George Soulié de Morant
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George Soulié de Morant, born 1878 in Paris, died 1955 in Paris, French scholar and diplomat. Soulié de Morant worked several years in the French diplomatic corps in China, where he served as French consul in several Chinese cities. He is mainly known for his role in introducing acupuncture in the West and for his translations of Chinese literature.
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[edit] Education and Career
Soulié de Morant had the opportunity to start learning Chinese at the age of eight, being taught the language by a Jesuit priest. Although he had originally intended to become a physician, he had to give up his plans when he father died.
At the age of twenty, Soulié de Morant was employed by a bank, which decided to send him to China in 1899. Given Soulié de Morant's command of the Chinese language, he soon joined the French diplomatic corps, for which he would work for most of the following two decades. He served as French consul in Shanghai and Kunming and French Mixed Court in Shanghai.
[edit] Scholarly contributions
Soulié de Morant became convinced of the importance of acupucture when he witnessed the effects of acupuncture treatment during an epidemic of cholera in Beijing. As he served as consul in several Chinese cities, he sought out teachers who could give him instruction in acupuncture.
After Soulié de Morant returned to France after several years of consular service, he was persuaded by the prominent advocate of alternative medicine, Paul Ferreyrolles (1880-1955), to put all his efforts into translating Chinese works on acupuncture. Beginning in 1929, he authored a number of articles and works on acupcunture and he became an advocate of acupucture treatment in the French medical corps. His work l'Acuponcture chinoise, which was based on ancient texts such as Zhēnjiǔ Dàchéng (針灸大成), is still regarded as a classic work on acupucture and has been published several editions and translations.
Soulié de Morant also published a number of works on Chinese history, Chinese literature and Chinese art, as well as a number of translations of Chinese literary works.
[edit] Works
- Acupuncture chinoise. Published in English as Chinese acupuncture, edited by Paul Zmiewski. Brookline, MA: Paradigm Publications, 1994.
- Exterritorialité et intérêts étrangers en Chine. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1925.
- Histoire de la Chine de l’antiquité jusqu’en 1929. Paris: Payot, 1929.
