French Jesuits argued Chinese classics encoded Hebrew biblical truths

Evidence

Several French Jesuits of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, collectively known as Christian Figurists, such as Bouvet, de Prémare and Foucquet, claimed that the Chinese classic texts Yijing, Daodejing, and others are linked to the Bible or Hebrew writings. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 984

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s theme of Jewish-Christian Orientalist entanglement — claiming Chinese texts as crypto-biblical mirrors the later Jewish claim that Chinese Jews preserved ancient Israelite religion.
• SHARE: Someone interested in Jesuit accommodation of Chinese religion would enjoy this tidbit about Christian Figurists decoding the Yijing as Hebrew scripture.