View source for Victor Segalen

{{Short description|French doctor, ethnographer, and writer (1879–1919)}}
{{expand French|topic=bio|date=June 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
[[File:Victor Segalen Nouméa 1904.jpg|thumb|215px|Victor Segalen in [[Nouméa]] (1904), by Louis Talbot (1853–?)]]
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[[File:Segalen-39-Xiao-Xiu-Tortoise-and-column.jpg|thumb|Segalen's photo of statuary near [[Xiao Xiu]]'s tomb (1917)]] 
[[File:Tomb of Huo Qubing in 1914, Shaanxi, China, by Victor Segalen (1878–1919).jpg|thumb|Tomb of [[Huo Qubing]] in 1914, Shaanxi, China, photographed by Victor Segalen.]]
'''Victor Segalen''' (14 January 1878 – 21 May 1919) was a French naval doctor, [[ethnographer]], [[archeologist]], writer, poet, explorer, art-theorist, linguist and literary critic.

He was born in [[Brest, France|Brest]]. He studied medicine and graduated at the Navy School of medicine ('Santé Navale') in [[Bordeaux]]. He traveled and lived in [[Polynesia]] (1903–1905) and China (1909–1914 and 1917). He died by accident in a forest in [[Huelgoat]], Northern [[Brittany]], France ("under mysterious circumstances") and reputedly with an open copy of ''[[Hamlet]]'' by his side.

== Legacy ==
In 1934, the French state inscribed his name on the walls of the [[Panthéon (Paris)|Panthéon]] because of his sacrifice for his country during [[World War I]].<ref>See [http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/lib_memh/php/fiche_popup.php?_Base=MPF1418&_Lg=fr&_Fiche=mC+SVMZeegI6d3oGLGtWEQ==&_C=2988582297 Fiche officielle]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} on the site memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr.</ref>

He gave his name to the [[Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 University]] of medicine, literature and [[social sciences]] in [[Bordeaux]] under the Academy of Bordeaux, and to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of [[Brest, France|Brest]] where he was born, and the [[French International School of Hong Kong]].

Some western scholars of Chinese art, starting with Victor Segalen, use the word "chimera" generically to refer to winged leonine or mixed species quadrupeds, such as bixie, tianlu, and even qilin.

== Personal life ==
Victor Segalen married on June 2, 1905 in Brest Yvonne Hébert (1884-1963), with whom he had three children: [[Yvon Segalen|Yvon]] (1906), Annie (1912) and Ronan (1913).

== Works ==
{{div col}}
* ''L'observation médicale chez les écrivains naturalistes'', thesis, Bordeaux, 1902 ([http://gallica.bnf.fr/document?O=N106376 document électronique]).
* ''Les Synesthésies et l'école symboliste'', 1902. Translated into English with ''In A Sound World'' by M. Roux & R.W.M Hunt, Strange Attractor Press, 2021.
* ''Vers les sinistrés'', 1903.
* ''Gauguin dans son dernier décor'', 1904.
* ''Le Double Rimbaud'', 1906.
* ''Dans un monde sonore'', 1907. Translated into English as ''In A Sound World'' by M.Roux & R.W.M Hunt, Strange Attractor Press, 2021.
* ''Voix mortes : musique maori'', 1907.
* ''[[Les Immémoriaux]]'' (under the pseudonym Max Anély), 1907. Translated into English as ''A Lapse of Memory'' by Rosemary Arnoux, Boombana Publications, 1995.
* ''[[Stèles]]'', 1912; new edition, presented by Simon Leys, [[Éditions de la Différence]], coll. " Orphée ", Paris, 1989. [https://web.archive.org/web/20010923085006/http://www.steles.net/page.php?p=77 Read online]. Translated into English by [[Nathaniel Tarn]] as ''Stelae'', Unicorn Press, 1969, later by A. Harvey & I. Watson, Jonathan Cape, 1990, and again by T. Billings & C. Bush, Wesleyan University Press, 2007. [http://www.steles.org/ Read online]
* ''Peintures'', Chez [[Georges Crès]] et Cie, 1916. Translated into English as ''Paintings'' by [[Andrew Harvey (religious writer)|Andrew Harvey]] and Iain Watson, Quartet Books, 1991.
* ''Hommage à Gauguin'', 1918.

