Jean-Baptiste Régis
Encyclopedia
Jean-Baptiste Régis was a French
Jesuit missionary
in imperial China
.
in Provence
on 11 June 1663, or 29 January 1664; died at Peking on 24 November 1738. He was received into the Society of Jesus
on 14 September 1683, or 13 September 1679, and in 1698 went on the Chinese mission, where he served science and the Catholic religion for forty years, and took the chief share in the making of the general map of the Chinese Empire.
The early Jesuit missionaries had already endeavoured to make known to Europe the true geography of China, of which at the end of the sixteenth century even the best cartographers were utterly ignorant. Their achievements up to the middle of the seventeenth century are summed up in the "Novus Atlas Sinensis" published by Father Martin Martini (Amsterdam, 1655). He was greatly assisted in this work by Chinese books of geography, where he found a mass of descriptive information, the distances between important places, and even maps which however were very crude, the distances having been measured with little exactitude. These imperfect data he supplemented and completed by astronomical observations made in the chief towns by himself and his associates; hence the positions of his Atlas are remarkably accurate. The favour enjoyed by the missionaries with the Chinese emperor K'ang-hi (1662–1722) made it possible for them to improve on this. Father Ferdinand Verbiest
collected the earliest ideas of 'Tatary' (i.e. the Mongol Empire) during two journeys made to that country with the emperor (1682-3).
The arrival in China in 1687 of French Jesuits sent by king Louis XIV gave new impetus to scholarly labours in the mission, especially to geography. Provided with perfected instruments and trained in the methods of the astronomers of the observatory of Paris, the new missionaries were able to determine more correctly locations already calculated. The "Mémoires" and the "Histoire de l'Academie des Sciences" record their observations. Father Jean-François Gerbillion made eight journeys through Tatary and Mongolia
(1688–98) acquiring more geographical information concerning them. In 1701 the great work of the general map of the empire, begun by the topographical drawing of the capital city of Peking and its environs, including the ancient summer residences of the emperors and 1700 towns or villages, was assigned to Father Antoine Thomas
, a Belgian of Namur, and three Frenchmen, Joachim Bouvet
, Jean Baptiste Régis and Dominique Parennin. Ming Emperor K'ang-hi, who wished to take measures against the periodic overflow of the rivers of Zhili
, was satisfied.
Fr. Parennin then induced him to consent to a map of the Great Wall of China
. Fathers Bouvet, Régis and Pierre Jartoux measured their route to the eastern extremity of the famous rampart by means of regularly divided cords, keeping track of directions with the assistance of a compass, and frequently observing the meridian of the sun in order to calculate latitudes. In four days they reached the Gulf of Zhili (8 June 1708) and began operations on the great Wall. On 16 October they estimated its extent to be 21° long., or almost half the widest breadth of the United States from east to west and had determined the positions of the fortified towns "by which it was flanked", according to Fr. Régis. At the end of two months, Bouvet, being ill, retired to Peking. Régis and Jartoux reached the western edge of the Great Wall at Kia-yu-Koan (modern Jiayuguan) and completed their work by the mensuration of an interior lateral wall which had brought them to Si-ning (Xining
), on the frontier of Tibet
, near Lake Kukunor. They returned to Peking on 10 January 1709. Their map pleased the emperor, who requested the continuation of the work for the provinces outside the Great Wall and for China proper.
