Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 813 Johann Adam Schall von Bell

Johann Adam Schall von Bell was a German. Of course, the Germany of today is not the Germany of later generations. Today's Germany is still a time when there are many principalities, big and small, and there are electors everywhere. To be precise, Johann Adam Schall von Bell was just a missionary born in the Cologne area of ​​Germany.

Cologne is a special place. It is the most important commercial city in Germany. It was originally controlled by the church. Later, local wealthy businessmen and handicraft guilds competed with the church for control. They eventually expelled the archbishop and took control of the city. As a result, Cologne became a free city and a member of the Hanseatic League.

Johann Adam Schall von Bell was born in such a place. Although Cologne was no longer controlled by the church when he was born, the church was still powerful. As a teenager, Schall von Bell joined the church and became a priest.

Around the 40th year of the Wanli reign, due to the development of the church in the Far East, the news of Matteo Ricci's death reached Rome. The Vatican planned to send more people to the Ming Dynasty to develop missionary work. After passing layers of selection, Johann Adam Schall von Bell became a missionary sent by the Vatican to the Ming Dynasty. He set off from Europe on a ship and finally arrived in the Ming Dynasty after two years.

After landing in Macau, Johann Adam Schall von Bell stayed there for a year. During this year, he learned Chinese and had a basic understanding of Chinese characters. It must be said that Johann Adam Schall von Bell was quite talented in languages. He was able to master the most difficult language in the world in such a short period of time and could communicate with people in a simple way.

Afterwards, Johann Adam Schall von Bell went north to the capital. At that time, Long Huamin was still in the capital. Long Huamin thought highly of Johann Adam Schall von Bell. Not only did he let him preside over the missionary work in the capital, he also introduced him to Ming officials such as Xu Guangqi. Since Johann Adam Schall von Bell was not only a missionary, but also had strong abilities in mathematics, geometry, astronomy and other sciences, he got along well with Xu Guangqi and others, and was respected by them.

When Xu Guangqi was compiling "The Elements of Geometry", Tang Ruowang gave a lot of help. Later, when Xu Guangqi was writing "Almanac", Tang Ruowang also participated in it. In addition, because of his talents in astronomy and other aspects, he was recommended by Xu Guangqi and others to serve as an official in the Imperial Observatory and became an official of the court.

When he first entered the Imperial Observatory, Johann Adam Schall von Bell was the Supervisor of the Five Senses, a position mainly responsible for calculating the calendar and setting the four seasons. It was a low position, only the ninth rank. A few years later, due to his outstanding ability in calendar compilation, he was promoted from Supervisor of the Five Senses to Lingtai Lang of the Five Senses, a position of the seventh rank, responsible for observing astronomical changes.

Although the position of Wuguan Lingtailang is not high, it is only the seventh rank, which is not even as high as a county magistrate. But in fact, the positions of officials in the Imperial Observatory are not high. Even the position of the director of the Imperial Observatory is only the fifth rank, which is much lower than that of other departments. But the problem is that the Imperial Observatory is a technical department, and the officials are special talents. Moreover, the Imperial Observatory controls the astronomical phenomena and calendar, which is not something that ordinary people can do. The political treatment and status are much higher than officials of the same rank.

Since entering the Imperial Observatory in the second year of the Tianqi reign, Johann Adam Schall von Bell has been there for more than ten years. He has been in the Ming Dynasty since he was 28 years old and is now nearly 50 years old. Although he lives a good life in the capital and has a high social status as a Ming Dynasty official, as a missionary, he is somewhat "unprofessional" and does not do his missionary work well. As he grows older, this makes Johann Adam Schall von Bell a little anxious.

After so many years, Tang Ruowang has not been able to make any progress except for small-scale missionary work. After all, his predecessors spent more time and effort to barely maintain the spread of the Catholic Church in a small area of ​​Ming Dynasty, which did not meet the requirements of the Roman Catholic Church at all.

There are many reasons for this. Having lived in the Ming Dynasty for many years, Johann Adam Schall von Bell knew very well the fundamental reasons for the unfavorable promotion of missionary work. On the one hand, the Ming court was wary of and did not support Catholicism. Although the Ming Dynasty did not explicitly oppose missionary work, nor did it stop their missionary activities, the indifferent attitude of the government made missionary work difficult.

In addition, there is the collision of Eastern and Western cultures. Catholicism, as a Western belief, is fundamentally different from Eastern beliefs. Catholicism is a monotheistic religion, in which God is supreme, and Jesus is the incarnation and apostle of God, and everything revolves around this. Eastern culture is different. Eastern beliefs are polytheistic or extremely utilitarian. There are too many gods and Buddhas. There is the God of Wealth for making money, the God of the Kitchen for cooking, the Goddess of Mercy for having children, the saints and sages for taking the imperial examinations, and even the God of the Toilet. Each god has his own duties, and it is very lively. Moreover, Eastern people have always believed in something, and they do not believe in it. They are never single-minded in their beliefs. They can worship Taoist gods today and Buddhist Bodhisattvas tomorrow. This situation is simply unimaginable in the eyes of Westerners.

Moreover, Orientals have the custom of believing in and worshipping their ancestors, which is also contrary to the teachings of Catholicism. For this reason, there have been fierce debates and conflicts among missionaries. Matteo Ricci and Long Huamin had different opinions. One thought that Ming Christians should not be allowed to worship their ancestors, while the other thought that the doctrine should be modified when preaching in the East, and that it is not necessary to prohibit singing folk songs on that mountain, and it is better to let it become a local custom.

This difference in viewpoints also caused divisions and factions among missionaries, which made it difficult to preach. Therefore, Tang Ruowang's missionary work in those years was very difficult. Apart from using his scientific ability to attract a group of officials and gentry who were interested in Western knowledge to join the church, ordinary missionary work did not make any progress at all.

