My research focuses on transmission of mathematical sciences from Europe to China in the early modern age; this transmission is closely linked to the Jesuit mission (from 1582 to 1773). For almost two centuries, the Jesuits put the sciences in the service of evangelization: their knowledge enhanced the prestige of their religion and opened the way first to the patronage of individual officials, and then to that of the state. The Jesuits' sciences had a much more pervasive influence than their religion: all scholars interested in the mathematical sciences knew about Western learning (xixue 西學), whatever their attitude towards it might have been. I study the factors that contributed to shaping Jesuit science in China (the importance that the Society of Jesus gave to mathematics; the renewal of interest in ‘solid learning' (shixue 實學) among late Ming scholars), the process of translation of mathematical into Chinese, and the Jesuits' participation in the Calendar Reform of 1629. I also explore Chinese responses to Western learning, which entailed competing propositions for structuring mathematics.
Another focus of my research is the role of Western learning in the construction of the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Kangxi (r. 1662-1722), the second emperor of that dynasty, systematically appropriated the Jesuits' science and technology as tools for statecraft. Beside the calendar, cartography and military technology were among the fields in which he used Western learning. In my work, I aim to show how Kangxi's own study of mathematics and astronomy shaped Chinese literati's approach to these disciplines, and to assess how successful he was at integrating the mathematical sciences in state-sponsored scholarship.