Abstract
The China mission of early modern times started with three Jesuits, namely the Jesuit visitor Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), followed by the two Jesuits Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552-1610).Together, they developed a special method for missionary work, the so-called method of accommodation.Besides the learning of the language this method included indirect mission by modern European science. 1 Views of the Cosmos in China and EuropeThe first ideas about China were often full of misunderstandings and prejudice.After some time in China, Matteo Ricci noticed that the Chinese had "absurd" ideas about the world: "They think that the earth is flat and square and that there is only one single heaven . ..".This heaven was considered to be empty and not made of crystal, with the stars moving in the void and not attached to solid crystal spheres, 2 while the heaven canopied the flat and square earth and the stars orbited in the void, unlimited space.During long evolutions, new worlds came into existence and then disappeared by condensation or dissolution of the omnipresent energy of the universe, the qi . 3 In China, the cosmos is called Yuzhou = space + time.Yu means the space under a roof, protection, or the world, whereas Zhou means the time.These are the two components of the cosmos: orientation in space and time.The Greek word means the cosmic system, including its law and harmony, the divine order of the cosmos, and the arrangement of parts into a regular, beautiful entirety.In the Holy Scripture, cosmos means the world, the universe, the ecume-