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". 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". The Figurists maintained the belief of the early Jesuit missionaries in China that China's ancient religion, now almost lost, was connected to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Figurist tenets The Figurists often disagreed with each other but generally they could agree on three basic tenets: 1. The Issue of Chronology The first aspect that all Figurists agreed upon was the belief that a certain period in Chinese history does not belong to the Chinese only but to all of mankind. The Jesuits furthermore believed that Chinese history dated back before the Flood and was therefore as old as European history. This made the Figurists believe that the two histories were equal in religious importance. 2. The Theory of Common Origin with Noah After the great Flood, Noah's son Shem moved to the Far East and brought with him the secret knowledge of Adam in original purity. Thus the Figurists believed that one could find many hidden allusions to pre-Christian revelation in the Chinese classics. 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. 3. The Revelation of Messiah The Figurists determined that the sage shengren (聖人) was in fact the Messiah. This proved in the minds of the Figurists that, for example, the birth of Jesus was foreshadowed in the Chinese classics as well. Joachim Bouvet in particular focused his research on I Ching, trying to find a connection between the Chinese classics and the Bible. He came to the conclusion that the Chinese had known the whole truth of the Christian tradition in ancient times and that this truth could be