Confucius. La Morale de Confucius, Philosophe de La Chine (First introduction to Confucius in French) Amsterdam: 1688.

[Jean de la Brune? Louis Cousin?]. La Morale de Confucius, Philosophe de La Chine (First introduction to Confucius in French). Amsterdam: Chez Pierre Savouret, 1688. First Edition. Binding: Hardcover (Full Leather). Book Condition: Very Good Condition. Size: 6"-7" - Sextodecimo (16mo). Item Type: Book. Collectible copy of the first French printing of sayings by Confucius. British Museum Short-title Catalogue of Books in French 1601-1700, C1371b. The Bodleian Library at Oxford holds John Locke's copy of this book (Locke 7.262a). Jesuit missionaries in China introduced the Analects of Confucius to the West with the publication in Latin of Confucius Sinarum philosophus in 1687. This book followed the next year, not as a complete version of the Analects, but as a compilation that presented Confucius' ethics. In the introduction (Avertissement), the unnamed editor says the public is indebted "to the fathers Intorcetta & Couplet, Jesuits, who translated, from Chinese into Latin, the thre