| Note | See Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編 ; 1484-1485, etc.
For full bibliographic and textual citation see: Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database).
"....Zhuqi tushuo 新製諸器圖說 (Illustrations and Explanations of Various Machines), a short work of one juan by Wang Zheng, included chiefly agricultural machines invented or adapted by Wang himself, partly inspired by what he had learned of European mechanical devices" --Cf. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China, p. 779.
JapSin II, 53.2
Zhuqi tushuo 諸器圖說.
By Wang Zheng 王徵 (1571–1644).
One juan. Bamboo paper. No date or place of publication. There is a preface in four folios by Wang Zheng himself, dated Tianqi 6 (1626). Folio 1 (by mistake placed after folio 9) contains a short note entitled: Xinzhuang Zhuqi tu xiao xu 新裝諸器圖小序 (A short preface to the newly compiled Zhuqi tu). At the end of preface there are two wooden carved seals in cursive style: 王徵之印 and 壬戌進士 (jinshi of 1622). The last column of folio 1 reads: “Wu Weizhong 武位中, sub-official of the said department respectfully copied [the manuscript],” followed by two wooden carved seals in cursive style: 武位之印 and 字國寶. The same two seals are found at the end of the postscript 諸器圖後序, written by Wu Weizhong 武位中, then Assistant Instructor at the Confucian school in Yangzhou 揚州儒學訓導, dated Chongzhen 1 (1628).
Folio 1 gives the title of the book: 新製諸器圖說, the name of the author: 關西王徵著, and the collator (Wu Weizhong) 金陵武位中較梓. The character jiao 較 is used instead of 校 to avoid the taboo on the name of the Tianqi emperor, whose name was Zhu Youjiao 朱由校 (1605–1627). Hence one can conclude that the book was published in the late Ming period.
There are nine columns to each half folio with eighteen characters to each column. The title is given in the middle of each folio with the number of the folio below the fish-tail. The last column of folio 21v gives the date (1627) and the author: 時天啟柒年關中了一道人書於望天軒中. John Terence, the Jesuit missionary of mathematical celebrity, has left a treatise on machinery with the title 奇器圖說 K’ê k’ê t’oô shwo, which he translated orally from a European work, while it was put into the literary form by 王徵 Wâng Ch’ing, a native scholar, and published in 1627. It begins with a short disquisition on the principles of mechanics, which is followed by an illustrated explanation of the mechanical powers, after which are a series of plates of machines, exemplifying the principles laid down. These are intended to illustrate: Raising Weights, Drawing Weights, Turning Weights, Drawing Water, Turning Mills, Sawing Timber, Sawing Stone, Pounding, Revolving Bookstands, Water Dials, Plowing, and Fire Engines, fifty-four plates in all, each of which is accompanied by a short description. The European alphabet is introduced in the preliminary remarks. There is another book by Wâng Ch’ing, generally published along with Terence’s, having the title 諸器圖說 Choo k’é t’oô shwo, which treats native machinery and is illustrated with eleven plates with descriptions (Wylie, pp. 144–145). Hsü Tsung-tse (1949, p. 296) tells that Wang Zheng knew a European language (西文). In his preface (Yuanxi Qiqi tushuo lu zui 遠西奇器圖說錄最) Wang Zheng said: “Formerly when I was [living] in my village I was taught by Mr. Jin Sibiao 金四表 [Nicolas Trigault] the twenty-five signs of the Western alphabet, and we published the Xiru ermuzi. I more or less learned the pronunciation. However, I am at a loss when it comes to the meaning of a full text . . .” (Hsü 1949, p. 297).Cf. ECCP 2:807–808; Pfister, pp. 156–157, no. 3; Feng 1938, p. 185; Hsü 1949, pp. 295–299; SKTY 3:2398–2399; Courant 5661; Couplet p. 18.
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 357-358. |
