Description

The author of this work was Nan Huairen, Chinese name of Ferdinand Verbiest, 1623–88, courtesy name Dunbo, style name Xunqing. Verbiest was a Belgian Jesuit missionary who arrived in China in 1659 and took up his first post in Shaanxi. In 1660 he was called to Beijing to assist in making a calendar. In the eighth year (1669) of the Kangxi reign he was appointed an administrator of the calendar. He held a number of positions at the imperial court, including director of the Imperial Observatory, chamberlain of the ...