Régis, Jartoux and Fr. Ernbert Fridelli, from the Austrian Tyrol, set out for the northeast. In two expeditions (8 May - 17 December 1709; 22 July - 14 December 1710) they made the map of Liaodong and Manchuria
, and during the interval drew the province of Chi-li, in which Peking is situated. In 1711 Father Francis Cardoso, a Portuguese, and the Augustinian Father Guillaume Bonjour, the only non-Jesuit, joined the geographers. Régis and Cardoso drew the map of Shang-tung; Jartoux, Fridelli and Bonjour traversed Mongolia as far as Lake Baikal
in the north and the entrance of eastern Turkistan to the west. The year 1712 brought a new reinforcement; Frs. Vincent de Tartre and Cardoso made the maps of Shan-si and Shen-si (1712–14), Kiang-si and Kwang-tung, and Kwang-si; Frs. Anne-Marie de Mailla, Roman Hinderer
, an Alsatian, and Régis laboured (1712–15) on the maps of Hu-nan, Kiang-nan, Che-kiang, Fu-kien and the Island of Formosa. Meanwhile Fridelli and Bonjour were at Sze-chuan, where Fr. Bonjour died on 23 December 1714, and was replaced by Régis on 24 March 1715. He assisted Fridelli with the maps of Yun-nan, Kwei-chow (Guizhou
) and Hu-kwang. After ten years' labour the new map of China was completed on 1 January 1717. The fundamental method employed was the exact measurement of distances from which was obtained the longitude and latitude of places; this, supplemented and controlled by the observations of the meridians of the sun and the polar stars, directly gave the latitude. The missionaries were sometimes assisted by the observation of eclipses of the moon and the satellites of Jupiter, of which more perfect process they desired to make use to obtain longitudes, but conditions did not permit.
In reply to a criticism of Féret, the learned secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
, Antoine Gaubil
wrote (5 November 1736):
Ferdinand de Richthofer, the geologist and explorer of China, wrote "If we consider the time at which it was made, the map of the Jesuits, as a whole, may be called a masterpiece" (China, I, 686).
Father Jartoux, who with Frs. Régis and Fridelli had the largest share in it, sent a copy to France, where it was published by Fr. Jean-Baptiste du Halde
with the assistance of the celebrated geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
in the "Description de la Chine" (1735). Régis composed a short commentary on it under the name of "Nouvelle géographie de la Chine et de la Tartarie orientale", which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, fr. MS. 17, 242; Father Du Halde availed himself of the writing to a great extent but would have done better to publish it entire.
Régis also turned his attention to the ancient Chinese books (king). Fr. Gaubil praises his "sane criticism" on the subject, and the English sinologist James Legge writes: "Régis is known as the interpreter of the Yih-king (ie the Yijing or Book of Changes) . His work was edited at Stuttgart, in 1864, by Julius Mol. One part of the first volume is occupied with Prolegomena which contain the most valuable introduction to the Chinese higher classics that has yet been published" ("Notions of the Chinese concerning God and the spirits", 1852, 69).
Father Gaubil describes his great virtue as humility and modesty, and says: "He was universally esteemed and loved by the missionaries of various bodies, Christians and the people of the Court who associated with him".
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Jesuit missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
in imperial China
Late Imperial China
Late Imperial China refers to the period between the end of Mongol rule in 1368 and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 and includes the Ming and Qing Dynasties...
.
Biography and works
He was born at IstresIstres
Istres is a commune in southern France, some 60 km northwest of Marseille. It is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture...
in Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
on 11 June 1663, or 29 January 1664; died at Peking on 24 November 1738. He was received into the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
on 14 September 1683, or 13 September 1679, and in 1698 went on the Chinese mission, where he served science and the Catholic religion for forty years, and took the chief share in the making of the general map of the Chinese Empire.
The early Jesuit missionaries had already endeavoured to make known to Europe the true geography of China, of which at the end of the sixteenth century even the best cartographers were utterly ignorant. Their achievements up to the middle of the seventeenth century are summed up in the "Novus Atlas Sinensis" published by Father Martin Martini (Amsterdam, 1655). He was greatly assisted in this work by Chinese books of geography, where he found a mass of descriptive information, the distances between important places, and even maps which however were very crude, the distances having been measured with little exactitude. These imperfect data he supplemented and completed by astronomical observations made in the chief towns by himself and his associates; hence the positions of his Atlas are remarkably accurate. The favour enjoyed by the missionaries with the Chinese emperor K'ang-hi (1662–1722) made it possible for them to improve on this. Father Ferdinand Verbiest
Ferdinand Verbiest
Father Ferdinand Verbiest was a Flemish Jesuit missionary in China during the Qing dynasty. He was born in Pittem near Tielt in Flanders, later part of the modern state of Belgium. He is known as Nan Huairen in Chinese...
collected the earliest ideas of 'Tatary' (i.e. the Mongol Empire) during two journeys made to that country with the emperor (1682-3).
