Sinologist · 漢學家
Michael Lackner
朗宓榭
Scholar of Chinese intellectual history and of the long conversation between China and the West — divination and the reading of signs, Song-dynasty classical learning, and the travel of ideas across languages.
Profile
Scholarship across signs, texts & cultures
Michael Lackner is a scholar of Chinese intellectual history, with particular attention to divination and prognostication, Song-dynasty classical learning, and the movement of ideas between China and the West.
His work studies how people have read signs and uncertainty, how classical traditions have been interpreted and transmitted, and how language, philosophy, and political ideas travelled between China and Europe from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.
- Position
- Senior Professor, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg
- Discipline
- Sinologist · Chinese intellectual history
- Regional focus
- China, Taiwan
Curriculum Vitae
Career & education
Appointments
- February–March 2025Lo Chia-luen International Sinology Chair, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
- 2022 – 2026Spokesperson, DFG-Kollegforschungsgruppe KFG 17 “Alternative Rationalitäten und esoterische Praktiken in globaler Perspektive“ (Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences: “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in a Global Perspective”)
- 2023Senior Professor
- 2000 – 2021Full Professor (Chair) of Chinese Studies, Department of Middle Eastern and Far Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
- 1999 – 2000Full Professor (Chair) of Chinese Studies, University of Geneva
- 1997Chair of Chinese Studies, University of Bordeaux (offer rejected)
- 1994 – 1999Visiting Professor, Technical University, Berlin
- 1994 – 1999Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Göttingen
- 1992 – 1994Professeur invité, University of Geneva
- 1991 – 1992Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin
- 1990 – 1991Research fellow, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris
- 1988 – 1990Program Officer, Volkswagen Foundation, Hanover
- 1984 – 1988Research fellow, teaching assistant, Institute for Far Eastern Civilizations, University of Munich
- 1979 – 1983Librarian, Far Eastern Collection, Bavarian State Library, Munich
- 1974 – 1983Research assistant, Hochschule der Bundeswehr, Munich
Education
- 1990Habilitation (Dr. phil. habil. in Chinese Studies), University of Munich. Thesis: “Western Humanism in Jesuit Teachings in China”
- 1983Dr. phil., University of Munich. Thesis: “The Chinese Forest of Dreams. The Ming Dream Encyclopedia Meng-lin hsüan-chieh”
- 1979M.A., University of Munich. Thesis: “Prophetic Songs of the Chin Dynasty”
- 1973 – 1979Undergraduate student (Chinese Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Ethnology), Universities of Heidelberg and Munich
Distinctions
Honors, awards & fellowships
- February 2024Scholar of the Year, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica
- 2022DFG grant, Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in a Global Perspective” (with Andreas Nehring and Dominik M. Müller)
- 202115th Special Book Award of China
- 2019Honorary University Fellowship, The Open University of Hong Kong 榮譽大學院士，香港公開大學
- September 2018Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
- February–August 2018Visiting Professor, Academia Sinica
- 2017Chaire d’État, Collège de France, Paris
- 2017Tsungming Tu Award (杜聰明獎), Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
- 2016–2017Distinguished Professor, Open University of Hong Kong
- January 2016Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala
- October 2014Keynote address, Silver Jubilee, The Open University of Hong Kong
- September 2014Fudan University Guanghua Eminent Scholars Award 復旦大學光華傑出人文學者講座
- August 2012Visiting Professor, China Studies Centre, The University of Sydney
- March–April 2012Visiting Scholar, Institute for Advanced Studies, Freiburg (FRIAS)
- June 2011Visiting Scholar, Institute for Advanced Studies, Freiburg (FRIAS)
- July 2009International Research Consortium in the Humanities “Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication. Strategies of Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe”, Federal Ministry of Education and Research
- March 2008Visiting Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, National Taiwan University
- September 2006 – August 2007Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
- February–March 2006Visiting Professor, Kansai University, Osaka
- September–October 2005Visiting Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai
- 2005–2007Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Grant: “Topik und Tradition”, with Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann and others, Freie Universität Berlin
- 2003–2006Volkswagen Foundation Research Grant: “Conflicting Views of a Common Past: Recent Interpretations of National and Regional History in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea”, in cooperation with Steffi Richter (University of Leipzig) and Wolfgang Höpken (Georg-Eckert-Institut, Braunschweig)
- 2003/2004PPP Research Grant (DAAD): “The Formation of Modern Academic Disciplines in China”, with the Institute for History, Fudan University, Shanghai
