The “Beijing Experience” of 18th-Century French Jesuits

Eighteenth-century French Jesuits, through their 'Beijing experience,' provided a foundational European account of the imperial capital and its cultural, political, and natural landscape. Their missions, marked by access to the Qing court due to expertise in art, science, and medicine, offered unprecedented observations of Beijing's imperial garden (Yuen-min-yuen) and recorded significant environmental events like floods and earthquakes. By conducting a multifaceted 'city reading,' they compared China and the West across political, economic, cultural, and military dimensions, contributing critically to 18th-century European knowledge about Beijing.

Ouyang, Z. (2024). The “Beijing Experience” of 18th-Century French Jesuits. Ancient Beijing and Western Civilization, 113–151. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003536338-4