Research Expertise and Interest

ethnicity, elites, China, cities, national identity, social networks, medieval history, death ritual, Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Liao Dynasty, political culture, aristocracies, nationalism

Research Description

I am a specialist of China during the Tang, Song, and Liao dynasties (7th c. to 13th c.).  My published books and my current research deal with the demise of the medieval aristocracy and concomitant rise of the Chinese meritocracy (9th-10th c.), and the development of a Chinese nationalism during the 11th c.  I make use of both textual and excavated materials. I have compiled an extensive database of 30,000 people living during the 9th and 10th c.; and also a second database of Northeast Asian tombs dating roughly to the 11th c. Both databases are available for download on my webpage.