Qing · Official and Astronomer

Yang Guangxian 楊光先

Attested AD 1637 - AD 1666

Passages: 22
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

The translated histories identify Yang Guangxian as an astronomer, official, and writer. This record brings together 22 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Yang Guangxian	楊光先	Yang Guangxian
Courtesy	Changgong	長公	Changgong
Alternate		光先

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:272:s0060

Roles

Astronomer
Official
Writer

Life and dates

Death

Manner: died on the road returning home
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0095

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 崇禎十年 · Western Year: AD 1637
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0062
Source Date: Text: 康熙五年 · Western Year: AD 1666
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0047
Source Date: Text: 康熙四年 · Western Year: AD 1665
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0068

Career and standing

Label: Director of the Astronomical Bureau / 監正 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0071
Label: Right Assistant Director / 右監副 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0070
Label: battalion commander of Xin'an Guard / 新安所千戶 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0061
Status: stripped of office · Action: dismissed
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0093
Status: death sentence remitted; sent home · Action: pardoned
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0095
Status: court beating and exile to western Liaodong · Action: punished
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0063

Places and affiliations

Place: She County, Jiangnan / 江南歙縣
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0060

Works and attributed material

Work: On Date Selection / 選擇議 · Relation: author
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0047
Work: Picking Out Errors / 摘謬論 · Relation: author
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0047
Work: Unavoidable / 不得已 · Relation: author
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0072
Kind: memorial · Role: author
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0075, qingshigao:272:s0076, qingshigao:272:s0077, qingshigao:272:s0078, qingshigao:272:s0079

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: accuser · Action: impeached Tang Ruowang · Other Person Id: Tang Ruowang (湯若望)
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0047, qingshigao:272:s0068
Relation: attached-to · Person Id: Oboi (鰲拜)
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0094
Relation: patron-of · Person Id: Wu Mingxuan (吳明烜)
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0073

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: attacks judged shallow relative to Tang and Nan · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0126
Kind: illness · Statement: suffered from wind paralysis / rheumatism
Explicit · qingshigao:272:s0079

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 272Volume 272 Biographies 59: Tang Ruowang, Yang Guangxian, Nan Huai Ren · 22 passages

湯若望楊光先南懷仁 Tang Ruowang, Yang Guangxian, and Nan Huai Ren

康熙五年，新安衛官生楊光先叩閽進所著摘謬論、選擇議，斥湯若望新法十謬，並指選擇榮親王葬期誤用洪範五行，下議政王等會同確議。 In Kangxi 5, Xin'an Guard licentiate Yang Guangxian came to the palace gates with his "Picking Out Errors" and "On Date Selection," denouncing ten flaws in Tang Ruowang's method and accusing him of misapplying Hongfan five-phase rules to Prince Rong's burial date. The regents were ordered to decide.

聖祖既親政，以南懷仁治理曆法，光先坐譴黜，復用新法。 Once Kangxi took personal rule, he put Nan Huai Ren in charge of the calendar, punished and dismissed Yang Guangxian, and restored the new method.

楊光先，字長公，江南歙縣人。 Yang Guangxian, style Changgong, was from She County in Jiangnan.

光先上書，謂非所宜用。 Yang Guangxian wrote that this should not be used.

聖祖即位，四輔臣執政，頗右光先，下禮、吏二部會鞫。 When Kangxi ascended the throne the four regent ministers favored Yang Guangxian and sent the case to the Ministries of Rites and Personnel for joint trial.

康熙四年，議政王等定讞，盡用光先說，譴湯若望，其屬官至坐死。 In Kangxi 4 the regents fixed the verdict wholly on Yang Guangxian's side, censured Tang Ruowang, and punished his subordinates up to death.

除光先右監副，疏辭，不許； Yang Guangxian was made Right Assistant Director; he asked to decline and was refused;

光先編次其所為書，命曰不得已，持舊說繩湯若望。 Yang Guangxian compiled his writings under the title Unavoidable, using old doctrine to hold Tang Ruowang to account.

明烜，明炫兄弟行，明炫議復回回科不得請，至是明烜副光先任推算。 Wu Míngxuǎn and Wu Míngxuàn were kinsmen of the same generation. Wu Míngxuàn's petition to restore the Muslim section had been denied; now Wu Míngxuǎn served as Yang Guangxian's deputy in charge of calculations.

五年春，光先疏言：「今候氣法久失傳，十二月中氣不應。 In the spring of Kangxi 5 Yang Guangxian wrote: "The qi-observation method has long been lost; in the twelfth month the mid-term did not respond.

七年，光先复疏言：「律管尺寸，載在史記，而用法失傳。 In Kangxi 7 Yang Guangxian wrote again: "Pitch-pipe dimensions are recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian, but the method of use has been lost.

下禮部，言光先職監正，不當自諉，仍令訪求能候氣者。 The Ministry of Rites replied that as Director he should not shirk duty, and ordered him still to seek those who could observe qi.

是時朝廷知光先學術不勝任，復用西洋人南懷仁治理曆法。 By then the court knew Yang Guangxian's learning was inadequate and again put the Westerner Nan Huai Ren in charge of the calendar.

議政王等疏請以康熙九年曆日交南懷仁推算，上問：「光先前劾湯若望，議政王大臣會議，以光先何者為是，湯若望何者為非，及新法當日議停，今日議复，其故安在？」 The regents asked that Kangxi 9's calendar be entrusted to Nan Huai Ren. The emperor asked: "When Yang Guangxian impeached Tang Ruowang, the regents decided in Yang's favor—what was he right about, what was Tang wrong about? The new method was then stopped; today it is restored—why?"

請將光先奪官，交刑部議罪。」 They asked that Yang Guangxian be stripped of office and sent to the Ministry of Punishments for sentencing."

上命光先但奪官，免其罪。 The emperor ordered Yang Guangxian stripped of office but spared punishment.

南懷仁等復呈告光先依附鼇拜，將歷代所用洪範五行稱為滅蠻經，致李祖白等無辜被戮，援引吳明烜誣告湯若望謀叛。 Nan Huai Ren and others further accused Yang Guangxian of siding with Oboi, calling the Hongfan Five Phases used through the ages the "Scripture for Destroying Barbarians," causing the innocent execution of Li Zubai and others, and citing Wu Mingxuan's false charge that Tang Ruowang plotted rebellion.

下議政王等議，坐光先斬，上以光先老，貸其死，遣回籍，道卒。 The regents sentenced Yang Guangxian to decapitation; the emperor, citing his age, spared his life and sent him home—he died on the way.

時湯若望方黜，楊光先為監正，吳明烜為監副，以大統術治歷，節氣不應，金、水二星躔度舛錯。 Tang Ruowang had just been dismissed; Yang Guangxian was Director and Wu Mingxuan Assistant Director. They governed the calendar by the Datong system—seasonal terms failed to match, and the positions of Venus and Mercury were wrong.

南懷仁劾光先、明烜而去之，遂授南懷仁監副。 Nan Huai Ren impeached Yang Guangxian and Mingxuan and had them removed, then was made Assistant Director.

湯若望、南懷仁所述作，與楊光先所攻訐，淺深疏密，今人人能言之。 The writings of Tang Ruowang and Nan Huai Ren and the attacks of Yang Guangxian—who was shallow and who deep, loose and who precise—today anyone can judge.