Voltaire et la Chine
The thesis is carried out in two parts. In the first part, we have examined in voltaire's works the presence of china within various fields : history and antiquity, society, politics, religion, philosophy, science, arts and literature ; hence, we have tried to justify the gap between factual china and voltaire's image of china. The second part entitled : " research and comment " contains a chronological study of voltaire's works on china, an investigation about his sources concerning the middle kingdom, and lastly, an attempt at understanding the author's interest in china, namely its philosophical importance and the material benefits to be derived through commercial ties. This historical, philosophical, bibliographic, biographical, chronological and psychological study based on voltaire's complete works and correspondence enables us to understand better the use made of the chinese myth during the age of enlightenment by our author.