Text and Art in the Origins of the Enlightenment Interpretation of Confucianism

Abstract

This article pursues two objectives: the first is to give a clear picture of the purpose and process of the Confucian reading developed by the Jesuits, in which Confucianism becomes part of an ancient philosophy common toall human cultures (Figurism), and to examine how the Chinese philosophical text entered 17^th-18^th Century Europe. The second objective is to study the assimilation of Chinese art through Dutch trade, and to establish to what extent European liberal thought was understood as “Daoist”, as stated by Christian Gerlach.