page_title: Johann Adam Schall von Bell
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Johann Adam Schall von Bell / Life
caption_attribution_description: English: Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Shunzhi Emperor 中文: 汤若望与顺治帝，德国慕尼黑博物馆藏。（出自《清史图典》）
context_page_description: Johann Adam Schall von Bell was a German Jesuit and astronomer. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China and became an adviser to the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing dynasty.
context_section_description: Schall von Bell was born to noble parents in Cologne or nearby Lüftelberg (today part of Meckenheim) in the Holy Roman Empire. After he graduated from the Jesuit Gymnasium in Cologne he moved to Rome and studied subjects such as mathematics and astronomy at the Collegium Germanicum. In 1611 he joined the Society of Jesus and continued his education at the Gregorianum.
  In 1618 he left for China on a Portuguese ship with a group of missionaries under the lead of Nicolas Trigault. The next year the group reached the Portuguese trading port of Macau where Schall von Bell spent some time learning Chinese. He started missionary work inside China in 1622, but allegedly his success was limited. He participated in the defence of Macau from a Dutch invasion in the same year, and personally took a Dutch captain prisoner from that victorious battle.
  Schall von Bell and Giacomo Rho were sent to Beijing in 1630 to continue the work of the deceased Johann Schreck on a reform of the Chinese calendar. With Xu Guangqi, he participated in modifying the Chinese calendar and compiling what is known as the Chongzhen calendar. Named after the Chongzhen Emperor, the last emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644), the modified calendar provided more accurate predictions of eclipses of the sun and the moon. Upon Xu's passing, he held the requiem in his honor and oversaw the process of shipping the body back to his relatives in Shanghai.
  After the Ming-Qing Transition in 1644, Schall von Bell gained access to the newly installed Shunzhi Emperor and became one of his trusted counsellors. He was made a mandarin and held an important post in connection with the mathematical school: Director of the Imperial Observatory and the Tribunal of Mathematics.
  His position enabled him to procure from the emperor permission for the Jesuits to build churches and to preach throughout the country. Thus Schall von Bell is indirectly credited with 500,000 Chinese that are said to have been baptised by Jesuit missionaries within fourteen years, making him a successful missionary.
  The Shunzhi Emperor died in 1661 and Schall von Bell's position started to erode. In 1664 he was challenged by Yang Guangxian and the Muslim astronomers, who accused him of planning a rebellion and of having wilfully miscalculated time and place of a funeral and in that way contributed to the death of Consort Donggo. Schall von Bell and other Jesuits, Ferdinand Verbiest included, were imprisoned. Schall von Bell had a stroke in prison. At trial, Verbiest spoke in his defense, but all were condemned to death. However, after an earthquake, the Jesuits were pardoned and only five Chinese Christians working in the astronomical office were executed. The Jesuits were exiled to Macau. Schall von Bell died within one year of his release. Yang Guangxian succeeded as the head astronomer at the court. Four years later, however, the young Kangxi Emperor replaced him with Verbiest, and von Bell's honors were fully restored.
  A collection of Schall von Bell's manuscripts was deposited in the Vatican Library.
caption: A European painting of Adam Schall dressed in mandarin robes with an Orientialized depiction of the Shunzhi Emperor.
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