Jean Joseph Marie Amiot
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Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (Template:Zh; February 8, 1718Template:SndOctober 8, 1793) was a French Jesuit priest who worked in Qing China, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
Born in Toulon, Amiot entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at the age of 19. After he was ordained in 1746, he aspired to serve in an overseas mission. Eventually, he was assigned a mission in China and left France in 1749. He arrived at Beijing in 1751 and remained there for the rest of his life.
Amiot served as an intermediary between the academics of Europe and China. His correspondence provided insight on the culture of China to the Europeans. He translated Chinese works into French. Most notably, his translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War is the first rendition of the work into a Western language.
Early life
[edit]Amiot was born in Toulon on February 8, 1718 to Louis Amiot, the royal notary of Toulon, and Marie-Anne Serre.Template:Sfn He was the eldest of ten children: five boys and five girls.Template:Sfn His brother Pierre-Jules-Roch Amiot would go on to become the lieutenant-general of the admiralty of ToulonTemplate:Sfn and his sister, Marguerite-Claire was an Ursuline nun.Template:Sfn Amiot maintained contact with both.Template:Sfn
After finishing his studies in philosophy and theology at the Jesuit seminary in Toulon, Amiot entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Avignon on September 27, 1737;Template:Sfn he remained a novice for two years.Template:Sfn Afterwards, he taught at the Jesuit colleges of Besançon, Arles, Aix-en-Provence and finally at Nîmes, where he was professor of rhetoric in the academic year of 1744–1745. He completed his theological studies at Dôle from 1745 to 1748Template:Sfn and was ordained as a priest on December 22, 1746.Template:Sfn
Arrival at China
[edit]Amiot requested Franz Retz, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus at that time, to serve in an overseas mission, and was eventually given a mission to China.Template:Sfn Earlier, in a letter to his brother, he had expressed his desire to serve in a delegation to this particular country.Template:Sfn He left France in 1749, accompanied by Chinese Jesuits Paul Liu and Stanislas Kang,Template:Sfn who had been sent to study in France and were returning to their home country. Kang died at sea, before the party could reach China.Template:Sfn
They arrived at Macau on July 27, 1750.Template:Sfn The Jesuits of Beijing announced Amiot's arrival, along with that of the Portuguese Jesuits José d'Espinha and Emmanuel de Mattos,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn to Emperor Qianlong, who ordered that they be taken to the capital.Template:Sfn On March 28, 1751, they left Macau for Guangzhou and arrived there five days later.Template:Sfn They left Canton on June 2, and reached Beijing on August 22.Template:Sfn
After his arrival in Beijing, he was put in charge of the children's congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels. Alongside this, he studied the Chinese language.Template:Sfn He adopted the Chinese name Qian Deming (Template:Lang)Template:Sfn and wore Chinese clothing in order to adapt himself to the culture of China.Template:Sfn In 1754, Amiot made a young Chinese man by the name of Yang Ya-Ko-Pe his assistantTemplate:Sfn and instructed him in the European manner. Yang died in 1784, after working with Amiot for over thirty years.Template:Sfn
Suppression of the Jesuits
[edit]In 1762 the Parlement of Paris ordered the suppression of the Society of Jesus and the confiscation of its property.Template:Sfn The society was abolished in France two years later, by the order of King Louis XV.Template:Sfn The Jesuit mission in China survived for a while after their suppression, being protected by the Qianlong Emperor himself.Template:Sfn The final blow, however, would be Pope Clement XIV's brief, Dominus ac Redemptor, issued on July 21, 1773, with which the Bishop of Rome officially ordered the suppression of the Society of Jesus. The brief reached the French Jesuits in China on September 22, 1775Template:Sfn via a German Carmelite named Joseph de Sainte-Thérèse.Template:Sfn The Jesuits of Beijing surrendered to it, resigned from the Society of Jesus and became secular priests.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Wishing to keep the French mission alive, King Louis XVI sent them financial aid and appointed François Bourgeois as their administrator.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Amiot was named as Bourgeois' replacement in the event of his absence.Template:Sfn
Subsequently, Amiot turned his attention to writing. He maintained contact with Henri Bertin, the foreign minister of France. His correspondences were published from 1776 to 1791 in the Template:Lang.Template:Sfn He also corresponded with other European Academies, including brief contacts with the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society.Template:Sfn
Later life and death
[edit]After the death of Bourgeois in 1792, Amiot started visiting the tombs of his Jesuit companions, where he prayed and meditated; he also carved the Jesuits' epitaphs on their tombs.Template:Sfn News about the upheaval of the French Revolution distressed him to the point that his physical and mental health declined, and thus he had to stop visiting the tombs by September 1792.Template:Sfn
In 1792, Britain sent a diplomatic mission to China, led by George Macartney. The goals of the delegation were to open new trading ports with the country and establish a permanent mission there.Template:Sfn Macartney had wished to meet Amiot in Beijing.Template:Sfn However, he was too ill to meet the diplomat and instead sent him a portrait of himself and a letter,Template:Sfn which was delivered on October 3, 1793. He gave his advice to Macartney and suggested that he leave China.Template:Sfn
On October 8, 1793, the news of King Louis XVI's execution reached Amiot, who celebrated Mass for the deceased monarch. He died on the same night of October 8, or on the following day, October 9, 1793.Template:Sfn
Works
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In 1772 Amiot's translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War was published. It includes a translation of the Yongzheng Emperor's Ten Precepts. Amiot was the first person to translate The Art of War in the West. The next translation of the work in a Western language would not be made until Everard Ferguson Calthrop published his English rendition in 1905.Template:Sfn
Amiot could speak in Manchu, the language of the emperor.Template:Sfn He wrote a Manchu-French dictionary, which was published from 1789 to 1790 with the help of Bertin;Template:Sfn Prince Hongwu, a member of the Qing imperial family, praised the dictionary.Template:Sfn He also wrote a Manchu grammar, which was never published.Template:Sfn
Amiot carried out scientific observations and experiments while working in China. For example, he made a record of the weather in Beijing, which was published by Charles Messier in 1774.Template:Sfn He also tried to build a hot air balloon, but was discouraged by Prince Hongwu, for fear of the danger of flying and disseminating the discovery.Template:Sfn
Music
[edit]Amiot could play the harpsichord and the flute. He tried to win over Chinese listeners by playing pieces by French baroque composers, including Rameau's Les sauvages and Les cyclopes. These attempts, however, were not successful;Template:Sfn when he asked the Chinese musicians for their opinions, they remarked that "your music was not made for our ears, nor our ears for your music".Template:Sfn Lester Hu, assistant professor of musicology at the University of California, Berkeley has doubted the veracity of this story.Template:Sfn
Amiot sent his translation of Li Guangdi's Guyue Jingzhuan (Template:Lang), a treatise on Chinese music, to Paris in 1754;Template:Sfn he later acknowledged that it contained errors and was incomplete.Template:Sfn Jean-Philippe Rameau referenced the work in his 1760 treatise, Template:Lang, though Rameau's idea of harmony in Chinese music was erroneous.Template:Sfn Amiot's own work on Chinese music, Template:Lang was published twice by Pierre-Joseph Roussier in 1779 and 1780.Template:Sfn The author's supplements to the work were not published until 1997.Template:Sfn He also sent collections of Chinese music and instruments to France.Template:Sfn In 1777, he sent a Sheng, thus contributing to the development of the harmonica in Europe.Template:Sfn