Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (Chinese: 錢德明; pinyin: Qián Démíng; February 8, 1718 – October 8, 1793) was a French Jesuit priest who worked in Qing China, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.

[5] After finishing his studies in philosophy and theology at the Jesuit seminary in Toulon, Amiot entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Avignon on September 27, 1737;[5] he remained a novice for two years.

[5] Afterwards, he taught at the Jesuit colleges of Besançon, Arles, Aix-en-Provence and finally at Nîmes, where he was professor of rhetoric in the academic year of 1744–1745.

[15] In 1754, Amiot made a young Chinese man by the name of Yang Ya-Ko-Pe his assistant[15] and instructed him in the European manner.

[18] The final blow, however, would be Pope Clement XIV's brief, Dominus ac Redemptor, issued on July 21, 1773, with which the Bishop of Rome officially ordered the suppression of the Society of Jesus.

The brief reached the French Jesuits in China on September 22, 1775[19] via a German Carmelite named Joseph de Sainte-Thérèse.

[18][21] Wishing to keep the French mission alive, King Louis XVI sent them financial aid and appointed François Bourgeois as their administrator.

[27] News about the upheaval of the French Revolution distressed him to the point that his physical and mental health declined, and thus he had to stop visiting the tombs by September 1792.

[31] On October 8, 1793, the news of King Louis XVI's execution reached Amiot, who celebrated Mass for the deceased monarch.

The next translation of the work in a Western language would not be made until Everard Ferguson Calthrop published his English rendition in 1905.

[37] He also tried to build a hot air balloon, but was discouraged by Prince Hongwu, for fear of the danger of flying and disseminating the discovery.

[40] Lester Hu, assistant professor of musicology at the University of California, Berkeley has doubted the veracity of this story.

[41] Amiot sent his translation of Li Guangdi's Guyue Jingzhuan (古樂經傳), a treatise on Chinese music, to Paris in 1754;[42] he later acknowledged that it contained errors and was incomplete.

[44] Amiot's own work on Chinese music, Mémoire sur la musique des Chinois was published twice by Pierre-Joseph Roussier in 1779 and 1780.