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Pierre Ryckmans (28 September 1935 – 11 August 2014), who also used the pen-name Simon Leys, was a Roman Catholic Belgian-Australian writer, essayist and literary critic, translator, art historian, sinologist, and university professor. His work particularly focused on the politics and traditional culture of China, calligraphy, French and English literature, the commercialization of universities, and the sea in literary works. Through the publication of his trilogy ''Les Habits neufs du président Mao'' (1971), ''Ombres chinoises'' (1974) and ''Images brisées'' (1976), he was one of the first intellectuals to denounce the Cultural Revolution in China and the idolizing of Mao in the West.〔Ian Buruma, ("The Man Who Got It Right" ), The New York Review of Books, 15 August 2013.〕 ==Biography== Pierre Ryckmans was born at Uccle, an upper middle class district of Brussels, to a prominent Belgian family living in a house on Avenue des Aubépines. He was the son of a publisher, the grandson of Alfonse Ryckmans, an Anvers alderman and vice president of the Senate, the nephew of Pierre Ryckmans, a governor general of the Belgian Congo, and Gonzague Ryckmans, a professor at the Université catholique de Louvain and a recognized expert of Arabic epigraphy.〔Philippe Paquet, (" Le sinologue belge Simon Leys est décédé " ), ''La Libre Belgique'', 11 août 2014.〕〔Pierre Mertens, (Réception de Simon Leys ), Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique, 30 mai 1992.〕 He attended the Servites de Marie primary school near his home, then studied Greek and Latin humanities at the Cardinal Mercier diocesan school in Braine-l'Alleud. There, one his teachers, abbé Voussure, "finished ingraining in him an unwavering Christian faith."〔 From 1953 he studied law and art history at the Université catholique de Louvain.〔 In 1955, his father died prematurely.〔 In May, he became a member of a delegation of ten young Belgians invited to spend a month in China. During that visit he took part in a conversation with Zhou Enlai, the Premier of the People's Republic of China.〔(An Interview with Pierre Ryckmans ), ''China Heritage Quarterly'', N.26, June 2011.〕 As a result, he became sympathetic to the Maoist regime:〔Reed Irvine, The Cameras Can Lie, ''AIM (Accuracy In Media) Report'', February 1978: "His interest in China was triggered by a trip that he made to the People's Republic when he was nineteen. He was sympathetic to the Maoist regime until 1966."〕 "I confidently extended to the Maoist regime the same sympathy that I felt for all things Chinese."〔(Pierre Ryckmans (Simon Leys), an old China hand, died on August 11th, aged 78 ), ''The Economist''.〕 He returned from the trip with also the firm view that "it would be inconceivable to live in this world, in our age, without a good knowledge of Chinese language and a direct access to Chinese culture."〔Daniel Sanderson, ("An Interview with Pierre Ryckmans" ), ''Chinese Heritage Quarterly'', No. 26, June 2011.〕 Upon his return to Belgium, he finished his studies in art history and began to learn calligraphy.〔 In the summer of 1958, he travelled to Etel, a port in French Brittany, to board one of the last remaining tuna boats. The account he wrote of the fishing expedition was published only 45 years later, under the title ''Prosper''.〔(Introducing ''Prosper'' by Simon Leys ), with illustrations by Gildas Chasseboeuf, ''Le Chasse-Marée'', N. 240, 6 April 2012.〕 After being awarded a small bursary from the Chiang Kai-shek government, he enrolled at the Fine Arts department of the National Taiwan University.〔 There he studied under the guidance of Pu Hsin-yu, a cousin of Pu Yi, the last emperor, and did some research for his future PhD dissertation on Shitao, a Chinese painter at the time of the Qing empire.〔 After completing his studies in Taiwan in 1960, he was called up for military service in Belgium. Instead, he chose to become a conscientious objector and perform civil service in the field of development cooperation for the next three years. First, thanks to the intervention of Eurasian writer Han Suyin,〔whose mother was Flemish and father was a Belgian-educated Chinese engineer〕 he was able to take up a part-time student and teacher job at Nanyang University in Singapore. However, in 1963, under suspicion of being a communist by the Lee Kuan Yew regime, he had to pack up and leave for Hong Kong, at the time a British colony.〔 For two years he taught at the New Asia College, one of the colleges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He lived in a Kowloon squatter area, sharing with three friends a small accommodation they dubbed Wu Yong Tong (the "hall of uselessness") and living a life redolent of an Eastern ''Scènes de la vie de bohème''.〔Simon Leys, (Simon Leys et Le Studio de l’inutilité ), Phillipe Sollers/Pileface website, 2011.〕 He supplemented his income by writing summaries of articles from the mainland Chinese press and collecting testimonies from refugees from the mainland on behalf of the Belgian diplomatic delegation.〔Laurent Six, (Aux origines d’''Ombres chinoises'' : une mission de six mois au service de l’ambassade de Belgique en République populaire de Chine ), ''Textyles'', N. 34, 2008, p. 65-77.〕 He also gleaned information from "the superb ''China News Analysis'', ... published weekly in Hong Kong by the Jesuit scholar Father Laszlo Ladany".〔 These reports would become the basis of his 1971 book ''Les Habits neufs du président Mao'' (The Chairman's New Clothes).〔Pierre Mertens, (Réception de Simon Leys ), ''Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique'', 30 May 1992.〕 He also taught courses at the local Alliance française. In 1964, he married Han-fang Chang, a journalist he had met in Taiwan, and became the father of twins in 1967.