Johannes Schreck

Johannes Schreck , also Terrenz or Terrentius Constantiensis, Chinese Deng Yuhan Hanpo ( Chinese   鄧 玉函 , Pinyin Dèng Yùhán ), Deng Zhen Lohan , (* 1576 in Bingen , Diocese of Constance ; † May 13, 1630 in Beijing ) was a German Jesuit , Doctor , missionary to China, natural scientist and polymath.

Life

place of birth

For a long time, Schreck was considered Swiss because his place of birth was unknown. Only in 2003 was the entry discovered in the register of the University of Freiburg for 1590: Johannes Schreck Bingensis dioces. Constant. 19th Dec . Schreck comes from Bingen , a small village in what was then the county of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , about five kilometers north of the royal seat of Sigmaringen . Family names like Schreck, Schrök or Schröck can be found in Bingen to this day. Little is known of Schreck's family themselves. His father must have been wealthy enough to enable him to study. A sister of Schreck became a nun in 1609 in the Dominican convent in Stetten near Hechingen .

Education

In 1590, Schreck began his studies at the Artistic Faculty of the University of Freiburg . In 1594 he achieved the first goal of his studies, the baccalaureate. The subject of his master’s degree, which he successfully completed in 1596, is unknown; his later interests, studies and activities point to medicine. The next tangible stop on his life path was Paris. Around 1600, Schreck studied and taught at the Sorbonne and was assistant or collaborator of the famous mathematician François Viète (1540–1603). After Viète's death in 1603, Schreck began studying medicine at the University of Padua and probably also attended lectures in mathematics from Galileo Galilei (1564–1642).

Wandering

Entry of Galileo and Fright (edited)

After a year or two, Schreck left Italy. In 1606 he was in Prague, where he possibly made contact with Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), the imperial court mathematician. In Prague he made friends with the alchemist Barbara Pichlerin and worked with her on the best of terms. An epidemic forced him to leave Prague as early as 1606. His next destination was Basel, then he taught for a short time in Rostock. In 1607 or 1608 he traveled to Augsburg and Munich, where he met the old Duke of Wittelsbach Wilhelm V (1548–1626), (Duke from 1579–1597), who later generously supported the China mission. In 1610 there was a shock in Rome. Johannes Faber (1574–1629), the papal doctor and pharmacist from Bamberg, had accepted him as a collaborator. Schreck remained connected to Faber for a lifetime. Most of Schreck's received letters were addressed to Faber. In addition to Faber, Prince Federico Cesi (1585–1630) determined Schreck's work in Rome. Cesi was the founder of the first scientific academy in Europe, the Accademia dei Lincei (the "keen-sighted lynx"). In 1611, Schreck became a member there immediately after Galileo. His task was to edit the "Thesaurus Mexikanus", an encyclopedia of Mexican plants by the Spanish doctor and botanist Francisco Hernandez de Toledo (around 1514–1587).

Nicolas Trigault

In the Jesuit order

On November 1, 1611, Schreck entered the Jesuit order in Rome and made simple vows on All Saints' Day in 1613. Because of his extensive academic background, he was exempted from studying philosophy and part of the theology at the Collegio Romano . He was ordained priest after completing his studies in 1616.

Preparation of the mission trip

In 1614, the Belgian missionary to China, Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), returned to Europe to promote the mission to China and to obtain various concessions for them. During his multiple stays in Rome, Schreck met him and joined him. On their advertising tour through the royal courts and Jesuit colleges of Europe, Schreck was Trigault's "academic advisor", where he was able to fall back on a network of relationships. They collected money, gifts and books, especially astronomical writings, in order to play a leading role in the planned calendar reform in China. Above all, they recruited Jesuits with astronomical knowledge for China. On April 16, 1618, Trigault and Schreck set out with a group of 22 Jesuit missionaries from Lisbon on their journey to India. On October 4th they reached Goa, Portugal, in India. It was here that Schreck immediately began work on the “Pliny Indicus”, an encyclopedia with over 500 Asian plants that were previously unknown in Europe, his life's work, which has been lost.

