BENOIST, MICHEL. - Jesuit and French missionary, born at Dijon (or Autun) on 8 Oct. 1715, died at Peking on 23 Oct. 1774. He entered the novitiate at Nancy in 1737, arrived in China in 1744, and was almost immediately summoned to Peking in the small group of missionary mathematicians at the imperial court, whose function was to maintain, through the practice of Western sciences and arts, the imperial benevolence toward the mission.
He had prepared himself with studies in astronomy in Paris, but could not distinguish himself in this field because Emperor Kien-lung employed him for many years in embellishing the imperial parks with the magnificence of hydraulic art, waterfalls, fountains, and the like, in the style of Versailles; the task included
the construction of pavilions in Western style in the famous summer residence (the Yuan-ming-yuan, destroyed in 1860).
B. also took part in cartographic work, and among other things in the execution of the new map of the empire in 104 sheets, for which he reintroduced copperplate engraving to China with notable success. He then played a leading role in the negotiations for the engraving in Paris, on behalf of Kien-lung, of the famous series of plates *Les conquêtes de l'empereur de la Chine* based on designs by the Peking missionaries, and subsequently had to conduct further negotiations in Peking. As superior of the Peking residence during a very difficult period, from 1762 to 1772, B. was overwhelmed by the news of the suppression of the Society of Jesus.