Marie-Jean-Léon d'Hervey de Saint Denys

Early life and education

Hervey de Saint Denys was born 6 May 1822. He was the son of Pierre Marin Alexandre Le Coq or Lecoq, Baron d'Hervey (1780–1858), and Marie Louise Josephine Mélanie Juchereau de Saint-Denys (1789–1844).

He was adopted in 1858 by his maternal uncle Amédée Louis Vincent Juchereau, marquis de Saint-Denys (1782–1858), who was without descendants, so that he would inherit the title of Marquis of Saint-Denys.

In 1844, d'Hervey received a law degree (licence en droit).

In 1848, he graduated from the Ecole des langues orientales vivantes, which was later renamed the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO).

Contributions to China studies

Hervey de Saint Denys made an intense study of the Chinese language, and published works on ethnography and on the history and literature of China. In 1851 he published Recherches sur l'agriculture et l'horticulture des Chinois (Research on the agriculture and horticulture of the Chinese), which detailed Chinese plants and animals that might be potentially acclimatized to and introduced in Western countries.

In 1862 he published a watershed book of translations of Chinese poetry, Poetry of the Tang Dynasty. The book also contains a lengthy preface, L'art poétique et la prosodie chez les Chinois, about Chinese poetry and prose, which sets out the various sinological theories on the differences between written and spoken Chinese, the monosyllabic nature of Chinese, and the ideographic nature of Chinese. A selection of his translated poems from this volume, along with selections from Judith Gautier's volume of loosely translated Chinese poems Livre de Jade (1867), were the fundamental basis for Gustav Mahler's song cycle for voice and orchestra, Das Lied von der Erde.

He also translated Chinese texts such as some Chinese stories, which were not strictly of classical interest but valuable for the light they throw on Chinese culture and customs.

From 1864 to 1872, Hervey de Saint-Denys was president of the Société d'ethnographie.

Hervey de Saint Denys was also a noted collector of Chinese porcelain, and other Chinese art objects such as jade and lacquer works. At the 1867 Paris Exhibition, he was commissioner for the Chinese exhibits, and on 30 June 1867 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

From 1868 to 1870 he was professor of Chinese language at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), then still known as Ecole des langues orientales vivantes.

Following the death of Stanislas Julien (1797–1873), in 1874 Hervey de Saint Denys succeeded him as the chairman of Chinese at the Collège de France, and served until his death in 1892.

Contributions to dream studies

By the late 1980s Hervey de Saint Denys was rediscovered internationally for his introspective studies on dreams. He was one of the earliest oneirologists (specialists in the study of dreams), and is now regarded as the father of modern lucid dreaming.

In 1867 an anonymous book was published titled Les rêves et les moyens de les diriger; observations pratiques (Dreams and the Ways to Direct Them: Practical Observations); in a footnote on page 1 from the 1878 edition of Alfred Maury's work Le sommeil et les rêves Hervey de Saint Denys was identified as its author. Writers including Havelock Ellis (1911), Johann Stärcke (1912), and A. Breton (1955) referred to the fact that the original anonymous publication was hard to obtain as copies were scarce, because shortly after publication its publisher Amyot went bankrupt. Sigmund Freud, in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), stated: "Maury, Sleep and Dreams, Paris, 1878, p. 19, argues strenuously against d'Hervey, whose book I could not lay hands on in spite of all my efforts." Nevertheless, Freud mentioned Hervey de Saint Denys's book three times in that work.

Hervey de Saint Denys started recording his dreams on a daily basis from the age of 13. In Les Rêves et les Moyens de Les Diriger, he proposed a theoretical framework, techniques to control dreams, and described dreams in which the "dreamer is perfectly aware he is dreaming". Recently the question has been raised as to who coined the term "lucid dreaming"; generally it is attributed to Frederik van Eeden, but some scientists question if this was inspired by the use of the term by Saint-Denys. Denys describes his own lucid dreams in statements such as "I was aware of my situation."

In a 1988 article from Den Blanken & Meijer, the authors decried the fact that there was so little biographical data available on such an erudite person as Saint-Denys, and by 1991 they presented some.

In 1964 Éditions Tchou reprinted Les Rêves Et Les Moyens de Les Diriger, but the 1867 Appendix, entitled 'Un rêve apres avoir pris du hatchich' (A dream after taking hashish) was omitted without mention, due to its content. In 1982 an abbreviated English edition appeared which was based on the Tchou edition, and did not contain or refer to the Appendix. In 1991 Den Blanken and Meijer's revised article on Hervey de Saint Denys revealed the omission, and presented for the first time an English translation of the Appendix. Others were inspired by Den Blanken and Meijer's research. In 1992 the French dream research group Oniros held a commemoration of Saint-Denys in Paris; leading dream specialists Carolus den Blanken, Celia Green, Paul Tholey (1937–1998) and Oniros president-elect Roger Ripert paid their respects and offered homages.

Personal life

In 1868, at the age of 46, Hervey de Saint-Denys married Louise Ward, sometimes rendered Louise de Ward (1849–1930), an 18-year-old Austrian baroness who was the daughter of Baron Thomas Ward. The couple lived in Paris in their mansion at 9 Avenue Bosquet.

Louise became an accomplished and successful painter, studying with Pierre Auguste Cot. She signed her paintings "Louise Dubreau", sometimes rendered "Louise Dubréau", after Hervey's estate Château du Bréau near Dourdan in Seine-et-Oise in the department of Yvelines.

Hervey de Saint-Denys's book on dreams influenced Marcel Proust's thoughts about dreams and about memories. He may have influenced Proust's interest in chinoiserie as well, and he is mentioned in Proust's multi-volume novel series In Search of Lost Time as the donor of an antique Chinese vase.

Hervey de Saint Denys died in his mansion in Paris on 2 November 1892.