Research On The Communication Between Chinese And Western Calendars During The Ming And Qing Dynastie

In ancient China,the calendar not only gave time to the people,helped agricultural production,but also had the special status of predicting the sky and symbolizing imperial power。Therefore,the rulers attached great importance the development and construction of astronomy。In the 18 th year of Yuan Zhizheng(1281),when Guo Shoujing’s Shoushi Calendar was issued,the development of the traditional Chinese calendar reached its peak。In the early Ming Dynasty,Liu ji slightly modified the shoushi Calendar。In the middle of the Ming Dynasty,the relative errors of the calendar became larger and larger,and the sound of revising the calendar was ready to be revealed。However,the traditional Chinese method of governing the calendar represented by zheng Shizi and reformist Leng Shouzhong and Xing Yunlu could not meet the need of revising the calendar at the end of the Ming Dynasty.In addition to the special political significance of the calendar,rulers of all ages strictly forgave the folk to learn astronomy privately,so those who knew the calendar at the end of the Ming Dynasty were as good as morning stars.Since Wanli,the errors of "Datong Calendar" have been increasing.How to change the calendar has become an inescapable problem.Jesuit missionaries working in the Far East brought the most advanced scientific and technological knowledge from Europe into China.For the late Ming calendar movement injected fresh blood.In terms of astronomy and calendar,Matteo Ricci used the Western calendar to accurately predict solar and lunar eclipses in Guangdong,Jiangxi and other places.Enlightened literati and officials represented by Xu Guangqi and Li Zhizao began to communicate with missionaries and learn Western learning.In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,cultural exchanges between China and the West took missionaries as media and changed the calendar as an opportunity to formally enter the historical stage.In this cultural exchange between China and the West,which spanned the Ming and Qing dynasties and lasted for nearly two centuries,there were the support of Xu Guangqi,Li Zhizao,Li Tianjing and other clergy,and the strong opposition of Wei Wenkui,Yang Guangxian and other traditional scholars.Before Yongzheng,most missionaries in China were able to follow Matteo Ricci’s "academic missionary" strategy and actively seek resonance between Catholic doctrine and Confucianism.Therefore,during the period from Chongzhen to Kangxi,the trend of learning from the West to the East still developed despite twists and turns.After Emperor Kangxi,who was passionate about Western science and technology,came to power,cultural exchanges between China and the West reached a climax.In the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty,the traditional Chinese calendar was defeated in several contests between Chinese and Western calendars.How to deal with such difficulties,the academic circles in the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty all advocated connecting Chinese and Western calendars in order to win,but the direction of connecting them was different.In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties,the academic circles roughly put forward three ways to connect China and the West.The first is Xu Guangqi,Li Zhizao and others put forward the "yong he side of the material,into the type of fan" of the general policy."The other side" refers to Western learning.In short,it is to explain the middle school with western learning,and integrate the knowledge in favor of the astronomical calendar into the traditional Chinese calendar.The greatest achievement of this kind of meeting direction is that Xu Guangqi and others spent five years compiling and completing Chongzhen Almanac,a more accurate calendar than the predecessors,thus laying the legislative foundation of the Qing Dynasty for more than 200 years.The second is the theory of "the source of Western Learning" represented by Huang Zongxi,Wang Xichan and Mei Wending.This theory was first put forward by Huang Zongxi,Wang Xichan and other Ming Dynasty legates.They believed that the Western science of astronomy and calendar was a legacy of the Zhou and Shang dynasties.After it was introduced to the West,the Middle Earth was lost while the West kept it.After Mei Wending’s argumentation and Emperor Kangxi’s support,the theory of "Western Learning comes from China" gradually became the mainstream trend of thought in the cultural exchange between China and the West in the Qing Dynasty.The last one is Yidu Xue Fengzuo put forward "the material of all parties,into my study of the type of fan" Chinese and Western general policy.Xue Fengzuo’s original intention was to absorb the lean points of five contemporary calendars,namely old Chinese Law,new Chinese Law,Hui Hui calendar,modern Western Law and New Western Law,to form a brand new calendar system.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the cultural exchanges between China and the West,with calendar exchanges and meetings as the main content,were confronted with many challenges and even difficulties while achieving brilliant achievements.What were the factors that caused such difficulties in the cultural exchanges between China and the West? The author makes a brief analysis from three aspects: the ruling class itself,the missionaries and the great difference between Chinese and Western culture.In the author’s opinion,it is true that there are objective difficulties in the communication between the two different cultures,which is the product of specific historical conditions.We should not criticize the ancients excessively from the perspective of the current era.In fact,under the historical conditions at that time,the academic circles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties could make such achievements.Through the review of the difficult process of the exchange and communication of Chinese and Western calendars in this period,we can get a lot of enlightenment from it.This paper analyzes the important enlightenment of the exchange and communication of Chinese and Western calendars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties from four aspects.