Prof\nAnt\u00f3nio Vasconcelos de Saldanha, from the Department of History, Faculty of\nSocial Sciences (FSS), University of Macau (UM), recently presented the\nrediscovered personal journal of the Jesuit priest and scientist Sabatino de\nUrsis (1575-1620), one of the successors of Fr Matteo Ricci in the Ming court\nof China, at a conference held in the Department of Sinology at the University\nof T\u00fcbingen in Germany. Prof Saldanha\u2019s rediscovery brings a new understanding\nof the history of how Western science was introduced into China during the Ming\ndynasty.<\/p>
Apart from the important and far unknown references\nto the scientific production by famous Portuguese Jesuits, such as Frs Jo\u00e3o\nRodrigues \u2018T\u00e7uzu\u2019 on geography and Manuel Dias\u2019s\u300a\u5929\u554f\u7565\u300b (An Explanation of the Celestial Sphere<\/i>,\n1615) that introduced Galileo\u2019s work into China, the newly rediscovered manuscript\nshows how Sabatino de Ursis systematically\ndiscussed practical problems and a number of selected theoretical questions\nrelated to hydrology, water technology, and water management in his Hydromethods of the Great West<\/i>, a\ntreatise published in Beijing in 1612. The Portuguese manuscript brings a new\nunderstanding of this work whose publication and spread was sponsored by\nimportant scholar-officials in Ming dynasty and which was graced with a preface\nby Xu Guangqi before being presented to the Wanli Emperor.<\/p>