PROCESS OF RECEIVING WESTERN ASTRONOMY IN CHINA FROM THE XVII CENTURY TO THE XVIII CENTURY

Abstract

From the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century, in an effort to introduce and develop Christianity in China, Western missionaries, especially the Jesuit missionaries found an effective way to realize this purpose. (It was European scientific and technological achievements that could satisfy the curiosities and desires of the King, mandrins and clerisy. They were curious about a bunch of new things out there and those could attract more and more social forces’ attention.).That was to use European scientific and technological achievements in order to satisfy the curiosity as well as desire to learn new knowledge of kings, mandarins and intellectuals in China, thereby they hoped to successfully attract the said social forces to follow the way, which created a unique phenomenon: Christianity gradually entered the heart of nation of China along with the process of receiving Western scientific and technological achievements in this country. In particular, astronomy is one of the most typical fields. On the basis of exploiting the original historical data source and study achievements of Chinese and international scholars as well as combining the application of the study method system of historical science with other methods, the article thoroughly analyzes the process of receiving the Western astronomy in China from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century.Thereby, the paper has made specific contributions to the study of the history of East-West cultural exchange in China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.