The Jesuit Reading of Confucius
Thierry Meynard, The Jesuit reading of Confucius: The first complete translation of the Lunyu (1687) published in the West. Leiden: Brill, x, 642 pp. With 12 illustrations. ISBN13: 9789004289772 E-ISBN: 9789004289789
Édition trilingue du Lunyu, avec le texte chinois, la traduction latine et ses commentaires, et une interprétation en anglais moderne, avec des notes.
Thierry Meynard est jésuite. Il est professeur au département de philosophie de l’Université Sun Yat-sen de Canton et directeur de recherche au Beijing Center for Chinese Studies.
The very name of Confucius is a constant reminder that the “foremost sage” in China was first known in the West through Latin works. The most influential of these was the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (Confucius, the Philosopher of China), published in Paris in 1687. For more than two hundred years, Western intellectuals like Leibniz and Voltaire read and meditated on the sayings of Confucius from this Latin version.
Thierry Meynard examines the intellectual background of the Jesuits in China and their thought processes in coming to understand the Confucian tradition. He presents a trilingual edition of the Lunyu, including the Chinese text, the Latin translation of the Lunyu and its commentaries, and their rendition in modern English, with notes.