Christmas 1668 and After: How Jesuit Astronomy Was Restored to Power in Beijing

International audienceThis article offers new insights into a series of dramatic events that took place at theimperial Chinese court in December 1668, in which astronomy, politics, and religionall played major roles. Jesuit missionaries had served the Manchu rulers of the Qing 清dynasty as official astronomers since the dynasty seized Beijing in 1644. But in autumn1664, the Jesuits at court were imprisoned as a result of a prosecution launched by aChinese scholar, Yang Guangxian 楊光先. After initial sentences of death or banishmenton those Jesuits principally concerned had been commuted to house arrest in May1665, they spent the next few years confined to their residence, while their missionarycolleagues elsewhere in China were removed to Canton. As a result of what took placeduring the months from December 1668 to summer 1669, the Jesuits were restoredto imperial favour, and the responsibility for astronomy was once more placed intheir hands. In this article, which arises from our research for a book-length study inpreparation, we use a number of previously unexploited contemporary accounts inlanguages including Portuguese, French, Latin, Chinese, and Manchu to reveal a newpicture of the close interplay of political and astronomical events that took place duringthe period of the Jesuits’ rehabilitation by the Qing court