Chinese compass : how the Jesuits created and spread the myth / Thierry Meynard and Yijing Zhang

Published in Journal of Jesuit Studies vol. 13 issue 1 

Also available through Boston College Libraries

Abstract:
The compass is now widely acknowledged as one of China’s four great inventions, alongside paper, printing, and gunpowder. Simon Winchester emphasized this in his 2008 biography of Joseph Needham, titled Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China. However, it was actually seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries who first credited China with inventing the compass. This paper examines how the Jesuits constructed this historical narrative and reveals their complex attitudes toward this attribution. The Jesuits held a nuanced view: while they recognized the compass as evidence of China’s historical excellence in science and technology, they also maintained that Western modern science had ultimately surpassed Chinese achievements. In their assessment, China’s most significant contribution to civilization was not technological but philosophical—specifically the influence of Confucian thought on Chinese culture and society. The Jesuits argued that Confucian philosophy contained universal wisdom valuable even to Western societies.