China a Model for Europe by Lewis A. Maverick (review)

BOOK REVIEWS251 China a Model for Europe. By Lewis A. Maverick. San Antonio, Texas : Paul Anderson Company, 1946. Two volumes in one. Foreword by Ch'en Shou-Yi. Pp. xii+334. $4.50. China a Model for Europe does not inted to show, as the title might suggest, how modern China torn by civil strife can be a model for present-day Europe, but deals with the rêve chinois of the eighteenth century, the period of unprecedented admiration for things Chinese in France and all of Europe. Professor Maverick has studied this phase particularly from the economical and social viewpoint. The first part of the book shows how during the seventeenth century, largely through the sympathetic accounts of Catholic missionaries, Imperial China came to be regarded as a model for European countries, and how the enthusiasm for China reached its climax in the eighteenth century. The second part presents the first English translation of François Quesnay's Le Despotisme de la Chine, which, with much exaggeration, glorifies the "enlightened despotism of China" as the best form of government. The translation is preceded by an introduction discussing the life of the author, one of the leaders of the Physiocratic school of economics, his sources of information on China and the chief ideas of this treatise on Chinese political and economic institutions. Two appendices are added to the first part of the book, a biographical sketch of the ancient Confucian philosopher Mencius with selections in English from his book and an essay on the celebrated Catholic Chinese statesman Paul Hsü Kuang-ch'i (1562-1633) with translations (by William Ung) from his monumental work Nung Cheng Ch'üan Shu (Complete Treatise on Agriculture). The book will prove interesting and helpful not only to the historian of economics, but also to others, especially the student of Sino-Western relations. However, since the author is not a sinologist nor a mission historian, his book is not free from little flaws on these two counts. Thus, e.g., the two Chinese Jesuits Louis Ko and Etienne Yang are said to have "necessarily turned from the Jesuit to the Lazarist order" (p. 45). But actually these priests never left the Society of Jesus, nor did they join the Lazarists. When in 1775 the Society of Jesus was suppressed in China, these priests like their confreres continued their work as diocesan priests under the Bishop of Peking or their respective Vicar Apostolic. Speaking of Hsü Kuang-ch'i, the author has overlooked the important biographical sketch contributed by J. C. Yang to the first volume of Arthur Hummel's Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (Washington, 1943). As regards the literary authorship of the Confucian classics, the author still adheres to the traditional view that some of them were written by Confucius himself. But modern critical scholars, Chinese and Westerners alike, are very doubtful whether Confucius wrote anything at all. The main contribution of the work, it seems to me, is the fluent and elegant translation of the Despotisme de la Chine, certainly a welcome 252BOOK REVIEWS addition to the English literature on Sino-Western contacts and the Physiocratic school of the eighteenth century. Mount St. Sepulchre, Washington, D.C. Bernward H. Willeke, O.F.M. DISCOVERIES AT ST. JOHN'S, 'EIN KARIM, 1941-1942. By Fr. Sylvester J. Sailer, O.F.M. Printed by the Franciscan Press, Jerusalem, 1946. Pp. xvi+200. This is the third of the biblical studies published by the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. As the author suggests, the title of this work indicates its purpose ; it is a study and a record of the discoveries made at 'Ein Karim in 1941 and 1942. Although these discoveries are important from a historical point of view, nevertheless, they are not conclusive enough to substantiate every detail concerned with the history of the town or its beautiful monument in memory of Saint John the Baptist. St. Luke, the Evangelist, tells us that the Baptist was born in the city of Juda. Unfortunately, the Evangelist does not tell us the name of that city but Tradition definitely points to the present city of 'Ein Karim. This town, a typical oriental hamlet, is situated in...