Alain Arrault is Director of Studies at École française d'Extrême-Orient and Director of Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine (UMR Chine Corée Japon, EHESS, CNRS, Université Paris Cité). He obtained a doctorate in Chinese studies (1995) after a master's degree in philosophy (1985), and was professor of Chinese studies at the University of Liège (Belgium) between 1996 and 2000. His first area of interest in Chinese studies was the history of thought and religion in pre-modern China (Song and Ming dynasties), in particular Wang Yangming and Shao Yong. He then concentrated on the history of Chinese annual calendars from the third century BC to the tenth century. In 2002, he took part in studies on ‘common religion’, in particular on religious practices in Hunan province, by analysing domestic statuary from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century and conducting field surveys. This work has led to the publication of Shao Yong (1012-1077), poète et cosmologue (2002, IHEC), ‘Les calendriers’ in Divination et société dans la Chine médiévale (2003, BNF) and A History of Cultic Images in China. The Domestic Statuary of Hunan (2020, CUHK-EFEO).