One significant outcome of the missionary efforts of the Society of Jesus was the transmission of mathematical sciences from early modern Europe to East Asia. This book brings together important data and analyses on the extent to and ways in which the Jesuits' scientific culture as well as the Portuguese policies shaped the Western learning.

In 1644 the Qing dynasty seized power in China. Its Manchu elite were at first seen by most of their subjects as foreigners from beyond the Great Wall, and the consolidation of Qing rule presented significant cultural and political problems, as well as military challenges. It was the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662-1722) who set the dynasty on a firm footing, and one of his main stratagems to achieve this was the appropriation for imperial purposes of the scientific knowledge brought to China by the Jesuit mission (1582-1773).
For almost two centuries, the Jesuits put the sciences in the service...