As time went by, Johann Adam Schall von Bell grew from a young man into a middle-aged man in his fifties. Although he had no worries about food and clothing in the Ming Dynasty, he was still unable to complete the tasks assigned to him by the Holy See, which made Schall von Bell helpless.

On this day, Tang Ruowang came to the Imperial Observatory as usual. The work of the Imperial Observatory was much more leisurely than that of other government offices. Apart from daily observation of celestial phenomena and calculation of calendar, most of the time was idle. Moreover, many tasks were carried out at night. During the day, you couldn't do anything without seeing the stars. In addition, these tasks did not require constant observation except for daily observation. So Tang Ruowang arrived at the Imperial Observatory as usual. He greeted a few colleagues first, then went to his office, brewed a pot of tea, drank tea, wrote and calculated on a piece of paper, and spent time studying math problems.

Time passed quickly. Just as Tang Ruowang was immersed in the ocean of mathematics and was about to solve the problem with great interest, there was a noise outside suddenly, followed by a familiar voice shouting: "Master Tang! Master Tang!" "I'm here!" Tang Ruowang quickly replied, put down the pen in his hand, stood up and opened the door. When the door opened, two people were standing outside. One was his colleague Master Hu, and the other was someone he did not recognize. But when he saw what he was wearing, Tang Ruowang was slightly stunned. He had worked in the Ming Dynasty for many years and in the Imperial Observatory. How could he not tell that the other person was wearing the clothes of a eunuch?

"Master Tang, hurry up! Change your clothes quickly!" Master Hu urged hurriedly as he saw Johann Adam Schall von Bell.

"Change clothes? Why change clothes?" Johann Adam Schall Johann Adam Schall Johann Adam Schall Johann Adam Schall 3 was puzzled and stood there without moving.

Lord Hu saw that he was even more anxious and hurriedly urged him on. At this time, the eunuch who came stopped Lord Hu, saluted towards Tang Ruowang and asked: "Is this Tang Ruowang, Lord Tang?"

"I am Johann Adam Schall von Bell. I am honored to be here. I wonder why you are here to see me...?"

"The Regent has issued an order, summoning Tang Ruowang, the official of the Imperial Observatory for Five Senses, to the palace for an audience!" the eunuch cleared his throat and began to announce.

"Regent? Summon me to the palace?" Tang Ruowang was stunned, with an incredible expression on his face. Although he had met Emperor Tianqi and Emperor Chongzhen, he had met them together with the regent because of the calendar, and that was in the court, not in the palace. As for the regent the other party was talking about, he naturally knew who it was. Who was the regent in the Ming Dynasty? Wasn't it Zhu Shenzhui who controlled the government?
Even though Johann Adam Schall von Bell stayed in the cold and lonely Imperial Observatory every day, he was not completely ignorant of the situation in the court. Ever since Zhu Shenzhui led his army into Beijing, the Ming court had changed drastically. Emperor Chongzhen had long become a puppet and had never shown up in the harem in the past two years. Zhu Shenzhui, as the regent, controlled the world and was the true ruler of the Ming Dynasty.

Tang Ruowang didn't know much about Zhu Shenzhui, but he knew Sun Yuanhua, because Sun Yuanhua was a disciple of Xu Guangqi and also a brother in the sect. Tang Ruowang had a good relationship with Xu Guangqi, so he was naturally no stranger to Sun Yuanhua. When Sun Yuanhua came to Beijing before, he had visited Tang Ruowang and talked to him about Zhu Shenzhui. Judging from Sun Yuanhua's words and attitude, he respected Zhu Shenzhui very much. This was really an extraordinary figure.

And now the real ruler of the Ming Dynasty actually wanted to see a mere Lingtai Lang of Wuguan? This surprised Tang Ruowang very much, and for a moment he didn't understand why the other party wanted to see him?

"Sir Tang, the Regent is waiting in the palace. You'd better get ready as soon as possible and follow us into the palace." Seeing Tang Ruowang standing there in a daze, the eunuch urged him, which brought Tang Ruowang back to reality.

Tang Ruowang came to his senses and nodded repeatedly, then turned back to his room to wash and change clothes. This was going to be an entry into the palace! How could he not be well dressed? He was usually so lazy and even unkempt, even at work. This was not acceptable.

While changing his clothes, Tang Ruowang was thinking about the reason why Zhu Shenzhu wanted to see him. He thought about it and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind. He thought of Zhu Shenzhu's promotion to the King of Wu last year. Maybe Zhu Shenzhu was going to take another step forward and prepare for the real throne? If so, it would make sense. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty had to choose a good day for his ascension, and wasn't the Imperial Observatory responsible for this job? Although Tang Ruowang was not the director, he was the best in astronomy and calendar in the Imperial Observatory. Maybe it was for this reason that he was summoned to the palace?

Thinking of this, Tang Ruowang's heart suddenly became hot. Perhaps this was a great opportunity for him.

Hasn't he always been worried about not being able to promote his missionary work? If he can win Zhu Shenzhu's approval through today's audience, and use this opportunity to propose that the Ming Dynasty can provide convenience for missionary work, then it will be a rare and great thing for the church!

Thinking of this, Tang Ruowang's eyes lit up and he became energetic. After washing up, he put on a brand new official robe and left the office. Then he followed the eunuch and headed towards the palace excitedly. The Imperial Observatory was not far from the palace and its office was usually in a corner of the palace. It didn't take long to reach the Wenhua Hall. When Tang Ruowang stepped into the hall, he couldn't help but tremble slightly because of excitement.

(End of this chapter)