Taiji and Pascal’s Triangle: Joachim Bouvet’s Christianized Interpretation of the Yijing
摘要
This chapter explores Joachim Bouvet's Christian reinterpretation of the Yijing, with a particular focus on his understanding of Taiji太極 and Pascal's Triangle. Matteo Ricci, a pioneer of Catholic missions in China, initially criticized the Chinese philosophical definition of Taiji as the ultimate entity of the universe. However, in a 1604 letter to Jesuit Superior General, Claudio Acquaviva, Ricci conceded that Taiji could be identified with God if conceived as a substantial, intelligent, and infinite first principle. Nearly a century after Ricci’s arrival in China, Bouvet, one of Louis XIV’s royal mathematicians, embraced the idea of Taiji as a Chinese term for God. Bouvet further employed mathematics more extensively than Ricci, with a particular emphasis on Pascal's Triangle. He interpreted the number 1 at the triangle's vertices as symbolizing Taiji, equating it with God. Through this perspective, Bouvet ascribed an association with the Yijing to Pascal's Triangle — an application never envisioned by Pascal himself. Bouvet renamed Pascal's Triangle as Tianzun Dibei Tu 天尊地卑圖 and incorporated it into his understanding of the Yijing. Pascal's Triangle appears to have been a part of Bouvet's mathematical teachings to the Kangxi Emperor, who later instructed Li Guangdi to integrate Bouvet's geometric diagrams into the Zhouyi Zhezhong 周易折中. Following this order, Li incorporated the diagrams into the Qimeng Fulun section of the text. However, Li Guangdi refrained from suggesting any connection between these diagrams and Western mathematical traditions. Instead, he linked them to the works of Chinese mathematician Cheng Dawei 程大位 and philosopher Shao Yong 邵雍. This divergence underscores both the conflicts and convergences in Sino-Western intellectual exchanges, shedding light on the enduring complexities of cross-cultural dialogue.