La Pensée Cyclique (2)—Sociology and Sinology

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series about Marcel Granet, "La Pensée Cyclique"

[a] Social cycles RF

This series is dedicated to understanding one of the most fascinating intellects of the twentieth century, Marcel Granet (1884-1940). In an earlier era, he might have been considered (at least by bibliophiles considering tomes ranging from De l'esprit des lois to 呂氏春秋 between the world wars) the most interesting man in the world. For me, he is every bit of that (as we say back home). Granet's range of interests in social theory and Chinese literature were profound, catholic, and engrossing. I hope that (whether you are interested in French, social theory, or Chinese) you will give Monsieur Granet a little bit of your attention. The material is not simple, by any means, but it is an ideal way to grasp how knowledge really works.

Sociology and Sinology  
The complete body of Granet’s work reflects a desire to resolve tensions between “real” and “ideal” in his texts, and to show the relationship between cultural ideals and social practice.  Granet was troubled by the inability of all but a few of his students to comprehend the connection between mythique and juridique—the realm of ideas, on the one hand, and the functioning of kinship connections, on the other.  Many were captivated by the study of seemingly esoteric texts, but absolutely overwhelmed by the sociological details and the challenge of interpreting kinship charts.  At the heart of this “tension” lies the demand Granet put upon himself and his students—to interpret the Chinese texts themselves with grace and clarity, all the while bringing to them a theoretical and methodological sophistication that was the result of a half-century of work in (at that time) the rich and growing field of sociology.

Even in his time, few were committed to mastering the sources of two complex scholarly traditions.

[b] Complex RF

An example of this commitment can be seen in a letter Marcel Granet wrote to friends in 1912, in which he describes having to leave his residence in Beijing during the confusion following the end of the Qing dynasty.  In his great rush, he wrote that he could carry only his copies of the twenty-four standard histories of China—a burdensome proposition, indeed, since each of those histories was bound in several volumes.  One imagines the young scholar, who was soon to write of the symbolism of left and right in Chinese culture, burdened with the weight of two traditions in his arms, and each helping to define him in a world that might not understand. We pack up: the twenty-four histories, in their frail cases, decorated with green characters, make a shaky structure.[1]

[c] Social 1906 RF

Needless to say, it would not be possible to carry the twenty-four histories, and it is somewhat odd as an example, since Granet’s published work was much more influenced by classical works of the fifth- to second- centuries BCE.  Nonetheless, if that were his only reading, he would appear to be the quintessential sinologist, immersed in the textual foundations of the Chinese tradition, and perhaps explicating them on their own terms for a Western audience only dimly acquainted, beyond the fashions of chinoiserie, with an East Asian civilization.  He might have been a figure not unlike Arthur Waley.  Translating form Chinese texts in an almost Dickensian manner, he might have opened interpretive worlds for his readers that did not veer too far from their experiences with Western literature.  On the other hand, imagining the opposite end of the spectrum, he might have been more like one of his own mentors, Édouard Chavannes, whose obsession with his Chinese sources was often an end in itself, with publication a sometimes distant goal.

But Marcel Granet, at least as he told it in his letter, did not only bring his treasured Chinese histories with him as he fled the turmoil in Beijing.  He also carried the first run of L’année sociologique, the journal founded by his other mentor, Emile Durkheim, which contained the best writing of a large group of scholars who surrounded the French master.  His letter continues by filling up the other hand, as it were, in his two-sided life: 

               L’année sociologique is in my handbag.  I stuff my suitcases.[2]

[d] Forbidden RF

From that perspective (we might say, on the other hand), the classically trained Granet could well have been a sociologist devoted to studying (and comparing) the early ethnographic writings of scholars as far afield as Australia, North America, Siberia, and China—all without doing fieldwork himself or learning the relevant languages.  He might have been much like Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, working with great erudition but little direct engagement with the societies depicted in ethnographic or textual materials compiled by others.  More favorably, he might have been like his very close friend—and nephew of his “sociological mentor” Emile Durkheim—Marcel Mauss, who wrote with unparalleled synthesizing brilliance from the scattered accounts that were available from early researchers throughout the world.

Marcel Granet was all—and none—of these things. He studied classical Chinese civilization with painstaking care, even as he avidly read and reread the sociological work being published in L’année sociologique and beyond.  Granet’s work represents, more than any writer before or since, a lifelong effort to resolve major issues at the heart of social theory with the Chinese world.  He did not engage in this enterprise as a fieldworker, although he lived in China for a time.  He engaged social theory through his Chinese texts.  Although he lived in China from 1911 to 1913, it was his sinological and sociological texts that drove his work, not the extremely significant events unfolding all around him at the time.  

[e] Towering RF

Granet studied the Classic of Poetry and its commentaries even as a two-millennium imperial order came to an end in the very city in which he lived.  He sought to understand events that would encompass others, and a passing moment in Chinese politics (however important it might appear in retrospect), held none of the fascination or explanatory power for Granet that could be found in the festivals and songs, the dances and legends, of early China.  Rival brotherhoods and sage-king ironsmiths held far more interest for Professor Granet than a fledgling Republican government. Some of the most significant events in China’s modern history were unfolding all around him, and he could not be bothered. Life in China twenty-five centuries earlier—that fascinated him.

It is as simple, and complex, as that.  Obsessively studying China’s past with little regard for its present, and seeking the very heart of Chinese social life in early texts, Granet’s is a sociology driven by early Chinese civilization, and a sinology deeply informed by sociological theory.  The resulting oeuvre is a strange blend of insights that often leave both sociologists and sinologists bewildered, and too easily dismissed for an interpretation here or there that is dated.  

It is not easy to “peg” Granet, although many have tried.  As even a cursory reading of his works will show, Granet’s interests are catholic and his methods both intense and precise.  They also reflect his deep interest in a long tradition of French social thought, dating back at least to Montesquieu, which found its place in the work of scholars surrounding Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss.  The range of questions engaged by late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century French sociologists were indeed vast—from personhood to gift exchange and magic to suicide and the very categories of the human mind—and we need to return to their roots if we are to understand Granet the sociologist and scholar of China.

Notes

[1] Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People [Translated, with an introduction by Maurice Freedman] (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 12.

[2] Granet, 12.

Bibliography

Granet, Marcel. The Religion of the Chinese People [Translated with an introduction by Maurice Freedman]. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

[f] Oeuvre RF