Early China-West Exchanges: A Short Honeymoon

Louis XIV sent a six-member delegation to visit China. All were fellows of the French Academy of Sciences. Two of them, Joachim Bouvet and Gerbillon Jean Franois, met Emperor Kangxi and took the place of the elderly Verbiest as Kangxi’s science teacher and adviser. 15 French scientists came to China under the initiative of the two emperors. This means that the originally religious missions by European churches became State-sponsored scientific and cultural exchanges between the two sovereigns...