Xu Guangqi: Science, Religion And Confucianism Singular Fusion

Xu Guangqi was a Catholic and a famous scientist in late Ming Dynasty in China. We can discover different elements, Confucianism, Western Science, Catholic Culture, etc. Those which could not be coexistent in many scholars eyes of that period had been tied firmly together to him and helped him form a special kind of thought in Chinese history of thoughts.I . The purpose of this paperHis achievements have been acknowledged all over China, but his contributions in thoughts hasn't been fully discussed yet. This paper is to show the merge of those elements and then discover the deep meaning of this combination. I try to explain a series of problems below: Starting from the core values of Xu Guangqi, I want to find the reason of the combination; show the process of the combination and dig the meaning of the combination.II. The method of my studyingAnalysis of content: Show the state of thought and the process of Xu's thought of through documentation I can collect.Quotation: Find different ideas through quotations of different scholars. In this paper, I use this method to analyze different thoughts which had exerted influence on Xu Guangqi.Statistics: Make conclusion through counting and analyzing a lot of materials. In this paper, I use this method to discuss the possibility of Buddhism, Catholic supplementing Confucianism.III. ConclusionXu Guangqi combined Li Xue and Xin Xue, merged Shi Xue and Xin Xue, excluded Buddhism and Taoism, and finally formed a new type of Confucianism centering around studying practical knowledge and managing state affairs. In this article, I call this type of Confucianism Xu's Confucianism. Right under the guide of his own Confucianism, Xu Guangqi came into western science and Catholic, and with the influence of Confucianism, the combination of science and religion was an unavoidable choice for him. In Xu's opinion, science was tied firmly together with Catholic. Science helped promote material production, Catholic was the way to strength morale. Xu also thought that science itself was the best example of the rationality of Catholic and the efficient way to improve personality. Starting from studying practical knowledge and managing state affairs, Xu combined science and Catholic into his frame of Confucianism, and raised science to the height of Dao for the first time, which were great contributions to China's history of thoughts.Xu Guangqi is a phenomenal philosopher who fused science and religion among those who were the first Catholics in China. What made his stand out of his counterparts was the depth he had reached in studying Western knowledge. He thought that it was Confucians in Song Dynasty who insisted that Dao was the essence while Ji was the means. Actually, In traditional Confucianism, both Dao and Ji were very important. Supported by this idea, Xu Guangqi "re-place" science into Confucianism, through which he found the way to distribute science all over China. Similarly, in traditional Confucian frame, Xu set out from the skill of being kind to a religious life to cultivate oneself and serve God. Believing in God was not only the means for Xu Guangqi to guide people to be kind to each other, but also the target of his life. For Xu Guangqi, religion was the bridge connecting tools and purpose.To sum up, in Xu Guangqi's opinion, studying practical knowledge and managing state affairs was to serve the late Ming Dynasty, while science and religion were two wings for the purpose in terms of material and sprit. At last, in that period when western and eastern thoughts were conflicting severely, science, Confucianism and religion had been connected firmly together to one person: Xu Guangqi. The merge of the three elements gives us very practical guide nowadays. It is helpful to create a healthy and cultural environment to develop science and technology, to build new type of civilization of socialism and to harmonious development of Chinese and Western Culture. IV. Disadvantages of my thesisFirst of all, although I have been trying to adress the combination of different kinds of cultures in this paper, my understanding for Xu Guangqi is somehow superficial. Secondly, due to the losses of many raw materials about Xu Guangqi, I can only try my best to make this paper perfect. Thirdly, this paper refers to many fields, Confucianism, Catholic, science, history of Catholic distribution to Asia, etc. Any one of them is a real challenge for me. And last, although I have finished this paper, I will go on keeping an eye on the development in this field to broaden my horizon and improve my studying competence.