Abstract: This paper examines Marcel Granet's methodology in the study of classical Chinese literature, customs and etiquette. Granet's first book Festivals and Songs in Ancient China has a decisive significance for all his subsequent works. Philology formed an important part of Granet's book due to his training under Emmanuel-èdouard Chavannes and Antoine Meillet. However, the approach was adapted sociologically. First, Granet described the social morphology of The Book of Songs, such as the existence of lexicon and syntax in various texts, and summarised their formulae, themes, and corresponding social facts. Second, from these cross-text appropriations and transpositions, he revealed important social systems such as human geography (mountains, rivers, etc.), social relationships of couples, brothers and friends, etc., and political relationships such as monarchs, ministers and comrades-in-arms. Third, on this base, Granet explored the overall principles of Chinese civilization, for instance, the foremost principle of yin and yang and its specific manifestations. To complete these analysises, Granet proposed the concept of "la période assez longue". Within this historical framework, Granet's textual analysis of The Book of Songs was divided into multiple levels, describing historical figures and events, social institutions and spiritual structures respectively, thus presenting an overall history of changes in systems, mentality, and morals. This social and spiritual morphology laid the foundation for the rise of structural anthropology. In sum, Granet inherited the legacies from both Chinese and European philology, and expanded it through sociology. As a sinologist with historical and sociological mind, Marcel Granet's methodology continues to offer us an important reference value for understanding the characteristics of Chinese civilization.

Key words: philology, morphology, formula, transposition, institution, la période assez longue (the long period)