The Emperor's New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority During the Kangxi Reign (1662-1722)
Catherine Jami
Abstract
This book explores how the mathematics the Jesuits brought to China was reconstructed as a branch of imperial learning so that the emperor Kangxi (r. 1662–1722) could consolidate his power over the most populous empire in the world. Kangxi forced a return to the use of what became known as ‘Western’ methods in official astronomy. In his middle life he studied astronomy, musical theory, and mathematics in person, with Jesuits as his teachers. In his last years he sponsored a book that was intended to compile these three disciplines, and he set several of his sons to work on this project. All th ... More
This book explores how the mathematics the Jesuits brought to China was reconstructed as a branch of imperial learning so that the emperor Kangxi (r. 1662–1722) could consolidate his power over the most populous empire in the world. Kangxi forced a return to the use of what became known as ‘Western’ methods in official astronomy. In his middle life he studied astronomy, musical theory, and mathematics in person, with Jesuits as his teachers. In his last years he sponsored a book that was intended to compile these three disciplines, and he set several of his sons to work on this project. All this activity formed a vital part of his plan for establishing Manchu authority over the Chinese. This book sets out to explain how and why Kangxi made the sciences a tool for laying the foundations of empire, and to show how, as part of this process, mathematics was reconstructed as a branch of imperial learning.
Keywords:
mathematics,
Jesuits,
China,
Kangxi,
astronomy,
musical theory,
Manchu,
empire,
imperial learning
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199601400 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601400.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Catherine Jami, author
Director of Research, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), France
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