Édouard Chavannes (1865–1918) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 sinologist.

He is best known for his translations from Sima Qian

Sima Qian

Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...

's Shiji (Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, 5 vol., 1895–1905), sections of the Hou Hanshu relating to the 'Western Regions', the Weilüe, his studies of Han dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

 stone carvings (La sculpture sur pierre en Chine au temps des deux dynasties Han, 1893), his detailed study of Tang historical texts on the Turks, (Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. 1900), and for his studies of Chinese religion (Le T'ai chan: essai de monographie d'un culte chinois: appendice Le dieu du sol dans la Chine antique, 1910). The last work, a study of the worship of Mount Tai

Mount Tai

Mount Tai is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an, in Shandong province, People's Republic of China. The tallest peak is the Jade Emperor Peak , which is commonly reported as tall, but is described by the PRC government as .Mount Tai is one of the...

 in ancient China, is a ground-breaking work of modern sinology

Sinology

Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...

 for its combination of textual analysis and fieldwork. His students included Paul Pelliot

Paul Pelliot

Paul Pelliot was a French sinologist and explorer of Central Asia. Initially intending to enter the foreign service, Pelliot took up the study of Chinese and became a pupil of Sylvain Lévi and Édouard Chavannes....

 and Marcel Granet

Marcel Granet

Marcel Granet was a French sociologist, ethnologist and sinologist. As a follower of Émile Durkheim and Édouard Chavannes, Granet was one of the first to bring sociological methods to the study of China...

.

Although his translations have been revised and improved significantly since then, he is one of those extraordinary "river crossers" of the years 1880-1910 that were able to touch the very heart of a civilization

Civilization

Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...

 totally foreign at the start and make its knowledge and aesthetics well-known and accessible to western scholars.

External links

• Certain works and translations are available at the site of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
  Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
  The Université du Québec à Chicoutimi is a branch of the Université du Québec founded in 1969 and based in the Chicoutimi borough of Saguenay, Quebec. UQAC has secondary study centers in La Malbaie, Saint-Félicien, Alma and Sept-Îles...
  
  
• Xi Tujue Shiliao by Shawan