Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-11T05:18:49.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Knowledge Diffusion and Intellectual Change: When Chinese Literati Met European Jesuits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2021

Chicheng Ma
Chicheng Ma*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. E-mail: macc@hku.hk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From 1580, the Jesuits introduced European sciences to China―an autarkic civilization whose intelligentsia was dominated by Confucian literati. Drawing upon prefectural distributions of the Jesuits and Chinese scientific works, this paper demonstrates that the Jesuits stimulated Confucian literati to study science. On average, the literati’s scientific works increased four times in prefectures with Jesuit scientists after 1580. But this effect shrank after the Jesuits were expelled by the emperor of China in 1723. Since China’s scholar-official system remained unchanged, the literati’s scientific research aimed to serve the needs of statecraft rather than translating into economic progress.

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 1052 - 1097
Copyright
© The Economic History Association 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I thank the editor, Dan Bogart, three anonymous referees, Ying Bai, Sascha Becker, Zhiwu Chen, Jeremiah Dittmar, Ruixue Jia, James Kung, Jin Li, Debin Ma, Ellen McGill, Luigi Pascali, Kaixiang Peng, Tuan Hwee Sng, Felipe Valencia Caicedo, Hans-Joachim Voth, Lingwei Wu, Noam Yuchtman, and seminar and conference participants at NUS, PKU, HKBU, SYSU, Fudan, Jinan University, Lingnan University, Shandong University, HKU Economic History Workshop, the Sixth AHEC, the Seventh Symposium for Quantitative History, and the Barcelona GSE Summer Forum (2019) for helpful suggestions and comments. Xinhao Li, Xinran Liu, Xinning Ren, and Xiaofan Zhu provided excellent research assistance. I am also grateful to the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Project Number: 17502418) and The University of Hong Kong for their generous financial support. The remaining errors are mine.

