Li Zhizao: Based on Confucianism and supplemented by Tianxue
2022-12-13
On April 29, the 23rd year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1595), a sampan berthed at Nanchang Mansion near the Ganjiang River. A westerner from a foreign country, surrounded by curious people, went ashore to visit the famous Iron Pillar Palace, visited the Taoists there, and then went north. Two months later, this westerner named Matteo Ricci returned to Nanchang, where he lived for three years. He brought many artifacts, knowledge and religion that Chinese people had never seen or heard of. More than 100 years later, a 17-year-old young man named Wang Shouren paid a visit to Tiezhu Palace on his wedding day in July 1488. He had a discussion with Taoist priests in the palace and forgot about the wedding banquet. Thirty years later, Wang Shouren returned to Jiangxi, where he completed the most important works of his life, including the ancient editions of "University" and "Zhu Zi's Last Years", and his disciples printed "Biography", forming a school of idealism in the Song and Ming Dynasties. The Iron Pillar Palace in Nanchang has witnessed two completely different kinds of learning in China for a hundred years. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, all the people of insight were thinking about how to reverse the mysterious and impetuous atmosphere. Matteo Ricci's arrival undoubtedly provided a new knowledge and vision for the scholar bureaucrats at that time, and the new Western learning he brought provided a new knowledge resource for the scholar bureaucrats. Li Zhizao is one of the most typical representatives who complement Confucianism with western learning. His systematic treatment of western learning witnessed another significance of the spread of Catholicism in China. It shows that the localization of bishops in China is not only the integration of Catholic belief into Chinese culture, but also the combination of western learning and Chinese culture to which it attaches. It is a great historical process in which Chinese culture absorbs all outstanding knowledge to achieve its own broad and profound achievements. There is very little information about Li Zhizao, and there are still disputes in some places, which makes it impossible for us to have a clear understanding of his life experience. According to Li Zhizao's record as a scholar, he was born in Renhe County, Hangzhou, in 1571, the year of Xinwei, Longqing, the Ming Dynasty. In the 22nd year of Wanli (1594), Li Zhizao, 23 years old, won the local examination. In the 26th year of Wanli (1598), he ranked fifth in the joint examination and was appointed the head of the Ministry of Work. Three years after Li Zhizao became a scholar, Matteo Ricci was allowed to live in Beijing. After hearing that Matteo Ricci was famous, Li Zhizao visited Matteo Ricci with several friends. At Matteo Ricci's residence, Li Zhizao saw the "Complete Map of Mountains and Seas" painted by Matteo Ricci. This meeting opened Li Zhizao's journey of western learning. However, unlike Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao, after learning Western learning, has been advancing to a deeper level step by step. First of all, he was attracted to geography and astronomy, which were areas of interest to him. But in his study, he found that these knowledge were all based on mathematics, so he went deep into the study of mathematics. After learning mathematics, he went further into the level of philosophy and theology. As a system, Western learning led Li Zhizao into Catholic theology. The Whole Map of Kun Yu Wan Guo is the earliest existing world map of America in China. In ancient times, heaven and earth were replaced by heaven and earth. Kun means earth. The original meaning of Yu is the base of a car, which extends to bear all things. Therefore, the ancient people called the map. The "Kun Yu Wan Guo Quan Tu" is today's so-called world map. The original map has been lost, Nanjing
Edit：luoyu Responsible editor：jiajia
Source：mzb.com
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