Working as a scientist in China

On July 22, 1619, Schreck reached the Portuguese enclave of Macau on the south coast of China, the missionaries' gateway to East Asia, where he was waiting for permission to enter China. In 1620 two confreres died here. Schreck carried out autopsies on them. In doing so he discovered the lung-damaging effects of tobacco. In a letter dated August 12, 1621 from Hangzhou to Faber in Rome, he describes for the first time pulmonary emphysema caused by smoking. On May 5, 1621, Schreck was able to enter China. In the same year he reached Hangzhou . Here he wrote, supported by a Chinese colleague, a book on European anatomy taixi renshen shuogai , “Treatise on the human body from the sublime West”. In 1634 the book was revised and published by a Chinese healer. For the first time, Schreck reports on acupuncture and heat treatment in his letters from the host country .

His journey across the Imperial Canal also took him past the city of Suzhou, which he described as the “Venice of the East”. Konstanz on Lake Constance has had a town partnership with Suzhou for several years.

The wonderful machines of the far west

The missionaries had u. a. Brought to China books on European mechanical engineering. They caught the interest of the Chinese scholar Wang Zheng (1571–1644). In 1626/27 Wang and Schreck wrote the first Chinese textbook on European mechanical engineering yuanxi qiqi tushuo, "The wonderful machines of the far west in words and pictures". 55 illustrations and brief descriptions of machines are the highlight of this book. It is the result of the first successful cooperation between a German scholar and a Chinese partner. As one of the main tasks in the service of the mission, the missionaries regarded the reform of the Chinese calendar, especially the calculation of eclipses and extraordinary celestial phenomena, the correct interpretation of which was important for the emperor's government. With their astronomical knowledge, the Jesuits wanted to obtain long-term residence permits on the advice of their Chinese friends. In preparation, Schreck asked Galileo for astronomical advice, but the latter, warned by the Inquisition in 1616 , refused to help. In 1623, Schreck turned to Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who replied immediately after the arrival of the letter in 1627 and sent him his Rudolfinian tablets , which, however, only arrived in China after Schreck's death. Schreck, together with his confreres Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) and Giacomo Rho (1593–1638), introduced European trigonometry and European astronomical instruments in China, such as the Galilean telescope. Da ce , “The great measuring” (1629) is Schreck's textbook on trigonometry. In 1629, with the help of Rho and Nicolo Longobardo (1565–1654), Schreck calculated the solar eclipse of June 21, 1629 more precisely than Chinese and Muslim astronomers. As a result, the scholar Paul Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) was President of the Ministry of Rites (Lubu) and friend of the Jesuits, commissioned by the Emperor Chongzhen (1627-1644) to reform the calendar in 1629. He chose Chinese and Jesuit employees to join his team, including Schreck as the European leader of reform. After Schreck's early death in 1630, his successor was Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who completed the reform in 1635. One result was the great calendar compendium Chongzhen lishu 崇禎 曆 書 , to which horror contributed significantly. However, the new calendar did not come into force until the new Qing Dynasty in 1645.

Schreck's tombstone in Beijing

Terrible death

Schreck died on May 13, 1630, possibly as a result of a medical self-experiment. The inscription on his tombstone honors him as ... vir in omni scientia egregie doctus ..., as an outstanding scholar in all areas of science.

Reception and appreciation

Even before his entry into the Jesuit order, Schreck was considered ... one of the most famous scholars, doctors and mathematicians in all of Germany. After his death, however, Schreck was soon forgotten, and Isaia Iannaccone asks whether this forgetting or concealment of his work was the result of an exclusion from his order. The main subject of Schreck's books and letters - Iannaccone argues - was the natural sciences. None of his writings deal with theology, and nothing is known of Schreck's direct missionary work. Iannaccone's hypothesis is questionable, however. During the 17th century there were six tributes to his Jesuit confreres who describe Schreck as a person valued by all and an exceptional scholar.

Today Schreck receives the respect that this “Ark of Science” deserves. We owe this to the research of Giovanni Gabrieli, Hartmut Walravens, Isaia Iannaccone, Zhang Baichun, Tian Miao and others, not least the two novels by Isaia Iannaccone and Rainer-K. Langner. The creation of the book The Wonderful Machines of the Far West in words and pictures is considered a great moment in the cultural exchange between Europe and China. If the life's work, the “Pliny Indicus”, had been preserved, Schreck would be one of the most important botanists in history today.

