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Towards the end of the sixteenth century the Church of Rome sent missions across the world, led by the Jesuits.  The task of these men was to gather converts to Catholicism and spread the Christian word. In Europe, the Catholic Church was under considerable pressure from all sides. Protestantism was gaining power, particularly in the north of Europe, monarchs, who previously had owed fealty to the Church were now operating independently, and the threat from Islam still loomed on the eastern flanks of Christendom.

China was recognised as a place ripe for conversion, but the Jesuits realised that the task would not be a simple one of just walking in, preaching and gaining converts. China was an ancient and highly developed society with deeply ingrained cultural traditions that were, to all intents and purposes, completely alien to the men of Europe. The Chinese would need to be impressed by whatever the Jesuits brought with them, and the one thing that did impress them was the new - at least to the Europeans - philosophy and practice of science.  A small number of specially selected men studied the Chinese language, became skilled mathematicians and learned as much science as was known at that time. These were skills that the Chinese appreciated and held in high regard.

These Jesuit missionaries were even allowed to teach the helio-centric universe theories of Copernicus and Kepler, which were heresy in the West as far as the Church of Rome was concerned and this remained so, until 1821! Ironically, at the same time as Bruno was being burnt and Galileo was arguing his case from house arrest, men from the very same Church were freely discussing and teaching the theories of the sun-centred universe on a distant continent.

The path of success for the Jesuits was tempered by misfortune, however. Over the years they had to contend with the suspicions of the Chinese as to their motives, and with the inevitable intrigues, jealousies and whims of officials and emperors. Sometimes this even ended in martyrdom.

But at other times the mission was regarded with great prestige and likewise held great sway with the Imperial Court. One such occasion was at the time of Qing Emperor K'ang Hsi. A Flemish Jesuit named Ferdinand Verbiest held the post of the President of the Board of Mathematics to the Imperial Chinese Court.

How this came about is an interesting story.

The Emperor decided on a public discourse as to the relative merits of Chinese and European astronomy. Two astronomers, the Chinese Moslem Yang, and the Belgian Christian Verbiest, were asked to use their mathematical skills to solve three problems. These were:

• to predict the exact location in the heavens of the planets at a particular moment.

• to estimate the path of the shadow of a fixed gnomon.

• to predict the precise hour of an expected lunar eclipse.

The competition was witnessed by officials of the observatory, who were accompanied by many other important people, the Emperor's privy council, his ministers and several other mandarins of the Court. Yang sadly failed to live up to expectations, but Ferdinand Verbiest, with his attention to detail and precise methodology, succeeded in every respect. He was made President of the Board of Mathematics for his trouble.

Following this, Verbiest corrected mistakes in the Chinese calendar. Previous astronomers had made corrections that had accumulated over time by adding an extra month in the year. This, however, was considered to be an affront to the Emperor by some officials, as the calendar was in effect an "imperial" decree. They recommended no tampering, but again Verbeist won his battle by insisting, "It is not within my power to make the heavens agree with your calendar. The extra month must be removed."

The Emperor was deeply impressed by the Belgian Jesuit and was keen to learn all he could. Verbiest taught him many subjects, among them Western philosophy, music and geometry. And this was the opportunity to explain the ideas of Verbiest's true mission - he introduced K'ang Hsi to Catholicism. Following this Verbiest was given permission to preach across the Empire, and this he did with enthusiasm.

He was elevated within the court to the level of a senior mandarin and took charge of many more secular, even aggressive projects: he became a foundry master, casting cannons for the army. This acquired skill, however, was applied in a much more respectable way later, for when Verbeist became chief astronomer at the Imperial Observatory, he cast one of the finest sets of astronomical instruments seen anywhere. These include Armillary Spheres (as seen here, left), a Celestial Sphere and Observation Tables for calculating azimuth and elevation. They are still around today and can be viewed in Beijing's Ancient Observatory. These were cast in bronze around 1673. However, rather than melting down the previous instruments of Kublai Khan, he preserved them for the historical record.

In the late eighteenth century the Church was expelled and with that, the observatory was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Later, during the Boxer wars, the instruments were stolen by various European powers. Some were carried off as far as Prussia, and the Jesuit's scientific library was presented as a spoil of war to the Czar of all the Russias. The instruments were eventually returned, largely undamaged, and in 1981 the Chinese government restored the observatory and its equipment for the public appreciation of China's rich astronomical heritage.

As a footnote to the Belgian priest, he is credited with the invention of a stream engine to power ships. This was decades before Thomas Newcomen, though others such as Denis Papin in France, were thinking along such lines around this time. Verbeist also prepared a table of eclipses that will last another sixteen hundred years! His other achievements include extensive mapping of China, writing over thirty or more books on such diverse subjects as astronomy and Manchu grammar, as well as theological works.

Ferdinand Verbiest died on 27th January, 1688 and was buried with the imperial honours that befitted his status and achievements.

More information can be found at the Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation, in Leuven, Belgium.

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Updated: July 2003