AMIOT, JEAN-JOSEPH-MARIE, AMIOT

born Feb. 8, 1718, Toulon, France died Oct. 9, 1793, Peking, China also spelled Amyot Jesuit missionary whose writings made accessible to Europeans the thought and life of East Asia. Amiot entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent as a missionary to China in 1750. He soon won the confidence of the emperor Ch'ien Lung and spent the remainder of his life at Peking. Among his achievements was the compilation of a Tatar-Manchu dictionary; like his other works, it was written in French. Amiot's other writings are to be found chiefly in the Mmoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences et les arts des Chinois (177691; Memoirs Concerning the History, Sciences, and Arts of the Chinese); the Vie de Koung-Tse (Life of Confucius), the 12th volume of that collection, is complete and relatively accurate.