Abstract
The first translation of Confucius’s Analects into a European language was a Dutch book by Pieter van Hoorn. Printed in Batavia in 1675, it predated the better-known Latin translation, Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (1687). Whereas the introduction of Confucius in the West has often been regarded as a project of the Jesuit mission, an exploration of the Netherlandish situation points out that the ‘manufacturing’ of Confucianism was a variegated and multi-confessional affair. The process of transmitting, translating, publishing, explaining, and judging Confucius presented a challenge to Europeans from different backgrounds and allegiances, integrating not only Latin and vernacular scholarship but also Asian expertise.
Keywords: Confucius, Pieter van Hoorn, Philippe Couplet, Jesuits, VOC/East India Company, philosophy

Local access dig.pdf. [Constructing Confucius Low Countries.pdf].
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Foreign Devils and Philosophers : Cultural Encounters between the Chinese, the Dutch, and Other Europeans, 1590-1800 / Thijs Weststeijn.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

1. China, the Netherlands, Europe: Images, Interactions, Institutions and the Ideal of Global Cultural History / Thijs Weststeijn -- 2.  The Richest Country in the World: Dutch Knowledge of China and Cathay and How to Get There in the 1590s /  Djoeke van Netten -- 3.  Red-Haired Barbarians: The Dongxi Yangkao (1617) and its Portrayal of the Dutch in China /  Lennert Gesterkamp -- 4.  The Tartars in European Missionary Writings of the Seventeenth Century /  Dong Shaoxin -- 5.  Just Like Zhou: Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands (1597-1705) and Their Cultural Representation /  Thijs Weststeijn -- 6.  Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company: Gambling on Formosa /  Joris van den Tol -- 7.  The "Unhappie Ruines" of Princess Mary ii's Lacquer Screen: Sir Constantijn Huygens's Plea to Preserve a Chinese Artefact, 1685-1686 /  Willemijn van Noord -- 8.  A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress: The Review of the First Latin Translation of Confucius (1687) in the Philosophical Transactions and Its Preoccupation with Chinese Chronology /  Trude Dijkstra -- 9.  The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces: The Example of Tomás Pereira (1689-1690) /  Chen Yufang -- 10.  Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China in the Perspective of the Communication between Europe and China in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries /  Noël Golvers -- 11.  Curiosity and Authority: Images of Europeans at the Qing Court during the Kangxi and Yongzheng Reigns /  Sun Jing -- 12.  The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794 /  Cai Xiangyu.

What was the cultural impact of early meetings between Chinese and Europeans? This book explores visual, literary, and scholarly representations of the Celestial Empire and Western countries against the backdrop of actual encounters. Based on rare Chinese and, correspondingly, European (especially Dutch) sources and archival documents, the volume covers a range of cultural expressions from the applied arts to philosophy. Special attention goes to the ideals and realities of trade and diplomacy of the Dutch East India Company in China. Foreign Devils and Philosophers approaches global history from a cultural perspective and illuminates the reciprocal dynamic of aversion and admiration: Chinese and Westerners could appear as sages or savages in each other's eyes.--Publisher note.

Local access dig.pdf. [Weststeijn-Foreign Devils and Philosophers.pdf]