This paper explores the role of Spinozism in the European reception of Chinese thought during the first half of the eighteenth century. The first part focuses on the sources from which European authors at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries obtained their knowledge of China. These sources were primarily Jesuit texts that offered a monistic interpretation of Chinese thought. The second part portrays the “Chinese Spinozist” based on characteristics attributed to this figure in texts by authors such as Pierre Bayle, Johan Franz Buddeus, and Jean-Baptiste de Boyer d’Argens. The third section proposes a distinction between two issues that comprise the concept of “Chinese Spinozism” or Spinoza’s reception in general: atheism and monism. These issues are usually linked, especially in studies on the critical reception of Spinoza in modern Europe. However, their projection onto Chinese thought requires caution when attempting to equate them. Atheism was often a rhetorical addition to criticisms of philosophical concepts that assumed the substantial unity of the world. However, monism remained an actual “other” of European philosophy. Thus, the Spinozian interpretation of Chinese thought in Europe reveals the structural limitations of European philosophical discourse.
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