AMIOT, JOSEPH. - Jesuit missionary in China, b. at Toulon on 8 February 1718, d. at Beijing on 9 October 1793. A versatile mind, in addition to the sacred sciences he devoted himself to the study of history, languages and the arts. Ordained a priest, in 1749 he asked to be assigned to the missions; he set out that same year for China and arrived in 1750 at Macao, and in 1751 at Beijing, attached to the French Mission (founded separately for the French Jesuits in 1687 by Louis XIV with a twofold purpose, religious and scientific). There he resided until his death in the fulfillment of his ministry, attending at the same time with tireless zeal to the most varied scientific studies, in which he trained a young Chinese man, Yang, his companion in work for more than thirty years. He became a most expert master of the Chinese and Tartar languages, of the history and antiquities of China, and of the languages and scripts of the nations tributary to it, earning the esteem and trust of the emperor Qianlong and wide fame among the learned in Europe. His scientific reports, particularly addressed to the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres of Paris, were published for the most part in the collection Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les arts, les mœurs et les usages des Chinois par les Missionnaires de Pékin (15 vols. in-4°, Paris 1776-79) under the care of his patron, the minister of state Bertin. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, in 1773, he continued in Beijing, like the other ex-Jesuits, his work as missionary and scientist, even when, in 1785, the Lazarists succeeded the Jesuits in the French Mission.
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Mario Barbers