Yang Guangxian was an assistant guard commander (Chinese: 副千戶; pinyin: fu qianhu) of the Xinanwei (新安卫) in Southern Zhili during the late Ming period.
When he tried this against Grand Secretary Wen Tiren (溫體仁), he was exiled to Liaoxi (遼西), where he stayed until the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644.
But his first direct attack on the leading Jesuit astronomer of the court, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, appeared in 1660, when he sent A Call to Rectify the Country (Chinese: 正國體呈稿; pinyin: Zheng guoti cheng gao) to the Board of Rites (禮部), claiming that they wanted to Westernize the Chinese calendar.
The most important of these articles appeared in September 1664: A Complaint Requesting Punishment for the Evil Religion (Chinese: 請誅邪教狀; pinyin: Qing zhu xiejiao zhuang).
He took possession of the Jesuit compound in Xuanwumen, ordering the Chinese translations of western science books to be burned along with religious statues, and turning the church into a hall with his own picture hung over the main altar.