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Mark Edward Lewis

Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Chinese Culture

E-mail: mel1000@stanford.edu

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At Stanford Since 2002

B.A. and Ph.D., University of Chicago

Current Writing

Commissioned to write the first three volumes of the Harvard/Belknap Press six-volume series that introduces the major periods of Chinese imperial history to undergraduates and non-specialists.  Volume One, on Qin-Han history, was published in 2007; Volume Two, on the Northern and Southern Dynasties, will appear in 2008; Volume Three, on the Tang Dynasty, will appear in 2009.
 
Commissioned to write the chapter (60,000 words) on China from 1600 B.C. – A.D. 600 for a multi-volume world history to be jointly published by Harvard University Press (in English) and Beck (in German).

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • China: The Early Empires
  • East Asia in the Early Buddhist Age
  • Writing in Early China
  • Passion in Late Imperial Literature
  • Female Divinities in Late Imperial China
  • Beijing and Chengde

Graduate

  • The Emotions in Early China
  • The Family in Early China
  • The Body in Early China
  • The City in Imperial China

Publications

Monographs

  • The Chinese Empires: The Early Empires. Harvard University Press, 2006.
  • The Flood Myths of Early China. State University of New York Press, 2006.
  • The Construction of Space in Early China. State University of New York Press, 2005.
  • Writing and Authority in Early China. State University of New York Press, 1999. Awarded the Prix Budget by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of the Institut de France, 2002.
  • Sanctioned Violence in Early China. State University of New York Press, 1990.

Articles

  • "The Just War in Early China," in The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations, ed. Torkel Brekke. London: Routledge, 2006.
  • “Writings on Warfare Found in Ancient Chinese Tombs,” Sino-Platonic Papers 158 (August 2005).
  • "Custom and Human Nature in Early China," Philosophy East and West 53:3 (July 2003).
  • "Dicing and Divination in Early China," Sino-Platonic Papers 121 (July 2002).
  • "The Han Abolition of Universal Military Service," in Warfare in Chinese History, ed. Hans van de Ven. E. J. Brill, 2000.
  • "The City-State in Spring-and-Autumn China," in A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures, ed. M. H. Hansen. Historisk-filosofiske Skrifter 21. The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2000.
  • "The Feng and Shan Sacrifices of Emperor Wu of the Han", in Joseph McDermott, ed., State and Court Ritual in China. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  • "Political History of the Warring States", in Michael Loewe and Edward Shaughnessy, eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge University Press, 1999
  • "The Ritual Origins of the Warring State", Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 84:2 (1997).
  • "The Warring State in China as Institution and Idea", in Robert A. Hinde, ed., War: A Cruel Necessity? I. B. Tauris, 1995.
  • "Les rites comme trame de l'histoire", in Vivienne Alton, ed., Changement et idées de changement en Chine. Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1994.
  • "The Suppression of the Sect of the Three Stages: Apocrypha as a Political Issue", in Robert Buswell, ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Book Reviews

  • Review of Marianne Bujard, Le sacrifice au ciel dans la Chine ancienne: théorie et pratique sous les Han occidentaux (Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2000), in Etudes chinoises. Forthcoming.
  • Review of Martin Kern, Die Hymnen der chinesischen Staatsopfer: Literatur und Ritual in der politischen Repräsentation von der Han-Zeit bis zu den Sechs Dynastien, in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 63:2 (2000).
  • Review of John S. Major, Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi, in The British Journal of the History of Science 28 (1995).
  • Review of Raimund Theodor Kolb, Die Infanterie im alten China, in T'oung Pao 79 (1993).
  • Review of Sarah Allan, The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China, in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55:1 (1992).
  • Review of Hao Yen-p'ing, The Commercial Revolution in Nineteenth Century China, in Modern Asian Studies 22:4 (October 1988).

Publications and Activities for a Popular Audience

  • Contributed to the volume The Dragon's Ascent, a survey of Chinese science accompanying the television series of the same name produced in association with the Needham Research Institute.
  • Wrote the survey history chapter for China: The Land of the Heavenly Dragon. Duncan Baird, 2000.
  • Wrote article "Tortoise, Bone, Bamboo: Writing in Ancient China" for British Museum Magazine 25, Summer 1996. This article was also published, in Danish translation, in the magazine of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark. Winter 1996.
  • Wrote article "The Art of Battle" for the Souvenir Issue of the Times Supplement in association with the "Mysteries of Ancient China" exhibition. September 1996.
  • Was interviewed by the BBC for television program on "Qin Shihuang Di, the First Emperor of China", screened 13 September 1996.