Xuānxī tōng 宣西通
A Comprehensive Connection of the [Hóngfàn] Xuán and the West (Digest Version) by 許桂林 (撰)
About the work
This catalog entry is the single-juǎn digest companion to KR3fa034 Xuānxī tōng (4 juǎn), both by 許桂林 Xǔ Guìlín (1779–1821). The two together form a paired synthesist monograph and its précis: the longer four-juǎn version is the full philological-and-astronomical argument that the Hóngfàn 洪範 xuánjī yùhéng contains the framework of the Jesuit-introduced astronomy; the present single-juǎn version is its condensation into a usable summary. The catalog gives them separate reference numbers (KX03-07-030 for the 4-juǎn version, KXDLJ0031311 for the present 1-juǎn version) but they are the same author’s work.
Abstract
Composition window: Xǔ’s mature scholarly years c. 1810–1821; the digest is plausibly a slightly later compression of the longer version, but no internal evidence allows narrower dating. See KR3fa034 for the full treatment of authorship, content and significance. The digest is preserved in the Sìkù wèishōu shū jíkān and in the Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù diǎnjí tōnghuì under the separate KXDLJ identifier KXDLJ0031311, distinct from the four-juǎn version’s KX-identifier; this is the standard editorial convention of the modern reprint series, which preserves separate textual witnesses with separate identifiers.
The digest summarises the four-fold argument structure of the longer work: (a) the xuánjī yùhéng and the equatorial-celestial reference system; (b) the Yáo diǎn solstitial-equinoctial framework and the precession problem; (c) the qīzhèng planetary system as anticipated in the classical Yuèlìng and Lǚshì chūnqiū tradition; (d) the Hóngfàn jiǔchóu as the master frame.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located.
See KR3fa034 for the full bibliography. The principal reference is:
- Elman, Benjamin A. 2005. On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.