Exhibition on Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein and his monument On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Slovenia and the 320th anniversary of the birth of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein 刘松龄与玑衡抚辰仪文献展览 纪念中斯建交30周年暨刘松龄诞辰320周年 Exhibition on Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein and his monument On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Slovenia and the 320th anniversary of the birth of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein 刘松龄与玑衡抚辰仪文献展览 纪念中斯建交30周年暨刘松龄诞辰320周年 Exhibition on Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein and his monument Preparation of the exhibition and the accompanying publication: Dr Matevž Košir and Assistant Professor Huiqin Wang Design: Dolores Gerbec Translation: Polona Glavan, Translation and Interpretation Division, Secretariat-General of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia Published by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia Represented by Director Dr Andrej Nared Ljubljana, 2024, online edition Kataložni zapis o publikaciji (CIP) pripravili v Narodni in univerzitetni knjižnici v Ljubljani COBISS.SI-ID 191488771 ISBN 978-961-6638-49-4 (PDF) TABLE OF CONTENTS Bojan Cvelfar 5 Hallerstein – Bridge between the Republic of Slovenia and the People's Republic of China Wang Shunqing 9 A monument to the mutual respect of civilisations Mitja Saje 12 Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein's return to Slovenia Qi Rui 25 Beijing Ancient Observatory and the armillary sphere Peter Štih 3 31 Cooperation between the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the memory of Hallerstein Metka Lokar 34 Science and Art: Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein and Huiqin Wang Hallerstein – Bridge between the Republic of Slovenia and the People's Republic of China Dr Bojan Cvelfar Cooperation between the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and the National Director of the Archives Archives Administration of the People's Republic of China began in the 1980s and of the Republic of Slovenia continued after the People's Republic of China recognised the Republic of Slovenia in 1992. Cooperation in the archival field took a more concrete form after the International Council on Archives Congress in Beijing in 1996 and the signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement on Cultural Cooperation in 1998. In 1999, on the initiative of the Chinese Embassy in Ljubljana and within the framework of the Agreement on Cultural Cooperation between Slovenia and China, representatives of the National Archives Administration of China visited the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. A year later, a delegation from the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia visited the First Historical Archives of China, and a visit to the Chinese archives was also organised by the Slovenian Archives Association. When our Chinese colleagues revisited Ljubljana in the summer of 2001, we agreed that the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia would organise an exhibition on Slovenia in Beijing. In autumn 2003, the exhibition »Slovenian Towns through Time« was held in Beijing. During our work in various archival fields, Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein (1703– 5 1774), who was a Jesuit missionary but also a renowned astronomer, mathematician, cartographer and diplomat in China from 1739 until his death in 1774, soon gained well-deserved attention. His archival heritage is held by both the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and the Beijing Archives. In 2003, we agreed to mutually register the Hallerstein archive material. Delegation of the Slovenian Archives and participants of the professional excursion of the Slovenian Archives Association in front of the First Historical Archives of China in Beijing. In the front row, centre, are Vladimir Žumer, Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, and the Director of the First Historical Archives of China. Beijing, April 2000. In 2005, representatives of the Chinese State Archives visited Slovenia with the exhibition »Gems of Chinese Archives«, which was organised by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and first staged at the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia and then at the archives in Celje and Maribor. Documents relating to Hallerstein kept by the First Historical Archives of China in Beijing were also part of the exhibition. Facsimiles of these documents were donated by the Chinese archives to the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. The good relations between the archives of the two countries were also reflected in the cooperation in the international project on Hallerstein. The research into his life and work resulted in newly discovered archival documents, including the exhibition »Transfer Beyond Time. Artistic Interpretations of the Life Story of Ferdinand Augustin Haller von Hallerstein« (on display at the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum and the Shanghai Municipal Archives in 2008) and a scientific collection published by KID KIBLA and the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia in 2009, which was subsequently translated into Chinese. In these works, Hallerstein »came to life« not only as a bridge between the past and the present, but also as a bridge between Slovenia and China. Chinese Archives delegation on the staircase of the Archives In 2008, representatives of the Archives of Slovenia again visited the National of the Republic of Slovenia Archives Administration of China and the Beijing Ancient Observatory. The armillary in June 2001. In the top row, sphere designed by Hallerstein attracted a lot of attention. The idea of erecting a from left to right: Head of the Hallerstein »monument« – a replica of what was termed the equatorial armillary 6 Computer Centre of the First sphere – in Ljubljana was born. In 2012, the Slovenian Archives launched an official Historical Archives of China, initiative for the erection of the monument, which was supported by the Slovenian Wang Peng; Head of the First Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum and the Historical Archives of China, University of Ljubljana, and also endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Yang Yongzhan; Deputy Head of then Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. To avoid the initiative being the International Cooperation shelved, in August 2015 the Slovenian Archives submitted it again to the Ministry of Department of the National Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Slovenian Prime Minister. Archives Administration of the People's Republic of China, Zhao In 2015, an exhibition on Hallerstein was opened in the National Assembly of the Cong; Nina Zupančič Pušavec, Republic of Slovenia, where support was again expressed for the erection of a Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia; Deputy Director General of the National Archives Administration of the People's Republic of China, Guo Shuyin; Deputy Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Marjan Zupančič; Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Vladimir Žumer. Below: Natalija Glažar, Archives of the Republic of Slovenia; Wang Lejun and Yan Zhiquan from the Archives of the People's Republic of China. From the opening of the exhibition “Gems of Chinese Archives« organised by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia at the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia, November 2005. Opening of the exhibition Transfer Beyond Time – Ferdinand Augustin Haller von Hallerstein at the Shanghai Municipal Archives on 12 May 2008. Back row, from left to 7 right: Huiqin Wang; Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Matevž Košir; Vice President of National Archives Administration of the People's Republic of China, Yang Jibo; and Director of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, Wu Cheng. The exhibition Hallerstein and the Silk Road in front of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, July 2017. From right to left: deputy director of ARS, Dr Andrej Nared; President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Milan Brglez; Huiqin Wang; Ambassador of the People's Republic of China, Je Hao; Vice President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dr Robert Zorec, and Dr Mitja Saje. A discussion at the Chinese Ambassador's residence. From right to left: Chinese Ambassador Wang Shunqing; Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Bojan Cvelfar; Deputy Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Andrej Nared; and Dr Matevž Košir, February 2023. monument. In December 2016, the University of Ljubljana proposed the appoint-ment of a joint Slovenian-Chinese committee to continue the process and explore the possibilities for erecting the monument. In July 2017, a temporary exhibition »Hallerstein and the Silk Road« was opened in the park in front of the Archives; in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador to Slovenia, it was inaugurated by the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Milan