The Dissemination and Influence of the Three-Region Theory in Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century China

• 来源期刊: 中国科学技术史（英文）
• 关键词: three-region theory meteorology scientific dissemination Aristotle Jie Xuan late Ming and early Qing
• 年，卷（期）: 2017,（2）
• 页码范围: 71-93
• 页数: 23页
• 语种: 中文
• DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1461.2017.02071

摘要

The three-region theory,which divided the air into warm,cold,and hot strata from bottom to top,was the paramount theory for explaining meteorological phenomena in medieval Europe.Such missionaries as Matteo Ricci,Francisco Furtado and Alfonso Vagnone introduced it into China during the seventeenth century,where it had a significant influence on Chinese meteorological knowledge.Chinese scholars endeavored to understand and assimilate this theory based on the traditional yuanqi 氣 (original substance or primal vitality) theory or yinyang陰陽 (negative and positive principles) theory,so as to either broaden the range of the three regions,or to indicate that there were no definite boundaries to them.In this context,Jie Xuan揭暄 drew a meteorological illustration entitled Rihuo xiajiang yangqi shangsheng tu 日火下降暘氣上升圖 (Illustration of the descent of the sun's warmth and the ascent of warmed air),which epitomized how Sino-Westem scientific encounters inspired new ideas.