John Lagerwey劳格文

Style & Daoist names

John Lagerwey

Period

Contemporary

Dates

1947 — ?

Role

SinologistScholar of Daoism and Popular Religion

Birthplace

United States

Life

John Lagerwey, an American-born French sinologist, was a professor at the EPHE and later a professor at the Research Centre for Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a leading scholar of Daoist and Chinese local-religion studies in Europe. Early in his career he wrote Wu-shang pi-yao: somme taoïste du VIe siècle (1981), a study of the Wushang biyao, and Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (1987), based on fieldwork on Zhengyi ritual in Taiwan, which became a classic of Western Daoist ritual studies. From the 1990s he turned to fieldwork on Hakka and South China local society, serving as chief editor of more than thirty volumes in the Traditional Hakka Society Series and of the multi-volume Early Chinese Religion series (co-edited with Marc Kalinowski, Pierre Marsone, and others). He has argued that 'China is a religious state,' situating Daoism within the structures of local society. The above is based on publicly available academic information.

Contributions & Influence

• Studied the Wushang biyao and Daoist ritual
• Chief-edited the Traditional Hakka Society Series, pioneering fieldwork on local religion in South China
• Chief-edited the Early Chinese Religion series

Works

• Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History
• Wu-shang pi-yao: somme taoïste du VIe siècle
• China: A Religious State
• Early Chinese Religion (co-editor)