Brglez. Both advocated that a replica of the armillary sphere should soon be erected in 8 front of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. At the same time, a delegation from the Chinese Academy of Sciences visited Slovenia and, together with the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, included the erection of a memorial to Hallerstein among the planned joint projects. In September 2017, on the occasion of the 3rd Ministerial Forum on Cultural Cooperation between China and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe in Hangzhou, the Slovenian Minister of Culture, Tone Peršak, met with the Chinese Minister of Culture and mentioned to him the initiative to erect a replica of Hallerstein's armillary sphere in Ljubljana, which was welcomed with interest and appreciation. After that, the erection of the monument was a subject of several meetings between other high-level representatives of the two countries. The Municipality of Ljubljana and the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Beijing also took an active part in the project. In preparation for the opening of the exhibition and installing of the memorial, the Chinese National Archives Administration sent digital copies of the newly discovered Hallerstein documents to the Slovenian Archives. The efforts of several institutions and individuals to erect the monument have gained momentum from year to year, and after more than a decade since the first official initiative, it appears that a replica of the armillary sphere, as a symbol of Sino-Slovenian cooperation in the scientific, cultural and archival fields, will soon indeed stand in Hallerstein's hometown, in close proximity to the central Slovenian archives and the former Jesuit College, where he received his education and paved his path to the stars. Looking forward to the erection of the memorial, I would like to thank all the institutions and individuals who have contributed to this important symbolic project. A monument to the mutual respect of civilisations Wang Shunqing I was first introduced to the armillary sphere on my first day as Ambassador to Ambassador of the People’s Slovenia. Even before I saw it in person, I took on the important task of creating a Republic of China to Slovenia replica that will become a monument to Sino-Slovenian friendship. This famous astronomical instrument, commissioned by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty, was completed after ten years in 1754 under the supervision of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein, a Slovenian who was then Head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy, and is a classic masterpiece among the great bronze astronomical instruments of antiquity. The name armillary sphere or “star observer” embodies the romantic imagination of people living at that time regarding the vastness of the universe. In the summer of 2019, I saw the sphere in person at the Beijing Ancient Observatory of the Beijing Planetarium. To help me do my job better, the Beijing Planetarium made an exception and let me see it up close. The artwork-like plinth crafted to the finest detail and the fine scale of the instrument made a great impression. The star observer is the result of the knowledge and skills of a wide range of people and deserves a place among the treasures of ancient Chinese astronomical artefacts. Based on Chinese traditional astronomical instruments and carvings, the device uses a 360-degree division scale and European-style construction, 9 which greatly increased the accuracy of the measurement. Looking through the eyepiece of the observer, I thought I was looking at the same starry sky that Hallerstein watched 300 years ago. He travelled across oceans to the remote land of China, overcame linguistic and cultural differences and other obstacles, dedicated his life to it and created the most famous astronomical instrument of his time. In the long years that followed his death, the armillary sphere survived the changes and trials of the centuries, but remained intact. Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Slovenia, Wang Shunqing (centre), at the Beijing Ancient Observatory in front of the astronomical observer designed by Ferdinand Hallerstein. Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Slovenia, Wang Shunqing, visiting the workshops where the replica of the astronomical observer (armillary sphere) is being made. Workshop with a replica of the astronomical observer under construction. 10 During the war, it was transferred several times, but eventually returned to its homeland. Today, it tells the world the story of the exchange and convergence of two civilisations, China and Europe. The visit to the Beijing Planetarium amazed me and made me think hard about the significance of the replica of the sphere as a monument to Sino-Slovenian friendship. I realised that it would be a shame both for Hallerstein, who was striving for excellence at the time, and for all future visitors to the monument if the replica was not made to the highest standards and showed the armillary sphere in its original form. After much deliberation, I decided to invite experts from the Beijing Planetarium to work on the replica, and instructed them to hire a top Chinese team to restore the object using 3D scanning data to make it worthy of the title of a monument to Sino-Slovenian friendship. I hope that in the future, everyone who steps in front of this monument will feel a new era in the development of Sino-Slovenian friendship and cooperation through the experience of the long history of Sino-Slovenian exchanges. Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Slovenia, Wang Shunqing, and Vice- Mayor of the Municipality of Ljubljana, Rok Žnidaršič, inspecting the stone for the pedestal of the Hallerstein monument. A replica of the armillary sphere designed by Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein (1703-1774), a Slovenian Jesuit, astronomer, mathematician, cartographer and diplomat, during his lifetime in China in the Qing Dynasty, will be donated by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to Since I took up my post as Ambassador to Slovenia, I have been impressed by the promote continuing cultural great interest in the Sino-Slovenian friendship monument in both countries. This relations between Slovenia project was agreed by the leaders of both countries and has been mentioned sev-and China. eral times in high-level contacts between the two sides, with the current President of Slovenia, Mrs Musar, and the former President, Mr Pahor, asking me several times about the progress of the project. In the summer of 2022, I travelled to Tianjin, China, to see the replica for myself in its initial form and shape. I was relieved then 11 and I was looking forward to seeing the implementation of this wonderful work. Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein spent 36 years in China, beginning a history of friendly relations between China and Slovenia and making an outstanding contribution to cultural exchanges between East and West. Time is passing, generations are changing, and Sino-Slovenian relations are entering a new era of development. The two countries are far apart, but the distance of more than 7,000 kilometres is no longer a barrier to friendly exchanges. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Slovenia, our mutual relations have been developing steadily and healthily, with close contacts at all levels, fruitful mutually beneficial cooperation between the two parties and numerous humanitarian exchanges. As a monument to Sino-Slovenian friendship, the replica of the armillary sphere will be a wonderful symbol of the friendship between the two countries and of the mutual respect between Eastern and Western civilisations. Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein's return to Slovenia Professor Dr Mitja Saje Ferdinand Augustin Haller von Hallerstein, with the Chinese name Liu Songling, Department of Asian Studies, came from a noble family that owned a manor in Mengeš. His grandfather was University of Ljubljana elevated to the status of Baron and, according to the custom of the time, added the noble title of von Hallerstein to the old Haller surname. Although he grew up in Mengeš, Ferdinand Augustin was born in Ljubljana on 27 August 1703, where he also attended the Jesuit College. After completing his studies in Ljubljana in October 1721, he entered the Jesuit Order. In 1728 he was confirmed for missionary service. He set off for China from Trieste in September 1735, taking with him a Slovenian Catholic songbook, which is now preserved in the Central Library in Beijing. He set off on his long voyage from Lisbon, where he waited several months for a ship, during which time he learnt Portuguese. Before his departure, he had established a good relationship with Queen Maria Anna of Portugal, who was of Habsburg descent and sister of Emperor Charles VI. He maintained contact with her and with the Portuguese court throughout his stay in China. He was also connected to the court of the Holy Roman Empire through his brother, Weichard Hallerstein, who was confessor to the Emperor’s brother, Duke Charles Alexander of Lorraine, in Brussels in 1738–73. Hallerstein’s connections through the family of 12 his mother, Susanna Elisabeth Baroness Erberg of the Dol Manor near Ljubljana, were also important. In April 1736, he and a group of Jesuits boarded a Portuguese ship; after a stopo-ver in Mozambique, it reached the Portuguese colony of Goa in India, where the Mengeš Manor as depicted by Janez Vajkard Valvasor in the 17th century. complicated political and security situation forced the China-bound Jesuits to wait for seven months. The next stop on this journey of more than two years was in Malaya, from where he arrived in Macao on a French ship in autumn 1738. The following spring, he received permission to work as an astronomer and mathematician at the Imperial Court and travelled to Beijing, arriving there on 13 June 1739. Hallerstein was already renowned as a good mathematician, so he immediately took up his post as deputy head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy and, after the death of Ignaz Kögler in 1746, took over the post, which he retained until his death in October 1774. In his rich scientific work, he cooperated with the academies of sciences in St Petersburg, Paris and London, thus establishing a fruitful scientific correspondence between Europe and China at that time. In addition to astronomical observations, the correction of the Chinese calendar and the construction of a large astronomical observer (an annular or armillary sphere), his scientific work included the production of geographical maps, the calculation of the longitude of Beijing by simultaneous observation of Jupiter’s moons and the time difference between Paris and Beijing, the discovery of a comet, experiments with inductive electricity and vacuum technology, the study of indigenous Chinese plants and animals, and the first calculation of the Chinese population for 1760 and 1761, shocking Europe at the time by estimating that China had almost twice the population of Europe. 13 Slovenian songbook that Hallerstein brought with him to China. The booklet with Slovenian texts was printed in Graz in 1729. It is now kept by the State Library in Beijing. International Scientific Symposium on Sinological Studies and the First European Missionaries to China, Beijing University of Languages and Culture, 26–27 September 2009. During his years in Beijing, he played a prominent role, proving to be an excellent astronomer, mathematician and diplomat. He lived and worked in the Portuguese mission at the South Church near the Xuanwu City Gate on the southern side of 14 the then Beijing city walls, and maintained contact with the Portuguese court throughout his life. In Beijing, he first learned Chinese and then worked as deputy head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy qintian jian 钦天监, where, after the death of the long-ailing head of the bureau in 1746, he took up the head position, retaining it until his death in 1774. In 1752, he was appointed by the Qianlong Emperor to accompany the Portuguese royal envoy, so he travelled to Guangzhou 广州 and then accompanied the expedition to Beijing. After five weeks of hos-pitality and receptions at Court, he accompanied the expedition on its return to Guangzhou and then went back to Beijing. It took him just over a year to travel to and from Guangzhou twice. After successfully completing his task, the Emperor conferred on him the title of civil servant (mandarin) of the third level. As head of the astronomy board, Hallerstein had the very difficult task of reconcil-ing the interests of the Jesuits with the imperial court on the one hand, and with the Chinese scholars working under him and in his board on the other. There was also friction between the Jesuits, as they represented the interests of different European capitals, in particular between the group sponsored by Portugal and another group backed by the French court. It was in managing and coordinating these delicate relations that Hallerstein proved to be an excellent diplomat. Hallerstein was one of the few foreigners with such a high state title, and the long-est-serving of all the Jesuits in charge of the Board of Astronomy. His astronomical observations resulted in the comprehensive work Observationes Astronomicae, dis-tinguished by one of the most accurate measurements of the position and luminos-ity of stars using classical instruments. Among other things, he discovered a comet, Participants at the Symposium on Sinological Studies and European Missionaries to China at the Beijing Ancient Observatory. 15 which is why one of the asteroids discovered by Slovenian astronomers a few years ago is named after him. He drew up the plans for, and after 1746 led the work on, a new equatorial armillary sphere for the Beijing Astronomical Observatory, commissioned by Emperor Qianlong. This was a challenging project because the Emperor’s official geocentric approach required an equatorial design, while the Jesuits took measurements based on the heliocentric system and the ecliptic. This armillary sphere is therefore a kind of hybrid combining both principles, and is unique among instruments of its kind in the world. Completed in 1754, the sphere is the largest surviving astronomical observer on the platform of the Beijing Ancient Observatory. The same building now houses a museum, where old astronomical observers are on display to visitors on a rooftop platform. As a point of interest, this armillary sphere, together with four other instruments from the old observatory, has been to Europe before, as German spoils of war after the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing in 1900. The instruments were exhibited in Potsdam until 1921, when Germany was forced to return them to China after the end of the First World War. In addition to astronomical work, Hallerstein produced a map of Manchuria and was involved in the preparations of the great atlas of China published by the Jesuits in 1769. He recalculated and refined the Chinese calendar and calculated the total population of China for 1760 and 1761 from the court revenue registers, arriving at a total number of 196,837,977 for the 19 provinces in 1760 and 1,376,576 more in the following year. Throughout his career, he corresponded with the scientific academies in Paris, London and St Petersburg. In November 1773, when his health Record of baptism of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein in the baptismal register of Ljubljana Cathedral. 28 August 1703. Archiepiscopal Archives of Ljubljana, Parochial Archives of Ljubljana – St Nicholas, baptismal register 1700–1712, p. 106. 16 began to fail, he asked the Emperor to relieve him of his responsibilities at the Board of Astronomy, but the Emperor refused and insisted that he remain in his high position and work to his best abilities. The following year, his condition dete-riorated further and he died shortly after news reached China that the Pope had abolished the Jesuit Order. He was buried in the Jesuit cemetery in Beijing, which was later desecrated by rebels during the Boxer Rebellion, but his tombstone survives and now stands in the memorial park where the Jesuit cemetery used to be. Cover of Hallerstein’s most comprehensive work on astronomical observations, published in Vienna in 1768. 17 Although Hallerstein held such a high position in the Chinese court and achieved such important scientific successes, it was not long after his death that he fell into obscurity in his native Slovenia, as well as in Europe and China. Given his position as head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy and his achievements, he would certainly have ranked alongside other famous Jesuits who held the same position before him during the Qing dynasty, such as Adam Shall von Bell (1591–1666), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) or Ignaz Kögler (1680–1746), who appear in all the important history books of that period in China. By contrast, Hallerstein, due to a combination of historical circumstances, remained almost forgotten until recently and has only been rehabilitated in recent decades. Shortly before his death, Pope Clement XIV abolished the Jesuit Order and the Jesuits fell out of the spotlight as a topic worth writing about. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austrian historians were not interested in him, while in Slovenia he was known only in a very small circle, which is why his name did not reach the wider public. In China, too, the situation changed soon after his death, and foreigners no longer received the same attention as before. As Western countries became more and more involved in China’s internal affairs and tried to force as much space as possible for the expansion of their trade, resentment against foreigners spread in China, casting Official Imperial document of 1753, showing the conferment of the title of third-level mandarin on the Jesuit missionary F. A. Hallerstein as a reward for his faithful service and responsible conduct during the visit of the Portuguese expedition. SI AS 1986, Hallerstein Ferdinand Augustin. 