Yang Guangxian

Yang Guangxian(Chinese:Dương quang trước) was aConfucianwriter and astronomer who was the head of theBureau of Astronomy(Khâm Thiên Giám) from 1665 to 1669.

Biography

Yang Guangxian was an assistant guard commander (Chinese:Phó thiên hộ;pinyin:fu qianhu) of theXinanwei(Tân An vệ) inSouthern Zhiliduring the lateMingperiod.In 1637, he went toBeijingand then tried to advance himself by charging other people with criminal acts, or blackmailing them. When he tried this againstGrand SecretaryWen Tiren(Ôn thể nhân), he was exiled toLiaoxi(Liêu Tây), where he stayed until the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644. In Liaoxi, he learnedastrologyandfortunetelling.

Upon his return to Beijing, his new skills in astrology made it possible for him to pose as anastronomer,which gave him entrance into the higher circles. But the highest positions for astronomers were all taken byJesuits.In 1659, he wroteOn Collecting Errors(Chinese:Trích luận điệu vớ vẩn;pinyin:Zhaimiu Lun), a criticism of the Westerncalendar.He also wrote his first attack onChristianity,On Exposing Heterodoxy(Chinese:Trừ tà luận;pinyin:Bixie Lun). But his first direct attack on the leading Jesuit astronomer of the court,Johann Adam Schall von Bell,appeared in 1660, when he sentA Call to Rectify the Country(Chinese:Chính quốc thể trình bản thảo;pinyin:Zheng guoti cheng gao) to theBoard of Rites(Lễ Bộ), claiming that they wanted to Westernize the Chinese calendar. It was rejected.

More writings followed over the next few years. These were collected in 1665 asI Cannot Do Otherwise(Chinese:Bất đắc dĩ;pinyin:Budeyi). The most important of these articles appeared in September 1664:A Complaint Requesting Punishment for the Evil Religion(Chinese:Thỉnh tru tà giáo trạng;pinyin:Qing zhu xiejiao zhuang). This time, it was accepted by the Board of Rites.In it, he claimed that Schall was responsible for the death ofConsort Donggoin 1660 by choosing aninauspiciousday for theburialof her son in 1658.Schall suffered a stroke during the investigations and had to be supported by theFlemishJesuitFerdinand Verbiest.

In April 1665, Schall and seven of his Chinese assistants were found guilty andsentencedto death. Eventually, only five Christian Chinese were executed: all Christianmissionarieswere exiled toMacauinstead, with only the four Jesuits remaining in Beijing. Adam Schall, who died in 1666, would not live long enough to see the ban lifted in 1671.

Yang Guangxian became the head of the Chinese Bureau of Astronomy (Khâm Thiên Giám giám chính). He took possession of the Jesuit compound inXuanwumen,ordering the Chinese translations of western science books to be burned along with religious statues, and turning the church into a hall with his own picture hung over the main altar.In 1668, however, he was removed from the post and replaced again by theFlemishJesuitFerdinand Verbiest,because he could not produce a valid calendar during a competition with the Jesuit astronomers. The previous case against the Jesuits was reinvestigated and all findings were reversed. Yang was sentenced to death, only to be exiled to his native village due to his old age. He died the next year during his journey home.

Notes

• Chu, Pingyi. 1997. “Scientific Dispute in the Imperial Court: The 1664 Calendar Case”. Chinese Science, no. 14. International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine: 7–34.https:// jstor.org/stable/43290406.
• Hummel, Arthur W. Sr.,ed. (1943)."Yang Kuang-hsien".Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period.United States Government Printing Office.