- 2001–2003IQN Project Grant (DAAD): “International Quality Network: Exchanges of Knowledge Between China and the Occident – Historical and Philosophical Perspectives”
- 2000/2001Fritz Thyssen Foundation Project Grant: “The Early Phase of Foreign Language Teaching in China”
- February 2000 / March 2001Vigoni Research Grants (DAAD), Facoltà di Studi Orientali, University of Rome
- 1999Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Project Grant: “Chinese Poetry in German Anthologies”
- October–November 1999Procope Research Grant (DAAD), Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale, Paris
- September 1997PPP Research Grant (DAAD), Language Information Sciences Research Center, City University of Hong Kong
- August 1997 / March 2000VW-Foundation Research Grants, Institute for the History of Natural Science, Academia Sinica, Peking
- July 1997 / June 2000Procope Research Grants (DAAD), Centre Chine, EHESS, Paris
- 1996–2001VW-Foundation Project Grant: “Studies in the Formation of Modern Chinese Scientific Terminologies”
- April 1997Visiting Professor (Directeur d’études associé), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
- September 1996Visiting Professor (Directeur d’études associé), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
- 1996–2000Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Grant: “The International Character of National Literatures”, University of Göttingen
- 1994–1996VW-Foundation Project Grant: “The Use of Diagrams in Representations of Chinese Philosophy”
- 1993–1994Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Project Grant (with Gunter Scholtz, Bochum): “Bibliography of Western Works on Laozi”
- December 1993 – January 1994Fritz Thyssen Foundation Research Grant: “Chinese Origins of Western Science?”, University of Göttingen
- March 1992Visiting Professor (Directeur d’études associé), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris
- 1991–1992Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
- 1984–1988Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Grant: “Sino-German Cross-cultural Transfer”, University of Munich (under the direction of Wolfgang Bauer)
Bibliography
Publications
Monographs and edited volumes, articles and chapters, reviews, essays and interviews — 165 entries in all.
165 entries
2025
2024
2023
2023–2024
2022
2021
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1979
Convening
Conferences, seminars & lecture series
No longer continued.
- July 23–24, 2019Die Zukunft der Prognostik. Was wir heute und morgen vorhersagen können (with Christof Niederwieser), IKGF, Erlangen
- May 14–15, 2019The Classic of Changes in East and West (with the International Association of Yijing Studies, Renmin University of China), IKGF, Erlangen
- October 8–10, 2018Co-Organizer (with Alfons Labisch and Stefan Maul): Kann die Wissenschaft in die Zukunft sehen? Prognosen in den Wissenschaften, National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- December 2017Co-Organizer (with Klaus Herbers and Hans-Christian Lehner), International Conference: The End(s) of Time(s)
- November 21–22, 2017Unlocking Skills: Gaining and Performing Expertise in Pre-1911 China (with Dagmar Schäfer and Zhao Lu)
- October 2017Co-Organizer (with Hon Tze-ki), International Workshop: The Yijing — Alternative Visions and Practices
- June 21–22, 2017Organizer, International Conference: Mantic Arts in China II — Handbook Series
- May 2017Co-Organizer (with Dagmar Schäfer and Zhao Lu), Workshop: Accounting for Uncertainty. Prediction and Planning in Asia’s History
- September 2016Co-Organizer (with Kwok-kan Tam, Monika Gänßbauer, Terry Siu-han Yip, Martin Kroher): Fate, Prognostication and Freedom in Chinese Literature, Film and Folktale
- July 2016Co-Organizer (with Dagmar Schäfer): Accounting for Uncertainty — Prediction and Planning in Asia’s History
- July 2016Co-Organizer (with Zhao Lu and Fabrizio Pregadio), International Conference: Mantic Arts in China
- June 2016Co-Organizer (with Stephan Heilen): Closed think tank meeting — Comparative Approaches to Western, Indian, and Chinese Astrology and Chronomancy
- October 2015Success Stories, Past, Present, and Future: The Erlangen IQN and Its Perspectives
- June 2014Co-Organizer (with Marc A. Matten, Chi-yu Shih, Tze-ki Hon, Mingde Wang): Knowing Your Enemies — Intention Assessment and the Prospect of East Asian Security
- November 2013Co-Organizer: Song Dynasty Uses of the Yijing, Paris, Collège de France (with Anne Cheng and Stéphane Feuillas)
- May 2013Co-Organizer (with Andrea Bréard): Techniques of Prediction I — Chronomancy
- November 2012Organizer: Divination and Fengshui in Korea, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
- February 2012Co-Organizer, International Conference: Divinatory Traditions in East Asia — Historical, Comparative and Transnational Perspectives, Rice University, Houston
- October 2011Co-Organizer, International Conference: The Early Formation of Yi-Jing Studies, Jinan
- October 2011Organizer, International Conference: Gao Xingjian — Freedom, Fate, and Prognostication
- July 2009, 2010, 2011Organizer, Annual Conference of the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities: Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication — Strategies of Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe
- August 28–29, 2006Organizer, International Conference: Exchanges of Knowledge between China and the West — Institutions and Networks
