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Ferdinand Verbiest
Flemish Jesuit missionary in Qing dynasty China (1623–1688)
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1623
- Died
- 1688
- Works
- 31
Top works
- 步天歌
- 坤輿外紀
- 新製靈臺儀象志
- 交食曆書
- 坤輿圖說
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Circular RNAs are a large class of animal RNAs with regulatory potency
· 2013 · cited 6,735x
~16 min read
Article
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.