Clerics › Religious Figure
Ji Li'an
German Jesuit at the Kangxi court who oversaw astronomical work and in 1715 built the azimuth-altitude instrument of the Beijing Observatory
In a temple courtyard at dusk, a great bronze bell hangs at the right and incense smoke rises from a bronze urn; monks in orange robes and plainly dressed visitors walk toward a lamplit hall, lotus flowers bloom in a stone basin, and a gold prayer wheel stands at the left.
Also known as Kilian Stumpf
Kilian Stumpf was born in Wurzburg in 1655, joined the Society of Jesus and came to China under the Kangxi emperor, where he ran the palace glassworks and later took charge of calendar and instrument work for the Astronomical Bureau. In 1715 he supervised the casting of an azimuth-altitude instrument that combined the measurement of bearing and elevation in one frame; it was mounted on the Beijing Observatory, whose platform had to be extended eastward to take it. He also compiled the Beijing Jesuits' records of the Rites Controversy. He died in Beijing in 1720.
Life and times
Dates 1655 CE–1720 CE