B. 1713; A. 1728; S.O. c. 1737; L.V. 1747; d. 1781

​

​

Félix da Rocha is the only Lisbon-born Jesuit of the triad under investigation in this contribution: he was born on 31 August 1713, where he entered the Society of Jesus as a 15 year old boy, on 1 May 1728 (Lus., 48, 44).

As for his studies during the following years: in the provincial Catalogi Triennales of 1730 he is listed among the ‘Philosophi et rhetorici’ (Lus. 48, no. 233), and in those of 1734 (ibid.) as a "Philosophus 3ii anni" (n° 176). This should normally be followed by a 4th year of philosophy in the next year (1734–1735), but the corresponding Catalogues are lacking. Of a special mathematical course is no evidence available, but in view of his later engagement in the Astronomical Bureau – to be described below - it looks almost impossible that he had not followed some mathematical training, if not a ‘special’ course, which are normally not mentioned in the Catalogi, contrary to the ‘curricular’ mathematical courses of one to two years. Neither was he ordained priest when he left Lisbon on 13 April 1735 (Lus. 48, 200), which was not an unusual situation either.

According to the normal timing of the ships of the Carreira da Índia he arrived late in 1735 or early in 1736 in Macau. There he stayed in the new ‘Seminar’ of the Chinese Vice-Province: this we know thanks to a note in JS 134, 434: “In seminario Macaensi pertinente ad Vice-Provinciam Sinensem: P(ater) Felix da Rocha dat operam theologiae. Lusitanus”. He finished there his theology studies.

The Catalogi specify it was on 12 January 1738 that he ‘entered’ the Mission (“Ingressus Missionem”), a formula which refers to the transfer from Macau to the Chinese Empire (JS 134, f° 435). In Beijing, he received the Chinese name Fu Zuolin. In the following years, he stayed in the Nantang, together with Ant. Gogeisl and Florian Bahr. He was professed in the four votes (2 February 1747), and took several responsibilities on his shoulders, as Superior of the Nantang and Vice-provincial in 1753-1759. After the suppression he remained in Beijing.

In 1753 (at he occasion of the embassy of Francisco Xavier Assis Pacheco e Sampaio Melo) he was appointed assessor (Qintianjian jianfu) of the Mathematical Bureau (Qintianjian), acting since 1753 as Qintianjian jou jianfu; since 1771 as Qintianjian jianfu; since 1774 (after the death of Augustin von Hallerstein) as zhili lifa, called since 1725 jianzheng. This steady promotion within the Qintianjian suggests great competences and progress in the field of astronomy. Yet, there is the very negative opinion of both Jesuits Florian Bahr and Augustin von Hallerstein, other members of the Qintianjian, expressed in some letters of 1752 to General Visconti. From these, I could only trace back the letter of von Hallerstein, of 6 December 1752, with a rather negative assessment of Rocha’s competences as a collaborator in the Astronomical Bureau; a similar letter of Florian Bahr seems to be lost now.

This explicit opinion appears in a broader context, in which the German head of the Qintianjian von Hallerstein complains about the policy of the Portuguese superiors of the mission who, according to him, are intentionally introducing as many Portuguese fathers as possible, irrespective of their competences, for purely strategic reasons, viz. to ‘control’ the mission and the ‘foreign’, not Portuguese missionaries of the padroado. As to my knowledge Florian Bahr’s announced detailed report is lost, it is hard to assess to what extent this rather shocking analysis is based on real experiences and facts – in the sense of meager observational and computational competences of Rocha - or was inspired or colored, if not exaggerated for some personal aversions; from other evidence it emerges, indeed, that Félix da Rocha had a ‘bad’ character and unfolded a luxurious life style like a Chinese mandarin, which was a tumbling stone for some missionaries.

All this did not obstruct the Emperor to entrust various cartographical and geodesic commitments to Rocha and Espinha. This happened the first time in 1749, when both fathers were sent to ‘Tartary’ for geodesic measurements, more precisely to the area of Muran.

A more comprehensive order he received in 1753, which aimed at mapping the area of the Oelöth, accompanied by José de Espinha, some Chinese mandarins (like He Guozong), the Mongol Mingantu, and some lamas; the intention was to describe the recently conquered territories of Dzungaria, Turkestan and part of Buchara.

The operation – of which we have several more echoes in Jesuit and other sources - took two to three years, period during which Félix da Rocha was absent from Beijing. The Emperor compensated Rocha in 1756 with a promotion to the mandarinate of the second class. After some new observations in the area in 1759, they had ‘determined 43 different geographical positions’; the final maps – after having been checked by the French Jesuit Michel Benoît - were printed and published as a woodblock edition in 1761, entitled Huangyu quantu (‘Complete Map of the Empire’), followed in 1775 by a copperplate edition Qianlong shisanpai tu (‘Map of the Qianlong Reign in Thirteen Rows’).

A next commitment brought him in August 1774, and again in March 1777 in the recently conquered Small (i.e. Eastern) Tibet, for mapping the entire area. This journey had also a military agenda, viz. to carry drawings of ‘advanced’ artillery, with design of mortars (chongtianpao) and ‘guns for attacking heaven’ (popularly called: xiguapao) to the area, to increase the accuracy of the Manchu artillery. Especially during the second campaign, in 1777, Rocha succeeded in making a map of the Jinchuan (Tibetan Chuchen) area, now only extant in the First Historical Archives.

Félix da Rocha died in Beijing on 22 Mai 1781: he was buried as his predecessors on the cemetery of Zhalan, where the stele is still extant.

​

​

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

 

DEHERGNE, J. (1973), 204; Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences (1776); PFISTER (1932-1934), 774; RODRIGUES (1925), 58-64, 119-125; SOMMERVOGEL (1890), vol. VI, col. 820; STANDAERT (2001), 762-763.

​

​

 

The entry, with scientific review should be cited as follows: Noël Golvers, "Félix da Rocha (1713-1781)", in Res Sinicae, Enciclopédia de Autores, Arnaldo do Espírito Santo, Cristina Costa Gomes and Isabel Murta Pina (Coord.). ISBN: 978-972-9376-56-6.

URL: "https://www.ressinicae.letras.ulisboa.pt/felix-da-rocha-1713-1781?lang=en".

Last revision: 15.01.2021.