Anna Seidel索安

Style & Daoist names

Anna Katharina Seidel

Period

Modern

Dates

1938 — 1991

Role

SinologistDaoist Scholars

Birthplace

Berlin, Germany

Life

Anna Seidel, a German sinologist and student of Max Kaltenmark, wrote her doctoral dissertation, La divinisation de Lao tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (1969), on the deification of Laozi in Eastern Han Daoism and texts such as the Laozi bianhua jing; it became a classic of early Daoist studies. From 1969 she worked for many years at the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Kyoto, Japan, editing the Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient and Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, and connecting Daoist studies in Japan, France, and the United States. Her Chronicle of Taoist Studies in the West (1989–90) systematically reviewed Western Daoist scholarship and, in Chinese translation, exerted great influence; she also wrote important papers on prophetic charts, the Mandate of Heaven, tomb-quelling texts, and conceptions of the underworld, advancing significant arguments about the relationship between Han Daoism and imperial ideology. She died of illness in Germany in 1991.

Contributions & Influence

• Studied the deification of Laozi in the Han dynasty, laying the foundations of early Daoist studies
• Wrote the Chronicle of Taoist Studies in the West, summarizing the history of Daoist scholarship
• Connected Daoist scholarship in France, Japan, and the United States, and directed research at the Kyoto branch of the École française d'Extrême-Orient

Works

• La divinisation de Lao tseu dans le taoïsme des Han
• Chronicle of Taoist Studies in the West 1950–1990
• Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments
• Taoism: The Unofficial High Religion of China