Emile Licent

Emile Licent (1876-1952) (with the adopted Chinese name, 桑志华, while he was working in China) was a French Jesuit trained as a natural historian. [GAO Weiqing. "Sang Zhihua and Beijiang Museum." in "Fossils" (2002-2): pp.10-12. [In Chinese] ] He spent more than twenty-five years researching in Tianjin. His expeditions spread across various parts of Northern and Central China (including the provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau).

Upon his first arrival at Tianjin in 1914, he established the Musée Hoangho Paiho (it was known as the 'Beijiang Museum' among the Chinese), one of the earliest of its kind in China. The Museum survived the Second World War and changed its name to Tianjin Natural History Museum (TMNH) in 1952. [ [http://www.teilharddechardin.org/biography.html Teilhard de Chardin - Biography. Online. October 23, 2007] ] . He was a colleague of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in conducting archeological research in northern provinces of China in the 1920's. [Xing Gao, Qi Wei, Chen Shen, and Susan Keates. "New Light on the Earliest Hominid Occupation in East Asia".Current Anthropology volume 46 (2005), pages S115–S120. DOI: 10.1086/497666] He and Chardin were the first to examine the Shuidonggou 水洞沟 (Erdos Upland, Inner Mongolia) archaeological site in northern China. [David B. Madsen, Li Jingzen, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Gao Xing, Robert G. Elston and Robert L. Bettinger. "Dating Shuidonggou and the Upper Palaeolithic blade industry in North China." in "Antiquity" 75.290 (Dec 2001): p706(11). Accessed [http://find.galegroup.com/itx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C12%29Emile+Licent%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28AC%2CNone%2C8%29fulltext%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=DateDescend&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&searchId=R1&currentPosition=1&userGroupName=22396_largo&docId=A81825557&docType=IAC Online] . October 23, 2007.]

He left China during the Second World War in 1939 after appointing one of his colleagues, Pirerre Leroy (adopted Chinese name, 罗学宾), as Deputy Director of the Museum. Most of the Quaternary mammal fossils and prehistoric human relics and tools that he and his colleagues discovered remain in the Museum. These, together with his many scientific reports, reference books and travelogues, form one of his most precious and enduring living legacies to a younger generation of palaeontologists.

He was awarded an Order (铁十字骑士勋章) by the French government for his pioneering scientific works and explorations in China.

Nothing much is known about his life, religious activities in France before and after his stay in China.

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