First, the earth is a round sphere, which is located in the center of celestial bodies (the universe). "Waiji" said: "The celestial body is a big circle and the earth is a small circle. Stop in the middle and don't move. The farthest place from the sky in the center of Gaiwei is the direction of all kinds of things. The earth is the heaviest, so we should stay in the center. Move a little, but it is close to the celestial body and can't be the lowest place ... It can be seen that the circle is the virtue of its movement, not the theory of form. If the ground is round, there is nothing wrong with it. The so-called distinction between east, west, north and south is just a name for people. " In this regard, "Tian" draws on and develops: "Chu Ci says: Good, its nine-fold, which should be managed. Hun Tianshi said: If the sky is wrapped in yolk, the sky is nine times heavy and the earth is round, as the ancients said. Westerners say that they are not retro but have heavenly experience, so they show it. " Ehrlich acknowledged the achievements of great geographical discovery and publicized that the earth is spherical, which is a progress. However, he did not jump out of the shackles of religious theology and advocated that the earth should "stay in the center and never move" in celestial bodies, and made the scientific theory that the solar system and the earth revolve around the sun announced by the Polish astronomer Copernicus (1543) and his compatriot, the famous Italian astronomer Bruno (65438+).
Second, the world is divided into five continents. The Foreign Biography of Ming History said: "Italy lives in the Atlantic Ocean and has never been to China since ancient times. During the Wanli period, Matteo Ricci, who was born and raised, went to Beijing as a "full map of the world", saying that there are five continents in the world. The first is Asia, with more than 100 countries, and China ranks first; The next day is Europa. There are more than 70 countries in China, and Italian ranks first. On the third day, it was not in Asia, but also in 100 countries; On the fourth day, America's land is bigger, and it is divided into two continents: north and south. In the end, Mowa Jani was fifth. " Since ancient times, China's traditional culture has always believed that the world is divided into nine continents. Therefore, the novel view that the world is divided into five continents has a great influence on intellectuals in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. For example, Wu Cheng'en said for the first time in the mythical novel The Journey to the West: "It feels like Pangu has opened its borders, Huang San has ruled the world, and the five emperors have settled down. The world is divided into four continents: Shenzhou in the east, Hezhou in the west, Buzhou in the south and Luzhou in the north. " Talking about the Monkey King's seeking for a teacher, he said: "He suddenly sailed to the West Sea, thinking that there must be immortals overseas, making rafts alone and drifting across the West Sea until he reached the border of Mr. Niu Hezhou." Wu Cheng'en divides the world into four continents, east, west, north and south, separated by a sea. Going to Xi Niu He Zhou to drift in the West Sea obviously absorbed the nutrition of the maritime exchange between China and the West in the Ming Dynasty and the knowledge of world geography, thus conceiving and creating four continents in fairy tales.