Quotes

From the letter of January 18, 1616 to Joh. Faber von Rheinfelden in Rome: ... Nothing could happen to me that goes more against my will than to give up this great mission in a different world, so to speak, and without any meaning or benefit to me to hide myself and others in any corner ...

Galilean telescope

From the letter of Aug. 26, 1621 to Joh. Faber from Hangzhou to Rome: ... died ... a Japanese priest. His breath stank from frequent tobacco use. When his chest was opened, I found dry, sponge-like lungs covered with numerous bruises.

From the letter of April 22nd, 1622 to Joh. Faber von Jiading in Rome:… I have been dealing with this language for two years, but I neither speak nor understand books, its difficulty is so great. The reason for this is that we are learning the spoken language and reading books at the same time ... I haven't fully learned 3,000 characters in two years. / You fly out [in your head] and in like deaf in a deaf loft ...

From the book: Description of the sky survey (1628): ... but in the last few years a famous mathematician from the West [Galileo] has constructed a telescope with which one can see into the distance and also observe Venus. The star appears sometimes dark, sometimes completely bright, sometimes in the upper part, sometimes in the lower. This is proof that Venus moves around the sun. The same applies to the little Mercury, it also moves like Venus, and that can be accessed according to the same principle ...

From the second Portuguese obituary in the litterae annnuae of 1630 from China:… He was not only well versed in theology, philosophy, medicine and mathematics, but also with an admirable memory throughout the history of the Church and the history of the saints. There was nothing in philosophy that he had not explored in depth, such as physics or ethics, metals, herbs, medicinal plants, flowers and the like. He was no less educated in languages. He mastered Hebrew, Chaldean, Latin, Greek, French, Portuguese and other languages ​​in addition to his native German. In a nutshell: in just a few years of his life he confirmed, to our admiration and astonishment, what the poet said: You can achieve anything with work.

From the Latin inscription on his tombstone (1630): The German Father Johannes Terrentius of the Diocese of Constance ... an eminent scholar in all fields of science, who resolved his life with genuine, indomitable sincerity while initiating the Chinese calendar reform in Beijing on May 11th in the year of Christ in 1630 at the age of 54. [The real day of horror is May 13th.]

Schrecks works

• Commentary on the Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus… by Francisco Hernandes, written 1610/1611 in Rome, ed. Rome 1651, reprint Rome 1992.
• Compendium Eorum que a Philippo Paracelso suis inscriptis dispersi sunt…, written approx. 1611–1616 in Rome, manuscript H 461 in the bibliothèque universaire de médecine of the University of Montpellier.
• Pliny Indicus, an encyclopedia of Asian plants, has been authoring since 1618. This major work by Schreck was in the Jesuit library in Rome “in two huge volumes” until the 19th century and has been lost since then.
• Praecipui scientiarum Libri, quibus Chinenses et Japonenses student…, detailed report on the classical Chinese books, written in 1626? A copy of the Latin original is in the bibliothèque universitaire de médecine of the University of Montpellier.
• Yuanxi qiqi tushuo 遠 西奇 器 圖 說 (The wonderful machines of the Far West in words and pictures) by Schreck and Wang Zheng, written 1626/27, first surviving 2nd edition 1628, several subsequent editions, last 1995, p. from Collani, p. 160.
• Cetian yueshuo 測 天 約 說 (Description of the sky measurements), written by Schreck in 1628, edited by Schall in 1631.
• Da ce 大 測 (The Great Mass), written by Schreck in 1628 and published by Schall in 1631.
• Geyuan baxian biao 割 圓 八 線 表 (tables of eight columns, trigonometric tables), 1631 ed.
• Huangchi daojudu biao 黃 赤道 距 度 表 (Tables of the distances between celestial equator and ecliptic), 1635 ed.
• Zhengqiu shengdu biao 正 球 升 度 表 (Tables of the Volume of Ideal Spheres), 1635 ed.
• Taixi renshen shuo gai 泰西 人身 說 概 (Western Theories of the Human Body), written around 1623, revised and edited. 1643 by Bi Gongzhe

