Kristofer Marinus Schipper (23 October 1934 – 18 February 2021), also known as Rik Schipper and by his Chinese name Shi Zhouren (), was a Dutch

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

. He was a professor of

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

, appointed there in 1993. Schipper worked as researcher for École française d'Extrême-Orient and later taught as directeur de recherche in History of Daoism studies at the

École pratique des hautes études The (), abbreviated EPHE, is a French postgraduate top level educational institution, a . EPHE is a constituent college of the Université PSL (together with ENS Ulm, Paris Dauphine or Ecole des Mines). The college is closely linked to É ...

in Paris. He was head of the Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises from the Collège de France. He also taught at Fuzhou University and

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (, ) is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen. Nam ...

College. After his retirement, he and his wife Yuan Bingling moved to

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

(

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

) in China.

Early life and education

Schipper was born in Järnskog, Eda Municipality, on 23 October 1934. Schipper grew up near

Edam, Netherlands Edam () is a city in the northwest Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Combined with Volendam, Edam forms the municipality of Edam-Volendam. Approximately 7,380 people live in Edam. The entire municipality of Edam-Volendam has 28,492 ...

. His father, Klaas Abe Schipper, was a Mennonite Christian pastor, and his mother Johanna Schipper was a devout believer. The couple was declared “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance center, for their efforts in hiding Jewish people during the German occupation of Holland in World War II.

Research

Schipper studied in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. He was very interested in the ceremonies and rituals that are part of

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

. Knowledge of the rituals may only be passed on within a family. He was adopted by a befriended family, so he could be trained in Taoism. In 1968, he was

initiated Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformatio ...

as a priest in the Zhengyi School of Taoism. He organized and edited the first complete scientific study of the 1500 works contained in the Taoist Canon of the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. Schipper became a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1995.

Library of the Western Belvedere

In 2001, Kristofer Schipper and his wife Dr. Yuan Bingling founded the first library in China specialised in western art, literature, and culture, in Fuzhou. It is called the "Library of the Western Belvedere" or "''Xiguan cangshulou'' 西观藏书楼" (Fuzhou University Global Civilization Research Center and Library of the Western Belvedere.) With his library, they intend to make western literature more accessible to Chinese scientists. The collection consisted, in 2007, of about 25000 titles on literature, art history, and philosophy in many languages, such as English, French, German, Dutch, and other western languages.

Bibliography

* ''The Taoist Canon'', ed. Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, The University of Chicago Press 2005, . * ''The Taoist Body''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. :Schipper, Kristofer, ''Tao. De levende religie van China'', Amsterdam (Meulenhoff) 1988, (5e druk 2006). :Translation by Schipper of his ''Le corps taoïste. Corps physique, corps social'', Parijs (Fayard) 1982. * Zhuangzi, ''De innerlijke geschriften'', transl. from the Chinese by Kristofer Schipper, Amsterdam (Meulenhoff) 1997, * Zhuang Zi, ''De volledige geschriften. Het grote klassieke boek van het taoïsme'', transl. from the Chinese and annotated by Kristofer Schipper, Amsterdam (Uitgeverij Augustus) 2007, , 439 pg.

References

External links

* .
Founding information
on library.
Schipper in the Library
of the Western Belvedere.
Reference
to three interviews (in Dutch). * Schippe

in China in 2005.
K. Schipper audio archives of Ritual Music in Taiwan
* Retrieved April 5, 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schipper, Kristofer 1934 births 2021 deaths Dutch sinologists Dutch Taoists Academic staff of Fuzhou University Academic staff of Leiden University University of Paris alumni Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Knights of the Legion of Honour People from Eda Municipality People from Edam-Volendam Dutch expatriates in China 20th-century Taoists Converts to Taoism