During the cultural exchange between China and the West, Xu Guangqi of the late Ming Dynasty played a pioneering role.
Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the commodity economy based on agriculture and handicrafts in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River developed noticeably. This social environment inevitably impacted the social status of some individuals. Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), courtesy name Zixian, pseudonym Xuanhu, was born in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, South Zhili (present-day Shanghai) during the Ming Dynasty, precisely into this social context. His family had fallen into decline, forcing his father to abandon commerce for farming, so Xu did not live in wealth. However, he began to engage in agricultural, handicraft, and commercial activities, developing a strong interest in agriculture. After passing the imperial examination to become a xiucai at age twenty, he supported himself by teaching during the day and extensively read agricultural texts at night. To further study agricultural production techniques, he also delved into ancient works on astronomy and water conservancy, eventually focusing on mathematical texts closely related to hydraulics. From this perspective, Xu Guangqi's contributions to Western learning originated from his interest in agriculture.
In the 21st year of the Wanli era (1593), Xu Guangqi was hired to teach in Shaozhou, where he met the Italian missionary Lazzaro Cattaneo, marking his first encounter with a missionary. When he saw a world map from Cattaneo, he learned that there were many countries beyond China, heard for the first time that humans lived on a round Earth, and even that someone had sailed around the globe—these novelties deeply fascinated Xu Guangqi, sparking a strong interest in modern Western natural sciences, and he hoped to use science to protect the country from Later Jin invasions and bring stability and prosperity to the people.
To achieve this goal, Xu Guangqi searched everywhere for the whereabouts of Matteo Ricci, who was well-versed in Western natural sciences, hoping to seek his guidance in person. It was not until the 28th year of the Wanli era (1600) that he finally met Ricci in Nanjing, expressing his admiration and desire to learn Western natural sciences from him. Ricci, on one hand, wanted to study Chinese cultural classics, and on the other, hoped to convert Xu Guangqi to Catholicism, so they engaged in a lively conversation. However, until their parting, Ricci did not clearly agree or refuse Xu's request to study Western natural sciences; he merely gave Xu two pamphlets promoting Catholicism, The Gospel of Mark and The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. After three years of deliberation, Xu Guangqi converted to Catholicism along with his entire family, becoming one of the earliest Catholics in the Shanghai region.
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In the thirty-second year of the Wanli era (1604), Xu Guangqi, at the age of forty-three, passed the imperial examination to become a jinshi, thus ending his twenty-three-year marathon of civil service exams and beginning his official career. Two years later, he again asked Matteo Ricci to teach him Western natural sciences. Ricci readily agreed, and the first textbook he used was the famous mathematical work *Elements*. *Elements* was written by the Greek mathematician Euclid around the 3rd century BCE; it systematically summarized the geometric knowledge gained by ancient laborers and scholars through practice and thought, completing humanity's first understanding of space, and is the most complete and widely circulated mathematical work in the world. Ricci gave Xu Guangqi a lesson every two days, and Xu never arrived late. After some time, Xu Guangqi fully grasped the profound meaning of *Elements* and was convinced by its basic theories and logical reasoning, so he suggested that Ricci translate it into Chinese with him to fill the gaps in ancient Chinese mathematics. Thus, starting that winter, they threw themselves into intense translation work.
Matteo Ricci was responsible for orally translating the text word by word into Chinese, while Xu Guangqi took notes and drafted the translation. After completing a section, they would carefully refine and polish it, making revisions and adjustments to produce a first draft. Once the first draft was finished, Ricci would review it; if there were any errors or omissions, he would re-explain the original text in detail, allowing Xu Guangqi to make corrections. This process was repeated until Ricci deemed the translation accurate, fluent, and easy to understand. Xu Guangqi was extremely meticulous in his translation work, often working alone by lamplight late into the night or even until the next morning without rest, constantly pondering and refining to achieve perfection. Many commonly used mathematical terms in modern geometry, such as "geometry," "parallel lines," "diagonal," "right angle," and "obtuse angle," were determined by Xu Guangqi after repeated deliberation. By the following spring, the two had jointly translated the first six volumes of Euclid's Elements. At that point, Ricci proposed printing these six volumes first to gauge public interest before deciding whether to continue translating the remaining nine volumes. Although Xu Guangqi wished to complete the entire book within the year, he had no choice but to agree with Ricci's proposal.
After the publication of the first six volumes of Euclid's Elements, it immediately caused a strong reaction in the domestic mathematics community, becoming a must-read for those engaged in mathematical work at the time and promoting the development of modern Chinese mathematics. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci were unable to continue their collaboration to translate the remaining nine volumes of the Elements, and it was not until the late Qing Dynasty that the translation of the last nine volumes was completed by the mathematician Li Shanlan.
However, this did not prevent Xu Guangqi from playing a role in Sino-Western cultural exchange. While holding a leisurely post in the Hanlin Academy, he continued his research in astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, hydraulic engineering, and other scientific fields, and also engaged in translation and writing in these areas. In 1612 (the 40th year of the Wanli era), he co-translated "The Western Method of Hydraulic Engineering" with the German missionary Sabatino de Ursis, introducing Western hydraulic science and various water-lifting machines to China—a stark contrast to the officials of his time who were preoccupied with literary socializing.
Xu Guangqi not only made tremendous contributions to cultural exchange between China and the West, but also possessed profound expertise in agriculture, military affairs, and astronomy, with his agricultural achievements being especially remarkable, making him a truly rare scientific talent.