明末西方流星、彗星观念在中国的传播及其影响

The Transmission of Western Meteor and Comet Concepts to Late Ming China and Their Influences

西方流星、彗星观念在中国的传播是明末耶稣会传教士在华传播科学知识的一个案例,由此可以观察到晚明来华传教士对西学的传播模式和中国学者对西学的接收模式。通过梳理和解析相关著述文献,可以发现,西方流星、彗星观念最初是作为气象学知识被引入中国的,但第谷大彗星的发现使得西方天文界对彗星的理解发生了巨大的变化,传教士们的传播内容也随之发生了改变。明末学者熊明遇等人在融合中西传统自然哲学的基础上接受了作为气象学知识的西方古典流星、彗星观念,建立了一套独特的解释自然的方式;而重归天文学领域的西方彗星观念却并未在中国学者中产生很大的影响。

The spread of western meteor and comet concepts in China serves as an illustrative case of the introduction of scientific knowledge to Late Ming China by the Jesuit missionaries.From this case it is possible to observe the communication mode in the transmission and acceptance of western sciences in China.An examination of relevant literature has shown that western concepts of meteors and comets were originally introduced into China as meteorological knowledge.Then,the understanding of comets in the western astronomical community had undergone tremendous changes because of the discovery of the great comet of 1577 by Tycho Brahe,and this also affected the later Jesuits in their spread of comet theories in China.Late Ming scholars,such as Xiong Mingyu,however,only accepted the classical western concepts.They also attempted to incorporate elements of western traditional natural philosophy into Chinese traditional natural philosophy,and in doing so they brought forth a unique way of interpreting the natural world.