18 a shadow over all the actions of foreigners, so Hallerstein was not spared and was no longer of interest to the Chinese chronologists and historians of the time. These are the reasons why his name is hardly to be found in important sinological books in the West or in Chinese history books. Another problem was that for a long time he was known in Europe only by his native name, while Chinese archives included only his Chinese name and therefore his European identity was unknown. This is why it is important to restore his reputation and properly present him to the Slovenian public, and at the same time to restore him to the prestige he deserves both in China and in sinological and professional circles around the world, so that he can be given the place in history that is well-earned in view of his versatile achievements. Except among the Jesuits and some historians of science who kept records of his scientific achievements, Hallerstein was virtually unknown in Europe. Although some of his letters were published in the Jesuit newsletter Welt-Bott, this did not attract the attention of sinologists, as he was almost unknown as a person; this means that there was no extensive record of him in Europe, documents on his life and work were scattered in numerous European archives from Vienna, Brussels, Paris, Rome, the Vatican, Leuven, St Petersburg and Berlin to London and Ljubljana, while the unfamiliarity of his Chinese name made access to Chinese archives virtually impossible. In Slovenia, too, Hallerstein was known to very few individuals who knew only bits and pieces of his life, so it was not possible to create a comprehensive picture of the greatness of his work. The first to systematically research his life was ethnologist Dr Zmago Šmitek, who in the 1980s began to study famous Slovenians who had travelled to distant lands over the centuries, and in 1986 published their life stories in a book Klic daljnih svetov (The Call of Distant Worlds), published in Radovljica by Didakta, with one chapter being devoted to Augustin Hallerstein. Šmitek was so intrigued by Hallerstein’s story that he undertook in-depth research and a search in European archives for documents and information from Hallerstein’s letters, gathering most of the material available in Europe, and based 19 on this he published a comprehensive study of his life and work entitled Zvezde nad Kitajsko (Stars over China) – Augustin Hallerstein in the book Srečevanja z drugačnostjo (Encounters with Otherness), published in 1995, also by Didakta in Radovljica. By this time, the situation in China had also relaxed, and the author’s colleague, ethnologist Ralf Čeplak, managed to get access to Hallerstein’s tombstone, which had previously been inaccessible because the Jesuit cemetery was located within the fenced compound of the Party School in Beijing. Dr Šmitek published a photograph of the tombstone in the above-mentioned study, and this is how we found out about Hallerstein’s Chinese name, Liu Songling, which opened up the possibility for us to start looking for documents about him in China. More or less at the same time as the creation of the overall image of Hallerstein, the contacts between the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and its Chinese partners also bore their first fruit. Cooperation with the Chinese archives dates back to the time of the SFR Yugoslavia. When a delegation from the Chinese archives visited Yugoslavia in 1980, our side made for the first time a request to our Chinese partners to verify Hallerstein’s identity and the circumstances of his stay in Beijing. The task was undertaken by the then Deputy Director of the First Historical Archive of China, Ju Deyuan, who, on the basis of the information provid-ed and a comparison with Chinese sources, confirmed Hallerstein’s identity with the Chinese name Liu Songling. He wrote an extensive article on Hallerstein’s work at the Imperial Board of Astronomy and his historical achievements, which was published in the first issue of the Imperial Palace Museum magazine on the 210th anniversary of Hallerstein’s death in 1985. In this article, he also confirmed for the first time Hallerstein’s Slovenian origin, as until then he had been thought to be German because his gravestone reads Germanus Carniolius. The new interpretation clarified that this refers to the land of Carniola, which used to be part of Austria, but is now part of Slovenia. A new milestone in the study of Hallerstein was the initiative of Janez Škrlep, director of the museum in Mengeš, where the first museum collection on Hallerstein was established, to hold a symposium on Hallerstein on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of his birth. The symposium was held in Ljubljana in 2003 and involved both historians and Jesuits who were already engaged in the study of Hallerstein, as well as sinologists who were inspired to extend this research to investigate the circumstances in which he worked in China and to collect documents about his work there. The result of this symposium was the collection Mandarin Hallerstein, Kranjec na kitajskem dvoru (Mandarin Hallerstein, Carniolan at the Chinese Court), published by the Mengeš Museum in cooperation with the Didakta publishing house in Radovljica. An important part of the collection was the Slovenian translation of Hallerstein’s letters from Beijing. Another notable achievement of the symposium was the installation of a bilingual Slovenian-Chinese commemorative plaque at the Hallerstein homestead in Mengeš. In the same year, Stanislav Južnič, professor of history of science, published a book on Hallerstein’s scientific work entitled Hallerstein, kitajski astronom iz Mengša (Hallerstein, the Chinese Astronomer from Mengeš), with Tehniška založba Slovenije. 20 The symposium expanded the knowledge of the exceptional nature of Hallerstein’s work in China, as well as the importance of his cultural mission in establishing early contacts between Europe and China and, of course, the extraor-dinary significance of his high position at the Chinese court for cultural contacts between Slovenia and China. This increased the interest in further research of his stay in China, especially involving a new group of sinologists, which began to gain prominence with the start of full-time study of sinology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana in 1995. With our knowledge of the language and social conditions in China, sinologists were better equipped for the challenging tasks of finding new sources and studying the circumstances in which Hallerstein worked. The good cooperation with the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, which opened the door to the historical archives in China for Slovenian sinologists through its partners, was a great help. Jani Osojnik was the first to discover the Slovenian songbook that Hallerstein brought with him to China in the Central Library in Beijing, thus confirming his knowledge of Slovenian. In the First Historical Archives of China, where the state and imperial documents of the last dynasty are kept, we found more than 20 imperial documents relating to Hallerstein and made sure that they are being systematically collected in the course of the review of the archives, so that the number of documents has more than doubled by now. The second task was to restore Hallerstein’s reputation and to give him the historical stature he deserves in Europe, in China and in the wider global professional community, alongside the other great Jesuits who worked in China from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The inaugural presentation of Hallerstein to the A transcription of a letter Hallerstein sent to his sister Marija Ana. He writes about life in China, the situation of missionaries and his work. Beijing, 31 October 1750. Kept by Archives of Slovenia, SI AS 730 Dol Manor, fasc. 194. 21 22 Document on F.A. Hallerstein’s activities in China from the First Historical Archives of China (Imperial Archives of the Qing Dynasty) in Manchurian. The documents in digitised form were acquired by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia in 2023. wider sinological community took place at the 16th Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) in Ljubljana in 2006, where a series of lectures and a panel discussion was held on the significance of the Jesuits and their work in China during the last dynasties, with an emphasis on Hallerstein’s importance and the uncovering of his almost forgotten role as head of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. Many participants in this conference agreed on his importance for sinology and history, especially in Slovenia, Austria, Portugal and China, the countries with which his work was most closely associated. Later, similar lectures on Hallerstein were given at numerous international sinological meetings and also at conferences on the history of science. The next step to promote Hallerstein to the international public was taken when, in cooperation with the KIBLA Multimedia Centre in Maribor, we were awarded an EU project in the field of EU-China cultural dialogue entitled Hallerstein, with KIBLA as the project promoter and institutions from Austria, the Czech Republic, Portugal and China as partners. The