ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the importance of administrators and the administrative system in the history of the Astronomical Bureau. European missionaries’ continual loss of status in the Qing court resulted in their complete withdrawal from the Astronomical Bureau in 1826. By then, the Astronomical Bureau and the College of Mathematics had become stagnant and the periodical examination system had become formulaic. However, the stagnation gradually changed after May 1824, when the Daoguang emperor named Jingzheng (1785–1850), who was famous for his administrative ability rather than his knowledge of astronomy or mathematics, as superintendent of these two institutions. Aggressively utilizing the existing periodical examination system, Jingzheng ousted the old and incompetent He family from the Astronomical Bureau. New and proficient astronomer families arose. By the time Jingzheng retired from public service in 1845, the Bureau had repaired its astronomical instruments and had updated the constants used in the calendar-making process.
