He helped Chongzhen cast cannons and revised the calendar for Shunzhi. Why was the missionary Tang Ruowang sentenced to Lingchi?

The life of missionary Tang Ruowang can be described as a legend. He brought a lot of advanced Western technology to the court, but was eventually found guilty of being framed. Fortunately, he was spared.

Tang Ruowang is a German. He first came to Macau with a group of believers and tried to preach in the local area. At the same time, in order to suppress the peasant uprising, the Ming Dynasty sent a special envoy to Macau to purchase artillery from the Portuguese. Tang Ruowang thought this was a good opportunity, so he went to recommend himself as a firearms expert who could provide technical assistance to the Ming government. A few years later, Tang Ruowang was appreciated by Emperor Chongzhen and successfully entered the court as an official.

Tang Ruowang in the Ming Dynasty mainly did two things, one was to observe astronomy and modify the calendar, and the other was to help Chongzhen cast cannons. Relatively speaking, Emperor Chongzhen paid more attention to the latter. Over the next two years, Tang Ruowang and others worked hard to conduct experiments and eventually built 20 cannons. Although this number is insignificant, it was already an advanced weapon in the late Ming Dynasty. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Ruowang was continued by the Qing Dynasty because of his proficiency in calendaring, and was promoted again.

The ancients attached great importance to Feng Shui, especially the imperial families. In the 15th year of Shunzhi, Prince Heshuorong passed away. Tang Ruowang and others were responsible for calculating the burial date. During the specific operation, the responsible personnel of Qintianjian deduced according to the "Hongfan Five Elements" and did not use the "Five Elements". In fact, there is no final answer as to which one should be used. However, this became the basis for Tang Ruowang to be framed. After the death of Emperor Shunzhi, someone impeached Tang Ruowang and others, claiming that they had been negligent in deducing the burial date and that there were loopholes in the new calendar. The final trial found that Tang Ruowang and others were indeed negligent, and the penalty was set to Lingchi. Emperor Kangxi was still young at this time, and the people in charge were the auxiliary ministers and the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang. After some weighing, it was decided to exempt Tang Ruowang and others.