"Michel Benoist (1715–1774), a French Jesuit, studied mathematics, astronomy and hydraulics in Paris under members of the French Academy of Sciences before reaching Beijing in 1744, where he served the Qianlong court for some thirty years. He used his hydraulics to design fountains for the European-style palaces of the Yuanmingyuan, above all the zodiac water clock before the Haiyantang, whose twelve animal heads spouted water in turn, each for one of the twelve Chinese hours. He also made a world map for the emperor and introduced Copernican cosmology to China. He died in Beijing in 1774."
— Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia, "Michel Benoist" (citing Mark Elliott, Nathan Sivin, Louis Pfister et al.)