GAUBIL, Antoine. - Jesuit, Sinologist, b. at Gaillac (Aveyron) on 14 July 1689; d. at Peking on 24 July 1759. Missionary in China from 1722, he was director of the Imperial College for young diplomats and devoted himself to the study of Chinese history, religion, geography and especially astronomy, on which he wrote extensively in special works sent for printing to France, or in reports made available to scholars (N. Fréret; J. N. de l’Isle), or in numerous letters to various persons. He was also a member of the Academy of St. Petersburg and of the Academy of Sciences in Paris.
He is credited with having founded historical paleontology and with having given the science of fossils full autonomy.
G. was an evolutionist in sentiment and reconciled this attitude with the findings of biology and with the strong religious sentiment within him. Scientifically he recognized evolutionism as a hypothesis, not as a doctrine, a hypothesis whose deficiencies and gaps he admitted. To fill these gaps he acknowledged the direction of the Divine Artist who creates forms and brings about the different animal types. This “theistic” evolutionism can only be a personal view, because evolutionism as a philosophical doctrine has meaning only insofar as it seeks to explain nature by nature. G., even in his lectures, resorted to the Creator to explain the origin of the types, in a fixed number. Despite this way of thinking, his pupil Boule contested that C. showed a certain inclination toward pantheism, which often underpins evolutionary mentality.