It is with sadness that we have to announce the decease of Kristofer Marinus Schipper in Amsterdam on 18 February 2021. Born on 23 October 1934 in Järnskog, Sweden, Kristofer Schipper grew up near Edam, Netherlands. He studied in Taiwan, where he was initiated as a priest in the Zhengyi School of Taoism. He worked as researcher at the École française d’Extrême-Orient, taught at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, and was head of the Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises of the Collège de France. In 1993, he was appointed at Leiden University. He was also member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kristofer Schipper was one of the most eminent scholars on Taoism. Apart from The Taoist Canon, a work he edited with Franciscus Verellen (The University of Chicago Press 2005), Le corps taoïste. Corps physique, corps social (Paris: Fayard, 1982) and Zhuangzi. De innerlijke geschriften (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1997) are among his best known works.
Our thoughts are with this family, friends, students and colleagues.