Sun Yuanhua

Like his mentor, he advocated repelling the Manchu invasion by modernizing Chinese weaponry and wrote treatises on geometry and military science influenced by the Jesuits' European knowledge.

[6] After the fall of Guangning (now Beizhen in Liaoning) to the Manchu, Sun Yuanhua published two memorials advocating the use of European-style cannon to defend the capital and the northeastern borders and passes.

[7] On 15 March 1622, the supervising censor Hou Zhenyang, working at the Office of Scrutiny for Personnel, composed a memorial lauding Sun's talent: "Sun Yuanhua... should be employed urgently to cast cannon and to construct garrisons... Let [him] investigate and measure the terrain, pin down the routes that should be followed, establish a platform [for cannon] at each juncture and then, with the cost of one platform as a base of reference for the others, the entrances to the passes will be rock-safe!...

[9] Following Xu and Li's 1629 memorials, the Portuguese captain Gonçalo Teixeira Corrêa was permitted to bring ten artillery pieces and four "excellent bombards" across China to begin the training of Ming troops in European-style cannon.

[10] Further reinforcements were turned back at Nanchang in Jiangxi,[11] owing to an outpouring of official complaints when a sudden illness removed the threat of a Manchu assault on Beijing.

[12] The merchants in Guangzhou were anxious lest their special monopolies on Portuguese trade be curtailed[12] but a memorials of Lu Zhaolong singled Sun Yuanhua out for particular condemnation because of his overly fond treatment of the foreigners.

[14] Liang Tingdong, the minister of war, offered him the post of governor of Denglai (t 登萊, s 登莱, Dēnglái) in northern Shandong, but Sun was hesitant.

[15] In a report to the capital, Sun complained of the Liaoning refugees who had fled to his district in the hundreds of thousands[3] that they "had seen few wars" and were thus "weak, deceitful, and completely unreliable".

[3] In early 1631,[16] the Korean diplomat Jeong Duwon visited Dengzhou while traveling to Beijing by sea, war having blocked the usual overland route from Seoul.

[17] Sun introduced him to Rodrigues,[16] whose interviews and gifts on the occasion have been credited with the introduction of western religion, science, geography, firearms, and jurisprudence to Korea.

[1] Both had previously served together under Mao Wenlong, a Ming general executed for using his post overseeing the Yellow Sea to support and conduct smuggling throughout northern China.

[1] Xu, despite now holding some of the highest posts in China for his work reforming the calendar, was unable to secure clemency through memorials absolving Sun for Kong and Geng's actions.