- June 2006Co-Organizer (with Wolfgang Höpken and Steffi Richter), International Symposium: Contesting Views of a Common Past, Leipzig
- March 24–26, 2006Curator (with Lydia Haustein and Christoph Müller-Hofstede), International Symposium: Cultural Memory in China, Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt
- December 2005Co-Organizer (with Zhang Xiping and Yang Huilin): 德国汉学史, Peking
- September 27–29, 2005Co-Organizer (with Zhang Qing), International Conference: The Formation of Modern Academic Disciplines in China, Fudan University
- December 2004Co-Organizer (with Zhang Qing), International Conference: Cultural Memory and Self-Assertion in East Asia, Fudan University
- December 2002Organizer, International Conference: Die Allgegenwart von Selbstbehauptungsdiskursen in Ostasien, University of Erlangen (Fritz Thyssen Foundation)
- December 2002Co-Organizer (with Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit and Mishima Ken’ichi), Symposium: Asiatische Selbstbehauptungsdiskurse, Berlin, JDZB
- May 2002Organizer, International Conference celebrating Wolfgang Lippert’s 70th Birthday: Sprache der Politik. Politik der Sprache
- December 2001Organizer (with Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit and Mishima Ken’ichi), International Conference: Discourse on Cultural Uniqueness in East Asia, Tokyo
- Fall 2000 – Spring 2001Organizer, Lecture Series: Wege des Wissens — Historische Dimensionen des Wissensaustauschs zwischen China und dem Abendland, University of Erlangen
- December 1999Organizer (with Natascha Vittinghoff), International Conference: Translating Western Knowledge into Late Imperial China, University of Göttingen (VW Foundation)
- 1998, 1999, 2000Organizer (with Philippe Despoix), three International Workshops: Oriental Travelogues Since Enlightenment, Wolfenbüttel
- 1998Organizer (with Klaus Röhrborn), Lecture Series: Traditional Societies and Modernization, Göttingen
- August 1998Organizer, Round-Table Discussion: The Role of Japanese as an Intermediate Language in the Formation of Modern Chinese Scientific Terminologies, University of Göttingen
- April 1998Organizer (with C. Jami), International Conference: Between Ming and Qing — The Jesuits and the Establishment of a New Order in Seventeenth-Century China (Europe in China III), Technical University of Berlin (DFG)
- October 1997Organizer, International Workshop: Researching Modern Chinese Technical Terminologies, University of Göttingen (VW Foundation)
- May 1997 and 1999Organizer (with Michael Werner), two International Workshops: The Cultural Turn and the Future of Area Studies, Bad Homburg
- 1994Organizer (with Viviane Alleton), International Conference: Les traductions du chinois dans les langues européennes, Paris, EHESS
- 1992Organizer, International Conference: Chinese Neologisms since the 17th Century, Bad Homburg
Beyond research
Service, editorships & memberships
Editorial work
- Editor (with Chang Chia-Feng, Alexander Fidora and Klaus Herbers), book series Prognostication in History (Brill)
- Editor (with Charles Burnett), International Journal of Divination and Prognostication (Brill)
- Editorial Board, Geschichte der Philologien. Historische Zeitschrift für die Philologien, Wallstein Verlag
Academic service
- Senator of Leopoldina, chairperson of section 28 (cultural studies), since September 2024
- Member, University Senate, Erlangen, 2013–2015
- Vice Dean, International Affairs, 2013–2018
- President, Advisory Board, International Center for East Asian Studies (IZO), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
- Member, External Review Panel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
- Member, Advisory Board, German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF): “The International Position of German Humanities”
- Director in charge, Graduate School “Kulturhermeneutik im Zeichen von Differenz und Transdifferenz”, 2006–2007
- Vertrauensdozent, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Erlangen, 2005–2010
- Member, Faculty Senate, Erlangen, 2005–2013
- Chair, Faculty building control office, Erlangen, 2001–2006
- Member, Commission on “Regional Studies”, Wissenschaftsrat, 2001–2006
- Member, Research Committee Regional Studies, Asia-Pacific, Erlangen, since 2001
- Member, PhD program “Cross-cultural Exchanges in the Middle Ages”, Erlangen, 2002–2005
- Member, Faculty Council, Göttingen, 1997–1999
- Member, Faculty Habilitation Committee, Göttingen, 1996–1999
- Member, Board of Directors, Institute of Asian Studies, Hamburg, 1996–1998
- Member, DAAD Experts’ Committee on Student Exchange with the PRC, 1998–2003
- Member, Board of Trustees, Werner Reimers Foundation, Bad Homburg, 1999–2001
- Member, VW-Foundation evaluation committee of program grants, 1990–1992
- Member, various committees of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Wissenschaftsrat
Memberships
- International Society for the Critical Study of Divination
- National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- Association for Asian Studies
- European Association of Chinese Studies
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde (German Association of Asian Studies)
Correspondence
Contact
For academic correspondence, invitations, and professional enquiries.
Prof. Dr. Michael Lackner · Sinologist · Senior Professor, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg