Claude Larre

Claude Larre sj (1919-2001) was a French sinologist. After taking a degree in Law at the Sorbonne, he entered a Jesuit Seminary at the age of 20. He spent five years in China at a very turbulent point in its history (1947-52), finally leaving for Hongkong when all foreign priests were expelled. He returned to France to study Chinese Philosophy at the Sorbonne. In 1957 he left for what was to be a nine year stay in Vietnam, first as Director of the Jesuit School for Vietnamese Language and later as Professor of Oriental Philosophy at the universities of Saigon and Dalat. His links with Vietnam lasted throughout his life, in his dedication and support for Vietnamese refugees in France. On his return to France, he pursued further Chinese studies at the Sorbonne culminating in his doctorate in Philosophy and Sinology. His dissertation was on Huainanzi chapter 7, Jing Shen Xun, A Commentary on Jingshen. In 1971, he founded the Ricci Institute in Paris, a centre for research on the Chinese language and civilisation. The last ten years of his life were focussed especially on the production of the Grand Ricci Dictionary of the Chinese Language, the largest dictionary of Chinese into any European language. It was finally published a month after his death, in seven volumes. In 1977 he made a translation of Laozi’s Daodejing, returning to the same subject with a new translation in 1994. In 1981 he wrote Les Chinois. His specific publications on Chinese medicine (some co-authored) include the Survey of Chinese Medicine, The Way of Heaven (Suwen chapters 1 and 2), Rooted in Spirit (Lingshu chapter 8) and Suwen chapters 1-11. With Elisabeth Rochat he has also co-authored translations and commentaries on Zhuangzi and Huainanzi, and presented a study of the Mawangdui funeral banner. With the founding of the European School of Acupuncture, in Paris, in 1976, he began a period of teaching on Chinese philosophy, Chinese language and traditional Chinese medicine in various countries in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.