project was conceived as a cultural and artistic promotion and scientific research project. This included cultural events to promote Hallerstein in all these countries, as well as scientific symposia in Maribor, Vienna, Braga in Portugal, and at the University of Languages and Culture in Beijing, where, for the first time, together with Chinese researchers already working on his legacy, Hallerstein was comprehensively presented to the Chinese professional 23 left: A memorial plaque dedicated to Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein at the Mengeš manor where Hallerstein grew up. The Mengeš manor is also called Ravbar’s Castle or Upper Castle. right: The tombstone of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein in the old Jesuit cemetery in Beijing. Today located inside the fenced compound of the Party and Higher Administrative School in Beijing. Standing next to the tombstone is Aleksander Blaznik from the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. community. The final part of this European project, which took place in 2008 and 2009, was a combined performance of ballet and simultaneous animation of shadow puppets at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor, and the publication of a scientific collection “A. Hallerstein – Liu Songling, The Multicultural Legacy of Jesuit Wisdom and Piety at the Qing Dynasty Court”, published by KIBLA in cooperation with the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. In addition to contributions by local scholars, the collection also includes an article by Chinese historian Ju Deyuan, who pioneered the study of Hallerstein in China, while over a third of the book is made up of English translations of Hallerstein’s letters discovered so far. The volume was translated into Chinese, together with the letters, and published by Daxiang Publishing in Zhengzhou in 2015. In the same year, a Chinese translation of Stanislav Južnič’s book was published in Shanghai by Sanlian Shudian, providing Chinese audiences for the first time with more comprehensive and widely accessible information on Hallerstein’s life and work, which significantly increased his visibility in China. Alongside his scientific achievements, the cultural and symbolic significance of his stay at the Imperial Court in Beijing is also remarkable. For more than a decade, several institutions from both countries have been working together to restore his reputation and to confirm his exceptional place in establishing early contacts between Slovenia and China. There is a good cooperation between the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and the Chinese archives, between the two academies of 24 science, the University of Ljubljana and the University of Languages and Culture in Beijing, the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, the Museum of Astronomy in Beijing and the Mengeš Museum. These institutions participated in a round table on Hallerstein’s scientific work, organised by the University of Ljubljana on the occasion of its 100th anniversary in October 2019. The commemoration of Hallerstein’s scientific work as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of modern university studies in Ljubljana was a tribute to his scientific achievements and a recognition of the historical foundations for the development of the modern university in Ljubljana. The efforts of all these institutions focused on initiatives to erect a replica of the armillary sphere as a memorial to Hallerstein in Ljubljana. This initiative had to wait for the support of the governments of both countries, which opened the way for the project to become a reality. The erection of a replica of the armillary sphere in a prestigious location on the banks of the Ljubljanica River in front of Gruber’s palace, which is home to the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, will be a monument to a great scientist and to the scientific achievements of our 18th-century compatriot. The memorial will also highlight the importance of early contacts between Slovenia and China and between Europe and China. This will make it a lasting symbol of the friendly cooperation between Slovenia and China and, ultimately, a first-class cultural and tourist attraction. Beijing Ancient Observatory and the armillary sphere On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Slovenia and the 320th anniversary of the birth of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein Qi Rui Founded in 1956, the Beijing Planetarium was the first astronomy museum in the Deputy Director of the People’s Republic of China and is now part of the Beijing Academy of Science and Beijing Planetarium Technology. The Beijing Planetarium has two locations, one a modern and technol-and Director of the Beijing ogy-rich venue and the other the Beijing Ancient Observatory with its long history. Ancient Observatory The Beijing Ancient Observatory was the imperial observatory of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, where the Slovenian Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein (1703–1774) worked for a long time, and where the first scientific and cultural exchanges between China and Slovenia took place. The Imperial Observatory in the Ming and Qing dynasties In ancient China, astronomy had a much higher status than in modern times, as the ancient Chinese believed that matters related to the sky were linked to the rights of 25 Historical photo of the Beijing Ancient Observatory. Historical photo of the star observers and other instruments in the Beijing Ancient Observatory. 26 the ruler and his immediate safety, and all important events in the country were linked to the sky and the calendar. “Observing and measuring time” was therefore the country’s top priority. Astronomical instruments were not only scientific instruments for observing the sky, but also ceremonial instruments and symbols of imperial power and rule. When a new dynasty was established, building a place to observe and worship the sky was a high priority in the country’s political engage-ment. Traditionally, these places of celestial observation were located within the secret astronomical gardens of the imperial family, where special officials were appointed by the court to take care of all matters related to the sky, while ordinary people were not allowed to see them. The Beijing Ancient Observatory was officially built in the Ming Dynasty, in the seventh year of Emperor Zhengtong’s reign (1442), 581 years ago. The site of the Beijing Ancient Observatory was chosen on the south-eastern edge of the walls of the Yuan Dynasty capital of Dadu. Its origins date back to the Yuan Dynasty. In its vicinity, astronomers Guo Shoujing and Wang Xun built in 1279 the world’s largest astronomical institutions, the Astronomy Commission and the Astronomy Bureau (Taishi Yuan and Sitiantai), and installed a number of astronomical instruments. The development of traditional Chinese astronomy reached its peak during this time. At the onset of the Ming Dynasty in 1421, Emperor Chengzu moved his capital to Beijing. During the Zhengtong Emperor’s reign, land was allocated near the Yuan Dynasty Astronomy Commission for the construction of a star observation platform – now known as an observatory – where astronomical instruments such as the armillary sphere and the simple armillary sphere were installed. Buildings such The stolen star observer designed by F. A. Hallerstein, in Germany, in front of the Orangery Palace in Potsdam. The star observer was taken to Germany as German spoils of war after the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing in 1900. It remained in Potsdam until 1921, when Germany was forced to return it to China after the end of the First World War. 27 as the Violet Star Hall and the Sundial Hall were constructed under the platform, while the buildings and instruments were repeatedly repaired and improved. Even then, the Beijing Ancient Observatory had the same scale and layout as we know it today. During the Qing Dynasty, the observatory continued to serve as an imperial observatory, but the instruments were replaced. From the end of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, a group of foreign missionaries worked at the observatory, taking care of astronomical observations and calendar calculations. These missionaries built astronomical instruments in the Beijing Ancient Observatory, following Western models. These include six large astronomical instruments made by the Belgian Ferdinand Verbiest in the Kangxi period, a latitude and longitude instrument made by the German Kilian Stumpf, and a star-observing instrument made by the Slovenian Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein in the Qianlong period. These instruments replaced those originally installed at the top of the platform. After the Revolution of 1911, the Observatory was transformed into the Central Observatory and for some time astronomical and meteorological observation activities were carried out there. In 1922, the Chinese Astronomical Society was founded at the Observatory, marking the beginning of the modern era of Chinese astronomy. With the construction of other modern astronomical stations in China, the Central Observatory ended its mission of almost 500 years of continuous observation in 1929. The Beijing Ancient Observatory was renamed the National Astronomical Exhibition Hall in 1929, becoming the first astronomical museum in China. