𝗝𝗶𝗮𝗼 𝗕𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘇𝗵𝗲𝗻
Court Painter 🏯 👨🎨 🎨 (active 1689–1726 Anno Domini A.D. )
Great Conversion Story
Jiao Bingzhen is a well-known figure in the history of Chinese art. In the late 17th Century, he became one of the first Chinese painters to integrate Western techniques of perspective and detail into traditional Chinese painting styles 🖌️ . His large body of work is still much appreciated in China and throughout the world today. What is not so well known about Jiao Bingzhen is that he was a convert to the Catholic faith 🙏 ⛪ . Jiao stands as a notable example of the small but significant "movement of conversion" that took place among scholar-officials serving at the imperial court in the 17th century during the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty. Jiao was not only a painter, but also a mathematician 🧮 , astronomer 🔭 , and important civil official 👨💼 . By the time of Jiao's earliest known paintings (1689), he was already working for the Imperial Astronomical Bureau on the lengthy project of updating the Chinese calendar 📆 in collaboration with the Jesuits and their more precise scientific methods.
#Catholic
https://us.magnificat.net/
https://grok.com/imagine/post/cf5a1db5-581d-40e2-9050-0356df1217db?source=post-page&platform=web
https://gab.com/adagioforstrings/posts/115517445526713566
https://truthsocial.com/group/catholics-on-truth/posts/115517432095696011
During this period the presence of Jesuit missionaries in the imperial bureaucracy in Beijing reached the high point of its influence. The Jesuits were useful to the central government because of their knowledge of Western advances in the empirical sciences 👨🔬 , mathematics 👨🏫 , and technology ⚙️ . This allowed them to acquire authorization to live in the capital city and work with the highly educated and multi-talented Chinese government officials, some of whom were open to a Christian understanding of the ultimate meaning of things. The Jesuits in 17th-century China were continuing the style of evangelization pioneered by Matteo Ricci. Their goal was not to gain temporal power or wealth 🙅♂️ 💰 . Rather, it was to serve the truth, based on the fundamental insight that everything in the universe 🌌 , everything that exists, is a sign of God, is from God and for God. Everything that serves the truth server the 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥. Anywhere there is interest in the truth, there is a possibility to begin a dialogue that leads on the path to the One who is the truth incarnate, Jesus Christ.
While they were working with their Chinese colleagues on calendrical and astronomical calculations, the Jesuits also engaged earnestly in this dialogue. They sought to indicate to those who were drawn to learn from them that the source of the "movement of the stars," 🌟 🌠 the source of the order and the beauty and the rationality of the universe, is God, the Lord of Heaven, who sent his Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, they preached the Gospel consistently and with some success among the Chinese scholar-officials who worked with them, who accepted Christ and joined the Catholic Church ⛪ , often with their entire families 👨👩👧👦 . Jesuit missionary efforts were at least tolerated by the emperors, who relied on Jesuit technological expertise, and were ably defended and perpetuated by the new converts. The mission made enemies and caused misunderstandings at the imperial court and beyond, but imperial projects like the Astronomical Bureau continued to serve as informal (but vibrant) "catechetical institutes." 🏫
Jiao Bingzhen was one of the numerous converts from the Astronomical Bureau. He became a respected member of the Catholic community in Beijing throughout his period of service there. He signed a memorandum to the Emperor 📝 ✍️ 📨 👑 defending the Jesuits in 1702, which indicates his prominence among the Chinese converts. Like his colleagues, Jiao had encountered the gift of God in Christ through the "signs" of nature, working with the Jesuits on the revision of the calendar, looking at the stars. Thus Jiao found Christ - as Jesuit missionary and astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest put it - just as the wise men of the East had once been 𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 to the crib in Bethlehem. ✡️ 🧭 🐫 🐪 🐫
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