Monica Esposito
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Monica Esposito (August 7, 1962 – March 10, 2011) was an Italian scholar of Chinese religion specializing in the history, texts and practices of Daoism from the 15th to 20th centuries).
Esposito was born in 1962 in the Italian city of Genoa. At the age of 4, she moved with her family (father Carlo Esposito, mother Iris Barzaghi and sister Adriana Esposito) to Padua. After graduating from high School (classics, with Greek and Latin) she studied Chinese language and philosophy at the University of Venice (Ca'Foscari), Fudan University in Shanghai and the Ghent University in Belgium. After graduation with a thesis on Qigong in 1987, she continued her studies under the direction of Professor Isabelle Robinet at the Department of Far Eastern Studies of the University of Paris. After obtaining the Diploma of Advanced Studies (D.E.A.) on texts of the Daoist canon in 1988, she returned to Shanghai and studied at the Academy of Social Science of Shanghai under the direction of Professor Chen Yaoting. Her graduate studies ended in 1993 with a summa cum laude Ph.D. in Far Eastern studies with the thesis "The Dragon Gate - The Longmen school of Mount Jin'gai and its alchemical practices according to the Daozang xubian (complement to the Daoist canon)".
During several stays in China and Tibet, Esposito conducted extensive field work on Qigong, Taiji, Daoist and Buddhist (particularly Dzogchen) practices in China.
Career
After post-doctoral studies at the Department of Indological and Far-Eastern Studies of the University of Venice (1994–1995), at the Sorbonne in Paris (1995–1997) and at Kansai University in Osaka, she established permanent residence in Kyoto in 1998 and married Urs App. Between 1998 and 2003, she concentrated on field studies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and continental China leading to the production, together with her husband, of several highly acclaimed video productions about Far Eastern religions.
After being elected an associate professor at Kyoto University's Institute for Research in Humanistic Studies (Jinbun Kagaku kenkyūsho) in 2003, Esposito continued her research on Daoist texts of the Ming and Qing periods. She conceived and directed the Daozang Jiyao research project,[1] an international research project with over 60 scientific collaborators on the most important Daoist text collection of the Qing period. For portions of this large project, which began in 2006, Esposito obtained important grants from the Chiang Ching-kuo foundation (2006–2009 and 2010-2013[2]) and from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS; 2008-2011[3]). The main institutions collaborating in this ongoing project are:
- Kyoto University, Institute of Research in Humanities (Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūsho)
- Academia Sinica: Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy; Institute of Philology and History
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department: Culture and Religious Studies, Center for Studies of Daoist Culture
- École française d'Extrême-Orient
- Sichuan Academy of Social Science, Department of Philosophy
- Sichuan University, Institute of Religious Studies
The focuses of Esposito's research were Ming and Qing Daoism, inner alchemy (neidan), the interaction between Daoism and Tantrism, Buddhism of the late imperial period and Tibetan Buddhism (rDzogs chen). She died of a pulmonary embolism on March 10, 2011, in Kyoto, Japan.
Professional memberships and functions
- Director, Daozang Jiyao Project[1]
- Member, Society for the Study of Chinese Religions
- Member, Dōkyō gakkai (Japanese Society for the Study of Daoism)
- Member, American Association of Asian Studies
- Co-Editor, Routledge Studies in Taoism (Routledge, London)
- Advisory Board Member for Daoism: Religion, History and Society (Journal Publication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Centre for the Studies of Daoist Culture)
