Christian Wolfgang Herdtrich (25 June 1625– 18 July 1684) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

to the

Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. As he wrote his works in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, he is also known as

Life

Paradigma XV Provinciarum et CLV Urbium Capitalium Sinensis Imperij

Christian Wolfgang Herdtrich was born at

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

, in the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

on 25 June 1625. Herdtrich entered the Austrian province of the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

on 27 October 1641, and in 1656 was chosen for the Chinese mission. For two years he laboured on the island of

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

("Celebes"). After 1660, he moved to the

Chinese provinces Provinces ( zh, c=省, p=Shěng) are the most numerous type of province-level divisions in the People's Republic of China (PRC). There are currently 22 provinces administered by the PRC and one province that is claimed, but not administere ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

and

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

. In 1671, he was called to the imperial court in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

as a mathematician; there, he joined a group of scholarly Jesuits with whom the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ...

surrounded himself. The last nine years of his life were spent as superior of the mission of "Kiang-tcheon" in Shanxi. He died on 18 July 1684. The Kangxi Emperor himself wrote on Herdtrich's epitaph."Welt-Bott", Augsburg, 1726, Nos. 16, 49.

Works

Herdtrich professed a profound knowledge of the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. He collaborated with

Philippe Couplet Philippe Couplet, SJ (1623–1693), known in China as Bai Yingli, was a Flemish people, Flemish Jesuits, Jesuit Jesuit China missions, missionary to the Qing Empire. He worked with his fellow missionaries to compile the influential ''Confucius, P ...

Prospero Intorcetta Prospero Intorcetta (1625–1696), known to the Chinese as Yin Duoze, was an Italian people, Italian Jesuit missions in China, Jesuit missionary to the Qing Empire. He was the first to translate the works of Confucius in Europe. Life Prospero In ...

, and François de Rougemont in compiling ''Confucius, the Philosopher of the Chinese'' (), a major introduction to Chinese history and thought that was published in Paris in 1687. Herdtrich was also the author of a large Chinese-Latin dictionary (''Wentse-Ko''), probably one of the first of its kind.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Huonder, ''Deutsche Jesuitenmissionäire'' (Freiburg im Br., 1899), 188; * Dahlmann, ''Die Sprachenkunde und de Missionen'' (Freiburg im Br., 1891), 32-37; * Hazart-Sontermann, ''Kirchengesch.'', I (Vienna and Munich, 1707), 706 sqq. * . Letters of Herdritch may be found in: * Intorcetta, ''Compendiosa Narratione della Missione Cinense'' (Rome, 1672), 115-128; * Adrien Greslon, ''Histoire de la Chine sous la domination des Tartares'' (Partis, 1670), 56; * ''Kathol. Missionen'' (Freiburg im Br.) for 1901-02, pp. 25 sqq.; 1905-05, pp. 4 sqq.

External links

Biography
newadvent.org. Accessed 23 February 2024. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herdtrich, Christian Wolfgang 1625 births 1684 deaths 17th-century Austrian Jesuits Roman Catholic missionaries in China Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries Austrian expatriates in China Writers from Graz Clergy from Graz