Sun Yuanhua

Sun Yuanhua, who lived from 1581 or 1582 to 7 September 1632 and was also known as Ignatius Sun, was a Chinese mandarin under the late Ming and a Catholic convert, a protégé of Paul Xu, born Xu Guangqi. Like his mentor he advocated repelling the Manchu invasion by modernising Chinese weaponry and wrote treatises on geometry and military science influenced by the European knowledge of the Jesuits. Born at Jiading in Southern Zhili, now within Shanghai, he became a juren in 1612. From 1630 to 1632 he served as governor of Denglai, a Ming district around Dengzhou and Laizhou in northern Shandong. He was deposed by the mutiny of Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming and was then arrested and executed by the Ming for having failed to crush the rebellion with sufficient severity.