John Tang, whose character "Daowei" ["looking at the Tao but not seeing it" in "Mencius", was a German, a Jesuit missionary of the Holy Roman Empire, a Catholic Jesuit monk, priest, and scholar. He has lived in China for 47 years and has gone through two dynasties, Ming and Qing dynasties. After his death, he was buried on the left side of the Matteo Ricci tomb in Beijing, and the Kangxi Dynasty was named "Guanglu Doctor", and the official was a product (first-class genuine). In Cologne there is a former residence with statues. In the Italian Jesuit archives there is a large number of materials on him.

John Tang is a figure to be reckoned with in the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West, the history of Christianity in China, and the history of Chinese science and technology. With his pious faith, profound knowledge and outstanding talents, he has established an important position in the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West. He spent more than 40 years in China, experienced the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was one of the most important Jesuits after Matteo Ricci's visit to China.

He inherited Ritchie's strategy of scientific missionary work, and made many contributions to the revision of the Ming and Qing imperial calendars and the manufacture of artillery, and the Chinese lunar calendar today is the "modern lunar calendar" modified by John Tong on the basis of the lunar calendar used in the early Ming Dynasty. He is also the author of religious works such as "The Signs of the Patriarchal System" and "The Origin of the Bishops". With his tireless efforts, he has made indelible achievements in the process of learning from the West to the East.

From the perspective of the general trend, the study of John Tong in the 20s and 30s was an important period, and a discussion on John Tang published in the 80s had the effect of enlightening thinking, and it was necessary to conduct more in-depth, detailed and comprehensive research.

John Tong was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1592 and studied at the famous Three Crowns High School founded by the Jesuits. This school attaches great importance to the quality education of students, and regards the cultivation of students' pious and kind life ethics as its main goal. The smart and studious John Tang has excellent academic performance.

In 1607, a plague plague in the city of Cologne forced the closure of the Triple Crown High School. At the age of 16, John Tong was recommended by the local Jesuit diocese to study at the German Academy in Rome.

In 1610, he completed all the courses in philosophy, classics, mathematics and astronomy, especially in mathematics and astronomy, showing that he had great potential and talent. It was here that he first came into contact with Galileo's telescope and became intrigued by it.

In October 1611, John Tong joined the Society of Jesus and swore an oath of poverty, chastity, and obedience for the rest of his life. Subsequently, he moved to the monastery of San Andreo in Rome, where he became a probationary monk and underwent rigorous monastic training. He joined the Brilliant Research Institute to explore new and evolving sciences, especially astronomy and mathematics.

The Convent of Andreo has a library with many printed and bound volumes of annual reports, reports, and letters from overseas Jesuits to the General Society.

John Tong often went to the library to look through these materials. He was thrilled by the accomplishments of the early missionaries in the East in China. He admired Matteo Ricci's missionary strategy in China, which was adapted to Chinese culture and customs, and the so-called "Confucianism" that he tried to integrate Catholic teachings with Chinese Confucian culture. When he heard that Father Matteo Ricci, with his mathematical astronomical wisdom, had astonished the Chinese and received the emperor's favor and respect, opening up a new and very large field of faith for the Church of God, he was overjoyed that Western mathematical astronomy had gained such value in China.

In October 1613 he entered the Academy of Rome. Four years of theological and mathematical studies began. Founded in 1551 by Loyola, the College of Rome is a "seminary of the spirit of Christ", and its curriculum includes mathematics, astronomy, geography, mechanical mechanics, chemistry and other subjects in addition to religious content.

Galileo Galilei also served as a faculty member at the Academy, and he once displayed his modified telescope in the lecture hall of the Academy, which was warmly welcomed and admired. John Tong had listened to his lectures and became interested in Galileo's teachings.

In 1617, he completed his studies at the Academy of Rome summa laude and was promoted to priesthood. On April 16, 1618, under the leadership of Kinney Pavilion, 22 missionaries, including John Tong, Deng Yuhan, and Luo Yagu, were dispatched in the name of the Portuguese government to set sail from Lisbon to the east.

On July 15, 1619, John Tong and his parishioners arrived in Macao and were placed in St. Paul's College. As soon as the missionaries set foot on Chinese soil, they began to study the Chinese and Chinese dialects and culture, even with the goal of mastering the official dialect of Beijing. These Western monks followed the customs, took off their monks' robes, changed into Confucian clothes, lived in Chinese-style houses, and devoted themselves to the study of Chinese classics and ethics, looking for the fusion point of Eastern and Western cultures. In the process of interacting with celebrities in the government and the opposition, these Western missionaries, who were familiar with astronomy, geography, and Chinese classics, naturally won the favor and trust of Chinese literati and doctors, and thus achieved their goal of spreading the faith. However, some fanatical missionaries believed that Matteo Ricci was too accommodating to the Chinese, affecting the "purity" of Catholicism and developing Catholics too slowly. After Matteo Ricci's death, he began to change Ritchie's missionary line, adopted radical missionary methods, resolutely rejected Confucianism, and strictly forbade Chinese parishioners to worship heaven, ancestors, and Confucius, arousing the disgust and suspicion of people in society, resulting in the "Nanjing Teaching Case", and the missionaries were expelled, leaving almost no place in Chinese mainland.

