Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (Chinese: 錢德明; February 1718 - October 9, 1793) was a French Jesuit missionary.
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Life
He was born at Toulon. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to China. He soon won the confidence of the Qianlong Emperor and spent the remainder of his life at Beijing, where he died 1793. He used a Chinese 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 the Far East. His Manchu dictionary Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-français (Paris, 1789) was a work of great value, the language having been previously quite unknown in Europe. 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 de Confucius, 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 Les sauvages, 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.
See also
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
