Editing Voltaire (section)

=== Confucianism ===
[[File:LifeAndWorksOfConfucius1687.jpg|thumb|''Life and Works of Confucius'', by [[Prospero Intorcetta]], 1687]]

Works attributed to [[Confucius]] were translated into European languages through the agency of [[Jesuit China missions|Jesuit missionaries stationed in China]].{{efn|The first was [[Michele Ruggieri]], who had returned from China to Italy in 1588 and carried on translating in Latin the [[Chinese classics]] while residing in [[Salerno]].}} [[Matteo Ricci]] was among the earliest to report on the teachings of Confucius, and father [[Prospero Intorcetta]] wrote about the life and works of Confucius in [[Latin]] in 1687.<ref name="Windows into China">''Windows into China'' – John Parker, p. 25, {{ISBN|0-89073-050-4}}.</ref>

Translations of [[Confucianism|Confucian texts]] influenced European thinkers of the period,<ref name="Mungello">{{Cite journal |last=Mungello |first=David E. |year=1971 |title=Leibniz's Interpretation of Neo-Confucianism |journal=[[Philosophy East and West]] |publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]] |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=3–22 |doi=10.2307/1397760 |jstor=1397760}}</ref> particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who hoped to improve European morals and institutions by the serene doctrines of the East.<ref name="Windows into China" /><ref>[[John M. Hobson]], ''[[The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation]]'', pp. 194–95, {{ISBN|0-521-54724-5}}.</ref> Voltaire shared these hopes,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowbotham |first=Arnold H. |date=December 1932 |title=Voltaire, Sinophile |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/457929 |journal=PMLA |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=1050–65 |doi=10.2307/457929 |jstor=457929|s2cid=251028175 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bailey |first=Paul |date=19 July 2002 |title=Voltaire and Confucius: French attitudes towards China in the early twentieth century |journal=History of European Ideas |volume=14 |issue=6 |pages=817–37 |doi=10.1016/0191-6599(92)90168-C |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/019165999290168C}}</ref> seeing Confucian rationalism as an alternative to Christian dogma.<ref name="epc">{{Cite book |last=Lan |first=Feng |title=Ezra Pound and Confucianism: remaking humanism in the face of modernity |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8020-8941-0 |page=190}}</ref> He praised [[Confucian ethics]] and politics, portraying the [[Chinese society|sociopolitical hierarchy of China]] as a model for Europe.<ref name="epc" />
{{blockquote|text=Confucius has no interest in falsehood; he did not pretend to be prophet; he claimed no inspiration; he taught no new religion; he used no delusions; flattered not the emperor under whom he lived...|sign=Voltaire<ref name="epc" />}}
With the translation of Confucian texts during the Enlightenment, the concept of a [[meritocracy]] reached intellectuals in the West, who saw it as an alternative to the traditional ''[[Ancien Régime]]'' of Europe.<ref name="EE">Schwarz, Bill. (1996). ''The expansion of England: race, ethnicity and cultural history''. Psychology Pres. {{ISBN|0-415-06025-7}}, p. 229.</ref> Voltaire wrote favourably of the idea, claiming that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and advocating an economic and political system after the Chinese model.<ref name="EE" />