Xu Guangqi was a model of what might be achieved. Once, like any mandarin, he had believed that humanity was of one substance with the stars. ‘Man is born from amidst heaven and earth, which means that his origin is fundamentally the same as Heaven.’17 But then Xu had met Matteo Ricci. In 1603, he had been baptised, and taken the name Paul. Ricci, noting the effects on his friend of his conversion, had observed with satisfaction the mandarin’s attentiveness to converts of a lesser class. It was Xu’s understanding of the cosmos, however, that had been most significantly transformed. His
...more
