Michel Benoist
Michel Benoist | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 23 October 1774 | (aged 59)
Occupation | Scientist |
Michel Benoist (
Early life
Michel Benoist was born on 8 October 1715 in Dijon, France. The name Benoist is an archaic form of the name "
Jesuits and the Qianlong Emperor
When Michel Benoist arrived at the court of the Qianlong Emperor, the role of Jesuits had transformed. Although Jesuits were kept at the court since the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, their powers to proselytize in the Qing Empire were reduced dramatically. According to Jesuit scholar Jean Charbonnier, the imperial decree of 1724 was a drastic change for Catholic missionaries, enforcing draconian measures to limit the spread of Christianity.[3] By the time of the ascent of the Qianlong Emperor, the role of Jesuit missionaries was reinvented. As Mark Elliot notes in his biography of the Qianlong Emperor, Jesuits were allowed to learn and document Manchu and Chinese languages and culture in return for their service to the Qianlong court as subjects. Like many Jesuits, Michel Benoist entered the court knowing it was unlikely for him to return to his homeland.[1]
Works
Over the course of thirty years, Michel Benoist served the Qianlong Emperor on a number of construction projects and as an advisor on European affairs. The Qianlong Emperor revered Benoist as a source of intellect and a window into the ideas of the
Yuanming Yuan
During the second year of his reign in 1737, the Qianlong Emperor commissioned
World Map
Benoist worked on numerous cartography projects for the Qianlong Emperor. His first cartography project was mapping out the territories of the Qing Empire and its borderlands, following up on previous work by Jesuits during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. Historian Mario Cams notes Benoist's maps visually incorporated distant territories such as Xinjiang into the boundaries and defined borderlands between Qing China, Mongolia, and Imperial Russia.[6][9] Benoist then produced a large world map on the walls of Yuanming Yuan. The map helped familiarize the Qianlong Emperor with the geography of Europe and his empire, and according to historian Mark Elliott prepared the Emperor for the later arrival of the British Macartney Embassy in 1793.[10]
Astronomy
Because of his training in astronomy, Benoist helped establish European studies of astronomy to Qing China. Historian Nathan Sivin notes that Benoist was the first to introduce Copernican cosmology in China "after the church's ban on Copernican cosmology ended in 1757."[11] Benoist's presentation of Copernican theory stood in contrast from previous Jesuit advisors that either ignored Copernicus's ideas or contradicted one another. For instance, German Jesuit Schall von Bell previously argued that the planets and the sun moved in a circular motion, while Benoist argued the sun was a static body. Benoist, according to Sivin, was not only among the greatest champions of the Copernican model in China, but was also one of the last successful Jesuit scientists to do so.[11]
Benoist also instructed the Qianlong Emperor on use of the telescope for the observation of celestial bodies.
Other work
Benoist set up a printing shop to produce prints of historic battle scenes from a set of
Death
Michel Benoist died in Beijing, China on 23 October 1774 of a stroke. He died at 59 years old, shortly after learning of the formal suppression of the Society of Jesus in Europe. His body was interred at the Zhengfusi cemetery on the outskirts a Beijing.[13] In his honor, the Qianlong Emperor funded his funeral with "one hundred pieces of silver."[12] Zhengfusi was one of two cemeteries dedicated to Jesuits in service in China. The first, Zhalan, was a cemetery built in 1611 that interred Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci, while Zhengfusi was built in 1732 for the French Jesuit community.[14]
Many of Benoist's accomplishments were destroyed during the Second Opium war. Following the invasion of Beijing by British and French forces, Lord Elgin ordered the looting and destruction of Yuanming Yuan as retribution for the execution of European journalists and prisoners of wars by Qing forces.[16] The ruins were again destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.[17]
See also
- Religion in China
- Jesuit China missions
- Christianity in China
- List of Jesuit scientists
- Old Summer Palace
Catholic missionaries in China
- Giuseppe Castiglione
- Armand David
- Matteo Ricci
- Johann Adam Schall von Bell
- Ferdinand Verbiest
- St. Francis Xavier
Protestant missionaries in China
- See separate article List of Protestant missionaries in China.
References
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- Young-tsu Wong, "European Buildings with Chinese Characteristics."
- Notes
- ^ a b c Elliott, Mark (2009). Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World. New York: Pearson Longman. p. 131.
- ^ a b c Li, Lillian (2012). "The Garden of Perfect Brightness ll: The European Palaces and Pavilions of the Yuanmingyuan" (PDF).
- ISBN 978-0-89870-916-2.
- JSTOR 2167065.
- OCLC 6960264.
- ^ a b c Favier, Alphonse (1837-1905) Auteur du texte (1897). Péking : histoire et description / par Alph. Favier,...
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ISBN 978-981-4651-12-7.
- ^ Pfister, Louis (1833-1891) Auteur du texte (1932–1934). Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de l'ancienne Mission de Chine : 1552-1773. Tome II, XVIIIe siècle / par le P. Louis Pfister,...
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Cams, Mario. 2017. Companions in Geography : East-West Collaboration in the Mapping of Qing China (C.1685-1735). East and West : Culture, Diplomacy and Interactions, Volume 1. Leiden: Brill.
- ^ Elliott, Mark (2009). Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World. New York: Pearson Longman. p. 140.
- ^ a b Sivin, Nathan (1995). "Copernicus in China." In Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Aldershot: Variorum. pp. 1–52.
- ^ a b Favier, Alphonse (1897). Péking : histoire et description / par Alph. Favier,... (in French). p. 215.
- ^ Favier, Alphonse (1837-1905) Auteur du texte (1897). Péking : histoire et description / par Alph. Favier,... (in French). p. 538.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ISBN 978-1-4438-3854-2.
- ^ "MIT Visualizing Cultures". visualizingcultures.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
- ^ Hevia, James (2003). English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century China. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. p. 76.
- ^ Hevia, James L (2009). 'Looting and its discontents: Moral discourse and the plunder of Beijing, 1900–1901' in R. Bickers and R.G. Tiedemann (eds.), The Boxers, China, and the world. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Further reading
- Cams, Mario. 2017. Companions in Geography : East-West Collaboration in the Mapping of Qing China (C.1685-1735). East and West : Culture, Diplomacy and Interactions, Volume 1. Leiden: Brill.
- Charbonnier, Jean (2007-01-01). Christians in China: A.D. 600 to 2000. Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-0-89870-916-2.
- Elliott, Mark, Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009).
- Finlay, John R. "The Qianlong Emperor's Western Vistas: Linear Perspective and Trompe L'Oeil Illusion in the European Palaces of the Yuanming Yuan." Bulletin De L'École Française D'Extrême-Orient 94 (2007): 159–93.
- Li, Lillian (2012). "The Garden of Perfect Brightness ll: The European Palaces and Pavilions of the Yuanmingyuan: Part II." Visualizing Culture, MIT. https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/garden_perfect_brightness_02/ymy2_essay.pdf
- Sivin, Nathan. “Copernicus in China.” In Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections, 4: 1– 52. Aldershot: Variorum, 1995.
- Sj, Benoît Vermander (2015-04-07). "Jesuits and China". Oxford Handbooks Online. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935420-e-53.
- Waley-Cohen, Joanna, Sextants of Beijing: Global Currents in Chinese History (New York: Norton, 1999).