ABSTRACT
In a revealing anecdote, Friedrich Melchior Grimm and Denis Diderot tell the story of how Louis XV of France, supposedly the “greatest philosopher of his kingdom,” felt that things were not well in his domain. Henri Bernard-Maitre quotes Grimm’s anecdote in full but introduces it in the context of Louis XV receiving the barbs or mockery of contemporary writers, including Grimm. However reliable the story of the encounter between Henri Bertin and the king might be, the comments bring together many of the themes—the search for accurate knowledge alongside the misunderstandings and confusions of the day—that characterized Henri Bertin’s complex engagement with China. The encounters between Europe and China in the modern era have been the theme of numerous conferences and colloquia, individual studies and group publications, as well as the subject of bibliographical overviews of the field.
