Schall von Bell, Johann Adam

SCHALL VON BELL, JOHANN ADAM. - Jesuit, missionary in China and astronomer, b. at Cologne on 1 May 1592, d. at Peking on 15 Aug. 1666. Having entered the Society of Jesus on 21 Oct. 1611 and been ordained a priest, he set out from Lisbon for China on 16 Apr. 1618. He arrived at Macao on 15 July 1619 and remained there until the autumn of 1622, when, the persecution having ended, he was able to go to Peking, where he arrived on 25 Jan. 1623.

As soon as he had learned the language, in 1627 he was sent as a missionary to Sian, in Shensi, from where in the second half of 1630 he was recalled to Peking for the correction of the calendar. A gross error of calculation of the solar eclipse of 21 June 1629 on the part of the Chinese astronomers had prompted the Emperor to entrust the correction of the calendar to the Missionaries, assisted by two distinguished Christians, Dr. Paul Siücoamcchi (Hsi Kuang-ch'i) and Dr. Leone Licezao (Li Chih-tsao). For this reason Fr. S. was recalled from Shensi and Fr. Giacomo Rho of Milan from Shansi, and within five years, aided by a dozen Christian men of letters, the two missionaries published a collection of about 150 small volumes of mathematics in Chinese. On 28 Feb. 1634 they presented to the Emperor the first calendar corrected according to Western methods. After the death of the two Chinese colleagues (1630 and 1633) and of Rho (1638), S. continued and expanded his work, building instruments of astronomy, optics, hydraulics, music and even artillery, casting cannons to repel the incursions of the Manchus. With their triumph in 1644, S. did not lose the favor he had enjoyed under the last emperor of the Mings; before the end of that year S. was appointed president of the Bureau of Astronomy despite his protests. Alexander VII on 3 Apr. 1664 declared "vivae vocis oraculo" that, given the circumstances, it was lawful for S. to accept such an honor, notwithstanding his profession of four vows and the related doubts of his confreres. As for the insertion into the calendar of auspicious or inauspicious days and of certain superstitious particulars, S. had to prove that he was responsible only for the purely scientific part of the compilation of the calendar. He found himself in a delicate situation when there was conferred upon him (1658) the dignity of mandarin of the first class, for which three generations before him and three after him had to be ennobled; in order for this to be possible, he, by the will of the Emperor, had to adopt as his son the son of one of his servants, an imprudence for the Catholic population of the Netherlands in the national political life, from which it had been thrust back in the wake of the Reformation. Without ever having been part of any ministry, he remained until his death the undisputed leader and emancipator of his coreligionists, whom he united in a single political party and, as their spiritual head, then began (despite a strong internal opposition) the so-called policy of coalition with the parties for which S. publicly asked pardon a year before his death. This imprudence would be slanderously exploited in 1751 by the apostate former Capuchin N. Platel.

Even while occupied with scientific studies, S. found the time and the means to do the work of a true missionary at court. He began by converting three eunuchs. Since the ladies of the palace never went outside the "forbidden city," and no one could speak with them except the eunuchs, S. used these three Christian eunuchs to reach them. A chapel of the B. Virgin was erected within the precinct of the imperial palace, and in it there prayed in 1642 a singular, almost religious community of some fifty fervent Christian ladies under the direction of a superior. Through the eunuchs and the Christian ladies, S. aimed at the conversion of the Emperor himself. Scioence (Shuh Chih), the first Manchu Emperor, was on very familiar terms with S., and went to visit him some twenty times a year, conversing familiarly with him; S. took advantage of this to give useful advice to the young Monarch, so much so that it has been possible to assert that, from 1651 to 1661, S. was almost like a regent of China. Instructed in the truths of the faith, the Emperor could have converted had he not died almost suddenly at the age of 23 in 1661.

This death gave the opponents of European astronomy the occasion to abandon themselves to a campaign of defamation that culminated in the persecution of 1664, whose principal instigator was a Mohammedan by the name of Iamcoamsien (Yang Kuang-hsien) who passed himself off as an astronomer. He accused S. of high treason and of having introduced a pernicious religion and a false astronomy. After a trial and a imprisonment of seven months, S. on 15 Apr. 1665 was condemned to be cut into tiny pieces; instead he was finally released on 18 May but died a year later, on 15 Aug. 1666. When the following year the young Camsci (Kanglui) took the government in hand, he ordered the revision of the trial and approved the sentence of the full rehabilitation of S. and of the decapitation of his rival, who was later pardoned because of his old age.

Pasquale D'Elia