Romain Graziani, professor of Chinese studies at ENS de Lyon and researcher at the Institut d'Asie Orientale, received the Académie des Belles-Lettres prize and the Sollers prize for his book Les Lois et les Nombres. Photo credit © Gallimard - Francesca Mantovani
Romain Graziani, professor of Chinese studies at ENS de Lyon and researcher at the Institut d'Asie Orientale, has won two awards for his book Les Lois et les Nombres – Essai sur les ressorts de la culture politique chinoise (Laws and Numbers: An Essay on the Driving Forces of Chinese Political Culture), published by Gallimard.
Prize from the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
On November 28, 2025, Romain Graziani was awarded the Stanislas-Julien medal by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. This prestigious distinction was awarded to him for the best book of the year published in Chinese studies.
He shared his impressions with us: “This award from the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a source of infinite gratification for me because it seals, in the slightly outdated form of a medal (as my father used to say: ‘A medal is not something you ask for, you don't refuse it, and you don't wear it’), the sincere recognition of eminent scholars in the field of Far Eastern studies, and Chinese studies in particular. In short, a certificate of good life sub specie æternitatis.”
Philippe Sollers Prize for Best Essay of the Year 2025
The day before, on November 27, Romain Graziani received the Philippe Sollers Prize for Best Essay of the Year 2025 at Café Beaubourg, designed by architect Christian de Portzamparc, a member of the jury.
“In my view, the Philippe Sollers Prize rewards sustained effort in composition and writing, which, as I understand it, sets this essay apart from the prose typically found in academic publications,” says Romain Graziani. “Breaking free from the writing norms inherited from school essays without sacrificing rigor of exposition and working in a literary style seems to me to be a healthy personal endeavor that can be applied to all types of writing, from scholarly articles to personal essays.”
Created on the initiative of Julia Kristeva, this prize, which was launched this year, aims to pay tribute to the writer Philippe Sollers by rewarding authors who continue the “war of taste” in which the author was engaged.
“In Les Lois et les Nombres, Romain Graziani shows that Chinese political culture, often reduced to its Confucian heritage, was in fact a pioneer in the creation of impersonal methods for organizing the cosmos, the empire, and everyday life,” commented the jury members. “Drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, he proposes a rethinking of the history of the Chinese state, pointing out that ‘laws’ and ‘numbers’ do not cover the same realities as in Europe. [...] The book sheds light on the development of a paradigm based on quantification, which transformed perceptions of time, space, labor, and sovereignty, right up to contemporary surveillance technologies.”
More info on the Académie des Belles-Lettres Prize