Aufzeichnungen über die Meere.

Society of Jesus was attacked by Enlightenment Europeans and temporarily dissolved in 1773. A century earlier, the Jesuits had disseminated this positive view of Confucius with works, such as, Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (Confucius Philosopher of the Chinese; 1687). This work contained a dramatic copperplate engraving of Confucius overseeing a library (p. 15) as well as a lengthy introduction describing Confucius’ life and a translation of three of the Confucian Four Books. Schaab-Hanke mentions Leibniz and his disciple Christian Wolff as well as Voltaire as eminent representatives of this positive view, although she fails to distinguish their different depths of understanding of China. Leibniz had the most profound understanding of China which thereafter degenerated somewhat in Wolff and reached a popularized and propagandistic nadir in Voltaire. In sum, Schaab-Hanke’s Konfuzius in Oranienbaum makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the influence of Chinese culture on the mentalities of certain eighteenth-century European landed nobility, such as Prince Franz, who sought to enlarge their intellectual visions and profit their domains by drawing from foreign cultures.