Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book focuses on three early European Enlightenment thinkers who drew from Jesuit accounts to discuss China in light of their respective philosophical and political concerns: Pierre Bayle, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and the Baron de Montesquieu. It focuses on the ways in which theoretical arguments relate to the Enlightenment's engagement with China. The book illustrates both the weaknesses and strengths of Enlightenment views of China as they relate to politics. At the heart of Enlightenment perspectives on the wider world was the conviction that 'Europe (especially its western portion) represented the summit of civilization, and the other continents represented various levels of savagery or barbarism'. The book concludes with a brief sketch of how early Enlightenment views of China influenced or resonated with aspects of modern Chinese political thought in the reformist and republican eras.