Searching for his inner sage

Veteran French Sinologist Leon Vandermeersch is recognized for his lifetime contribution toward promoting Chinese culture abroad, Wang Kaihao reports.

While in his early 20s, Leon Vandermeersch learned Chinese at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilization in Paris, and became a student of Li Zhihua, the first linguist from China to have completely translated The Dream of the Red Chamber-a Qing-era novel and a hallmark of Chinese literature-into French.

Li used two characters, de and mai from Shangshu, or Esteemed Documents, which was compiled around the 5th century BC-one of the top five classics in ancient Chinese literature-to create the Chinese name Wang Demai for Vandermeersch.

De means "virtue" and mai has two meanings in Chinese-"to stride forward" or "a senior in age".

Accepting the name, which has a similar pronunciation as his French name, then a young Vandermeersch was probably unable to wholly grasp the meaning of the two characters and the great expectations his teacher had of him at the time.

But when Vandermeersch, now 91, stepped onto the stage at Beijing Normal University recently amid huge applause, the significance of his Chinese name wasn't lost on the audience.

The veteran French Sinologist came to Beijing to receive the Huilin Prize, which has been annually awarded by the university since 2015 to recognize lifetime contribution by scholars toward improving the global influence of Chinese culture.

"I have no merit to speak of," he says. "The only thing I can give back to Chinese culture is my work."

Vandermeersch's studies span from the modern development of Confucianism to ancient China's political and legal systems.

His association with China began when he was 18. In his teens, he was quick to pick up languages, and had learned Latin and ancient Greek by then. He had found a book on Chinese grammar, which was written by the German linguist and Sinologist Georg von der Gabelentz.

"The expressional habits and mindsets in Chinese went beyond my experiences," Vandermeersch recalls. "It's very different from any Western language I had learned. I had an impulse to learn Chinese."

He says he has not spent a day without reading Chinese since then.

"When I first learned Chinese, people in the West hardly expected to see China rise again," he says, adding that the future of Chinese culture seemed obscure, as China was overpowered by the West.

"However, I'm lucky to have lived long enough," he says, smiling, and adds that this is a time to revitalize Chinese culture alongside the country's rise.

Starting as a high school teacher in Saigon, today's Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, in 1951, Vandermeersch's long-time studies in Asia have given him a deep understanding of the influence of Chinese culture in the region.

From Hanoi and Kyoto to Hong Kong, he was a researcher with Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, a leading French institution studying Asian societies, from the 1950s to the '60s, before he returned to France to further promote teaching of Chinese in universities. He was head of EFEO from 1989 to 1993.

In his most famous book, A New Chinese Cultural Circle, which was first published in 1986, Vandermeersch explores the connections between cultural history and modern society in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and other countries and regions in Asia, arguing that Westernization is not the only way for modernization.

"Etiquettes of ancient China, for example, are still relevant in modern society," he says.

He points out that the other major contribution of Chinese culture is the examination system. In ancient China, officials were selected through exams. The format is still used around the world today.

"The influence of literature in ancient China was great," he says. "A regime in ancient China was not only represented by an emperor's power. It was also supported by the literati behind the rulers. Such a political system, based on the literati, thus became unique."

In Vandermeersch's view, many new problems, which today's world faces, like the environmental issue, can also find solutions from Chinese wisdom.

"We can draw inspiration from ancient Chinese classics, because they reflect a respect for nature and harmony," he says.

Though often called "a leading Confucian in France", Vandermeersch keeps an open mind toward different Chinese schools of thoughts. He says Zhuangzi, a philosopher from the 4th century BC who laid the foundation of Taoism, fascinated him the most for his great imagination.

Vandermeersch was awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien in 1980. The prize has been given by Institut de France since 1875 and is considered the "Nobel of Sinology".

"His ideas have been widely circulated around the world," Roger T. Ames, an American Sinologist and a previous winner of the Huilin Prize, says of Vandermeersch's achievements.

"I would say all Sinologists of my generation are his 'students'," Ames adds.

"Vandermeersch is a pioneer," Huang Huilin, a veteran professor at Beijing Normal University who launched the Huilin Prize, says. "He chooses the merits in traditional Chinese culture as the basis of his studies, and has been devoted to prove their strength with continuous practice."

Nevertheless, the French scholar still considers himself a humble follower of the late Hong Kong-based Sinologist and calligrapher Rao Zongyi (also spelt Jao Tsung-I). Rao was his teacher in the 1960s when Vandermeersch studied in the University of Hong Kong, but they were also close friends for 50 years.

"It's a must to trace back the source of Chinese characters to better understand early Chinese politics," Vandermeersch says. "I was very interested in the topic, but Rao thought that I was not prepared for it when I first met him."

Rao helped him to start his studies with Shuowen Jiezi, which was written in the second century and remains a basic reference book on Chinese paleography.

Vandermeersch was ushered into a new world when he became an expert in oracle bone inscriptions, the earliest known written Chinese characters, which date back to the Shang Dynasty (16th to 11th century BC).

"Chinese characters are a form of ideogram," Vandermeersch says. "It is a central way to know Chinese culture."

This has been the focus of his academic career.

Even today, reading Chinese dictionaries is a favorite pastime.

In 2018, Rao passed away, aged 101. In spite of his age and the inconvenience of traveling long distances, Vandermeersch insisted on attending Rao's funeral in Hong Kong and was a pallbearer.

"He set an example of an 'inner sage'," Vandermeersch says. "Though I'm still far from that goal, I can at least teach all I know about Chinese culture to my students without any reservation."

"Inner sage" is a notion first mentioned in Chinese texts by Zhuangzi and promoted in Confucianism later. It advocates a leading figure's continuous pursuit of virtue.

"China needs its next master of thoughts like Rao," Vandermeersch says. "Maybe this honor doesn't belong to us, foreign Sinologists."