At that time, when the Ming Dynasty was suffering from internal and external troubles, the brave soldiers of Manchurian Nurhachi "cannot be resisted unless they are firearms and chariots". The imperial court sent people to Macao to buy cannons from the Portuguese. The missionaries stranded in Macao, in the guise of military experts, accompanied by artillery, were able to enter the interior.

In the summer of 1622, John Tang changed into Chinese clothes, changed his German name "Adam" to the similarly pronounced "Tang", "John" changed to "John", and officially named John Tang, and the character "Daowei" was published in Mencius's "Looking at the Road but Not Seeing" to go north.

He arrived in Beijing on January 25, 1623. After John Tang arrived in Beijing, he followed the example of Matteo Ricci and catalogued the mathematical and astronomical books he brought from Europe and submitted them to the imperial court. The scientific instruments they brought with them were displayed in the residence and Chinese officials were invited to visit them. John Tang was appreciated by the court officials for his knowledge of mathematical astronomy. Soon after he arrived in Beijing, he succeeded in predicting the lunar eclipse that would occur on October 8, 1623.

In September 1624, he accurately predicted a lunar eclipse. A Roman method for calculating lunar eclipses was also used to calculate the distance between the Beijing meridian circle and the Roman meridian circle. To this end, he wrote two treatises on solar eclipses, which were printed and distributed to various officials and presented to the imperial court.

The Chinese Missionary Society gave him the task of studying the Chinese language and Confucianism, mathematics, astronomy, and missionary work only incidentally. He studied in Beijing for four years, and with the help of Li Zubai, an official of the Qin Heavenly Prison, wrote a book in Chinese about the Galileo telescope, "Telescope Theory", the first to introduce the latest European inventions to China, and played a considerable role in the subsequent calendar reform.

In 1627, John Tong was sent to Xi'an to take over the missionary work of Jinnige. He established a small church in the city of Xi'an, and in addition to carrying out religious activities, he always insisted on scientific research. He studied the problem of transportation roads from Xi'an to Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. To this end, he constantly inquired about and recorded the routes they traveled, the names of the countries, places, and post stations they passed, the names of the commodities they came and went, the trade conditions, and so on. Based on this, he wrote a detailed research application and sent it to Europe. He also spent a lot of time examining the long-debated relationship between the Khitan (Cathay and Khiton) in Europe and northern China, and clarified that there was no so-called Khitan in the north of China. In the old days, the so-called "Khan Baliko City" was the Mongolian name for Beijing. On the map, it should be placed at 40 degrees north latitude, but it is placed above 50 degrees, which is too far north. His views were in line with Ricci's.

In 1629, the "Theory of the Telescope" was published. It became a foundational work for the dissemination of optics and telescope manufacturing technology, and had an important impact on later generations.

In 1630 (the third year of Chongzhen), recommended by Xu Guangqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, he returned to Beijing to serve in Qintianjian, translating almanacs, promoting astronomy, and making instruments. At the same time, he took advantage of the opportunity to explain astronomy to the eunuchs to spread Catholicism in the palace, and the baptized eunuchs Pang Tianshou and others were baptized. During his tenure, John Tang also collaborated with Chinese scholars to translate the German mining and metallurgist Georgius Agricola's 1550 masterpiece on 16th-century European mining and metallurgical technology, Dere Metallica LibriXII, which was translated into Chinese under the title of Kunyu Gezhi.

In 1634 (the seventh year of Chongzhen), he assisted Xu Guangqi and Li Tianjing in compiling one hundred and thirty-seven volumes of "Chongzhen Almanac". He was also ordered by the Ming court to supervise the construction of war cannons in the West, and dictated the principles and technologies related to cannon smelting, manufacturing, storage, transportation, performance, gunpowder preparation, and shell manufacturing.

In 1636 (the ninth year of Chongzhen), Tang Fengzhi set up a factory to cast cannons, and cast 20 cannons in two years.

In 1638, in order to obtain the legal status of Catholicism in the provinces, Chongzhen was asked to give the four characters of "admiration and praise for heavenly learning", and made plaques and distributed them to the Catholic churches in various places to hang.

In 1644 (the first year of Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty), the Qing army entered Beijing and died in the Ming Dynasty. With his knowledge and skills in astronomical calendars, John Tang was protected by the Qing court and was ordered to continue to revise the calendar.

