BOUVET, JOACHIM. - Missionary, born near Le Mans on 18 July 1656, he entered the Jesuit order in 1678 and was one of the first six Jesuit mathematicians whom Luigi XIV sent to China in 1685. Having arrived in Pechino, he was retained, together with Fr Gerbillon, in the service of Emperor Kang-hi. Sent by the latter to the king of France in 1693, he returned in 1699 with ten new missionaries. In 1705 Kang-hi considered sending him to Rome over the question of the Chinese rites. In 1708 B. began to collaborate
on the new great geographical map of the empire, divided by provinces; at the same time he exercised the apostolic ministry among the Christians of Pechino. There he died on 28 June 1730.
B. wrote extensively, in Tartar and Chinese on geometry, and in Latin on the ancient sacred books of China, which he interpreted (in the manner of his fellow religious Fr de Prémare) as containing remnants of the primitive revelation. One of his best-known works is the Portrait historique de l'Empereur de Chine (Paris 1697; various translations, one into Latin edited by Leibniz in the reprint of the Nocissima sinica, 1699; in Italian, Padova 1700): it is a highly optimistic eulogy of Kang-hi, the “Luigi XIV of China.” B. left many letters, largely unpublished.