The arrival in China in 1687 of French Jesuits sent by king Louis XIV gave new impetus to scholarly labours in the mission, especially to geography. Provided with perfected instruments and trained in the methods of the astronomers of the observatory of Paris, the new missionaries were able to determine more correctly locations already calculated. The "Mémoires" and the "Histoire de l'Academie des Sciences" record their observations. Father Jean-François Gerbillion made eight journeys through Tatary and Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
(1688–98) acquiring more geographical information concerning them. In 1701 the great work of the general map of the empire, begun by the topographical drawing of the capital city of Peking and its environs, including the ancient summer residences of the emperors and 1700 towns or villages, was assigned to Father Antoine Thomas
Antoine Thomas
Antoine Thomas was a Belgian Jesuit priest, missionary and astronomer in China.- Early life :Born in Namur in 1644, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1660 and first taught in the schools of Armentières, Huy and Tournai...
, a Belgian of Namur, and three Frenchmen, Joachim Bouvet
Joachim Bouvet
Joachim Bouvet was a French Jesuit who worked in China, and the leading member of the Figurist movement.-Biography:...
, Jean Baptiste Régis and Dominique Parennin. Ming Emperor K'ang-hi, who wished to take measures against the periodic overflow of the rivers of Zhili
Zhili
Zhílì was a northern province in China from the Ming Dynasty until the province was dissolved in 1928 during the Republic of China era.-History:...
, was satisfied.
Fr. Parennin then induced him to consent to a map of the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
. Fathers Bouvet, Régis and Pierre Jartoux measured their route to the eastern extremity of the famous rampart by means of regularly divided cords, keeping track of directions with the assistance of a compass, and frequently observing the meridian of the sun in order to calculate latitudes. In four days they reached the Gulf of Zhili (8 June 1708) and began operations on the great Wall. On 16 October they estimated its extent to be 21° long., or almost half the widest breadth of the United States from east to west and had determined the positions of the fortified towns "by which it was flanked", according to Fr. Régis. At the end of two months, Bouvet, being ill, retired to Peking. Régis and Jartoux reached the western edge of the Great Wall at Kia-yu-Koan (modern Jiayuguan) and completed their work by the mensuration of an interior lateral wall which had brought them to Si-ning (Xining
Xining
Xining is the capital of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.-History:...
), on the frontier of Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, near Lake Kukunor. They returned to Peking on 10 January 1709. Their map pleased the emperor, who requested the continuation of the work for the provinces outside the Great Wall and for China proper.
Régis, Jartoux and Fr. Ernbert Fridelli, from the Austrian Tyrol, set out for the northeast. In two expeditions (8 May - 17 December 1709; 22 July - 14 December 1710) they made the map of Liaodong and Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
, and during the interval drew the province of Chi-li, in which Peking is situated. In 1711 Father Francis Cardoso, a Portuguese, and the Augustinian Father Guillaume Bonjour, the only non-Jesuit, joined the geographers. Régis and Cardoso drew the map of Shang-tung; Jartoux, Fridelli and Bonjour traversed Mongolia as far as Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
in the north and the entrance of eastern Turkistan to the west. The year 1712 brought a new reinforcement; Frs. Vincent de Tartre and Cardoso made the maps of Shan-si and Shen-si (1712–14), Kiang-si and Kwang-tung, and Kwang-si; Frs. Anne-Marie de Mailla, Roman Hinderer
Roman Hinderer
Roman Hinderer was a German Jesuit missionary in imperial China.-Biography:...
