Processes of Receiving Western Astronomy in China and Vietnam

Abstract

From the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, in an effort to introduce and develop Christianity in China and Vietnam, Western missionaries, especially the Jesuit missionaries, found an effective way to realize this purpose: to use European scientific and technological achievements in order to satisfy the curiosity of kings, mandarins and intellectuals as well as their desire to learn new knowledge, thereby hoping to successfully attract the said social forces to follow the way which created a unique phenomenon: Christianity gradually entered the hearts of two nations of China and Vietnam along with the process of receiving Western scientific and technological achievements in these two countries. In particular, astronomy was one of the most typical fields. The article thoroughly analyzes means of introducing and results of receiving Western astronomy in China and Vietnam from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century on the basis of the original historical data and studies by Chinese, Vietnamese and international scholars as well the application of historical research methods combined with comparative study methods. It elucidates the similarities and differences in the process of receiving Western astronomy in these two countries and contributes to the scholarship on the history of East-West cultural exchange in China and Vietnam in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.