Biography

Born in Paris in 1955 of Chinese parents, Anne Cheng completed a full course at the Ecole de la République, nurtured by classical and European humanities, all the way to the École normale supérieure, before choosing to devote herself entirely to Chinese studies. For over forty years, she has been teaching and researching Chinese Intellectual History, and Confucianism in particular, first at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), then at the Inalco (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), before being appointed to the Institut universitaire de France and, shortly afterwards, elected to the Collège de France.

Her books include a French translation of the Entretiens de Confucius, a study of early imperial Confucianism and a Histoire de la pensée chinoise, which has been translated into numerous European and Eastern languages. She has also edited several collective works, including La pensée en Chine aujourd'hui (Gallimard, 2007), Lectures et usages de la Grande Étude : Chine, Corée, Japon (Collège de France, 2015), India-China : Intersecting Universalities (OpenEdition Books, 2020), Historians of Asia on Political Violence (OpenEdition Books, 2021), Penser en Chine (Gallimard, 2021), Autour du Traité des rites (Hémisphères, 2022).

Since 2010, she has been co-director of the Budé chinois collection at Belles Lettres.

Selected bibliography

  • Confucius talks

    Cheng A., Entretiens de Confucius (complete translation of the Lunyu, with introduction, notes, maps and chronology), Paris, Éditions du Seuil, " Points-Sagesses ", 1981, 180 p.
    Portuguese translation     : Dialogos de Confucio, Sao Paulo, Ibrasa, 1983.
    Italian translation : Confucio Dialoghi, Milano, Mondadori, 1989.

  • Study of Han Confucianism: the development of an exegetical tradition on the Classics

    Cheng A., Étude sur le Confucianisme Han : l'élaboration d'une tradition exégétique sur les Classiques, Paris, Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, 1985, 322 p.

  • History of Chinese thought

    Cheng A., Histoire de la pensée chinoise, Éditions du Seuil, 1997, 650 p.

    Awarded the Prix Stanislas-Julien by the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and the Prix Dagnan-Bouveret by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in 1997.
    Revised and updated paperback edition in the " Points-Essais " collection, 2014.

    There are a dozen translations in European and Eastern languages.

  • Thought in China today

    Cheng A. (dir.), La pensée en Chine aujourd'hui, Gallimard, coll. " Folio Essais ", 2007, 478 p.

  • Does China think?

    Cheng A., La Chine pense-t-elle ? Paris, Fayard/Collège de France, coll. " Leçons inaugurales", 2009, 45 p.

  • Readings and uses of the Great Study (China, Korea, Japan)

    Cheng A. (ed.), Lectures et usages de la Grande Étude (Chine, Corée, Japon), Paris, Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises, 2015, 508 p.

  • Thinking in China

    Cheng A. (dir.), Penser en Chine, Gallimard, coll. " Folio Essais ", 2021, 558 p.

  • Around the Traité des rites. From the canonization of ritual to the ritualization of society

    Cheng A. and Feuillas S. (dir.), Autour du Traité des rites. De la canonisation du rituel à la ritualisation de la société, Maisonneuve et Larose/Hémisphères, 2022, 248 p.