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Ferdinand Verbiest

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EntityQ378277· pop 31· linked from 79 articles

Ferdinand Verbiest

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Flemish Jesuit missionary in Qing dynasty China (1623–1688)

Person · Open Library

Born
1623
Died
1688
Works
31

Top works

  • 步天歌
  • 坤輿外紀
  • 新製靈臺儀象志
  • 交食曆書
  • 坤輿圖說

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Country
BE
Active from
1956-06-26
Active to
2024-01-21

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Key facts

Born
( 1623-10-09 ) 9 October 1623, Pittem , Tielt , County of Flanders , Spanish Netherlands
Died
28 January 1688 (1688-01-28) (aged 64), Beijing , Qing Dynasty
Resting place
Zhalan Cemetery , Beijing
Occupation
Jesuit missionary

via Wikipedia infobox

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Ferdinand Verbiest, SJ (9 October 1623 – 28 January 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in the County of Flanders (now part of Belgium). He is known as Nan Huairen (南懷仁) in Chinese.

He was an accomplished mathematician and astronomer and proved to the court of the Kangxi Emperor that European astronomy was more accurate than Chinese astronomy. He then corrected the Chinese calendar and was later asked to rebuild and re-equip the Beijing Ancient Observatory, being given the roles of Head of the Mathematical Board and Director of the Observatory.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ferdinand Verbiest” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.