Chouren zhuan 疇人傳 (Biographies of astronomers, calendrists, and mathematicians)….”Ruan started this unusual enterprise as a voluntary contribution to the guoshi. The actual compilation, as with most of his works, was done by scholars working under his patronage and editorial direction. The first edition contained biographies and summaries of the works of 280 astronomers and mathematicians from ancient times to the 18th century, including 37 Europeans (in annex based on a work of Schall). The total biographies in all the editions and supplements comes to over 600 (of whom 52 were foreigners).
The editor’s main object was to provide a genealogy of Chinese computational astronomy as part of classical Confucian learning and as incorporating its offshoot, Western astronomy. The cosmology is Tychonic, not Copernican. One result of the collection was to further stimulate interest in ancient Chinese mathematics and the recovery of works long since neglected; another was to delay an objective reassessment of Chinese mathematics as measured against Greek, Arabic, and European approaches….(etc.)
Cf. Wilkinson, E., Chinese history, a new manual. p.476.