Table of Contents

Introduction
One. The Death of Voltaire’s Confucius
Two. The Ex-Jesuit Mission in China
Three. The Origins of Esotericism
Four. The Yin-Yang Theory of Animal Magnetism
Five. The Invention of Eastern Wisdom
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Alexander Statman is a Distinguished Scholar and JD candidate at the UCLA School of Law and a former A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Reviews

“A magnificent intellectual history of the late Enlightenment’s interest in Chinese knowledge traditions, revealing their central role in European debates over the meaning and value of ‘progress.’”
*Los Angeles Review of Books*

“Statman has written a marvelous, engaging, and brilliant book. He is uniquely poised to demonstrate the genuine exchanges between Chinese and Western scholars during this period. His in-depth familiarity with the network of former Jesuit missionaries proves invaluable as he traces with extreme precision intellectual connections between Paris and Beijing. Truly a paradigm-shifting book.”
*Dan Edelstein, Stanford University*

“This is a wonderful book about wonder—about the Europeans who mediated Chinese thought, history, and technology for their compatriots, and the categories they constructed to house the translated facts and concepts.”
*Haun Saussy, University of Chicago*

"This erudite and engaging study with its extensive use of archival sources, many of which are studied for the first time, is a welcome addition to the literature on the history of science, the Enlightenment, and Jesuit missionaries in China."
*H-France Review*

"This book exemplifies the global turn currently underway in the history of science by uncovering the impact of Chinese science on the European Enlightenment, especially on the emerging Enlightenment conception of progress."
*Choice*