomy, so he became the first person in China to truly and systematically study Euclidean geometry. At that time, his teachers were Mr. Bai Jin and Mr. Zhang Cheng. The two missionaries used elementary geometry as a teaching material. Later, Kangxi's attainments deepened, he was able to master ruler drawing skillfully, and there were also some methods to prove geometry. So missionaries began to teach him practical and theoretical geometry.
After hard study, Emperor Kangxi's mathematical level advanced by leaps and bounds. He mastered pi and the method of calculating sluice discharge, even including the volume calculation of grain piles and the complicated movement calculation of astronomy, so it is impossible to falsify various financial figures, and Kangxi's abacus calculation level is also a must. His abacus calculation method was much faster than that of western computing instruments, which made the missionaries stunned at that time.
Above _ Qing officials used advanced antiquity to explore astronomy.
For Emperor Kangxi, science as a "ruling means" is actually the most crucial point. Kangxi once said the reason why he studied western learning hard: "You only know the essence of arithmetic, but you don't know why I want to learn calculation." If you don't know, how can you tell right from wrong? Learn to be self-motivated! "
The most important thing for Kangxi is to learn to judge people's right and wrong scientifically. At the beginning of the Qing court's rule, the field of culture, science and technology was far less than that of the original Han nationality, so Han officials had to be reused. However, the Qing court knew that violence alone could not convince people, and it was necessary to come up with real evidence and break down the barriers of the original Han calendar and other systems. Otherwise, in the eyes of others, you are a barbarian and don't understand the "law of ancestors" at all.
Kangxi has a clear position in western science and is a cultural tool. Therefore, while studying various mathematical calculations, Kangxi publicized the so-called "Western learning spreading to the east", and did not regard western culture as a development direction at all, but as a means of domination. When Kangxi heard that the Pope had asked China parishioners not to visit Confucius, he immediately expressed his anger and thought it was a serious cult act. As the saying goes, "Westerners don't have to teach in China in the future, but it's ok to ban it, so as not to cause too much trouble."
Above _ "Heliocentrism" (left) and "Geocentric Theory" (right)
Kangxi's attitude towards western culture is very pragmatic. He doesn't learn anything he thinks is actually unnecessary, such as Ptolemy astronomy, Copernicus Heliocentrism and so on. He's not interested. He sneered at pure theoretical research, and his interests did not include metallurgical machinery. On the one hand, missionaries didn't know much about these things, on the other hand, Kangxi thought that China did better in these aspects than the West. Kangxi's study is completely practical, so his theoretical level is not high. In today's words, Kangxi is an excellent graduate, but he is definitely not a potential scientist.
Many things about western science were beyond Kangxi's comprehension, such as western algebraic symbols. He thought it could be replaced by heavenly stems and earthly branches in China, but he didn't consider how much trouble it would be. There is also the human anatomy of western medicine, which he thinks is really indecent, so he only dares to study it secretly and dare not hang it out.
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Therefore, although Kangxi knew the benefits of western science and technology, due to the limitations of the times, he always had three shackles-
Too pragmatic, ignoring theoretical research;
Bound by ethics, unable to accept ideas;
Arrogant and suspicious, seeing the west as barbarians.
Especially as an emperor, he always felt that for future generations, these things were only his personal hobbies, not the necessary talents for governing the country.
It can be said that many of us still have Kangxi's idea of "imprisoning" science. It also reflects the important reason why China's ancient science did not develop a theory: "Studying what you can't eat will always be considered a madman."
References:
1 Kangxi and natural science in Zhao Li
Qin Yu. On the mistakes of kangxi's science and technology policy. Read Mr. Xi's article "On the Mistakes of Kangxi's Scientific Policy".
3. Du Shiran's History of Science and Technology in China (Volume II)
4. Fang Hao's Biography of Catholic Historical Figures in China.
5 Xu "Pioneer of Cultural Exchange between China and the West"
The text was created by the team of History University Hall, and the pictures originated from the Internet and belonged to the original author.