杨光先 / Yang Guangxian

Yang Guangxian enters the wiki through EP259 与苗师傅漫谈徐光启：四百年前如何让人变聪明？ as the Qing critic who attacked [[JohannAdamSchallVonBell|汤若望]] and the foreign calendar network. The episode places him in the Kangxi-era controversy around burial dates, astronomical administration, and suspicion of Jesuit influence.

The source uses Yang as the hard case for [[ScienceValueTransmission|science value transmission]] and [[LateMingWesternLearning|晚明西学东渐]]. He is not presented only as ignorant; the episode notes that many intellectuals could see him as defending Chinese cultural purity. But his stance also shows how cultural-sovereignty arguments can block technical accuracy, destroy learning communities, and turn institutions against people trained in new methods.

Yang therefore functions as an anti-example to [[XuGuangqi|徐光启]]. Where Xu’s story centers curiosity, translation, and disciplined learning, Yang’s story centers closure, purity, and suspicion when foreignness and state legitimacy collide.

Connections

• [[JohannAdamSchallVonBell|汤若望]] - main target in the calendar controversy.
• Calendar Reform Legitimacy / 历法改革与政治合法性 - institutional setting of the conflict.
• Late-Ming Western Learning / 晚明西学东渐 and Science Value Transmission / 科学价值观传入 - knowledge-transfer concepts tested by his case.
• Science-Religion Civilization Tension and Knowledge Monopoly - adjacent frames for knowledge, authority, and cultural boundary-making.