AMIOT, JEAN JOSEPH MARIE (1718-1793), French Jesuit missionary,
was born at Toulon in February 1718. He entered the Society
of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to
China. He soon won the confidence of the emperor Kien-lung
and spent the remainder of his life at Pekin, where he died
on the 9th of October 1793. Amiot was eminently fitted to
make good use of the advantages which his situation afforded,
and his works did more than had ever been done before to make
known to the Western world the thought and life of the Far
East. His Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-francais (Paris,
1789) was a work of great value, the language having been
previously quite unknown in Europe. His other writings
are to be found chiefly in the Memoires concernant
l'histoire, les sciences et les arts de Chinois (15 vols.,
Paris, 1776-1791). The Vie de Confucius, the twelfth
volume of that collection, is complete and accurate.
For full bibliography see De Backer and C. Sommervogel,
Bibliotheque de la Cie. de Jesus, i. 294-303;
for his works on Chinese music see F. J. Fetis,
Biog. univers. des musiciens (Brussels, 1837-1844).
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed