Guangqi Park and Xu Guangqi

On Nandan Road in Shanghai, there is an antique small park called Guangqi Park. Although the area is only 13,000 square meters, it was approved as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council in 2007. Guangqi Park is actually a historical and cultural park, which was established in 1983 in the name of Xu Guangqi, a famous patriotic scientist in the late Ming Dynasty. The predecessor of Guangqi Park was Xu Guangqi's private cemetery, which was built in the 14th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty. Entering Guangqi Park, there is an antique stone archway. Along the main walkway of the park, four pairs of stone people, stone horses, stone sheep and other stone statues are displayed on both sides, reflecting the noble status of the tomb owner. At the end of the main road, there stands a tall cross, which adds a solemn and solemn feeling to the park. The deepest part of the park is the oval Xu's tomb, where Xu Guangqi and his wife and descendants are buried. Although Guangqi Park is cramped, the park is compact and well laid out: the pool is rippling, the trees are shady, the path is winding, and there is a unique cave. In 2003, the oldest existing residential building in Shanghai, Nan Chunhua Hall, was relocated from the Meilong area of Shanghai to the park for rescue protection, and was opened as Xu Guangqi Memorial Hall, which is also a crowning touch to Guangqi Park. It is worth mentioning that why is there a cross of Western Catholicism in Guangqi Park? It turns out that when Xu Guangqi returned to Shanghai from the imperial examination in 1603, he met Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary who came to China to preach in Nanjing. The two hit it off and hated to meet each other late. Xu Guangqi was attracted by the cultural scenes of Western natural and social sciences depicted by Matteo Ricci. Therefore, he quickly joined the Catholic Church and worshipped Matteo Ricci as his teacher, eagerly absorbing the advanced Western scientific knowledge taught by this Italian missionary. In the following days, Xu Guangqi used the Western scientific knowledge he learned to combine with China's local reality, researched and wrote many scientific monographs suitable for China's national conditions, and thus became a famous scholar and scientist in the Ming Dynasty of China. It can be said that Xu Guangqi was the 'first person in modern China to open his eyes to the world'. Of course, as one of the three pillars of the Catholic Diocese of Shanghai, Xu Guangqi, who practiced what he preached, made indelible contributions to preaching and cultural exchanges between China and the West. It is also a matter of course and reason for people to erect monuments and erect shelves for him.