Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys
| The Marquis D'Hervey de Saint-Denys | |
|---|---|
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| Native name | Marie-Jean-Léon Lecoq |
| Born |
6 May 1822 Paris, France |
| Died | 2 November 1892 (aged 70) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Institutions | Collège de France |
| Academic advisors | Stanislas Julien |
| Notable students | Édouard Chavannes |
Marie-Jean-Léon Lecoq, Baron d'Hervey de Juchereau, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys (Chinese: 德理文; pinyin: Dé Lǐwén; 6 May 1822 – 2 November 1892) son of Alexandre Le Coq or Lecoq, Baron d'Hervey (1780-1844), and Mélanie Juchereau de Saint-Denys (1789-1844) was born on 6 May 1822. D'Hervey was a French sinologist. He made an intense study of Chinese, and in 1851 D'Hervey published his Recherches sur l'agriculture et l'horticulture des Chinois (Transl: Research on the agriculture and horticulture of the Chinese), in which he dealt with the plants and animals that potentially might be able to be acclimatized to and introduced in Western countries. He translated as well Chinese texts as some Chinese stories, not of classical interest, but valuable for the light they throw on Chinese culture and customs. He was a man of letters too. E.g. he translated some Spanish-language works, and wrote a history of the Spanish drama. D'Hervey also created a literary translation theory, paraphrased by Joshua A. Fogel, the author of a book review on De l'un au multiple: Traductions du chinois vers les langues européenes, as "empowering the translator to use his own creative talents to embellish wherever necessary—not a completely free hand, but some leeway to avoid the pitfall of becoming too leaden."
By adoption by his uncle Amédée Louis Vincent Juchereau (1782-1858) he became Marquis de Saint-Denys.
At the Paris Exhibition of 1867, Hervey de Saint Denys acted as commissioner for the Chinese exhibits. and is decorated by the Legion of Honour.
On June the 11th 1868 the Marquis married the 19-year-old Austrian orphan Louise de Ward.
In 1874 he succeeded Stanislas Julien in the chair of Chinese at the Collège de France, while in 1878 he was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et de Belles-Lettres. D'Hervey died in his hotel at Paris on 2 November 1892.
More recently Hervey de Saint Denys has begun to be known for his introspective studies on dreams. D'Hervey was also one of the earliest oneirologists (specialists in the study of dreams), and is nowadays regarded as "The Father" of modern lucid dreaming. In 1867 there appeared as an anonymous publication a book entitled Les rêves et les moyens de les diriger; observations pratiques (Translation: Dreams and the Ways to Direct Them: Practical Observations). In a footnote on page 1 from the 1878-edition of Alfred Maury's work Le sommeil et les rêves D'Hervey de Saint-Denys was identified as the writer of it. Writers like e.g. Havelock Ellis (1911), Johann Stärcke (1912), A. Breton (1955) a.o. refer to the fact that the original anonymous publication was hard to lay hands on as copies were scarce, because shortly after the publication publisher Amyot went broke. Sigmund Freud (Die Traumdeutung.Wien; Deuticke.1900) e.g. states: "Maury, le sommeil et les rêves,Paris,1878, p.19,polemisiert lebhaft gegen d'Hervey,dessen Schrift ich mir trotz aller Bemühung nicht verschaffen konnte"(Transl.:Maury, Sleep and Dreams, Paris,1878, p. 19, argues strenuously against d'Hervey, whose book I could not lay hands on in spite of all my efforts).
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