Abstract
The political and religious stakes in the means of illustration in the Mémoires concernant les Chinois (1776-1791 ). This article studies two series of pictures from the Mémoires concernant les Chinois illustrating, on the one hand, a flooded Chinese town in 1742, and, on the other hand, a biography of Confucius presented as an ancient narrative. Two means of illustration are obvious. The series about the flood, true to the Chinese style, showing various technical themes, has a political purpose wanted by Minister Bertin : borrowing in China examples of government and agriculture which could be a model for reforms in France. The other series, concerning the life of Confucius, ordered by the Jesuits, shows Confucius as a scholar following the model of Ancient Virtue ; it mixes Chinese themes and style with European iconography (religious or ancient) and underlines the important part played by Confucius as a corner . stone with a view of evangelizing the Chinese society.
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