scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1446846

Just as the author's previous biographies of two other Jesuit missionaries, this book concerns especially the Chinese period of Gerbillon's life (Chin. Chang Ch'eng). He was one of the five French Jesuits, ``Les cinq mathématiciens du Roi, that were trained in mathematics and astronomy, selected, organized and led by Jean de Fontenay (1643-1710). All members of the Collège Louis le Grand, they had a special identification with the French king. The Jesuit aim of mission, and Louis XIV's aim of extending French influence at the expense of Portugal's missionary monopoly were merged under the banner of science. Departing from Brest in March 1685, they arrived in Peking in 1687, after a short stopover in Siam where Fr. Tachard remained. The ability of the group to travel to the capital directly after arriving in China shows how far things had advanced in the century since Ricci had first attempted to reside in the capital. The Chinese Emperor Kang-Hsi realized the value of the services which the fathers could render to him owing to their scientific attainments, and they on their part were glad in this way to win his favour and gain prestige in order to further the interests of the Jesuit mission. Bouvet and Gerbillon were ordered to remain in Peking while the others were sent into the provinces. Relying completely on Western primary and few secondary sources, in particular on Gerbillon's published and unpublished correspondance to Europe and his diaries (published by du Halde in 1735), the author portrays the Jesuit's relation to his colleagues and the Chinese Emperor K'ang-Hsi: his travels with the latter to Tartary; his distinguished services as a translator (together with the Portuguese Jesuit Tomas Pereira) in negotiations with the Russians at Nerchinsk, for which the K'ang-Hsi emperor issued in 1692 an edict which gave increased legal sanction to Christianity in China; and finally the negative impact on Gerbillon's relation to the Emperor of the Chinese Rite Controversy which climaxed at Paris in 1700. The author abundantly provides precise historical dates and details but does not discuss the Jesuit's role from the perspective of a historian of science: Gerbillon's role in the ``scientific construction of the Chinese state, his scientific treatises written in Chinese, his role as the Emperor's teacher of mathematics, philosophy and geography, and the Chinese responses to Western learning, i.e. the ``Xixue zhongyuan -- theory of the ``Chinese Origin of Western Learning during the K'ang-Hsi reign.

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