Why are China and France appealing to the memory of long-gone monarchs – and what are they leaving out?

Recently the French and Chinese governments have joined together in a nostalgic reflection on cultural interactions between King Louis XIV and Emperor Kangxi in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. As Sean Heath explains here, these modern reflections are particularly interesting for an aspect of the relationship which they overlook. His article explains a bitter theological controversy as the two cultures met and clashed...