〔(Biographie de Simon Leys ), ''Who's who''.〕〔Philippe Paquet, (" Affaire Simon Leys : longue marche pour la vérité et la justice " ), ''Lalibre.be'', 12 December 2011.〕 While in Hong Kong, he was introduced to French sinologist René Viénet, then a member of the Situationist International, by another sinologist, Jacques Pimpaneau, whom he had met at the New Asian College.〔Laurent Six, (Chine : Comment Pierre Ryckmans est devenu Simon Leys ), ''Rue89'', 13 August 2014.〕 René Viénet, who took the view that Chinese press reports on the Cultural Revolution were less sanitized than the writings of Western journalists and sinologists, obtained Pierre Ryckmans's agreement for his essay ''Les Habits neufs du président Mao'' to be published in Paris by Champ Libre, a publishing house run by Gérard Lebovici.〔Laurent Six, (Aux origines d’Ombres chinoises : une mission de six mois au service de l’ambassade de Belgique en République populaire de Chine ), ''Textyles'', 2008.〕〔Jean-Claude Michéa and Aude Lancelin, (Simon Leys, le fléau des idéologues ), ''Le Nouvel Observateur'', 31 August 2014.〕 For his PhD thesis, Ryckmans chose to translate and comment on a masterpiece of the history of Chinese art, the treatise on painting by Shitao, a creative genius of the early nineteenth century.〔Daniel Sanderson, (An Interview with Pierre Ryckmans ), ''China Heritage Quarterly, No 26, June 2011.〕 It was published in 1970 by the Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises in Brussels, under the title ''Propos sur la peinture du moine Citrouille-amère de Shitao. Contribution à l'étude terminologique des théories chinoises de la peinture''.〔Rowan Callick, (Pierre Ryckmans’ early books triggered outrage and controversy in Europe ), ''The Australian'', 12 August 2014.〕 On his publisher's advice, he decided to assume a pen name〔Pierre François Souyri, (Simon Leys, ''Les Habits neufs du Président Mao'' ), ''Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations'', 1973, volume 28, N. 4.〕 to avoid being declared ''persona non grata'' in the People's Republic of China. He chose "Simon" as his first name, a reference to the original name of the Apostle Peter, and "Leys" as his second name, a tribute to the main character of Victor Segalen's ''René Leys'' published in 1922, in which a Belgian teenager residing in Peking in the final days of the Qing Dynasty entertains his employer with accounts of the intrigues and conspiracies taking place behind the walls of the imperial palace.〔(Pierre Ryckmans (Simon Leys), an old China hand, died on August 11th, aged 78 ), ''The Economist'', 23 August 2014: "But his chosen surname contained a subtle clue as to who he really was. "Leys" was a homage to "René Leys", a novel by the French author Victor Segalen, in which a Belgian teenager in old Peking regales his employer with tales of the hidden intrigues and conspiracies taking place within the imperial palace.〕 It is also suggested that his nom de plume is an allusion to a dynasty of painters from Anvers under the name of Leys, with Henri Leys as its most famous representative.〔 In 1970 Ryckmans settled in Australia and he taught Chinese literature at the Australian National University (Canberra) where he supervised the honours thesis of future Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.〔Nicholas Stuart, ''Kevin Rudd: An Unauthorised Political Biography'', Scribe, 2007〕 He returned to China in 1972 for six months as a cultural attaché for the Belgian Embassy in Beijing.〔Laurent Six, ("Aux origines d’Ombres chinoises: une mission de six mois au service de l’ambassade de Belgique en République populaire de Chine" ), Textyles, 34, 2008.〕 In 1983 Ryckmans appeared on the literary talk show ''Apostrophes'' on French television.〔("Les intellectuels face à l'histoire du communisme" ), ina.fr, 27 May 1983.〕 The host, Bernard Pivot, had also invited Maria-Antonietta Macciocchi, a "China expert" and author of the book ''De la Chine''. After the latter had waxed lyrical on the subject of the New China, Ryckmans responded ferociously, pointing out errors of fact that suggested she had not verified her sources before writing her book, a work that he judged as being "d'une stupidité totale" (totally stupid) or "une escroquerie" (a fraud).〔("Simon Leys et Maria Antonietta Macciocchi" ), youtube.com.〕〔("Ryckmans vs Macciocchi on 'China experts' and the Cultural Revolution (1983)" ), wideworldofquotes.com.〕 In the period 1987–93 he was Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney. He took early retirement, later explaining that, near the end, "deep modifications" had begun to affect universities in Australia and worldwide, "transformations ... progressively taking the university further away from the model to which I had originally devoted my life".〔Simon Leys, "An Idea of the University", address to the Campion Foundation Inaugural Dinner, Sydney, 23 March 2006; reprinted in: Simon Leys, ''The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays'' (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2011)〕 Following his retirement he returned to Canberra, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He died of cancer in Sydney, Australia at the age of 78 in August 2014 surrounded by his wife and four children.〔Rowan Callick, ("Chairman’s New Clothes author Pierre Ryckmans dies aged 78" ), The Australian, 11 August 2014.〕〔Michael Forsythe, ("Pierre Ryckmans, 78, Dies; Exposed Mao’s Hard Line" ), The New York Times, 14 August 2014.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pierre Ryckmans (writer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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