Jacques Gernet (in French ʒɛʁnɛ/; ; 22 December 1921, Algiers, French Algeria – 3 March 2018, Vannes) was an eminent French sinologist of the second half of the 20th century. His best-known work is The Chinese Civilization, a 900-page summary of Chinese history and civilization which has been translated into many languages.
Jacques was the son of Louis Gernet (1882-1962).[1]
Gernet obtained a degree in classics at the University of Algiers in 1942. He then served in World War II from 1942-1945. After the war, he started to study the Chinese language. In 1947, he received his degree in Chinese from the National School of Oriental Languages and, in 1948, from the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE). He then became a member of the French School of the Far East, before being a researcher at CNRS and Scholar of the Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan. He received his Doctor of Letters in 1956.
From 1955 to 1976, Gernet served as director of studies at the EPHE, VIe section, then at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. He taught Chinese language and culture at the Faculty of Arts of the Sorbonne in 1957, first as a lecturer, then as professor starting in 1959. In 1968, he founded the Unit of teaching and research of languages and civilizations of East Asia (University of Paris-VII), and was its director until 1973. He entered the Collège de France, where he was chair in social and intellectual history of China from 1975 to 1992.
For Rolf Stein, Gernet was "the only French sinologist who truly studied all aspects of Chinese civilization and who dominated it entirely".
Gernet died in Vannes on 3 March 2018.[2]
† Translated into English.