Jan Jakob Maria de Groot

Jan Jakob Maria de Groot (18 February 185424 September 1921) was a Dutch sinologist and historian of religion. He taught at the Leiden University and later at the University of Berlin, and is chiefly remembered for his monumental work, The Religious System of China, Its Ancient Forms, Evolution, History and Present Aspect, Manners, Customs and Social Institutions Connected Therewith. The two "books" of this detailed and well-illustrated treatise appeared in six volumes - and, according to the preface in the first volume, the System was originally meant to include several more "books".

De Groot became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1887, a foreign member in 1892 and a regular member in 1911.

Writing In his The Religious System of China, de Groot contended that fengshui was "a mere chaos of childish absurdities and refined mysticism" and a "ridiculous caricature of science." Academic Albert Wu observes that de Groot "nonetheless took the phenomenon of fengshui seriously, seeking to situate it within what he saw as China's historical and anthropological development." De Groot's ethnographic accounts depicted fengshui as based in respect for nature, and as a "quasi-scientific system" that instructed "where and how to build graves, temples and dwellings" so that people could enjoy "the auspicious influences of nature."