Abstract
ABSTRACT From the middle decades of the eighteenth century Tang Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) was cited in French, German, English, Italian, and Dutch books and periodicals as a universal model of good governance. This article sets out how eighteenth-century writers recognized a familiar genre in translations of medieval Chinese governance texts and discusses two prominent examples of the adaptation of Taizong’s mirror literature into comprehensive universal models of good governance. The work of Johann Gotlobb von Justi (ca. 1717–1771) shows how the translation of Chinese governance texts gave impetus to new and bold critiques of European governance and to a comparative theoretical analysis of monarchies with practical consequences for institutional and policy reform. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813) extended the earlier comparative analysis of monarchies into a historical utopian novel that offered a model for political and social reform. Even though their conceptualization and uses of translation differed, Justi and Wieland were exceptional in crafting a political treatise and a utopian mirror novel that suggested that a durable blueprint for the revival of the monarchy in Europe was available in the translation of Chinese mirror literature like Jin Jing (The Golden Mirror) or Di fan (Model for an Emperor).
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