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Beijing Ancient Observatory was listed as an Important Historical and Cultural Monument under national protection and as a Site of Patriotic Education. To showcase the magnificent astronomical achievements of ancient China, it was opened to the public. The Armillary Sphere commissioned by Emperor Qianlong – Star Observer At the end of the Ming dynasty, the Jesuits came across the ocean to China and opened the door to the mass import of Western science and technology. It was then that China’s ancient science and technology converged with global science and technology. Astronomy, the most advanced of the traditional Chinese sciences, was the first to meet and mix with the Western sciences. The Beijing Ancient Observatory witnessed many important events in the scientific and cultural exchanges between China and the West. Between 1669 and 1673, the Belgian missionary Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) obtained the approval of Emperor Kangxi and had six large bronze astronomical instruments made: an ecliptic armillary sphere, an equatorial armillary sphere, a 28 horizontal circle, a quadrant, a gauge and a celestial instrument. A few decades Historical photo of the star observer designed by F. A. Hallerstein at the Beijing Ancient Observatory. later, an instrument was developed to determine latitude and longitude. All these instruments were based on the most advanced astronomical instruments available in the West at the time. In the ninth year of Qianlong’s reign (1744), Ignaz Kögler (1680-1746), then head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy, together with others, asked the Emperor to revise the stellar observation data from the Kangxi period. It is worth noting that in the fourth year of Qianlong’s reign (1739), the Slovenian Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein was introduced in Beijing for his special talent in astronomy, while in the eighth year of Qianlong’s reign he was appointed deputy head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy, a position in which he was apparently the right-hand man of Ignaz Kögler. Immediately after the death of Ignaz Kögler in 1746, Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein was appointed Head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy, where he was in fact in charge of the collection of works on astronomy (completed in 1752) and of the construction of the star observer. Hallerstein had a high level of astronomical knowledge and brought with him the latest Western astronomical theories and the latest developments in astronomical observations, which may be the reason why Kögler began to appear more confidently before Emperor Qianlong as soon as Hallerstein started working as his assistant. Emperor Qianlong then took an interest in the Beijing Ancient Observatory, and on 27 October he paid an enthusiastic visit to it, saw it in person and familiarised him-self with its instruments before expressing his thoughts to the officials in charge. 29 He believed that the armillary sphere was the instrument that best reflected the Chinese tradition of measuring the sky, while the Western method was better at dividing time and degrees – after the Qing dynasty, the time of day was divided into 96 quarters for ease of calculation, while the circumference of the circle was set at 360°. Of course, the officials of the Imperial Board of Astronomy took Qianlong’s thoughts particularly seriously and also understood what remained unspoken – his desire to emulate his grandfather. They submitted a proposal to design and build a large traditional armillary sphere to be placed on top of the observatory, which was quickly approved by Emperor Qianlong. After making small prototype instruments, larger instruments were built, and in the 19th year of Qianlong’s reign, the star observer was completed. The entire instrument is 3.7 metres long, 2.1 metres wide, 3.3 metres high and weighs more than 5 tonnes. A star observer is known as a new type of armillary sphere designed as a simplification of the traditional armillary sphere. The ring structure is still based on the traditional Chinese armillary sphere with three layers, but without the horizon ring in the outer layer and the ecliptic ring in the middle. In addition, the observer also borrows from Western technology, as the pedestal does not have a square groove; instead, vertical lines and screws are used to level the instrument. Instead of an archaic scale, the ring is divided by a 360° system, while the scale is cut with a horizontal line to improve the accuracy of the reading. The design of the star observer is a combination of tradition and innovation. A symbol of Sino-Slovenian friendship – replica of a star observer The starting point of the project to build a replica of the star observer was the rediscovery in the 1980s of Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein, a Slovenian who lived during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty and was the Head of the Imperial Board of Astronomy for 35 years, finally dying in China. Since the 1980s, through the efforts of Chinese-Slovenian scientists, archival documents, letters, manu-scripts and writings related to Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein have gradually been collected, making his image more tangible and more complete, and bringing him to the attention of the world. Among the various legacies of Hallerstein, astronomy occupies an important place. The large astronomical instruments he was involved in designing and building are undoubtedly the most sophisticated and remarkable. From a scientific point of view, the star observer is a typical example of traditional Chinese astronomy. From an artistic point of view, it represents the highest level of craftsmanship and artistic aesthetics in China at the time, all linked to the Slovenian Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein. Hallerstein contributed to Chinese astronomy while sharing the latest Chinese astronomical observations with Europe. His work is a typical example of the exchange of civilisations and mutual respect between China and Slovenia throughout history. The desire to have a replica of this instrument standing on Slovenian soil as a memorial is a common wish of all those who know this period of Sino-Slovenian history. 30 The replica of the star observatory attracted the attention of the leaders of China and Slovenia. During the 2017 meeting of the leaders of the China-Central and Eastern Europe Cooperation Initiative, the then Prime Ministers of the two countries specifically discussed this issue. The replica project quickly made significant progress, with high-level encouragement from both countries. On 15 October 2019, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Slovenia, Mr Wang Shunqing, visited the Beijing Ancient Observatory to consult and exchange views with representatives of the Beijing Planetarium and to present the significance of the project for the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Slovenia and the friendship between the two nations. The Beijing Planetarium and its parent organisation, the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, attach great importance to the project and fully support it. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, China and Slovenia overcame many obstacles to proceed with the project, which was ultimately successful. Cooperation between the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the memory of Hallerstein Academician The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU) owns a miniature replica of Peter Štih an equatorial armillary sphere, an astronomical instrument that the Carniolan President of the Slovenian Jesuit and missionary Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein had constructed in the Academy of Sciences 18th century in Beijing, where he was the head of the Imperial Astronomical and Arts Observatory. The replica instrument is a gift from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with which the SAZU has established fruitful cooperation in recent years. The CAS (founded 1949; its predecessor was Academia Sinica, founded 1928) is the Chinese National Academy of Natural, Mathematical, Medical and Information Sciences and is China’s largest scientific research institution. It has more than 100 research institutes and is the founder of three universities. The Academy also hosts astronomical observatories, including the historical observatory in Beijing, once headed by Hallerstein. The links of the SAZU and its Scientific Research Centre (ZRC SAZU) with the Chinese scientific community date back to the 1970s. It was then that the Institute for Karst Research of the ZRC SAZU started collaborating with Chinese karst researchers. This highly successful cooperation was informal at the beginning, but since Slovenia’s independence it has taken