'''Posthumous publications :'''
* ''Thibet'' (publié partiellement en 1963 puis intégralement en 1979).
* ''Le Siège de l'Âme'', 1921.
* ''Orphée-Roi'', 1921. Translated into English with ''In A Sound World'' by M.Roux & R.W.M Hunt, Strange Attractor Press, 2021.
* ''[[René Leys]]'', 1922. Translated into English by J.A. Underwood, New York Review of Books, 2003.
* ''Mission archéologique en Chine'' (in collaboration with [[Gilbert de Voisins]] and [[Jean Lartigue]]), 1923–1924.
* ''Odes'', 1926.
* ''Équipée. De Pékin aux marches tibétaines…'', 1929. Translated into English as ''Journey to the Land of the Real'' by N. Lehrer, Atlas Press, 2016.
* ''Voyage au pays du réel'', 1929.
* ''Lettres de Chine'', 1967.
* ''[http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/segalen_victor/C18_chine_grande_statuaire/grande_statuaire.html  La Grande Statuaire chinoise] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319000048/http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/segalen_victor/C18_chine_grande_statuaire/grande_statuaire.html |date=19 March 2011 }}'', suivi de ''Les origines de la grande statuaire en Chine'' 1972. Translated into English as ''The great statuary of China'' by E Levieux, University of Chicago Press, 1978
* ''A Dreuz an Arvor'', 1973.
* ''Siddhârtha'', 1974.
* ''Briques et Tuiles'', Fata Morgana, 1975. 
* ''Journal des îles'', 1978.
* ''Essai sur l'exotisme'', Fata Morgana, 1978. Translated as ''Essay on Exoticism: An Aesthetics of Diversity'' by Y.R. Schlick,  Duke University Press, 2002.
* ''Le Fils du ciel : chronique des jours souverains'', 1985.
* ''Essai sur soi-même'', 1986.
* ''Dossier pour une Fondation Sinologique'', Rougerie, 1986.
* ''Journal de voyage'', 1995.
* ''Le Maître-du-Jouir'', 1995.
* ''La marche du feu'', 1995.
* ''Pensers païens'', 1995.
* ''Hommage à Saint-Pol-Roux'', 1995.
* ''Entretiens avec Debussy'', 1995.
* ''Gustave Moreau, maître imagier de l'orphisme'', 1995.
* ''Quelques musées par le monde'', 1995.
* ''Essai sur le mystérieux'', 1995.
* ''Imaginaires'', 1995.
* ''Un grand fleuve'', 1995, préface de Jean Esponde, éd. Atelier de l'agneau, 2006.
* ''Briques et tuiles'', 1995.
* ''Feuilles de route'', 1995.
* ''Correspondance'', 2004 (compilation dirigée par Henry Bouillier et Annie Joly-Segalen)
* ''Les Marquises'', extrait de ''Journal des Îles'', suivi de ''Cyclone dans les îles Tuamotu'', préface de Jean Esponde, éd. Atelier de l'agneau, 2011.<ref>La page-titre de l'édition originale de "Peintures".</ref>

'''Archaeological missions :'''
* ''Rapport de la Mission archéologique Victor Segalen'', 1917
* ''Le tombeau du fils du roi de Wou – Ve siècle avant notre ère'', 1922
* ''Rapport de la Mission archéologique en Lartigue, Segalen et de Voisins'', 1923–1924
* ''Chine, la grande statuaire, suivi de Les origines de la statuaire de Chine'' (publiée en 1972)
{{div col end}}

==Works about Segalen==
* [[Henry Bouillier]]: ''Victor Segalen'' ([[Mercure de France]], 1961)
* [[Gilles Manceron]]: ''Segalen''
* Yvonne Y. Hsieh: ''Victor Segalen's Literary Encounter with China: Chinese Moulds, Western Thoughts'' (University of Toronto Press, 1988)
* [[Charles Forsdick]]: ''Victor Segalen and the Aesthetics of Diversity'' (Oxford University Press, 2000)
*[[Wang Tao (archaeologist)|Wang Tao]] and Denis Thouard, "Making New Classics: The Archaeology of Luo Zhenyu and Victor Segalen", in S. Humphreys and R. Wagner (eds), ''Modernity's Classics. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context'' (Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{wikisourcelang-inline|fr|Auteur:Victor Segalen}}
*{{wikiquote lang|fr|Victor Segalen}}
* [http://victor.segalen.free.fr Website about Victor Segalen] {{in lang|fr}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051012113614/http://www.scd.univ-paris3.fr/Bibliogr/V_segale.htm Bibliography on Victor Segalen] {{in lang|fr}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=41466}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Victor Segalen}}
* [http://www.steles.org Stèles 古今碑錄] (complete French text and online book of Chinese sources)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segalen, Victor}}
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1919 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Brest, France]]
[[Category:Poets from Brittany]]
[[Category:French medical writers]]
[[Category:French travel writers]]
[[Category:French sinologists]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:20th-century French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:French medical doctors]]