Professor

B.A., M.A., Department of History, Peking University; PhD, Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore; now professor in the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University. Research areas are: the history of medieval and early modern China; state rituals and ritual thoughts in traditional China; and the Tang-Song Transformation. Publications include: “The Conferment of Noble Titles on Mountains, Rivers, Lakes and Seas and Their Official Cult in the Tang Dynasty”, “The System of the Major, Medium and Minor Sacrifices between the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties”, and “The Ritual Debates and the Changes of the Main Deities of the Suburban Sacrifices between the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties”, etc.

My research interests are the state rituals and ritual thoughts of the Tang and Song Dynasties.

In the past few years, the hypothesis of Tang-Song transformation has been discussed deeply in theory and attracted the historians working on Tang and Song China again. However, many specific aspects of the Tang and Song have not been examined in detail from the perspective of Tang-Song transformation yet, which is why I was involved in the research of the Song history, besides the Tang history, during my PhD candidature. My researches on the state rituals and ritual thoughts aim at a better understanding of the Tang and Song history, and focus on the Propitious Rituals, the most important part of the Five Categories of State Rituals, including many institutionalized sacrifices. By studying the system of major sacrifices, medium sacrifices and minor sacrifices, the suburban sacrifices, the ancestral temple sacrifices, and the sacrifices offered to mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, I have discussed the evolution of the Propitious Rituals in the Tang and Song Dynasties and its roles in the history of state rituals in imperial China.

In the following years, in addition to the Propitious Rituals, I will study the Rituals for Guests. This kind of rituals symbolized the power relations between imperial China and the neighboring countries, based on the intersection of their respective authentic and imaginary world orders. I expect this project to provide a new approach to the international relations of East Asia in the 7^th -13^th centuries, and then to contribute to a deeper understanding of the Tang-Song transformation.