This blog post examines the intellectual currents exploring how the revolutionary changes in 16th-century Western astronomy sought to harmonize with China’s traditional thought.
In the early 16th century, the heliocentric theory emerged in the West as an alternative to the geocentric model. The reform in astronomy that began at this point transcended mere scientific change, leading to a transformation that overturned metaphysics through the spread of empiricism and the development of mathematical science. As Western cosmology spread, diverse reactions to Western science emerged in the East, particularly in China. Chinese scholars did not simply accept Western cosmology; they actively pursued attempts to synthesize it with China’s indigenous thought. This process heightened interest in their own intellectual heritage, leading to efforts to acknowledge the excellence of Western science while simultaneously reaffirming the superiority of Chinese tradition.
Nicolaus Copernicus, inheriting a mathematical tradition of simplifying complex problems, sought a straightforward way to describe celestial motion. He endeavored to create a simple model to make complex astronomical calculations more intuitively understandable. However, he paid little attention to the metaphysical problems this approach might raise. Ancient ‘Aristotle’ and ‘Ptolemy’ described the universe with the Earth fixed at its center, immobile, while the Moon, Sun, and other planets revolved around it. The fixed stars attached to the celestial sphere were believed to simply rotate as a background in this model. However, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a different cosmic model: fixing the Sun at the center of the universe, with the planets, including Earth, revolving around it. According to his theory, the farther a planet was from the Sun, the longer its orbital period; this simple principle could explain complex celestial motions. It could explain the visible motion of the planets using far fewer circles than Ptolemy’s system, a simplicity recognized as a virtue in academic circles at the time. However, many intellectuals and religious leaders who adhered to Aristotle’s metaphysics found it difficult to accept his theory. They viewed Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory as demoting humans, created in God’s image, from the center of the universe to mere inhabitants of a small planet.
By the late 16th century, Tycho Brahe acknowledged the astronomical merits of Nicolaus Copernicus while striving to avoid conflict with Aristotle’s metaphysics. He proposed a model placing Earth at the center of the universe, with the Moon, Sun, and fixed stars revolving around it, while the outer planets revolved around the Sun. This compromise can be seen as an attempt to embrace Nicolaus Copernicus’s innovative ideas while maintaining traditional metaphysical perspectives. However, Johannes Kepler, captivated by Neoplatonism—a metaphysics that revered the numerical order of the universe—embraced Nicolaus Copernicus’s astronomy, which placed the Sun at the center of the universe in pursuit of simplicity. As an empiricist, he also utilized Tycho Brahe’s precise astronomical observation data to establish the laws governing the motion of planets orbiting the sun. These laws provided fresh proof of the universe’s simplicity, making Aristotle’s metaphysical perspective increasingly untenable.
In the late 17th century, Isaac Newton succeeded in mechanically justifying the heliocentric model. He successfully deduced Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion from the hypothesis of universal gravitation. According to Isaac Newton’s theory, universal gravitation is the force by which two masses attract each other, its magnitude being directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. For example, assuming celestial bodies, including Earth, are homogeneous in density or spherical and symmetrical, the gravitational force exerted by such a body on any external mass point can be explained by all the volume elements composing that body. Furthermore, it can be proven that the gravitational force between the Sun, which is much larger than Earth, and Earth is equal.
Isaac Newton applied this principle, using measured values for the Moon’s orbit and the falling motion of apples to demonstrate the reality of universal gravitation. Through this, Isaac Newton explained the order and motion of the universe with mathematical principles, earning him the reputation as the culminator of the scientific revolution.
Western science began to be formally introduced into China from the late 16th century. The status of Western science solidified in China when the Qing Dynasty officially adopted the Chongzhen calendar in 1644, which incorporated Western astronomical models and calculation methods to improve the calendar system. The Chongzhen calendar, which successively adopted the astronomical theories of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler to enhance accuracy, became closely integrated into the daily lives of the Chinese people. However, Chinese intellectuals viewed Western science as an unsettling element unless it was appropriately integrated with China’s intellectual heritage, regardless of its efficiency. Against this backdrop, scholars fascinated by Western science undertook various attempts to solve problems by appropriately combining Western science with Chinese tradition.
In the 17th century, prominent scholars like Xiong Mingyu and Fang Yizhi maintained a critical stance toward the cosmology recorded in ancient Chinese texts. Yet, grounded in Neo-Confucian principles, they proposed original theories reinterpreting Western science. They respected Western scientific achievements but sought ways to harmonize them with traditional Chinese thought rather than simply accepting them. For instance, while their assertion that Mercury and Venus orbit the Sun was influenced by Tycho Brahe, they questioned Western astronomical theories regarding the Sun’s size. They also proposed an original optical theory linking qi and light, striving to integrate traditional Chinese natural philosophy with Western science.
By the late 17th century, Mei Wending and Wang Xichan, influenced by Western science, sought to understand the principles of the universe through empirical reasoning and mathematical calculation. While acknowledging the excellence of Western science, they argued that its core principles were already inherent in Chinese classics. They devoted themselves to reinterpreting ancient texts to support the theory of Western science’s Chinese origins. ‘Mei Wending’ connected the Western theory of a spherical Earth to ancient texts, emphasizing the excellence of Chinese science. Through this, Chinese scholars influenced by Western science continued their efforts not merely to accept Western science, but to interpret and develop it within China’s intellectual tradition.
Mei Wending’s stance, centered on integrating Western astronomy through Chinese astronomy, became China’s official position starting in the early 18th century. This position was directly reflected in the Siku Quanshu, an encyclopedic collection encompassing China’s historical intellectual achievements. The editors of this encyclopedia compiled and included numerous astronomical texts from ancient times to their own era, demonstrating a tendency to reinterpret the cosmologies contained in ancient texts and connect them to modern science. This trend persisted until the mid-19th century, and during the process of transmitting and adopting Western science, a new intellectual movement unfolded through its integration with China’s intellectual tradition.
