The Sinophilism of J. H. G. Justi

Abstract

In marked contrast to the attention which scholars have paid to the sinophilism of various French thinkers of the mid-eighteenth century, the sinophile proclivities of their German contemporaries have passed largely unnoticed.1 Among these German sinophiles, Johann Heinrich Gottlieb von Justi (1720-1771) occupies a prominent place not only on account of the pervading influence of his political and economic thought but also because he produced one of the most systematic eulogies of China known to have been written during the period of the reve chinois. As the father of cameralism, Justi showed an interest in political science and economics, both theoretical and applied. His works range over such diverse fields as monetary and credit policy, the postal system, chemistry, accident and old age insurance, history, population statistics, theories of government, the education of princes, legal problems, silk culture, and the civil service. In his writings on things Chinese he showed an equally broad range of interests and concerns. The earliest indication of Justi's interest in ideas or techniques originating in China belongs to the realm of the strictly practical and technological. Between 1750 and 1754, while in Austrian service as a professor of economics,2 he prepared for the government a study entitled: Explicit instruction in the cultivation of silkworms and the winning of silk for the Imperial-Royal hereditary lands. 8 In 1756, he published an article on the same subject in the Gottinger PolizeyAmtsnachrichten. While Justi advocated government subsidies for the cultivation and manufacture of silk, he did not indicate that he owes these ideas directly to China, even though some of his predeces-