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Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Completed | 1634 (seventh year of Chongzhen, Ming) |
| Directors | Xu Guangqi and Li Tianjing |
| Participants | Johann Schreck, Adam Schall, Giacomo Rho and other missionaries |
| Volumes | Over 130 |
| Contents | Western methods for the sun, moon, eclipses and the five planets |
Why it was compiled
Ming used the Datong calendar, descended from the Shoushi calendar, and in its later years its eclipse predictions repeatedly failed.
Xu Guangqi and others urged the introduction of Western methods, and a bureau was set up to compile the Chongzhen Lishu.
It was the largest introduction of foreign astronomy in the history of the Chinese calendar.
Contents and form
The work is arranged in sections: the basic theory and geometry of the Western methods first,
then the computation of the sun, moon, eclipses and five planets, with tables of all kinds.
Its computations rest on Tycho’s system, with geometry and trigonometry besides.
Never put into use
The compilation was finished, but conservative scholars fought it, and the Ming fell before it could be promulgated.
Adam Schall revised it in the early Qing as the Xiyang Xinfa Lishu, and its methods then served the Qing.
The continuity from one to the other lies exactly here.
Value
The Chongzhen Lishu is the synthetic work of the entry of Western methods at the end of the Ming.
For the transition of Chinese astronomy from the traditional to the modern it is the hinge.
The entry of Western methods at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing is a key passage in the exchange between Chinese and Western calendrics: from Matteo Ricci’s arrival, through the reform urged by Xu Guangqi and others, to Adam Schall’s recension, a whole body of Western astronomy passed by stages into the Chinese almanac. The claim that “Western learning has its source in China” was one Qing response to this.
Full text
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The title, date, summary and index structure compiled here are offered under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: Chujia Kuang · kuangchujia.com).
The full electronic text (about 724,695 characters) is taken from the Chinese Wikisource text of Chongzhen Lishu; that part is offered under CC BY-SA 4.0 (attribution — share alike); source: zh.wikisource.org.
The electronic text has not been collated by us; please check the original before citing.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.