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Ferdinand Verbiest
Sign in to saveFlemish Jesuit missionary in Qing dynasty China (1623–1688)
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1623-10-09 ) 9 October 1623, Pittem , Tielt , County of Flanders , Spanish Netherlands
- Died
- 28 January 1688 (1688-01-28) (aged 64), Beijing , Qing Dynasty
- Resting place
- Zhalan Cemetery , Beijing
- Occupation
- Jesuit missionary
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Ferdinand
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- County of Flanders
- Place of birth
- Pittem
- Place of death
- Beijing
- Occupation
- Catholic priest
- Educated at
- Roman College
- Employer
- Beijing Ancient Observatory
- Languages spoken
- Dutch
- Religion
- Catholicism
- Student of
- André Tacquet
- Image
- 南公懷仁像.jpg
- Work location
- Beijing
- Religious order
- Society of Jesus
Show 11 more facts
- place of burial
- Zhalan Cemetery
- Commons category
- Ferdinand Verbiest
- date of birth
- 1623-10-09
- date of death
- 1688-01-28
- described by source
- The Catholic Encyclopedia
- has works in the collection
- Het Scheepvaartmuseum
- courtesy name
- 勳卿
- posthumous name
- 勤敏
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- Commons Creator page
- Ferdinand Verbiest
- name in native language
- 南懷仁
Sources (4)
via Wikidata · CC0
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Ferdinand Verbiest, SJ (9 October 1623 – 28 January 1688) was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in the County of Flanders (now part of Belgium). He is known as Nan Huairen (南懷仁) in Chinese.
He was an accomplished mathematician and astronomer and proved to the court of the Kangxi Emperor that European astronomy was more accurate than Chinese astronomy. He then corrected the Chinese calendar and was later asked to rebuild and re-equip the Beijing Ancient Observatory, being given the roles of Head of the Mathematical Board and Director of the Observatory.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ferdinand Verbiest” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.