Philippe Couplet, SJ (1623–1693), known in China as Bai Yingli, was a Flemish Jesuit missionary to the Qing Empire.

[3][4] Soon after, Couplet and Shen answered questions about the nature of the Chinese language posed by linguists in Oxford,[5] Berlin, and Vienna.

[7] The work—parts of which had appeared earlier in separate, little known, editions—built upon the efforts of several generations of Jesuit missionaries[8] and was dedicated to Louis XIV.

"Although wanting to return to China, he had to wait until a dispute between the vicars apostolic of the Asian missions (to which he had taken an oath of obedience) and the Portuguese padroado system (his initial tutelary organization) was resolved.

[1] As he was en route, however, a heavy chest fell on his head during a storm in the Arabian Sea, severely injuring the septuagenarian Jesuit.