Figurism

On this basis the Jesuits centered their work in China on the interaction with the Chinese Confucian literati, trying to convince them of their theories and consequently convert them to the Christian faith.

When addressing the European public, the China-based Jesuit missionaries strove to present Confucianism, as represented by its Four Books, in a favorable light.

[3] On the other hand, Chinese Confucian thought had changed as well: the more open outlook of the late-Ming literati was replaced in the early Qing period by widespread clinging to Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, which was endorsed by the court as well, but had been traditionally disapproved by the Jesuits as "atheistic" and "materialistic".

[4] Accordingly, by the late 17th century the way whereby the China-based Jesuits strove to bridge the gap between China and Christian Europe had changed as well.

Instead of praising Confucius and the ideology attributed to him, many Jesuits, led by Joachim Bouvet (who first arrived to China in 1688), focused on China's earliest classic, the I Ching, which Bouvet viewed as the oldest written work in the world, containing "precious vestiges from the remains of the most ancient and excellent philosophy taught by the first patriarchs of the world".

Bouvet also thought that Fuxi, the supposed author of the I Ching, as well as Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistus, were really the same person: the biblical patriarch Enoch.

Joachim Bouvet in particular focused his research on I Ching, trying to find a connection between the Chinese classics and the Bible.

The Figurist idea was seen as an especially dangerous innovation because it elevated the Chinese classics at the expense of Christian authorities.