the form of bilateral projects which 31 have received international awards, and the results of the research have been published in international journals and monographs. In addition, the SAZU con-cluded in 2003 a bilateral agreement on scientific cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (established 1977), which, among other things, allows mutual visits of scientists from both countries. From time to time it also cooperates with the Chinese Academy of Engineering. President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Academician Tadej Bajd, and Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Yaping Zhang, at the handover of a scaled-down copy of Hallerstein’s equatorial armillary sphere at the SAZU on 28 January 2019. Participants at the handover ceremony for a miniature copy of Hallerstein’s astronomical instrument: Professor Zhang Baichun, Director of the CAS Institute of Natural Sciences; Ning Bolun, Deputy Director of the CAS International Cooperation Bureau; Professor Li Yin, Director-General of the CAS International Cooperation Bureau; Dr Mark Pleško, Director of Cosylab company; H.E. Wang Shunqing, Ambassador of the PRC to Slovenia; Professor Janez Koželj, Vice Mayor of the Ljubljana Municipality; Professor Yaping Zhang, Vice President of CAS; Tomi Ilijaš, Director of Arctur company; Professor Tadej Bajd, President The foundations of the cooperation between the CAS and the SAZU were laid 32 of the SAZU; Professor Robert on 14 July 2017. At that time, a high-level delegation from the CAS, headed by its Zorec, Vice President of the President Professor Bai Chunli, visited the SAZU. The outcome of this meeting, at SAZU; Professor Peter Štih, which the Chinese side expressed its interest in cooperation in the natural scienc-Vice President of the SAZU; es in particular, was twofold. First, a bilateral agreement on scientific cooperation Professor Ivan Bratko, Member between the two academies was signed in the summer of 2018, and in the same of Class III of the SAZU; summer the CAS invited the SAZU to be one of the 30 founding members of the Professor Branko Stanovnik, Beijing-based Alliance of International Science Organisations (ANSO), a scientific Head of the Department for non-profit organisation for the promotion of sustainable development, inter-acad-International Relations and emy and science and technology cooperation. The founding General Assembly of Scientific Coordination; Huiquin the ANSO took place on 3 November 2018 and was attended by a representative of Wang, artist. the SAZU. Then, in December of the same year, a delegation of scientists working in the Nanjing High-Tech Park visited the SAZU, with the aim of mutually implementing cutting-edge fundamental knowledge in new innovative breakthrough technology solutions. The same purpose was also served by the visit of the Tiante group representatives to the SAZU in September 2022. The topic of Hallerstein and his importance for Slovenian-Chinese contacts and relations had already come up at the meeting with representatives of the Chinese Academy at the SAZU in the summer of 2017. At that time, President Bai Chunli expressed his willingness for the CAS, the owner of the instrument, to arrange for the production of a 1:1 scale copy of Hallerstein’s equatorial armillary sphere and its transport to Slovenia. The President of the SAZU, Academician Tadej Bajd, further informed both the Office of the President of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about this initiative, in which the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China also participated. On this basis, with the involvement of the Municipality of Ljubljana, preparations began for the erection of a monument to Hallerstein in Ljubljana in the form of a replica of the astronomical instrument. A high-level delegation from the CAS, led by its Vice President Yaping Zhang, revisited the SAZU on 28 January 2019 and presented it with a scaled-down replica of the equatorial armillary sphere as a token of friendship between the two institutions and countries. The gift was presented to the public at a lecture by Jani Osojnik on 26 March 2019 at Prešeren Hall, Novi trg 4. The lecturer, who studied traditional Chinese medicine in Guangzhou and Beijing for several years, has researched Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein and his astronomical work since the tricentenary of his birth in 2003, and also studied Chinese astronomical texts and translated them into Slovenian. In his lecture, he gave an overview of the history of armillary spheres in Europe and China, explained the workings of the instrument as well as the basics of the spherical astrolabe (spherical trigonometry), and demonstrated the practical use of the sphere with a few examples. A miniature copy of Hallerstein’s astronomical instrument is currently on display in the office of the Vice-Presidents of the SAZU on the second floor of the SAZU building at Novi trg 3 in Ljubljana. It is expected to be permanently installed in the foyer of the Academy building in 2023, where it will be on display for all visitors to the Academy. 33 Science and Art: Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein and Huiqin Wang Metka Lokar Three decades have passed since the versatile artist Huiqin Wang first met with University of Ljubljana the nobleman, the scholar Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein – three decades since and Beijing Foreign her unstoppable creative spirit first met with its unsurpassed source of inspiration. Studies University From that first meeting onwards, the Slovenian-Chinese past and present have in-tertwined in a very special way on several occasions, proving with each new flash of genius how science and art, when they shake hands, know no boundaries and recognise no limits, neither geographical, temporal, nor any other kind. They cross them and switch on the light. They build bridges between people, especially between us, who perhaps still too often feel that Slovenians and Chinese live in two different worlds. Yet here we all are – perhaps not so surprisingly – somewhere in this hemisphere of one and the same globe slowly and steadily rotating from east to west, from west to east, from east to ... and travelling from past to present and from present to future somewhere among the stars. What distance did Hallerstein measure for us in his time? And what distance would he have measured for us if he were still alive? “Hallerstein is a giant of Slovenian cultural heritage and the earliest messenger 34 of Slovenian culture,” says Huiqin Wang, beginning the story of how, in 2003, on the 300th anniversary of Hallerstein’s birth, she was invited by the director of the Mengeš Museum, Janez Škrlep, to write Chinese calligraphy for a commemorative plaque at the former Ravbar Castle in Mengeš, the family residence of the Hallersteins. Hallerstein was born in 1703, spent his childhood and youth in Mengeš and Ljubljana, and later expanded his circles as far as Beijing, where he worked between 1739 and 1774, spending almost half of his life in the city. As a third-level mandarin at the Imperial Court in Beijing, he headed the Board of Astronomy, and was also involved in the study of Chinese flora and fauna, map-making, Chinese population calculations, and cultural and diplomatic activities, which once even resulted in a successful visit by a Portuguese royal envoy to the Chinese Court. Hallerstein’s greatest achievement at the time was the construction and erection of a celestial observer – a 3.3 m high bronze armillary sphere on the platform of the Beijing Ancient Observatory, which was built during the Mongol dynasty and was already a venerable 300 years old at the time. “In the 1740s, the Slovenian astronomer Hallerstein crossed the oceans without fear of hardship or danger and came to China to strengthen the early contacts between China and Europe,” says Huiqin Wang. “But the facts about this were little known and only a handful of historians and Hallerstein’s Jesuit brothers were aware of them. Few ethnologists and sinologists knew that Hallerstein and Liu Songling – Hallerstein’s Chinese name – were one and the same person. I was most disturbed by the fact mentioned by Janez Škrlep that up to that time no portrait of him had been found in the archives and museums in London, Lisbon, St Petersburg, Vienna or Slovenia. As a visual 35 Multimedia performance artist, I was particularly struck by this. I wanted to present him and his story in an Hallerstein, Slovenian National artistic way, so that as many people as possible could get to know him.” Theatre Maribor, 30 October 2009. So who was Hallerstein? What would his external appearance be? What was he like as an astronomer? How important was his role at the Chinese imperial court? These and other questions intrigued Huiqin Wang and drove her to explore. “I was very lucky because the former Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Vladimir Žumer, introduced me to a lot of really interesting historical material. With his help, I was able to see Hallerstein’s precious letters and gain access to Chinese archives, including the First Historical Archive of China with its ancient imperial archives. I instantly found new artistic inspiration in the yellowing documents.” For more than 10 years, Huiqin Wang visited the places where Hallerstein lived. “I went to the old observatory in Beijing, to Macao, Lisbon and other cities, looking for and collecting material. Later, I made a special visit to the Forbidden City, where I was welcomed by the chief curator Nie Chongzheng, who told me that he had never come across any portrait of Hallerstein there. It was also then that I learned that the famous Italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione had lived with Hallerstein for 31 years in the Portuguese mission at the South Church in Beijing during the Qianlong Emperor’s reign. Although Hallerstein was Castiglione’s predecessor, and not the other way round, almost every Chinese knows of Castiglione, but only a few have heard of the astronomer Hallerstein.” 