----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- I apologize that a quick search of stuff in my office has not turned up the appropriate references. But, I know that I have read that Quesnay was often called by his contemporaries "the Confucius of France," or something like that. He was indeed a great admirer of Confucius and argued for the virtues of his ideas among his contemporaries. In this he followed Leibniz who I believe was the first in Europe to do so in a major way. Admiring Confucius was very fashionable during the 1700s Enlightenment, with its mixture of rational secularism and admiration for royal authority. Quesnay was one of his most fervent admirers. I suspect that this is a research topic that could stand some further mining, although there is material out there. I would suggest starting with bios of Quesnay to get at the details of his admiration of Confucius and his public identification with Confucian ideas. Barkley Rosser ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]