Associate Professor

B.A., M.A., PhD, School of History and Culture, Shandong University, now associate professor in the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University. Research interests are: political relations and culture exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and Japan; the cognition of Japanese to China before modern times; the data about Ming China included in the diaries written by Japanese envoys. Publications include: “A study of Gozan monks’ view of china in Muromachi period: based on diplomatic correspondence indexed in Zenrinkokuhoki” and “The Difference in Early Modern Diplomatic Ideas between China and Japan as Reflected in the Ryukyu Sovereignty Case”, etc.

My previous study focused on two aspects: Ming Chinese views of Japan, and contemporary Japanese views of China. Preparing for the pirates at first, Ming Chinese began to do research on Japan, thus this study went beyond political and military purposes and turned to the study of universality. It achieved certain results and produced some new ideas. But the China-Alien concept and the Celestial Empire concept did not change much. The Japanese view of China at the same time, however, experienced changes during various stages. We could easily pick up one example of these changes, the one that happened during the Muromachi to the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Then I chose Syodoki, a diary written by Sakugen –Syuryo who visited Ming Dynasty, to further discuss the image of Ming Dynasty in his eyes.

My current plan is to make some comparative study, i.e. to gather and compare records of the activities of Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese envoys during the period of Ming Dynasty, and try to clarify certain issues from the comparison. These countries had shared the Chinese culture for a very long period in history, yet developed their own cultures by absorbing and improving the Chinese culture. The different cultures developed with the growing of national consciousness, and affected the observations, location and understanding of China. Through the research, not only could we gain a deeper knowledge of mutual influence between China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam in social and cultural evolution, but also comprehend the different traces of development in these countries, in the perspective of cultural propagation and differentiation as well. Moreover, it will enrich our own knowledge of Chinese history by probing into the records kept in these countries.