36 A series of phone cards designed by Huiqin Wang with the common title Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein 1703-1774, Slovenian mandarin, astronomer and missionary, Telekom 2007. In his letters home, Hallerstein described the China of the time and mentioned that the Emperor, in his later years, was no longer so interested in astronomy, but was increasingly attracted to Western painting. So every day he visited the studio where Castiglione painted and where, like others around him, his sense of dialogue between cultures was strengthened. “Then, while looking through some documents, I finally came across a description of Hallerstein in an old book in the Forbidden City. It was made by the Korean writer Hong Darong, who was then working at the Korean mission in Beijing and often visited Hallerstein because of his interest in astronomy,” continues Huiqin Wang about her ongoing adventure with Hallerstein. “He described the appearance of Hallerstein with a headdress of a third-level mandarin, long hair plaited into a braid, a long grey beard and a piercing gaze. From this description, I created the first Hallerstein portrait in 2006 – a silhouette of a head drawn with a neon light.” In 2007, this more-or-less ghostly image of him was first brought to the people in two big campaigns by Telekom Slovenije with a series of 49,000 phone cards, and by the Post of Slovenia with a series of three commemorative stamps, and then, in the same year, by the KIBLA Cultural Educational Association in Maribor, which gave Huiqin Wang the opportunity to stage an animated performance of the story of Hallerstein. The importance of the hitherto almost unknown Jesuit missionary and scholar in strengthening contacts between cultures – Slovenian, Chinese and beyond – began to take on new dimensions. This was not the end of the story – in fact, it had just begun. The aforementioned KIBLA Cultural Educational Association played a major 37 role in this with the two-year (2008–2009) European project Hallerstein, which, based on cultural dialogue between the European Union and China, brought together the fields of cultural heritage, performing arts and new technological media. If not before, both Slovenians and Chinese heard about Hallerstein in the course of this project organised on the initiative of and in cooperation with Huiqin Wang and in many related events, and the word about Hallerstein spread further. In 2009, the renowned ballet dancer and choreographer Edward Clug performed a high-tech dance show Hallerstein at the Chinese Court at the Slovenian National An article entitled “The Meeting of Science and Art” in a Shanghai daily about the Hallerstein performance at EXPO Shanghai 2010. Pictured from left to right: Cameron Bobro, Tomaž Dobrila, Huiqin Wang and Edvard Clug. A series of stamps of the Post of Slovenia on the theme of F. A. Hallerstein, issued in the period 2008–2010, by Huiqin Wang. 38 Theatre in Maribor, which included the animation of ancient Chinese shadow puppets. The dancer wore sensors on his body, through which the computer transmitted and transformed his movements into a two-dimensional image of shadow puppets that moved along with the dancer on a film screen in the back-ground. It was the first such demonstration of computer-assisted technology in the world. The Archives of Slovenia, the Chinese National Archives and the KIBLA Cultural and Educational Association organised an exhibition entitled Transfer Beyond Time, Ferdinand Augustin Haller von Hallerstein at the Shanghai Municipal Archives (following two exhibitions in Slovenia, also within the framework of the above-mentioned project, entitled Transfer Beyond Time, Artistic Interpretations of the Life Story of Ferdinand Augustin Haller von Hallerstein), which was attended by Vice President of the National Archives Administration of the People’s Republic of China, Yang Jibo; Director of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, Wu Cheng; and Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Matevž Košir. The exhibition featured Chinese historical documents and pictures, and Hallerstein was hailed by the Chinese media as the Slovenian Marco Polo. In 2010, in cooperation with KIBLA, a multimedia presentation of Hallerstein was staged in the Slovenian pavilion at EXPO in Shanghai, which was a great success with the Chinese audience. This was followed by another important step in broadening our horizons. In 2014, Huiqin Wang wrote and painted the bilingual picture book Hallerstein – Slovenian Huiqin Wang’s exhibition Hallerstein and the Silk Road at the United Nations Office at Vienna, May 2017. The photo shows Li Yong, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Andrej Benedejčič, Slovenian Ambassador to the UN, OSCE and other international organisations in Vienna, and artist Huiqin Wang. Li Yong signing the bilingual book by Huiqin Wang entitled Hallerstein, Slovenian in the Forbidden City. in the Forbidden City. The Slovenian-Chinese version was published by Mladinska knjiga in Ljubljana, and the English-Chinese version by the Beijing Language and Culture University. For the Slovenian edition, the author received the Kristina Brenkova Award for Original Slovenian Picture Book 2014 and the Golden Pear label for best original Slovenian educational book for youth 2015, two valuable, important awards for her work, to which she herself adds: “What made me the happiest was when the pupils of the primary school in Ljubljana’s Savsko naselje district 39 staged a short play based on the picture book, and performed it several times at the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre – and each time in a packed auditorium! This is how many Slovenian children and their parents came to know Hallerstein, this half-forgotten sage and astronomer.” Her aim of introducing Hallerstein to as wide an audience as possible has been achieved and exceeded. By bringing Hallerstein to the young and the youngest alike in words and imag-es, Huiqin Wang has, perhaps more than ever, secured for him what his name, Liu Songling, foretold long ago – Songling as a long and honourable life. The man from an almost lost memory is still awaiting a portrait, his true face hidden in the expressive brushstrokes Huiqin Wang uses to depict his world here and there, but his first image, outlined in neon light, is taking on earthly colours. Close to real ones or not, it does not matter. We know Prešeren only in artistic interpretations as well, but we do not mind. They make him alive, close, our own. In May 2017, the UN Office at Vienna also presented an artistic representation of Hallerstein and his story, as imagined by Huiqin Wang, in its exhibition hall, promoting the Slovenian astronomer on a global scale. Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein once again stepped out of the archives and into the gallery through art. As, we believe, he will do again. Just as he has stepped into the library and the theatre, so that many people who might not otherwise have heard of him can continue to get to know him. Meanwhile, somewhere above the Silk Road, he will continue to take measurements further, counting, calculating, recording and proving that there is only one world, here and there. A. Hallerstein – Liu Songling, The Chinese translation of the book: Bilingual (Slovenian-Chinese) book by Multicultural Legacy of Jesuit Wisdom and A. Hallerstein – Liu Songling, The Huiqin Wang entitled Hallerstein, Slovenec v Piety at the Qing Dynasty Court, edited by Multicultural Legacy of Jesuit Wisdom and Prepovedanem mesto (Hallerstein, Slovenian Mitja Saje, KIBLA Maribor and Archives of Piety at the Qing Dynasty Court, edited by in the Forbidden City), Mladinska knjiga, the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, 2009. Mitja Saje, KIBLA, ARS, 2009. Ljubljana, 2014. 40 Zmago Šmitek, Srečevanja z drugačnostjo, Stanislav Južnič, Hallerstein, Kitajski Mandarin: Hallerstein, Kranjec na Kitajskem slovenska izkustva eksotike (Encounters astronom iz Mengša (Hallerstein, Chinese dvoru (Mandarin: Hallerstein, a Carniolan at with Otherness, Slovenian Experiences of Astronomer from Mengeš), Tehniška the Chinese Court), urednik Viljem Marjan the Exotic), Didakta, Radovljica, 1995. založba Slovenije, Ljubljana 2003. Hribar, Didakta, Radovljica, 2003.