Pierre-Martial Cibot

Pierre-Martial Cibot (born at Limoges, France, 14 August 1727; died at Beijing, China, 8 August 1780) was a French Jesuit missionary to China.

Life

Cibot entered the Society of Jesus on 7 November 1743, and taught humanities with much success. He was sent to China at his own request 7 March 1758, and arrived at Macao on 25 July. He reached Beijing on 6 June 1760, joining the Jesuits who were retained at the court of the emperor. He remained in China for many years, and during that time conducted historical and scientific studies.

Works

Cibot published many of his essays anonymously. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes his style as "somewhat diffuse", but praises the variety of information contained in his writings.

Many of his notes and observations on the history and literature of the Chinese were published in the (Paris, 1776–89, 16 vols.). These volumes were at the time the chief source of information in Europe regarding China and its people.

Cibot's most lengthy work, his , appeared in the first volume of the . In it he claims Yao (2356 B.C.) as the founder of the Chinese Empire. This view was not held, however, by other contemporary writers: in the second volume of the his colleague, Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, in his , defended the traditional Chinese chronology.

Cibot also instituted a comparison between the Jews and the Chinese in connection with a commentary on the Book of Esther (, vols. XIV-XVI). He collected a herbarium and contributed a number of articles on various topics in natural science to the , including: (vol. III)

(vol. XI) (vol. XII)