Michel Strickmann (1942-1994)

Abstract

Professor Strickmann's sad and untimely death was a loss felt by scholars in a great number of fields: Taoist, Buddhist, and Tantric studies; Chinese history; ritual studies; religion and medicine.But nowhere, perhaps, was his work more influential (outside of Taoist studies) than among the community of scholars of early medieval China.It is thus very fitting that his contributions be recognized in this journal by publication of a bibliography of his remarkably extensive oeuvre.As a preface thereto, a brief account of his life and career and a few remarks concerning the importance of his work for the understanding of early medieval China are also in order.Born on November 24, 1942 in Fall River, Massachusetts, Professor Strickmann's career spanned three continents.Educated after secondary school mostly in Europe, he attended the University of Ghent in Belgium from 1963 to 1965.He then studied Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan at the University of Leyden (where his teachers included A. F. P. Hulsewe), receiving a Candidatus philosophiae diploma in 1968.He subsequently pursued advanced studies in Paris for four years, working on both China and Tibet under the direction of Rolf A. Stein at the Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes, Fifth Section.In Paris he also attended Max Kaltenmark's seminar.Professor Strickmann participated in the Second International Conference on Taoist studies in Tateshina, Japan in 1972, and remained in Japan for five years thereafter.He worked on early Taoism and East Asian Buddhism as a Research Associate in the 138