Michel Soymié (29 July 1924 – 14 July 2002; Chinese name: ; zh, w=Su Yüen-ming, p=Sū Yuǎnmíng) was a French scholar and author working in the field of Chinese popular religion and literature. As a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) in Paris he directed a research group working on the

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

manuscripts collected in China by the Paul Pelliot expedition of 1906-1908 which eventually evolved into the Centre de recherche Civilisation chinoise (Centre for Research on Chinese Civilisation). He was responsible for publishing the collaborative catalogue of the Pelliot Dunhuang manuscripts.

Biography

Michel Soymié studied Chinese (graduating in 1947) and then Japanese (1952) at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris. He worked at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the National Centre for Scientific Research (the largest public research organisation in France), first as a trainee researcher (1951-1952) and then as an assistant researcher (1953-1956). In 1957 he moved to Japan to work at the Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo until 1960 and then at the

École française d'Extrême-Orient The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...

(EFEO) (French School of Far Eastern Studies) in Kyoto and Tokyo until 1966. He was appointed to the Chair of "History and Philosophy of Mediaeval China" at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), where he directed the Joint EPHE-CNRS Research Group working on the Dunhuang manuscripts from 1973 to 1985. His most important work was the completion and publication of the catalogue of the explorer Paul Pelliot's collection of Dunhuang manuscripts at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

(French National Library). The Group also prepared descriptive notes to accompany the Pelliot collection of Chinese pictures at the

Musée Guimet The Guimet Museum (full name in french: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet; MNAAG; ) is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the XVIe arrondissement, 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Literally translated into English, its ful ...

in Paris. Michel Soymié also curated the collections of the Société Asiatique (French Asiatic Society), expanded various collections (notably the Japanese collection) of the EFEO Library and established the Dunhuang Manuscripts Research Group's library, described as the richest collection in its field in Europe. He retired in 1992. After his death his personal library was entrusted to the

Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon The Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon is a library in Lyon, France. In addition to providing standard library services it also hosts a variety of special collections, in particular in the fields of photography, Lyon and the Rhône-Alpes Rhône ...

(Municipal Library of the City of Lyon). The Library's Michel Soymié Collection of 8000 volumes includes monographs and serial publications in Western languages, Chinese and Japanese.

Bibliography

* (dir.), ''Catalogue des manuscrits chinois de Touen-houang, fonds Pelliot de la Bibliothèque nationale'', vol. 3, Paris, Fondation Singer-Polignac, 1983; vols. 4 and 5, Paris, EFEO, 1991 and 1995. * ''Quelques représentations de statues miraculeuses dans les grottes de Touen-houang'', in M. Soymié (dir.), ''Contributions aux études de Touen-houang'', 3, Paris, EFEO, 1984, p. 77-102. * ''Un Calendrier de douze jours par an dans les manuscrits de Touen-houang'', BEFEO, vol. 69, 1981, p. 209-229. * ''Un Recueil d'inscriptions sur peintures : le manuscrit P. 3304 verso'', in M. Soymié (dir.), ''Nouvelles contributions aux études sur Touen-houang'', Geneva, Droz, 1981, p. 169-204.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soymie, Michel 1924 births 2002 deaths French sinologists