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Li Zhizao
Hangzhou official and Catholic convert who worked with Matteo Ricci on Western arithmetic, translated Aristotelian logic and printed the first collection of Jesuit learning in Chinese
On an observatory terrace at night, a large bronze armillary sphere stands on a stone base while two people stand with their backs turned facing the view; stars are joined into constellation lines overhead, and a sundial and tiered dripping water vessels stand at the right.
Also known as Zi Zhenzhi · Hao Liangan
- Roles
- Scientist
Li Zhizao, courtesy name Zhenzhi, came from Renhe in Hangzhou and gained his jinshi in 1598, later serving in the Nanjing Ministry of Works and as magistrate of Kaizhou. In Beijing he met Matteo Ricci, learned astronomy, geography and mathematics from him and printed his world map, and in 1610 he was baptized with the name Leo. With Ricci he compiled the Tongwen suanzhi, which introduced European written arithmetic, and he wrote a treatise explaining the astrolabe; later, with the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco Furtado, he translated Aristotelian logic as the Mingli tan and a work on cosmology, the Huanyou quan. Early in the Chongzhen reign he printed the Tianxue chuhan, a collection of twenty works by Ricci and other Jesuits and their Chinese collaborators. Recommended by Xu Guangqi, he joined the calendar bureau in 1629 and died in Beijing the following year. Catholic writers later counted him with Xu Guangqi and Yang Tingyun as the three pillars of the late Ming church.
Life and times
Dates 1565 CE–1630 CE (birth by another account 1571)