Henri Maspero

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henri Maspero (December 15, 1882 - March 17, 1945) was a French sinologist, today particularly remembered for his pioneering works on Taoism.

After studies in history and literature, he joined his father in 1905, the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, in Egypt and later published the study Les Finances de l'Egypt sous les Lagides. After returning to Paris in 1907, he studied the Chinese language under Édouard Chavannes and law at Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. In 1908, he went to Hanoi, studying at the École française d'Extrême-Orient.

In 1918 he succeeded Chavannes in the Chair of Chinese at the Collège de France. He published his monumental La Chine Antique in 1927. During the following years he replaced Marcel Granet for the chair of Chinese civilisation at Sorbonne, directed the department of Chinese religions at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, and was selected a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.

Accused by the occupying German force of involvement with the French Resistance, he was interned in Buchenwald concentration camp during the Second World War, where he died.

Besides his pioneering works on Chinese history and religions, he also made great contributions to historical Chinese phonology, for his works Le dialecte de Tch'ang-ngan sous les T'ang (1920) and Préfixes et dérivation en chinois archaïque (1930).