MASPÉRO, Henri Paul Gaston. Paris 15.12.1883 — Buchenwald 17.3.1945. French Sinologist. Son of the Egyptologist Gaston Maspéro (1846–1916, of Italian ancestry) and Louise Balluet d’Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque. After school in Paris he began himself with a study on Hellenistic Egypt, but soon turned into Sinology under —> Chavannes and Lévi. In 1908-20 in Hanoi (É.F.E.O., but 1917-19 military service in France), then Professor of Chinese at Collège de France in Paris in 1919-44 (nominated successor of Chavannes in 1919, actually began in 1921). In July 1944 arrested in Paris with his wife, Hélène Clerc (1899–1997), because their son Jean Maspéro (1925–1944) was fighting against Nazis, and sent to the camp, where he died three weeks before the coming of Americans. Their other son was François (1932–2015), a journalist and author. Member of A.I.B.L. 1935, its President 1944. The papyrologist Jean M. (1885–1915) was his brother and the Sinologist and Indochinese scholar Georges M. (1872–1942) was his half-brother.

Publications: “Communautés et moines bouddhistes chinois aux IIe et IIIe”, BEFEO 10, 1910, 222-232; “Dialecte de Tch’ang-ngan sous les T‘ang”, BEFEO 20, 1920, 1-124; Le Taoisme et les religions chinoises. P. 1950; and many further Sinological works; also some early works on Vietnamese and Thai.

– La Chine antique. 15+624 p. P. 1927, rev. 2nd ed. 1955, also an English translation.

– Mélanges posthumes sur les religions et l’histoire de la Chine. 1-3. P. 1950.

– Les documents chinois de la troisième expédition de Sir Aurel Stein en Asie Centrale. 12+268 p. 40 facs. pl. L. 1953.

Sources: *J. Auboyer, Art. As. 10, 1947, 61-64; *P. Demiéville, JA 234, 1943-45 (1947), 245-263 & bibliograpy 263-280; P. Demiéville, TP 38:1, 1947, 16-42 with photo; A. Merlin, CRAI 1951, 416-426 with photo; W.P. Yetts, JRAS 1946, 95; Chercheurs d’Asie 233; Wikipedia with photo (see also French version).