Ferdinand Verbiest

Ferdinand Verbiest (October 29th 1623, Pittem, Western Flanders, Belgium - January 28th 1688, Beijing (China)), Jésuite is a Belgian missionary which obtained more the great honors and occupied like “President of the court of Mathematics” a position of very great influence in the Chinese Empire.

Studies and Formation

It made its humanities with the colleges of Bruges and Courtrai and a year of philosophy in Leuwen before entering the Society of Jesus in 1641. After the noviciate, it made two more years of philosophy in Leuwen. In order to leave for South America its studies theology were made in Seville (Spain) where it was ordered priest in 1655. Not obtaining Spanish authorities the authorization to leave for South America it required, and obtained, the permission of the General Superior of the Jesuits to turn to China. He united with a group directed by the Father Martino Martini.

In China

Arrived at Macao in 1658 it was immediately destined for Beijing (now Beijing) by the Father Johannes-Adam Schall whose declining forces required a collaborator. The reform of the calendar to which it harnessed following Adam Schall forced it to denounce serious astronomical miscalculations what acquired many enemies to him among the mandarins of the imperial court. With other Jesuits, Verbiest made prison and escaped from little from the capital execution thanks to an earthquake. Impressed, the emperor Kangxi, still young person, invited it to take part in a debate on the merits of Chinese and European astronomy. The missionary gained high the hand and was named `President of the Court of Mathematics'. The reform of the calendar, an official document of the empire, was difficult to make accept, but Verbiest reacts: it is not in my capacity to convince the sky to be yielded with your calendar . The priest had become a friend of the emperor to which he learned the Géométrie and for which he translated Euclide into Manchou. He equipped with modern instruments the observatory of Beijing. Open and brilliant spirit, Verbiest tested in mechanics and also studied the use of the vapor. It seems well that a long time before one did it in Europe it built the first vehicle propelled to the vapor. It described its machine in the work Astronomia Europa of 1668. With the assistance of Chinese well-read men he wrote a great number of scientific works and drew geographical maps of the empire of the Medium. Always missionary and eager to make known the Christ it also wrote (in Chinese) religious works of which one Explication ordered of the rudiments of the faith was still reprinted in 1935.

Popularity and Reputation

Its personality as its competence acquired with the Christian faith of the family members imperial, like well-read men and scientists. Its name is on a list of 108 national heroes of a Chinese popular book. When Verbiest died in Beijing on January 28th, 1688 the Christian Foi seemed well to be adapted to the Chinese culture… Buried close to its predecessors, Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall, Verbiest is always venerated to judge some by the care with which its tomb is maintained.

Principal works

(in Chinese)

Yixiang zhi , 1673 (on the astronomical instruments and apparatuses)
Kangxi yongnian lifa , 1678 (on the calendar of the Kangxi emperor)
Jiaoyao xulun (explanation of the rudiments of the faith)

(Latin)

Astronomia Europea , 1687

References

BLONDEAU, R.A., Mandariin in astronoom aan het hof van of Chinese Keizer , Bruges, 1970.
ICKX, V., Ainsi was born the car , Lausanne, 1961.
WITEK, J.W. (ED), F.Verbiest, Jesuit Missionary, Scientist, Engineer and Diplomat , Nettetal, 1994.
GOLVERS, NR. (ED), The Christian Mission in Clouded in the Verbiest will era , Leuwen, 1999.

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