The Chinese Political Views Of Voltaire And Montesquieu

From the end of 17^th century to the end of 18^th century, the Europeans showed great interest in Chinese culture. And a so-called "Chinese Vogue" took the whole European by storm. European intellectuals, especially those of France, pondering on Chinese culture, held two opposite views on Chinese culture. A group of people represented by Voltaire spoke highly of Chinese culture; while another, among whom Montesquieu was the most famous, was bitterly critical of it. It is at the very point of Chinese politics that their views varied. Based on a skeleton study of their views on Chinese politics, this thesis tries to tell the similarities and differences of their views and find the underlying cause of these.Based on reorganizing the clues of their Chinese political views, this thesis is trying to tell what similarities and differences are about their Chinese political opinions and why.The first chapter is about Voltaire's Chinese political view. Voltaire thought highly of Chinese politics. He believed China was an ideal country that ruled by enlightened monarch. First, the rulers in China were rational who acted within the confines of reason. So the rules were tolerant in China. Second, there were wonderful laws and effective administrative system in China which made the empire work normally. Third, Confucianism was perfect and sovereigns ruled the empire according to it.The second chapter is about Montesquieu's Chinese politics view. Montesquieu criticized Chinese politics and maintained China was an absolutism country. First, the emperors' power was supreme in China, and everyone must obey his will even if it was wrong. Confucianism provided validity for emperors' power; there were no fence-sitters that could resist emperors' power; there was also no religious force that could oppose emperors' authority. Secondly there weren't any real laws in China. The emperors' power was above the law and the law was unable to restrain or supervise emperors' behaviors. Some items of Chinese law were confused with customs and lacked concrete legal items, which usually led to power abuse. But Montesquieu also didn't deny the advantages of some measures which Chinese emperors took.The third chapter is comparing the similarities and differences of Chinese political views between Voltaire and Montesquieu. Their views about Chinese politics don't have too much in common. They have different attitudes in many aspects, such as the nature of Chinese politics, the function of Chinese laws, and so on. There are many reasons about their disagreements, such as different political idea, different class standpoints, different Chinese material, and so on. They have the same opinion about some concrete political measures in China, such as the Chinese agriculture policy, the way of choosing talented person.In a word, the Chinese political views of Voltaire and Montesquieu represented two kinds of standpoints during the Chinese Vogue. They studied Chinese politics carefully and proposed their own opinions about it. Even nowadays, we can learn something from their advices.