ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Ricci’s achievements in creating new astronomical terms as well as new knowledge about the representation of a round Earth and the 11 levels of cosmology. These achievements include the terms coined by Ricci and his collaborator Lǐ Zhīzǎo and their word-making methods. For their linguistic rationale behind the creation of new astronomical terms, Ricci and Lǐ Zhīzǎo borrowed from their related forms in ancient Chinese so that the new terms would be easily accepted by the Chinese. Ricci had an outstanding ability to spread the achievements of Western astronomy to China through the perspective of linguistics. His ability to coin astronomical terms was also superb. It is precisely because of the ingenious word creation method used by Ricci that he enriched the astronomical knowledge of the late Míng Chinese and gradually changed the traditional Chinese worship of heaven by introducing a scientific point of view, thus achieving his purpose of using scientific and technological knowledge to spread Catholicism.
