JAO TSUNG-I (RAO ZONGYI) 饒宗頤 (1917–2018)

Abstract

Professor Jao Tsung-I 饒宗頤 (pinyin: Rao Zongyi) passed away on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, at the age of 101 years. Professor Jao, courtesy name Bolian 伯濓 (or Bozi 伯子), and pen names Xuantang 選堂 and Gu’an 固菴, was one of the most renowned and revered scholars of our time. He was born in Chaozhou 潮州, Guangdong in 1917. Over the course of more than eight decades of academic research, his scholarship extended to nearly every field of traditional Chinese culture and included ancient history (including the conception of legitimacy), historiography (e.g. local gazetteers of Chaozhou, oracle bone chronology and geography of the Chu ci 楚 辭), paleography (e.g. oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, and bamboo and silk manuscripts), Dunhuang studies, Sino-foreign relations (Sino-Tibet and Sino-India), Chinese classics and their commentaries, archaeology, religions (including Daoism, Buddhism, Brahmanism and Zoroastrianism), ethnology, bibliographical studies, classical literature (Shi jing 詩經, Chu ci, Han Rhapsody, shi 詩 and ci 詞 poetry, prose, fiction and drama), and art history. He was proficient in multiple languages, ranging from English and French to ancient languages such as Latin, Sanskrit, and Pali. Professor Jao was also highly regarded for his original creation in poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and he was a master of the guqin 古琴, an ancient seven-string zither. Throughout his life, Professor Jao was devoted to promoting Chinese culture, and his profound and bright virtue cultivated and enlightened numerous others. Primarily teaching in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore, Professor Jao held visiting professorships at Yale University in the United States, L’Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient in France, and Kyoto University in Japan, as well as a research professorship at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. His towering academic achievements have earned him a worldwide audience and everlasting reverence. Over the years, he has a host of honors in recognition of his exemplary accomplishments. He was awarded the highly regarded Prix Stanislas Julien by the College de France and was made an Academician of both the École française d’Extrême-Orient (Institute of Far Eastern Studies) and the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, Russia. He was