PREFACE I. SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE AND HIS PREDECESSORS Early cultural Relations of England and China — “Cataian” in Shakespeare —
“Cathaian Can” in Milton — China in Voyages and Travels — The English in China — The Chinese in England — The Christian Missionaries and their Translation of Confucian Classics — Sir William Temple and the “Sharawadgi” — Temple and Confucianism.
II. THE FREETHINKERS “L’Affaire des Chinois” — Confucianism and English Deists: Collins; Tindal; Chubb — Chevalier de Ramsay as Mediator of Confucianism and Christianity — Bolingbroke and Confucianism — Voltaire on Confucianism and His Influence in England — English attacks on Voltaire, on Confucius, and on Chinese Wisdom.
III. THE JOURNALISTS China in the Addisonian Periodicals — Defoe as an irrational Critic of China —
Du Halde’s Description of China in England — Chinese Culture and Political Journalists:
Budgell; Chesterfield; the writers of Craftsman and the Daily Gazetteer — An Irregular Dissertation.
IV. THE CONNOISSEURS The “Chinoiseries” in England — Their Effect on English life and letters — Horace Walpole and the “Chinoiseries” — Richard Owen Cambridge and the Chinese Garden — Essays on the Chinese Taste in the World and the Connoisseur.
V. THE PLAYWRIGHTS Sir Francis Fane’s The Sacrifice — Elkannah Settle’s The Conquest of China and The Fairy Queen — Le Petit Orphelin de la Maison de Tchao — William Hatchett’s The Chinese Orphan — Chinese Harlequins — Jean George Noverre’s The Chinese Festival — Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine — Arthur Murphy’s The Orphan of China: its Relation to the Chinese original and the previous Adaptations; its Chinese atmosphere; its Success on the Stage.
VI. OLIVER GOLDSMITH Goldsmith and the Chinese Letters — The Idea of the “Citizen of the World”— “Il est un philosophe à sa manière” — Goldsmith as an Interpreter of Chinese Culture —
Goldsmith as a Critic of the “Chinoiseries” in England.
CONCLUSION APPENDIX I. Chronology.
II. Three Essays relating to the Chinese.
BIBLIOGRAPHY I. General Works
II. Special Works