, an Alsatian, and Régis laboured (1712–15) on the maps of Hu-nan, Kiang-nan, Che-kiang, Fu-kien and the Island of Formosa. Meanwhile Fridelli and Bonjour were at Sze-chuan, where Fr. Bonjour died on 23 December 1714, and was replaced by Régis on 24 March 1715. He assisted Fridelli with the maps of Yun-nan, Kwei-chow (Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
) and Hu-kwang. After ten years' labour the new map of China was completed on 1 January 1717. The fundamental method employed was the exact measurement of distances from which was obtained the longitude and latitude of places; this, supplemented and controlled by the observations of the meridians of the sun and the polar stars, directly gave the latitude. The missionaries were sometimes assisted by the observation of eclipses of the moon and the satellites of Jupiter, of which more perfect process they desired to make use to obtain longitudes, but conditions did not permit.
In reply to a criticism of Féret, the learned secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...
, Antoine Gaubil
Antoine Gaubil
Antoine Gaubil was French Jesuit missionary to China.-Life:He entered the Society of Jesus, 13 September 1704, was sent to China, where he arrived 26 June 1722. He then lived in Beijing for the rest of his life...
wrote (5 November 1736):
- "When thinking of a map of China and Tatary, you had in mind such men as MM. Cassini, Maraldi, Chazelles and others who worked at the meridian assisted by all the necessary instruments and having plenty of time at their disposals. Our Fathers made use of the avocationAvocationAn avocation is an activity that one engages in as a hobby outside one's main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside of their workplaces were their true passions in life...
of map-makers to do missionary work, to procure assistance and protection for the missionaries of the provinces, and to establish new missions. The Chinese and Tartar mandarins who accompanied them hindered them exceedingly; they had orders not to let the Fathers go where they would, ... and would never allow them sufficient time for observation of meridians, the measurement of roads, the variation of the needle (magnetic needle), the rhomb, and the estimation of positions from these elements. The work being finished the completed map had to be sent in haste to the emperor ... compared to what was done elsewhere for maps of countries smaller than China and Tartary this work can but do honour to the Tatar prince who commanded such a worthy undertaking and assuredly it did not discredit our Fathers."
Ferdinand de Richthofer, the geologist and explorer of China, wrote "If we consider the time at which it was made, the map of the Jesuits, as a whole, may be called a masterpiece" (China, I, 686).
Father Jartoux, who with Frs. Régis and Fridelli had the largest share in it, sent a copy to France, where it was published by Fr. Jean-Baptiste du Halde
Jean-Baptiste Du Halde
Jean-Baptiste Du Halde was a French Jesuit historian specializing in China. Although he had not gone to China, he collected seventeen Jesuit missionaries' reports and provided encyclopedic survey on Chinese history, culture and society....
with the assistance of the celebrated geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville , was both a geographer and cartographer who greatly improved the standards of map-making. His maps of ancient geography, characterized by careful, accurate work and based largely on original research, are especially valuable...
in the "Description de la Chine" (1735). Régis composed a short commentary on it under the name of "Nouvelle géographie de la Chine et de la Tartarie orientale", which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, fr. MS. 17, 242; Father Du Halde availed himself of the writing to a great extent but would have done better to publish it entire.
Régis also turned his attention to the ancient Chinese books (king). Fr. Gaubil praises his "sane criticism" on the subject, and the English sinologist James Legge writes: "Régis is known as the interpreter of the Yih-king (ie the Yijing or Book of Changes) . His work was edited at Stuttgart, in 1864, by Julius Mol. One part of the first volume is occupied with Prolegomena which contain the most valuable introduction to the Chinese higher classics that has yet been published" ("Notions of the Chinese concerning God and the spirits", 1852, 69).
Father Gaubil describes his great virtue as humility and modesty, and says: "He was universally esteemed and loved by the missionaries of various bodies, Christians and the people of the Court who associated with him".