Jean-Noël Alexandre Robert (born 30 December 1949) is a French orientalist, specialist of the history of Buddhism in Japan and of its Chinese predecessors. His work particularly focus on Tendai and the philology of Sino-Japanese Buddhist texts. He is the author of the French translation of the Lotus Sutra, a seminal text of Mahayana Buddhism, from the original Chinese.
In 2011, he was appointed a professor at the to become the holder of the chair .
Biography Robert graduated from the in 1970 and was a resident of the Franco-Japanese House of Tokyo in 1974–1975. From 1975 to 1990, he worked at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Since 1979, he has been the lecturer and director of studies at the fifth section of the (EPHE). A of social science (1987), he was appointed director of the of the Collège de France in 2010. On 11 April 2011, he was appointed professor at the College of France where he became holder of the Chair of .Décret de nomination du 11 avril 2011, on the site .
Robert is a member of numerous scientific societies and specialized committees: the , of the at Paris Diderot University, of the (5th section), counsellor of the , board of the .
Robert is editor of , an encyclopaedia of Buddhism from the Chinese and Japanese sources, and member of the editorial and scientific committees of the , the and the journal. He was elected on 17 March 2006, member of the at the chair of André Caquot. He also writes in Latin, under the pseudonym Alexander Ricius.Cf. sa conférence Pourquoi écrire en latin au XXIe siècle ? with the Association "le Latin dans les Littératures Européennes".
Honours and awards Honours Knight of the Legion of Honour (France) Officier of the Ordre national du Mérite (France) Commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques (France) Gold and Silver Star of the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan)
Awards 2023 : Medal of the Collège de France 2021 : Medal of the International Prize in Japanese Studies (Japon)
Publications 1986: (kanbun) 1990: (doctorate thesis) 1995: , published in Japanese in 1997 2001: Kanbun for the XXIst Century : The Future of Dead Languages (in Japanese) 2003: (translation) 2007: , Fayard, series "", 2008: , 2008: 2012: La hiéroglossie japonaise 2023: Des langues et des dieux au Japon
References
External links Jean-Noël Robert on the site of the (IEA) de Nantes Site des membres de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres