Mark Edward Lewis (; born September 25, 1954) is an American
sinologist and historian of
ancient China
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...
.
Life and career
Lewis was born on September 25, 1954. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
and studied Chinese at the
International Chinese Language Program (ICLP). His dissertation, entitled "The Imperial Transformation of Violence in Ancient China," was written under the Chinese-American historian
Ho Ping-ti. He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows.
Since 2002 he has been
Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in
Chinese Culture at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. Previously he was a Reader at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the
University of Cambridge.
He was a
Humboldt Research Award Fellow for one year at the
University of Muenster.
He created th
Chinese Texts course which is intended to teach students how to read
Classical Chinese philosophy and history. The course uses texts from the
Warring States and
Early Han period, provides detailed analysis of the passages and how the translation was reached, and explains the uses of
parallelism and rhythmic patterns in Classical Chinese.
Monographs
* ''Honor and Shame in early China''. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
* ''China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty''. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
* ''China Between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties''. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
* ''The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han''. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007. Awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of the Institut de France, 2009.
* ''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, 2006.
* ''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.
* Writing the World in the Family Instructions of the Yan Clan
Articles
* "Early Imperial China, from the Qin and Han through the Tang." In ''Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States''. Ed. Andrew Monson and Walter Scheidel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
* "Mothers and Sons in Early Imperial China." In ''Extrême Orient, Extrême Occident''. 2012.
* "Swordsmanship and the Socialization of Violence in Early China," in ''From Athens to Beijing: West Meets East in the Olympic Games''. Ed. Susan Brownell. New York: Athlone. 2012.
* "Historiography and Empire," in ''Oxford History of Historical Writing'', Vol 1. Ed. Grant Hardy and Andrew Feldherr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011
online* "Evolution of the Shang Calendar," in ''Measuring the World and Beyond: The Archaeology of Early Quantification and Cosmology''. Ed. Colin Renfrew and Iain Morley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
* "The Mythology of Early China," in ''Rituels, pantheons et techniques: Histoire de la religion chinoise avant les Tang''. Ed. John Lagerwey. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2009.
* "Gift Exchange and Charity in Ancient China and the Roman Empire," in ''Institutions of Empire: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient Chinese and Mediterranean History''. Ed. Walter Scheidel. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009.
* "Writing the World in the Family Instructions of the Yan Clan." ''Early Medieval China: Essays in Honor of Albert E. Dien'' Volumes 13-13: Part 1. 2007.
* "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 ''State and Court Ritual in China''. Ed. Joseph McDermott. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
* "Political History of the Warring States," in ''The Cambridge History of Ancient China''. Ed. Michael Loewe and Edward Shaughnessy. 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 ''War: A Cruel Necessity?'' Ed. Robert A. Hinde. I. B. Tauris, 1995.
* "Les rites comme trame de l'histoire," in ''Changement et idées de changement en Chine''. Ed. Vivienne Alton. Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1994.
* "The Suppression of the Sect of the Three Stages: Apocrypha as a Political Issue," in ''Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha''. Ed. Robert Buswell, ed., University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Mark Edward
University of Chicago alumni
Stanford University Department of History faculty
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
1954 births
Living people
American sinologists
American male non-fiction writers