Quesnay is known as the "European Confucius"

       魁奈(Francois Quesnay，1694-1774)法国重农学派的创始人。他成长在十八世纪法国“中国热”之中，1749年他以法王御医的身份进入皇宫，很快受到了宫中“中国热”的感染，尤其是庞巴杜夫人对中国的迷恋对他产生了很大的影响。他以《农业、商业、财政杂志》和《公民日志》作为阵地，以中国为榜样，形成了西方经济学史上第一个经济学派：重农学派。

       魁奈在深入研究了孔子经济思想后深受启发，认为只有农业才是国家财富的源泉。魁奈在宣扬重农思想时大量引用中国的典籍。从中国古代典籍里所谓“天”“上帝”等词语中，发现了给予自然秩序以神学解释的经典论据。所以他劝说法国的统治者不要听凭个人意愿，而应效法中国皇帝“顺乎天意”，对中国人的天命哲学顶礼膜拜。

       魁奈的高明之处在于他并未受入华耶稣会士著作的影响，他直接从自然神论来理解儒家思想，解释孔子的言论，他曾写的“孔子简史”中认为“孔子的思想是以宗教人性为中心”，认为“孔子不像希腊人，他从不陈过于枯燥乏味的推理，孔子考虑的只是活生生的人，并且从中认识到人的本性。”这说明魁奈并未从人格神来理解中国的上帝观，而更多接受的是孔子的宗教观。所以，“孔子的《论语》，它对魁奈是具有特别的重要性”。

       因此对孔子思想的推崇和深入地研究，使魁奈获得了“欧洲孔夫子”的称号。

    Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) is the founder of the French Agrarian school. He grew up under French "Chinese fever" in the eighteenth century. In 1749, he worked in the imperial palace as a royal doctor, where he was infected quickly by the "Chinese fever" and, more especially, by Madame Bombardier's fascination with China. He based the Agrarian school on the "Agriculture, Business, Finance Magazine" and "Citizen's Diary" and took China as an example in order to establish the first school of economics in the history of Western economics.

    After deep research on Confucius' economic thoughts, Quesnay was inspired greatly and he believed that agriculture was the only source of national wealth.

    When publishing the theory of Agrarianism, Quesnay cited a large number of Chinese classics. According to words, such as "days" and "God" in ancient Chinese classics, he discovered the classic arguments of theological interpretation which defined the natural order. Therefore, he persuaded the French rulers not to listen to their personal wishes but to follow the Chinese emperor's example of "follow God's will" and to pay worship to the Chinese people's philosophy of destiny.

    Quesnay’s success is that he was not influenced by the writings of the Jesuits missionaries in China. Instead, he borrowed Confucianism directly from the theory of nature and explained Confucius’s remarks in his own way. In one of his books, "A Brief History of Confucius", he put forward that "Confucius' thoughts" were centered on humanity in religion. He believed that "unlike the Greeks, Confucius never focuses on boring inference. Confucius adopted a people-oriented ideology by exploring human nature." This shows that Quesnay understood the Chinese view of God not from personality but by adopting Confucius's view of religion. Therefore, Confucius's "The Analects of Confucius" is of particular importance to Quesnay.

    Consequently, the admiration and in-depth study of Confucius' thoughts enabled Quesnay to secure the deserved title of "European Confucius".

“文化互译，沟通世界”