Title Sojourners in a strange land : Jesuits and their scientific missions in late imperial China / Florence C. Hsia

Published Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2009

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Description 1 online resource (xv, 273 pages) : illustrations Series Science and Its Conceptual Foundations S Science and Its Conceptual Foundations S Contents Who was that masked man? -- Writing missions -- Telling missionary lives -- Making Jesuit science travel -- Reading Jesuit voyages -- Jesuit academicians -- Observational fortunes -- Familiar letters and familiar faces Summary Though Jesuits assumed a variety of roles as missionaries in late imperial China, their most memorable guise was that of scientific expert, whose maps, clocks, astrolabes, and armillaries reportedly astonished the Chinese. But the icon of the missionary-scientist is itself a complex myth. Masterfully correcting the standard story of China Jesuits as simple conduits for Western science, Florence C. Hsia shows how these missionary-scientists remade themselves as they negotiated the place of the profane sciences in a religious enterprise. Sojourners in a Strange Land develops a genealogy of Jesuit conceptions of scientific life within the Chinese mission field from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Analyzing the printed record of their endeavors in natural philosophy and mathematics, Hsia identifies three models of the missionary man of science by their genres of writing: mission history, travelogue, and academic collection. Drawing on the history of early modern Europe's scientific, religious, and print culture, she uses the elaboration and reception of these scientific personae to construct the first collective biography of the Jesuit missionary-scientist's many incarnations in late imperial China. --From publisher's description Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-260) and index Notes Print version record Subject Ricci, Matteo, 1552-1610 SUBJECT Ricci, Matteo, 1552-1610 fast Subject Jesuits -- Missions -- China -- History Jesuits -- China -- History -- 16th century Jesuits -- China -- History -- 17th century SUBJECT Jesuits fast Jesuiten gnd Jesuiten. idszbz Jesuiter -- mission -- Kina. sao Subject Jesuit scientists -- China Science -- China -- History RELIGION -- Christian Ministry -- Missions. Jesuit scientists Missions Science Wissenschaft Mission. Naturwissenschaften. Technik. Kulturkontakt. mission catholique -- science -- Jésuites -- Chine -- 17e s. -- 18e s. (début) scientifique -- Jésuites -- Chine -- 17e s. -- 18e s. (début) Forskningsresor -- historia -- Kina. Jesuiter -- historia -- Kina. Vetenskap -- historia -- Kina. China China China. Genre/Form Electronic books History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780226355610 0226355616

Other Titles Sojourners in a strange land : Jesuits & their scientific missions in late imperial China

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