Master of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen

Academic Career

• 2022 M.A. Sinology/Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen
• 2020-2022 Research Assistant of Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrich Vogel, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen.
• 2019 B.A. History, Faculty of Humanities, University of Macau
• 2017-2019 Research Assistant of Prof. Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros, Department of History, University of Macau

Research Focus
In her Bachelor thesis, Sheng Jia examined the transmission and reception of Jesuit science in China through a case study of the Galilean telescope brought to China in early 1600s. She deepened her research on this topic with her M.A. thesis, titled “China’s First Acquaintance with the Galilean Telescope: An Annotated Translation of the Yuanjingshuo 遠鏡說 (1626)”, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrich Vogel. Yuanjingshuo (On the Farseeing Telescopes; YJS), written by Johann Adam Schall von Bell S.J. (1591-1666) and his Chinese collaborator Li Zubai 李祖白 (?-1665), is known to be the first scientific treatise that systematically introduces the Western telescope and relevant astronomical discoveries and optical theories to Chinese readers. In her thesis, she adopts the approach of thick translation and raises such questions as “how should the YJS’s textual meaning and magnitude be understood in the historical context” and “what Western and Eastern knowledge and traditions are referred to in the text”, answering them in annotations and footnotes with ample references to primary sources and research literature. Besides historical contextualization, her thesis also compares the different existing editions of the YJS, and analyses its influence and perception in late Ming China by examining its role in various historical events and accounts. To encourage further research on the history of the telescope in late imperial China, her thesis ends with the conclusion that the composition of the YJS draws on a wide range of Western and Oriental works dealing with Aristotelian philosophy, Alhazen’s classical optical theories and Galileo’s contemporary telescopic discoveries, while at the same time making use of Chinese terminologies and ancient works for knowledge adaption and accommodation. This master thesis was finished in 2022 within the framework of the research project “Translating Western Science, Technology and Medicine to Late Ming China: Convergences and Divergences in the Light of the Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致 (Investigations of the Earth’s Interior; 1640) and the Taixi shuifa 泰西水法 (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612)”.

A portrait of Ferdinand Verbiest with a telescope set on the table behind him. Portrait in Jean-Baptiste du Halde, «Description de la Chine …», Paris, 1735, vol. 3, pp. 78-79. MAE, Library, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Verbiest.

Other Activities
From 2017 to 2019 Sheng Jia was Research Assistant of Prof. Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros in the Project “Translating Western Anatomy to Late Ming China: Convergences and Divergences in the Light of the Taixi renshen shuogai 泰西人身説大概 (An Outline of the Human Body from the Occident; 1643),” Department of History, University of Macau.
Between 2020 and 2022, she was Research Assistant of Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrich Vogel in the project “Translating Western Science, Technology and Medicine to Late Ming China: Convergences and Divergences in the Light of the Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致 (Investigations of the Earth’s Interior; 1640) and the Taixi shuifa 泰西水法 (Hydromethods of the Great West; 1612)”, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen.
Currently Sheng Jia is a computational linguistics student, a chatbot developer intern, and a language and technology aspirer.

Excerpt from the «Yuanjing shuo» 遠鏡說 (On the Farseeing Telescopes; 1633), in «Yihai zhuchen» 藝海珠塵 (Pearls from the Sea of Classics Spread out in the Dust), comp. by Wu Shenglan 吳省蘭 (1738-1815), pp. 2-3. World Digital Library, www.wdl.org/zh/item/11434/.