John Tang repeatedly presented the length of the new calendar to the new ruler, and timely presented the newly made screen map of the earth, the armillary sphere, the horizon dial, the telescope and other instruments, and used the new Western method to accurately predict the first day of the eighth lunar month in 1644 (the first year of Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty), the moment of the first loss, the eclipse, and the recuperation, and finally persuaded the regent at that time, Dorgon, to decide to start from the second year of Shunzhi and promulgate the new calendar that he participated in compiling. The almanac he revised in Western law (that is, the abridged version of the "Chongzhen Almanac") was named "Shixian Calendar" by the Qing court and promulgated it all over the world.

In November of the first year of Shunzhi, he was appointed as the supervisor of Qintian. In the following year, he condensed the "Chongzhen Almanac" into one hundred and three volumes of the "Western New Law Almanac", submitted it to the regent Dolgon, and named the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple.

In the seventh year of Shunzhi, the Qing government gave land to rebuild the church on the side of the original Catholic Church in Xuanwumen. John Tong enlarged a scripture hall built by Matteo Ricci and built the first cathedral (South Hall) in Beijing, which became the living place of John Tong and other priests. John Tang works at the Ancient Observatory near Jianguomen Gate in Beijing. There were more than 50 missionaries working at the Ancient Observatory, and John Tang was the most important missionary among them, and he also served as the director of the station, that is, the Qintian Supervisor.

After Emperor Shunzhi came into power in the eighth year of Shunzhi, John Tang often went in and out of the court, and made many suggestions on the gains and losses of the court, and successively wrote more than 300 chapters. Emperor Shunzhi proposed to establish the heir to the emperor on his deathbed, and asked for the opinion of John Tang. At that time, Emperor Shunzhi was suffering from smallpox, and at that time, only Tang Ruowang knew what the consequences would be if smallpox was prevalent, so he said that he must find a prince who had smallpox to succeed to the throne, so there was the later Kangxi Emperor.

The dispute between the Chinese and Western calendars has been going on for a long time, and Wu Mingxuan reported Tang Ruowangtian's miscalculation as early as the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, but he was charged with "fraud and not truthfulness" and was almost sentenced to death. In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi (1658), John Tang was canonized, and the influence of the Jesuit missionaries expanded, and the number of believers in various places increased to 100,000 for a while, which finally caused conflict. In the third year of Kangxi (1664), Yang Guangxian reverted to the "Petition for Punishment of the Cult", and after the meeting of the political king, the following year sentenced Tang Ruowang and others to Ling Chi for several crimes. Yang Guang said that Tang Ruowang and other missionaries were guilty of three crimes: plotting rebellion; heresy confuses the people; The calendar is ridiculous.

On September 26, the third year of Kangxi, the Qing court "interrogated Tang Ruowang, as well as the officials of the Qintianjian Prison, and on March 16 of the following year, the court counciled the Qintianjian Supervisor Zheng Tang Ruowang, engraved the leakage of Kedu Rupre, the five senses of the pot Zheng Yang Hongliang, the Li Zubai of the Like, the spring official Zheng Song Kecheng, the autumn official Zheng Song Fa, the winter official Zheng Zhu Guangxian, the Zhongguan Zheng Liu Youtai and so on were all executed by Ling Chi. The late Liu Youqing, Liu Biyuan, Jia Liangqi, Jia Wenyu, Song Kecheng, Song Zhe, Li Zu, Baizi, Li Shi, Tang Ruowang, Yizi, Pan Quanxiao, all made a decision. "

Later, due to the earthquake in Beijing, Tang Ruowang was pardoned, and only killed Li Zubai and other 5 Qintianjian officials, and the "Shixian Calendar" was also abolished. Yang Guangxian was appointed as the supervisor of Qintian, and Wu Mingxuan (Ming Xuan's brother) was the deputy supervisor, "reusing the old techniques of unification". After several years, the error is getting bigger. In November of the seventh year of Kangxi Reign (1668), the special commissioner surveyed the actual observation of the two laws, proving that the new law was superior to the old law. Yang Guangxian was dismissed, and Nan Huairen was appointed as the deputy of Qintianjian, and resumed the Xianli in the ninth year of Kangxi (1670). After this struggle, the new law finally triumphed over the old law.

On August 15, 1666 (the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the fifth year of Kangxi), John Tang died of illness in his apartment. On November 16, 1669 (the eighth year of Kangxi), Kangxi issued a memorial to Tang Ruowang: "The emperor issued an edict to the original general envoy Sitong political envoy, plus two and one level, and was in charge of the printing affairs of the Qin Tianjian, so the spirit of Tang Ruowang said: Bow to the end, the traces of the courtiers." Compassion for the dead, a grand ceremony of the country. Ertang Ruowang, from the Western Regions, knows astronomy, the division of the special elephant calendar, and the number of the teacher of Xitongwei. After a long time, I mourned. Te Jia was compassionate and sent officials to sacrifice. Woohoo, the glory of immortality, enjoy the reward of bowing. You know, Shank enjoys. "