Marcel Granet was born on the 29^th of Februrary 1884 in Luc-en-Diois, France. As a sociologist, ethnologist, sinologist and a follower of Emile Durkheim and Edouard Chavannes, Marcel Granet was one of the first to bring sociological research methodology to the study of China. He was revered in his time as a sociological sinologist (or sinological sociologist), as well as a member of the Durkheimian School of Sociology. He died in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France on the 25^th of November 1940.

After earning his agrégation in history in 1907, Granet was appointed to teach history at a lycée at Bastia, on the island of Corsica. In 1908, he received a grant through the Fondation Thiers to pursue research on feudalism. Granet sought Edouard Chavannes in order to ask for his advice as to how to pursue studies into the Japanese, whom in turn counselled Granet to begin with Chinese as the step towards Japanese studies, though he did warn him that he would get entangled in Chinese.

In 1911, Granet published his first work, a pamphlet entitled “Contre l’alcoolisme, un programme socialiste,” and that same year, he left the Fondation Thiers upon receiving a grant from the French government to study classical Chinese texts in China. In Beijing, he met the Andre d’Hormon who possessed great knowledge of Chinese and Chinese scholars. In 1912 Granet sent Chavannes a paper, “Coutumes matrimoniales de la Chine antique” upon the latter’s request, which Chavannes submitted for publication in the T’oung Pao, which was a major sinological journal.

After returning from China in 1913, during which the Republic of China replaced the Qing Dynasty, Granet earned a teaching position in the history department at the Lycée de Marseille in March, and in October, at the Lycée de Montpellier. In December, after Chavannes resigned his post, Granet was appointed the former’s position as the Directeur d’Études pour les religions d’Extrême-Orient at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. Like most men of his era, and of his promotion, Granet served in World War I from 1914–1918, earning the Croix de Guerre and even stayed briefly in Beijing in 1918 while on a mission there. He continued his studies of China and worked on two doctoral theses during the war.

In 1919, Granet returned to France and married Marie Terrien. In 1922, upon a request from Maurice Solovine to write a short book for the series “science et civilization,” Granet composed The Religion of the Chinese People within the time of six weeks while traveling back and forth between Paris and Tonnerre (Yonne), where his wife taught at a lycée and cared for their infant son. In 1925, he became the professor of geography, history, and institutions of the Far East at the École Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes, and in 1926, helped to establish the Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises. From then on, he worked there as the administrator and professor of Chinese and Chinese civilization.

Sadly, war was in the air and two years after his friend Mauss became the president of the fifth section of religious science at l’École Pratique, Britain declared war on Germany, and in 1940, Granet replaced Mauss upon resignation. Mauss, whom was of Jewish heritage, sought to “safeguard the interests” of the school. One month later, after the defeat of the French Republic at the hands of the German army, Granet died at Sceaux at the age of 56. Mauss considered him one of his greatest and most beloved friends.

His publications include Fêtes et chansons anciennes de la Chine (1919), La religion des Chinois (1922), Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne (1926), La civilisation chinoise (1929), La pensée chinoise (1934), La féodalité chinoise (1952).