SOUL SEARCH

XU GUANGQI:

OUR ANCESTOR IN FAITH

Fr. Johnny C. Go, S.J., School Director

Posted Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 1:30 PM

      Note: Below is the homily delivered by Fr. Johnny Go, SJ for the Eucharistic Celebrations in honor of our ancestors, for both the Grade School and the High School.

      Maybe some of you have noticed it, but there is a new garden here in school. And that garden has a sculpture—a bust—of a still-unnamed man. A Grade 1 boy actually thought it was Professor Dumbledore, but I’m sure some of you may have guessed that the man is Xu Guangqi. Traditionally, he is known as Paul Hsu Kuangchi, from whom we got the Chinese name of our school.

      This morning, during this Mass for our Ancestors, I’d like to talk about who Paul Hsu Kuangchi is, and why the founders of our school thought of naming our school in Chinese after him.

      Let me begin by telling you a true story about a solar eclipse that happened in China in the year 1629.

      China at that time was under the Ming Dynasty, and the Chinese were having some problems with their calendar and wanted to fix these problems. It also needed to reorganize the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and the Imperial Calendar Bureau. At that time, there were three groups of astronomers who used different methods of observing the planets and the stars. The first group was the traditional Chinese astronomers. The second group was the Islamic astronomers. And finally, a new group of strange-looking astronomers led by Xu Guangqi. They were strange looking because the men with Guangqi did not look very Chinese.

      Anyway to decide which group should take care of reforming the Chinese calendar, the government decided to hold a competition among the three groups. It asked each group of astronomers to predict the timing of the next solar eclipse. The group that would come up with the most accurate prediction would obviously be the best astronomers, and they would be the ones to be entrusted the important project of the calendar reform.

      The three groups worked hard studying the stars, the moon, and the planets, and finally they gave three different predictions for the solar eclipse. You can probably guess which group came up with the most accurate prediction.

      The traditional Chinese astronomers and the Muslim astronomers were both proven wrong. It was Xu Guangqi’s group that gave the most accurate prediction of the solar eclipse of June 21, 1629. So the Chinese emperor appointed Xu Guangqi to take charge of the calendar reform. He was assisted in this important project by four strange-looking men, who didn’t look Chinese because they were Jesuit missionaries from Europe. In fact, the Jesuits did such a good job because one of them had been a colleague of Galileo back in Europe, and in China the Jesuits were in touch with the Kepler.

     Xu Guangqi got to know the Jesuits because of his friend Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit missionary who was also a scientist and a scholar. He believed that the best way to bring Christ to the Chinese people was by getting to know the Chinese and their culture first. So he learned Mandarin, dressed like a Chinese scholar, and shared whatever he knew as a scientist and scholar with the Chinese people.

      In fact, Xu Guangqi first heard of Ricci when in 1596 he came across a map of the world that Ricci had made. Xu Guangqi was very impressed with the map, so he decided to become a disciple of Ricci, and they soon became friends. Seven years later, Guangqi converted to Christianity. This shows us that science and friendship can lead people to God.

      Xu Guangqi is an important figure because he became the leading minister in the Imperial Court of the Ming Dynasty. He was later even named the Grand Secretary of the Empire. He was described as “the first man after the Monarch”—meaning, he was second in importance only to the Emperor. Because he was the highest-ranking Christian Chinese official, Xu Guangqi is considered “the greatest glory of Chinese Catholicism,” a leader who used his influence to protect the growing Church in China, especially in Shanghai.

      Now, Guangqi did not accomplish all this simply because he was lucky. From the very beginning, he took his studies seriously and was a true scholar. As a result, he obtained the highest level in the Civil-Service Examination. By collaborating with Matteo Ricci, he translated Western books on Mathematics, Hydraulics, and Geography, including Euclid’s Elements . In the course of his work, he invented new Chinese terms for geometry—such as terms for point, curve, parallel line, acute angle, and obtuse angle—terms that had not existed in China before. As a scholar, Guangqi’s most important contribution was the introduction of Western knowledge to China.

     But aside from being a scholar, Guangqi was also a soldier. He loved not only learning, but also his country, and he used his learning for this. When the Manchus were attacking them, he persuaded the Ming Emperor to use Western artillery against the enemy. The Mings fared well until the Manchus themselves resorted to using Western weapons.

      So you see, Xu Guangqi was a very talented man who used his gifts in the service of God and his country. We can truly consider him “our ancestor in faith.” But Guangqi is also a model for all Xaverians, a man who loved learning not only all things Chinese but even the new knowledge brought in by the Jesuit missionaries. He was truly a man of competence and culture. But he also knew how to collaborate with others, working closely with Matteo Ricci and his associates, so he was also a man of community.

      Now we understand a little more why the founders of Xavier School decided to get our Chinese name from this great scholar and Christian, who, like his friend Matteo Ricci, believed that learning and knowledge can be used to bring Christ to others. As we honor this ancestor of faith, let’s also pray that God will give each one of us a love of learning, so that whatever we learn about the world will lead us and others to God.