Since the winter of the thirty-fourth year of Wanli (1606), there has been intense translation work. Matteo Ricci was orally translated word for word in Chinese, and then recorded by Xu Guangqi. After translating a passage, Xu Guangqi carefully revised it, and then Matteo Ricci checked it against the original. If there is any improper translation, Matteo Ricci carefully informed the original text and asked Xu Guangqi to revise it again. Again and again, Xu Guangqi is very serious about translation. It is often late at night, when Matteo Ricci is resting, he sits alone under the lamp to process and revise the translation. Sometimes, in order to determine a translated name, he kept pondering and deliberating, and before he knew it, he was busy until dawn. Parallel lines, triangles, diagonal lines, right angles, acute angles and obtuse angles in translation.
In the spring of the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci translated the first six volumes of this book. Xu Guangqi wanted to do his best to further translate, and strive to finish translating nine volumes within this year, but Matteo Ricci advocated printing the first six volumes before listening to the reflection. Before going to press, Xu Guangqi alone polished the translation for three times and revised it as much as possible. * * * Translation of the final title. The original Latin name of this work was Euclid. If translated into Chinese, it is not a mathematical work. If it is translated into metaphysics according to the content, it will be too old. Matteo Ricci said that Chinese "metaphysics" is called "Geo" in English, which originally meant land survey in Greece. Can you find a word with similar pronunciation and meaning in Chinese vocabulary? Xu Guangqi looked up more than a dozen phrases, but none of them were satisfactory. Later, he remembered the word "geometry" and thought it was close to the sound of "Geo". He suggested that the title should be translated into "Elements of Geometry", which Matteo Ricci was very satisfied with. In 2007, the first six volumes of Elements of Geometry were officially published .5438+0607. It has played a great role in the development of modern mathematics in China. Later, although Xu Guangqi failed to translate the last nine volumes of Elements with Matteo Ricci, he wrote many other scientific works one after another.
In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), it was closed and reviewed by the Hanlin Academy. Soon after, he lost his father and returned to his hometown to keep the system.
In the thirty-eighth year of Wanli (16 10), Xu Guangqi returned to Beijing and resumed his post. Since then, except for a few temporary errands, he has been a relatively idle review of imperial academy. Different from ordinary literati and officials who were keen on pen and ink entertainment at that time, Xu Guangqi spent more time on scientific and technological research such as astronomy, algorithms, agriculture and water conservancy, and engaged in a lot of translation and writing in this field. Xu Guangqi wrote a letter to his relatives. There are millions of people who have written prose in this world, but no one has done anything for me. Although the calendar is useless, it is not necessarily useless for today's poetry. Moreover, my younger generation's study of calendar calculation has gradually spread, and I have learned hundreds of useful things. Now, I occasionally emphasize several ways to use water, so it is quite convenient for me to try them ... Most of the people my brother destroyed over the years were taken away because of this incident. "refers to the forty years of Wanli (16 12), which was translated by the missionary S. de Ursis. This book introduces the western hydraulic engineering practice and various hydraulic machinery.