明末清初西方传教士对中国古代测绘技术发展的影响

The Influence of Western Missionaries on China’s Ancient Surveying and Mapping Technology Development in the Late Ming and the Early Qing Dynasties

明末清初西方传教士在中国进行的“学术传教”,为中国了解并学习世界科学技术打开了一扇窗户。在测量科学技术方面,改变了中国人固守了几千年的“天圆地方”概念,动摇了中国古代制图学所采用的“计里画方”方式,同时协助中国完成了领先世界的全国性大地测量。基于明清之际“学术传教”活动前后中国测绘技术发展状况,通过梳理明清之际西方传教士在中国所进行的测绘科技相关活动,在对比分析基础上指出,明末清初西方传教士所进行的科技传教活动对中国古代测绘技术的发展起到了促进作用。但这种促进是有限的,“西学东渐”中传入的测量技术和测量工具并没有被广泛应用。

In the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties,“the academic missionary work”by western missionaries in China opened a window for China to understand and learn the world’s science and technology.The measurement science and technology changed the Chinese philosophy of“the orbicular sky and rectangular earth”that has been stuck to for thousands of years,shaken up the method of map drawing by scale that Chinese ancient cartography used,and assisted China to complete the world-leading national geodetic survey.By combing the surveying and mapping technology activities conducted by western missionaries in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties,this paper summarizes China’s surveying and mapping technology development before and after their academic missionary works.With comparative analysis,it is pointed out that the scientific missionary activities of western missionaries in the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties promoted the progress of China’s ancient surveying and mapping technology.Unfortunately,this boost is limited,for the introduced measuring techniques and tools in the process of“the eastward transmission of western sciences”have not been widely adopted and inherited.