徐光啟演說《泰西水法‧水法或問》（1612）的歷史意義與影響

Abstract

In August of 1607, Matteo Ricci talked with Xu Guangqi about western techniques of water control, which led to the publication of the ”Taixi shuifa” (Western Methods of Water [Control]) written mainly by Sabbathinus de Ursis, in which Xu Guangqi was responsible for 'extensively explaining' (yanshuo 演說) its fifth chapter (juan 卷), entitled 'Questions concerning the methods of water [control] ' (Sh uifa huowen 水法或問) . This paper aims at exploring this chapter's historical significance and impact. From the questions and answers of Chinese and Western literati featured in the chapter, it becomes clear that Xu Guangqi was the first Chinese scholar who adopted the Aristotelian Four Elements Theory to criticize the traditional astrology and divination techniques of the Five Phases (wu xing 五行) theory . In turn, Xiong Mingyu 熊明遇(1579-1649) was influenced by Xu Guangqi's 'extensive explanations' found in the ”Shuifa huowen”. In his ”Ze cao” 則草 and ”Gezhi cao” 格致草, Xiong not only used the term 'extensive explanations' several times but also quoted or paraphrased a considerable portion of the contents of the ”Shuifa huowen”. Furthermore, he extended Xu Guangqi's approach to a number of phenomena related to astrology, thus advancing the understanding of Western natural knowledge in China. In sun, this paper claims that Xu Guangqi's ”Shuifa huowen” provides the missing link between Jesuit writings and Xiong Mingyu's critique of traditional Chinese astrology and divination.