Joachim Bouvet

Joachim Bouvet
Plate from Joachim Bouvet's Etat présent de la Chine (1697).
Chinese	白晋 or 白進
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bái Jìn Wade–Giles Pái Chìn IPA [pǎi tɕîn]
Courtesy name
Chinese	明远
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Míng Yuǎn Wade–Giles Míng Yüǎn Yale Romanization Míng Ywǎn

Joachim Bouvet (Chinese: 白晋 or 白進, courtesy name: 明远) (b. Le Mans, July 18, 1656 – June 28, 1730, Peking) was a French Jesuit who worked in China, and the leading member of the Figurist movement.

Born at Le Mans, Joachim Bouvet descended from lower nobility and family members worked in jurisprudence. He became a philosophy student in 1676 at the Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand in La Flèche.

Bouvet came to China in 1687, as one of six Jesuits, the first group of French missionaries to China, sent by Louis XIV of France, under Superior Jean de Fontaney.

Before setting out for their destination, he and his associates were admitted to the French Academie des Sciences and were commissioned by that learned body to carry on astronomical observations, to determine the geographical positions of the various places they were to visit, and to collect various scientific data.

The group, after being provided with all necessary scientific instruments, by order of the king, sailed from Brest, 3 March 1685, with Father Fontaney as Superior. After spending some time in Siam, they finally arrived in Peking, 7 February 1688. The Jesuits were well received by the Kangxi Emperor. Bouvet and Jean-François Gerbillon stayed at Peking, teaching the emperor mathematics and astronomy.

While engaged in this work, the two Jesuits wrote several mathematical treatises in the Manchu language which the emperor caused to be translated into Chinese, adding the prefaces himself. So far did they win his esteem and confidence that he gave a site within the Imperial City enclosure for a church and residence which were finally completed in 1702.