What Was a Jesuit doing working for the Emperor of China?
Matteo Ricci was the first Jesuit to arrive in China in 1583. His goal was to spread Christianity and to do this he sought to impress the local Chinese officials in Guangdong in south China with his learning and scientific knowledge As part of this process Ricci produced the first Map in 1584 – single hemisphere. The Map was printed in several editions, the last of 1608 having detailed information on peoples and continents translated into Chinese much like Verbiest’s Map. Matteo Ricci In 1601 Ricci was granted residence in Peking. The Jesuits maintained this privilege with a number of them, like Verbiest, entering the Chinese bureaucracy. Jesuits in China Indeed in 1669, Flemish Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-88), was appointed Director of the Imperial Observatory. Trained in astronomy and cartography he was able to respond to the interest in European science by the Chinese Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722). The Manchu required reliable maps of both the empire and the world beyond. Verbiest
