Ph.D., Harvard University, 1996
My main area of research is Warring States China (5th to 3rd centuries B.C.). Although my focus is intellectual and cultural history, the study of this period is necessarily interdisciplinary, and my work also involves archaeology, art history, literature, philosophy, and religion.
Please note that all of my bibliographies and resources have been moved to my Academia.edu page, at least until the release of our new department website. The current website can no longer handle such large uploads.
- EALC 1 (Introduction to Chinese Civilization);
- EALC 131/531 (Introduction to Classical Chinese Thought);
- EALC 233/633 (Chinese Aesthetics);
- EALC 239/639 (Sex and Society in Ancient China);
- EALC 240/640 (Early Chinese History);
- EALC 241/641 (Law in Pre-Modern China);
- EALC 721/722 (Advanced Classical Chinese);
- EALC 740 (Sinological Methods).
- Lu Jia's New Discourses: A Political Manifesto from the Early Han Dynasty (Brill, 2020) (with Elisa Levi Sabattini)
- The Art of Chinese Philosophy: Eight Classical Texts and How to Read Them (Princeton, 2020)
- Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History (Routledge, 2018)
- A Concise Companion to Confucius (Wiley, 2017)
- Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Han Fei (Springer, 2013)
- Confucianism (California & Acumen, 2011; rpt., Routledge, 2014)
- After Confucius: Studies in Early Chinese Philosophy (Hawaii, 2005)
- The Culture of Sex in Ancient China (Hawaii, 2002)
- Rituals of the Way: The Philosophy of Xunzi (Open Court, 1999)
In addition, I edited the new release of R.H. van Gulik's classic study, Sexual Life in Ancient China (Brill, 2003), and co-edited the Hawai'i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture (Hawaii, 2005), Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China (Brill, 2015), and A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions (Society for the Study of Early China, 2016; revised edition, 2020).
- "The Theme of the Primacy of the Situation in Classical Chinese Philosophy and Rhetoric" (2005)
- "The Cultural and Religious Background of Sexual Vampirism in Ancient China" (2006)
- "Xunzi and Early Han Philosophy" (2007)
- "The Myth That China Has No Creation Myth" (2008)
- "Appeals to History in Early Chinese Philosophy and Rhetoric" (2008)
- "When zhong 忠 Does Not Mean 'Loyalty'" (2008)
- "The Hermeneutics of Emmentaler" [on the date and composition of Zuozhuan] (2010)
- "Persistent Misconceptions about Chinese 'Legalism'" (as published, 2011)
- "Persistent Misconceptions about Chinese Legalism" (a corrected version, because the editorial staff of JCP butchered my paper)
- "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" (2011)
- "Han Law and the Regulation of Interpersonal Relations: 'The Confucianization of the Law' Revisited" (2012)
- "Heng xian and the Problem of Studying Looted Artifacts" (2013)
- "The Consciousness of the Dead as a Philosophical Problem in Ancient China" (2015)
- "Representations of Regional Diversity during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" (2015)
- "Women and Moral Dilemmas in Early Chinese Narrative" (2016)
- "The Legacy of Bronzes and Bronze Inscriptions" (from A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions, 2016)
- "Copulating with One's Stepmother--Or Birth Mother?" (2017)
- "Some Shang Antecedents of Later Chinese Ideology and Culture" (2017)
- "Introduction: What Is Early Chinese History?" (Introduction to Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History, 2018)
- "Polygyny and Its Discontents: A Key to Understanding Traditional Chinese Society" (with Debby Chih-yen Huang, 2018)
- "Confucius and His Disciples in the Lunyu: The Basis for the Traditional View" (2018)
- "Two Notes on Xie He’s 謝赫 ‘Six Criteria’ (liufa 六法), Aided by Digital Databases" (2018)
- "The Diversity of Perspectives on Language in Daoist Texts and Traditions" (2020)
Resources
A Guide to Basic Sinological Research Materials (password protected)
Prizes, Awards and Fellowships:
Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2020
Invited Lectures by Philosopher/Sinologist of New Generation 青年哲學家特邀講座, Peking University, 2017
Visiting Fellow, International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2016
Willis F. Doney Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2013
Project Grant, China & Inner Asia Council, Association for Asian Studies, 1997