Obraz Chin i Japonii w polskich kompendiach geograficznych doby Augusta III

The following paper concerns the image of China and Japan in the Polish geographical compendia published during the reign of Augustus III (1734–1764). Their authors, unlike missionaries (whose accounts were the main sources of their works) were dilettantes rather than true Orientalists, but their compendia reflect the reception of more sophisticated Oriental studies within the wider Polish society. In those works the Chinese, despite their alleged “idolatry,” were supposed to surpass Europeans in many areas such as politics, moral philosophy or crafts. Polish compendia also include some information about Oriental religions (Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism) as well as certain interesting details on day-to-day life of the Chinese and the Japanese.