French Jesuits Of The King Mathematician Li And Its Near Things Reported "study

The period between the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty was brilliant in terms of the history of cultural exchange between China and the West, and the mutual understanding and exchange between the East and the West reached unprecedented degree. Jeusit served as a bridge in achieving the brilliance. However, for a long time,many people always focused on those well-known missionaries such as Ruggieri,Matteo Ricci,Adam Schall,Verbiestwhile talking about the contribution made by Jeusit during that period. Meanwhile, the studies on ordinary missionaries who exerted great influence on the cultural exchange between China and the West during that period has been ignored.Louis Le Comte( 1655-1728), a French Jeusit, was sent to China with four partners as Mathématiciens du Roi designated by Louis XIV in 1687, and he was forced to return to France in 1691 because of his involvement in the Padroado of Portugal. In order to defend the Accommodation policy in China for Jeusit, he wrote Nouveaux Mémoires sur L'état Présent de la Chine in 1696,which caused a hot debate, called The Chinese rites controversy in Europe. Nouveaux Mémoires sur L 'état Présent de la Chine was denounced by Sorbonne Theological Seminary in Paris in 1700 and was listed as banned book. However, Nouveaux Mémoires sur L'état Présent de la Chine was written for defending Accommodation, also it was an encyclopaedia about China, and it concluded the European's understanding of China in 17th century. This book became one of important reference books by which Europeans, especially, enlightenment thinkers in 18th century got to know China due to its rich report on China, and which influenced greatly lots of people such as Voltaire,Quesnay and Leibniz.But both Chinese and overseas scholars failed to study deeply and systematically such a Jeusit, who gave great influence on the history of cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, and his work. Because the history of that period could not go without Louis Le Comte and his Nouveaux Mémoires sur L'état Présent de la Chine, many people mentioned them briefly, even made many mistakes, which are obviously not helpful for us to understand this phase of history correctly and deeply.This thesis studies Louis Le Comte and his Nouveaux Mémoires sur L'état Présent de la Chine mainly from four aspects.First,as Mathématiciens du Roi, Louis Le Comte's background and experience while he was in China .Second,the of the content of Louis Le Comte's Nouveaux Mémoires sur L 'état Présent de la Chine was analyzed mainly by comparing with early works of missionaries, displaying the gradual course in which European got to know China and the status of Louis Le Comte's thebook in the history of cultural exchange between China and the West.Third,the bachground of The Chinese rites controversy and the defense made by Louis Le Comte for it embodied Louis Le Comte's important role played in The Chinese rites controversy. Fourth,concrete influence of Louis Le Comte's Nouveaux Mémoires sur L'état Présent de la Chine on enlightenment thinkers accordingly embodied his personal role in influencing the missionary collective among enlightenment thinkers.This thesis is a case study. It tries to promote the depth of the study on the history of cultural exchange between China and the West in Ming and Qing Dynasty through deep and subtle study on individual missionary.