- Jean Joseph Marie Amiot
Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (Chinese: , Pinyin: Qian Deming; February
1718 -October 9 ,1793 ) was a French
Jesuitmissionary .Life
Joseph Marie Amiot was born at
Toulon . He entered theSociety of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary toChina . He soon won the confidence of theQianlong Emperor and spent the remainder of his life atBeijing . He was a correspondent of theAcadémie des Sciences , official translator of Western languages for Emperor Qianlong, and the spiritual leader of the French mission in Peking. [Alain Peyrefitte, "Images de l'Empire Immobile", p.113] He died in Peking in 1793, two days after the departure of the BritishMacartney Embassy . He could not meet Lord Macartney, but exhorted him to patience in two letters, explaining that "this world is the reverse of our own". [Alain Peyrefitte, p.113] He used aChinese name (錢德明) while he was in China.Works
Amiot made good use of the advantages which his situation afforded, and his works did more than any before to make known to the
Western world the thought and life of theFar East . His Manchu dictionary "Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-français" (Paris, 1789) was a work of great value, the language having been previously quite unknown inEurope . His other writings are to be found chiefly in the "Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences et les arts des Chinois" (15 volumes, Paris, 1776-1791). The "Vie deConfucius ", the twelfth volume of that collection, was more complete and accurate than any predecessors.Amiot tried to impress mandarins in Beijing with Rameau's harpsichord piece [Thomas Christensen, "Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment", Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521420407. Page 295. [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=170CpILluzUC On Google Books] ] "Les sauvages"Fact|date=July 2008, a piece that was later incorporated into the fourth act of his opera-ballet
Les Indes Galantes . His failure led him to form unorthodox biological theories.Fact|date=July 2008ee also
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Jesuit China missions References
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