Antoine Gaubil (1689-1759): The Making of a Jesuit Scientist on Global Stage in the Eighteenth Century

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Restricted (Penn State Only)
Author:
Liu, Xiangyi
Graduate Program:
History
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
November 11, 2025
Committee Members:
Kathryn Merkel-Hess Mcdonald, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Martha Few, Major Field Member
Ronnie Hsia, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Kathlene Baldanza, Outside Field Member
Jennifer Boittin, Outside Unit & Minor Member
Keywords:
Antoine Gaubil
Jesuits
Mission
Eighteenth Century
France
China
Scientific Network
Knowledge Production
Cultural History
Abstract:
This dissertation focuses on the eighteenth-century French Jesuit missionary Antoine Gaubil (1689-1759) to explore the cross-cultural interactions and the circulation of scientific knowledge in an early modern global context. I argue that Gaubil’s identity as a missionary-scientist was deliberately shaped by elite scientific education and further transformed within a different cultural milieu. His career exemplifies how the French Jesuits of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries developed a distinctive capacity to navigate between the domains of religion and science. I demonstrate that Jesuits’ participation in and contribution to early modern scientific developments and Enlightenment discourse can only be understood through their privileged access to global information and their distinctive ability to assimilate and transmit cutting-edge innovations. By reconstructing the global scientific network of the French Jesuits and uncovering their inter-mission connections, I situate them not as peripheral actors but as central mediators in the circulation of knowledge that shaped both European science and Enlightenment thought. Antoine Gaubil arrived in China in 1722, as one of the missionary-scientists selected by the French King Louis XV (r.1715-1774) and spent the rest of his life in Beijing until he died in 1759. In the context of Sino-Western relations, Gaubil’s career also amplifies our understanding of the exchanges after the golden age of the Kangxi emperor’s reign (r.1661-1722), which has been neglected in the historiography. During Gaubil’s almost-forty-years of mission in China, his main work was in the Bureau of Astronomy, and his most notable achievements came out with his scientific works. Besides astronomy and mathematics, he also studied extensively on Chinese history and translated them into French. These sources were sent back and published in France, having profound influences in the contemporary European intellectual communities and beyond. These activities also led him into relatively close relationship with the Yongzheng emperor (r.1722-1735). However, scholarly attention to Gaubil did not match his historical influence, and my dissertation plans to fill this gap. This dissertation follows a chronological structure, tracing Antoine Gaubil’s life and works from his early formation in France to his later years in China. Chapter 1 highlights Gaubil’s early life and the background of scientific education in late seventeenth- to early eighteenth-century France. By examining the scientific activities between the arrival of the first group of King’s mathematicians to China in 1685 and Gaubil’s arrival in 1722, this chapter not only lays the groundwork for understanding the context of Sino-French intellectual exchange, but also highlights the distinctive features that set Gaubil apart from his predecessors. It analyzes his education and training in mathematics, astronomy, and natural philosophy, as well as his travel journals en route to China, showing that his intellectual formation combined rigorous religious education with advanced scientific instruction, which prepared him for his later scientific work at the Qing court. Chapter 2 focuses on Gaubil’s activities during the reign of the Yongzheng emperor (1722-1735), as well as his social and intellectual relations in China. In the aftermath of the Rites Controversy and the subsequent imperial ban on Christianity, Gaubil and his French confreres had to secure a position for themselves in an increasingly hostile environment. This chapter reconstructs the social relations and missionary practices of the French Jesuits in Beijing during this period, emphasizing Gaubil’s adaptability and persistence in scientific research. It explores how Gaubil and his colleagues redefined their intellectual identity and established influence at the Qing court under the changing circumstances, ensuring the continuity of their mission and preserving their role as essential intermediaries between China and the European Republic of Letters. Chapter 3 investigates Gaubil’s connections with contemporary European scientific world and the global Jesuit knowledge network. It analyzes his scientific practices during his mission, his correspondence with the Académie des Sciences and other European savants, and his participation in the international Jesuit scholarly community. This chapter demonstrates that Gaubil as a bridge between Chinese and European knowledge systems, carried out scientific activities that not only addressed practical questions in the Chinese context, but also reflected how eighteenth-century French Jesuits integrated knowledge, shared information, and built scholarly reputations on a global scale. Chapter 4 examines Gaubil’s missionary and scholarly activities during the Qianlong era (1735-1759), including the impact of the suppression of the Jesuits in France starting from the 1750s on its overseas missions, as well as the posthumous publication and circulation of his works in Europe. This chapter highlights both the continuity of Gaubil’s scientific practice and international reputation, as well as the fragility and resilience of Sino-Western scientific exchange amid changing global politics and religious policies. My dissertation argues that Antoine Gaubil’s long career in China reveals not only the resilience of Jesuit scientific culture in the eighteenth century, but also the central role French Jesuits played in shaping Enlightenment knowledge about China. Working within a highly organized, cross-generational network in Beijing, Gaubil combined missionary commitments with rigorous astronomical, geographical, and historical scholarship that circulated widely in Europe. His correspondence, observations, and translations show how Jesuits acted as active mediators and often co-producers of global knowledge, sustaining intellectual exchange even as Qing political shifts limited their influence at court. By reconstructing Gaubil’s work and situating it within the broader Jesuit enterprise, this study illuminates the complex interactions between faith, science, and empire, and restores Gaubil to his rightful place as a key figure in the early modern global history.