In 1947, he received his degree in Chinese from the National School of Oriental Languages and, in 1948, from the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE).
He then became a member of the French School of the Far East, before being a researcher at CNRS and Scholar of the Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan.
[1] From 1955 to 1976, Gernet served as director of studies at the EPHE, VIe section, then at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
In 1968, he founded the Unit of teaching and research of languages and civilizations of East Asia (University of Paris-VII), and was its director until 1973.
[1] For Rolf Stein, Gernet was "the only French sinologist who truly studied all aspects of Chinese civilization and who dominated it entirely".