From Matteo Ricci to Adam Schall, the Jesuit missionaries kept a good relationship with the Imperial court. This was also the reason why the Catholic Church could grow steadily both at the end of the Ming Dynasty and in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. The country"s rulers needed the scientific knowledge of the missionaries for the good of China, and missionaries needed a good relationship with, and the support of the rulers so that the Church could remain on good terms with Chinese society. Be- cause of this, the Catholic Church grew quickly in China during the second part of the 17th century. From 1651 to 1664, the Catho- lic population in China reached 100,000, scattered in many prov- inces, such as Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, etc…Ferdinandus VerbiestFerdinandus Verbiest (1623-1688), a native of Belgium, graduated from Leuven Catholic University. He arrived in China in 1659 and began his ministry in Shaanxi Province. At the rec- ommendation of Schall, he went to Beijing to help work on the Calendar-revision project. Verbiest was once arrested and ques-tioned. Later, he took Yang Guanxian"s position and was in charge of the imperial ceremonial work. He wrote to Emperor Kang Xi to rectify the condemnation the previous Emperor imposed on Adam Schall and others. He worked very hard to get all the mis- sionaries in Guangzhou released from prison. His tremendous impetus on the revitalization of the Church"s missionary affairs in China was beyond description.
After he was named the Jesuit Superior in the China mis- sions in 1676, he wrote an article, To all European Jesuits, call- ing on them to support the work in China. Out of business inter- ests and perceived benefits of colonization, King Louis XIV sent some scholars who were Jesuits from the France Science & Tech- nology Institute to China, including Johannes de Fonteney (1643-1710), Jeannes Franciscus Gerbillon (1654-1707) and Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730), as well as two others. Carrying 30 boxes of astronomy instruments, they arrived in Ningbo in March, 1685 and traveled on to Beijing in February 1688. Jeannes Franciscus Gerbillon and Joachim Bouvet stayed in Beijing, while the oth-ers awaited assignment. They were the first group of FrenchJesuit missionaries in China.
Verbiest"s contribution in sciences is obvious to all. He pointed out Yang Guangxian"s mistakes and corrected them inthe revision of the Western Cal- endar. He got rid of the so-called saying, "Zi Qi‘ and made the re- vised Chinese calendar more sci- entific. When he was in charge of the revision project, he tried to advise the government to im- prove the official economic and political remuneration, espe- cially for the Chinese. On theother hand, he took many mis-sionaries who were specialists into his office, such as Navarrete(1624-1684), Nicolas Fiva (1645-1708) and Anthony (1644-1709)? There were two people who were in charge of the office: one Manchurian, one Westerner, as well as numerous missionar- ies who worked there. The situation of having foreign mission- aries work in that office lasted until Emperor Dao Guang (1817)?
In 1669, Verbiest was ordered to fix the instruments in the Observatory. Besides the old Jia Yi, Hun Yi, Xing Qiu, he also made Tian Qiuyi, Huang Dao Theodolite, Ji Xian Yi, Xiang Xian Yi, Di Ping Jing Yi and Di Ping Wei Yi. All these instruments required extremely careful designs. Every line on the instrumentswas precise, and they were all very artistic. All the instruments for the Observatory were ready in 1674 as planned. Verbiest wrote down a 14-volume detailed instruction, including the process of making them, their use and the measured results. Later, he wrote Yi Xiang Tu in two volumes. Verbiest gave them to all the offi- cials. Emperor Kang Xi said in praise, "calendar and astronomy are extremely important to the county. I have heard all the in- struments were made and were extremely accurate. Verbiest putall his heart into this and therefore he needs to be rewarded.‘In 1688, Verbiest fell from horseback while riding and died. Emperor Kang Xi honored him with the title "Qing Min‘, and provided 750 pieces of silver to build a tomb with a tombstone. He sent an official to the tomb to offer his condolences and hon- ored him on another tombstone declaring: "From your hands, we have stored sufficient necessary military staff.’ The "sufficient necessary military staff‘ were the 132 powder guns. They were used when Kang Xi defeated "San Fang Zhi Luan’? When the Qing Government tried to get back Ya Ke Sa, the powder guns scared the Russians away.
