Born December 22 1921, Algiers. Died on March 4 2018.
Education and professional career
- Secondary studies at Lycée Bugeaud, Algiers
- 1942 : advanced studies at the Faculté des Lettres d'Alger, licentiate in classics and DES
- 1942-1945 : mobilized, campaign against Germany and its allies
- 1947 : diploma in Chinese from the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes
- 1948 : Diploma from the École pratique des hautes études (IVe Section)
- 1956 : Doctor of Letters, Paris, Sorbonne
- 1949, 1957, 1962, 1966, 1973, 1980, 1985, 1990 stays, missions and conferences in China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong
- 1949-1950 : member of the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi
- 1951-1955 : intern, then research fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
- 1955-1976 : Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (VIe Section), then at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
- 1957-1975 : lecturer, then professor of Chinese language and civilization at the Sorbonne, then at the University of Paris-VII
- 1969-1973 : Director of the Unité d'enseignement et de recherche des langues et civilisations de l'Asie orientale at the University of Paris-VII
- 1962 : scholarship holder at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and the Yomiuri shimbun in Japan
- 1975-1992 : Professor at the Collège de France, chair Social and Intellectual History of China
- 1975-1992 : co-editor of the Franco-Dutch magazine T'oung Pao
- 1978-1992 : delegate of the Collège de France administrator to the Instituts d'Asie
- 1986-1993 : head of CNRS research group 379 on the history of science in China, Korea and Japan
- Since 1992 : Honorary Professor at the Collège de France