References

REFERENCES

Bai, Ying. “Farewell to Confucianism: The Modernizing Effect of Dismantling China’s Imperial Examination System.” Journal of Development Economics 141, no. 102382 (2019): 1–22.10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102382CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bai, Ying, and Ruixue, Jia. “Elite Recruitment and Political Stability: The Impact of the Abolition of China’s Civil Service Exam System.” Econometrica 84, no. 2 (2016): 677–733.10.3982/ECTA13448CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bai, Ying, and Kung, James K.. “Diffusing Knowledge While Spreading God’s Message: Protestantism and Economic Prosperity in China, 1840–1920.” Journal of the European Economic Association 13, no. (2015): 669–98.10.1111/jeea.12113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banchoff, Thomas, and José, Casanova. The Jesuits and Globalization: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Challenges. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Becker, Sascha O., Jared, Rubin, and Ludger, Woessmann. “Religion in Economic History: A Survey.” CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP14894, London, England, June 2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Sascha O., and Ludger Woessmann. “Was Weber Wrong? A Human Capital Theory of Protestant Economic History.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 124, no. 2 (2009): 531–96.10.1162/qjec.2009.124.2.531CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertrand, Marianne, Esther, Duflo, and Sendhil, Mullainathan. “How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates?” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, no. 1 (2004): 249–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, Alison H. Man and Nature in the Philosophical Thought of Wang Fu-chih. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Bol, Peter K. Neo-Confucianism in History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Borjas, George J., and Kirk B., Doran. “The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Productivity of American Mathematicians.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 127, no. 3 (2012):1143–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brockey, Liam M. Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.10.4159/9780674028814CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brook, Timothy. “Xu Guangqi in His Context: The World of the Shanghai Gentry.” In Statecraft and Intellectual Renewal in Late Ming China: The Cross-Cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), edited by Jami, Catherine, Engelfriet, Peter, and Blue, Gregory, 72–98. Leiden: Brill, 2001.Google Scholar
Calvi, Rossella, and Mantovanelli, Federico G.. “Long-Term Effects of Access to Health Care: Medical Missions in Colonial India.” Journal of Development Economics 135 (2018): 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantoni, Davide, and Noam, Yuchtman. “Medieval Universities, Legal Institutions, and the Commercial Revolution.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 129, no. 2 (2014): 823–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cao, Shuji. Zhongguo Renkou Shi: Qing Shiqi (A Demographic History of China: Qing Period). Shanghai: Fudan Daxue Chubanshe, 2001.Google Scholar
Cao, Shuji. Zhongguo Renkou Shi: 1368–1953 (History of the Population of China: 1368–1953). Unpublished Manuscript, 2017.Google Scholar
Castelló-Climent, Amparo, Latika, Chaudhary, and Abhiroop, Mukhopadhyay. “Higher Education and Prosperity: From Catholic Missionaries to Luminosity in India.” Economic Journal 128, no. 616 (2017): 3039–75.10.1111/ecoj.12551CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaney, Eric. “Religion and the Rise and Fall of Islamic Science.” Working Paper, 2016. Available from https://sites.google.com/site/ericjustinchaney/working-papers?authuser=0.Google Scholar
Chang, Chung-li. The Chinese Gentry: Studies on Their Role in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Society. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1955.Google Scholar
CHGIS (China Historical Geographic Information System). CHGIS, Version: 6. (c). Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies of Harvard University and the Center for Historical Geographical Studies at Fudan University, 2016.Google Scholar
Cipolla, Carlo M. Clocks and Culture, 1300–1700. London: Collins, 1967.Google Scholar
Colella, Fabrizio, Rafael, Lalive, Seyhun O, Sakalli, and Mathias, Thoenig. “Inference with Arbitrary Clustering.” IZA Discussion Paper No. 12584, Bonn, Germany, August 2019.Google Scholar
Cui, Weixiao. Ming Qing zhi Ji Xibanya Fangjihui zai Hua Chuanjiao Yanjiu, 1579–1732 (The Spanish Franciscan Mission in the Late Ming and Early Qing Periods of China, 1579–1732). Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2006.Google Scholar
Dehergne, Joseph. Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine, de 1552 à 1800. Roma: Institutum historicum S.I., 1973.Google Scholar
Dittmar, Jeremiah E. “Information Technology and Economic Change: The Impact of the Printing Press.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126, no. 3 (2011): 1133–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dittmar, Jeremiah E. “The Economic Origins of Modern Science: Technology, Institutions, and Markets.” LSE Working Paper, London, England, 2019.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A. A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A.. On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ), 2002. Available at https://gaez.fao.org.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures. Translated by Lloyd, Janet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Giorcelli, Michela. “The Long-Term Effects of Management and Technology Transfers.” American Economic Review 109, no. 1 (2019): 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giorcelli, Michela, and Petra, Moser. “Copyright and Creativity: Evidence from Italian Opera in the Napoleonic Age.” Journal of Political Economy 128, no. 11 (2020): 4163–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, John B. The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Hornung, Erik. “Immigration and the Diffusion of Technology: The Huguenot Diaspora in Prussia.” American Economic Review 104, no. 1 (2014): 84–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iaria, Alessandro, Carlo, Schwarz, and Fabian, Waldinger. “Frontier Knowledge and Scientific Production: Evidence from the Collapse of International Science.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 133, no. 2 (2018): 927–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Institute for the History of Natural Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhongguo Kexue Jishu Dianji Tonghui (Collection of Chinese Classic Works in Science and Technology). Zhengzhou: Henan Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1994.Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. The Emperor’s New Mathematics: Western Learning and Imperial Authority during the Kangxi Reign (1662–1722). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Jia, Ruixue. “The Legacies of Forced Freedom: China’s Treaty Ports.” Review of Economics and Statistics 96, no. 4 (2014): 596–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landes, David S. “Why Europe and the West? Why Not China?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, no. 2 (2006): 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landry-Deron, Isabelle. “Les Mathématiciens envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV en 1685.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55, no. 5 (2001): 423–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Di, and Yongping, Zha. Zhongguo Lidai Keji Renwu Shengzu Nianbiao (Chronology of Chinese Historical Scientists). Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 2002.Google Scholar
