ABSTRACT
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu may be regarded as continuing the early eighteenth-century Enlightenment's attention to historical and cultural diversity, as exemplified in Bayle's Dictionnaire and Leibniz's writings on China. The political thought of Montesquieu marked a decisive turning-point in Enlightenment perspectives on China. This chapter presents a brief overview of the scholarly debates over Montesquieu's views on China and his use of source-material before turning to aspects of Montesquieu's political philosophy relevant to his account of China: cultural diversity and the concept of the spirit of the laws, despotism and monarchy, Chinese absolutism, liberty and criminal law, commerce and luxury, climate and terrain, international justice, sexuality and demographics, and finally mores, manners, and religion. Essential to monarchical government by laws is the presence of 'intermediate, subordinate, and dependent powers', especially the nobility. The existence of despotic states depends on natural conditions such as climate and terrain to a degree unknown to moderate regimes.