literature

Scientific literature

• COLLANI, von, Claudia / ZETTL, Erich (Ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius SJ. Scientist and missionary to China (1576–1630), Stuttgart 2016 (most extensive compilation of the life and work of Johannes Schreck, here also further references)
• GABRIELLI, Giuseppe: Giovanni Schreck, Linceo, gesuita e missionario in Cina e le sue lettere dall'Asia. Rendiconti della classe di science morali, storiche e filologiche, ser. 6, vol 12, Rome 1936, pp. 462-514.
• GABRIELLI, Giuseppe: Il carteggio linceo (Accademia Nazionale die Lincei, Atti della reale Accademia die Lincei XVI), Rome 1938, reprint 1996.
• WALRAVENS, Hartmut: China Illustrata. The European understanding of China as reflected in the 16th to 18th centuries. Catalog of the exhibition in the armory of the Herzog-August-Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel from March 21 to August 23, 1987; from it travel letters by P. Johannes Schreck SJ, p. 22f and Astronomie, Kalenderwesen p. 245.
• IANNACCONE, Isaia: Johann Schreck Terrentius, le science rinascimentali e lo spirito dell 'Accademia dei Lincei nella Cina dei Ming, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici, Series Minor LIV, Naples 1998.
• ZHANG Baichun and TIAN Miao: Wang Zheng and the Transmission of Western Mechanical Knowledge, in: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, preprint 213, Berlin 2006, p. 75f.
• ZETTL, Erich: Johannes Schreck-Terrentius SJ, 1576–1630, His life and work, 122 p., Konstanz 2016 (order: [e-mail]).

Fiction and film

• IANNACCONE, Isaia: L'amico di Galileo, Sonzogno publishing house, Milan 2006; in French translation: L'Ami de Galilée, Stock Verlag, Paris 2006.
• LANGNER, Rainer-K .: Copernicus in the Forbidden City. How the Jesuit Johannes Schreck brought the knowledge of the heretics to China. Frankfurt a. M. 2007.
• LÖBE, Reiner and BRÜKNER, Tillo: Documentary, Johannes Schreck-Terrentius SJ 1576–1630. Scholar and China missionary. Once Bingen-Beijing - no turning back, 60 minutes, Bingen 2018.

Web links

• Reiner Löbe, Tillo Brükner: Johannes Schreck: Once Bingen-Beijing. No turning back. Documentary, 50 min ( short version , 3.30 min)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Zettl: Schreck origin . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 35 f. and 46 .
2. ↑ Erich Zettl: Schrecks origin . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 39 f .
3. ↑ Erich Zettl: Schrecks origin . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 48 f .
4. ↑ Erich Zettl: Schrecks origin . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 44 .
5. ↑ Erich Zettl: Schrecks origin . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 45 f .
6. ↑ Julius Oswald: Schreck als Jesuit und Schreckter . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 75 .
7. ↑ by Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 51 f., 69 f., 111 f .
8. ^ Claudia von Collani: Nicolas Trigault and Johannes Schreck . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 124 f .
9. ↑ Jean-Pierre Voiret: Schrecks Reise nach and through China . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 141 f .
10. ↑ Erich Zettl: Johannes Schreck as a doctor . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 259 .
11. ↑ Erich Zettl: Johannes Schreck as a doctor . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 255 f .
12. ↑ Hartmut Walravens: The book of the wonderful machines . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 159, 183 .
13. ^ Peter Richter: The Chinese Calendar Reform . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 215, 235-244 .
14. ↑ Erich Zettl: Johannes Schreck as a doctor . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 261 .
15. ↑ Erich Zettl: Appreciation and reception . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 263 f .
16. ↑ Erich Zettl: Appreciation and reception . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 275 f .
17. ↑ Ernst Knobelspieß, Erich Zettl (translations): Letters from, to and about shock . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 308 .
18. ↑ Ernst Knobelspieß / Erich Zettl (translations): Letters from, to and about Schreck . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 348 f .
19. ↑ Ernst Knobelspieß / Erich Zettl (translations): Letters from, to and about Schreck . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 360 .
20. ↑ Isaia Jannacone: Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . Naples 1998, p. 75 .
21. ↑ Erich Zettl: Appreciation and reception . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 267, 411 .
22. ↑ Yu Sanle, Erich Zettl (translation): Four hundred years of history of the Zhalan cemetery . In: von Collani / Zettl (ed.): Johannes Schreck-Terrentius . S. 284 .