Liang, Fangzhong. Zhongguo Lidai Hukou, Tiandi, Tianfu Tongji (Historical Statistics on Households, Land and Land Tax in China). Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1980.Google Scholar
Lin, Justin Yifu. “The Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution Did Not Originate in China.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 43, no. 2 (1995): 269–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Dajun. Zhongguo Gongye Diaocha Baogao (A Report on China’s Industrial Survey). Nanjing: Jingji Tongji Yanjiusuo, 1937.Google Scholar
Lü, Miaofen. Yangming Xue Shiren Shequn: Lishi, Sixiang yu Shijian (Yangmingist Literati Communities: History, Thought and Practice). Taipei: Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan Jindaishi Yanjiusuo, 2003.Google Scholar
Ma, Chicheng. “Knowledge Diffusion and Intellectual Change: When Chinese Literati Met European Jesuits.” Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-02-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/E132821V1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mokyr, Joel. The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Mokyr, Joel. A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moser, Petra, Alessandra, Voena, and Fabian, Waldinger. “German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention.” American Economic Review 104, no. 10 (2014): 3222–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, Joseph. The Grand Titration. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Nivison, David S. The Ways of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy. Chicago: Open Court, 1996.Google Scholar
Nunn, Nathan. “Gender and Missionary Influence in Colonial Africa.” In African Development in Historical Perspective, edited by Akyeampong, R. Bates, Nunn, Nathan, and James, A. Robinson, 489–512. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, Matteo, and Nicolas, Trigault. China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci, 1583–1610. Translated by Louis, J. Gallagher. New York: Random House, 1953 [1615].Google Scholar
Rowe, William T. Saving the World: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Ruan, Yuan. Chouren Zhuan (Biographies of Astronomers). Shanghai: The Commercial Press, 1955 [1799].Google Scholar
Schafer, Dagmar. The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sivin, Nathan. Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995.Google Scholar
Skinner, G. William. The City in Late Imperial China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York: Norton, 1990.Google Scholar
Squicciarini, Mara P., and Nico, Voigtländer. “Human Capital and Industrialization: Evidence from the Age of Enlightenment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 130, no. 4 (2015): 1825–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Standaert, Nicolas. “The Jesuit Presence in China (1580–1773): A Statistical Approach.” Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal 13 (1991): 4–17.Google Scholar
Stauffer, Milton T. The Christian Occupation of China: A General Survey of the Numerical Strength and Geographical Distribution of the Christian Forces in China Made by the Special Committee on Survey and Occupation. Shanghai: China Continuation Committee, 1922.Google Scholar
Tan, Jui-nan. “Qianlong Shiqi Shou Xifang Yingxiang de Gongyi Qiwu Yanjiu” (The Crafts Being Affected by the West in the Qianlong Reign of China). Tainan Yingyong Keda Xuebao 30 (2011): 41–57.Google Scholar
Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin. “Western Impact on China through Translation.” The Far Eastern Quarterly 13, no. 3 (1954): 305–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valencia, Caicedo, Felipe. “The Mission: Human Capital Transmission, Economic Persistence and Culture in South America.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 134, no. 1 (2019a): 507–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valencia, Caicedo. “Missionaries in Latin America and Asia: A First Global Mass Education Wave.” In Globalization and the Rise of Mass Education, edited by Mitch, David and Cappelli, Gabriele, 61–98. London, UK: Palgrave, Macmillan, 2019b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldinger, Fabian. “Quality Matters: The Expulsion of Professors and the Consequences for PhD Student Outcomes in Nazi Germany.” Journal of Political Economy 118, no. 4 (2010): 787–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldinger, Fabian. “Bombs, Brains, and Science: The Role of Human and Physical Capital for the Creation of Scientific Knowledge.” Review of Economics and Statistics 98, no. 5 (2016): 811–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldinger, Maria. “The Long-Run Effects of Missionary Orders in Mexico.” Journal of Development Economics 127 (2017): 355–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wantchekon, Leonard, Marko, Klašnja, and Natalija, Novita. “Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 130, no. 2 (2015): 703–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiong, Yuezhi. Xixue Dongjian yu Wan Qing Shehui (The Dissemination of Western Learning and Late Qing Society). Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1994.Google Scholar
Xu, Guangqi. Xu Guangqi Ji (Collected Works of Xu Guangqi), edited by Zhongmin Wang. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1963.Google Scholar
Yuchtman, Noam. “Teaching to the Tests: An Economic Analysis of Traditional and Modern Education in Late Imperial and Republican China.” Explorations in Economic History 63 (2017): 70–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zou, Zhenhuan. Wan Ming Hanyi Xixue Jingdian: Bianyi, Quanshi, Liuchuan yu Yingxiang (Late Ming Classical Chinese Translations of Western Learning: Translation, Annotation, Diffusion, and Impact). Shanghai: Fudan Daxue Chubanshe, 2011.Google Scholar
Zurndorfer, Harriet. “Science without Modernization: China’s First Encounter with Useful and Reliable Knowledge from Europe.” Paper for the Fourth GEHN Conference, 2004. Available at https://www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-History/Assets/Documents/Research/GEHN/GEHNConferences/conf4/Conf4-HZurndorfer.pdf.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ma supplementary material

Ma supplementary material

Download Ma supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.6 MB