Joseph Marie Amiot was born at Toulon. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to China. He soon won the confidence of the Qianlong Emperor and spent the remainder of his life at Beijing. He was a correspondent of the Acad閙ie des Sciences; official translator of Western languages for Emperor Qianlong; and the spiritual leader of the French mission in Peking. He died in Peking in 1793; two days after the departure of the British Macartney Embassy. He could not meet Lord Macartney; but exhorted him to patience in two letters; explaining that 'this world is the reverse of our own'. He used the Chinese name Qian Deming while he was in China.