ABSTRACT
The European fascination with Confucius that had begun in the late seventeenth century with the appearance of the Confucius sinarum philosophus, the selection of Confucian classics first published in 1687, would continue through the end of the eighteenth century in a number of publications. Confucius is present in the Mémoires concernant les Chinois from the publication of the first volume in 1776, where he is referred to as a “philosopher” and, several times, as the “Socrates of our China.” Two different accounts of the life of Confucius, one short biography and one unprecedented, detailed account of his life and teachings, would be published in the Mémoires. The portrait of Confucius at the beginning of his biography is engraved in a thoroughly European style, but the composition and details of the costume and throne carefully reproduce a woodcut image that ultimately dates to the early sixteenth century, a copy of which was presumably among the prints sent by Joseph-Mari Amiot.
