Xinru Liu (born 1951) is a

professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of early Indian history and

world history Human history or world history is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Early modern human, Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers. They Early expansions of hominin ...

at The College of New Jersey, and has held since 1993 a full professorship at the Institute of World History,

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese state research institute and think tank. It is a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The CASS is the highest academic institution and c ...

. Liu had little formal schooling but instead worked as a peasant and then as a factory worker during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. She taught herself English and history and gained admittance to the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where she earned a PhD in 1985 for work on Ancient Indian and Chinese History. Her PhD dissertation was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

as ''Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, A.D. 1-600'' (1988). She has written many books on Indian and Chinese history. Liu has won a Grant from

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances Justice, equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide Social net ...

, 1984, a Grant from Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1990. Her book, "Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, A.D. 1-600" won the award for Outstanding Research Works done between 1977 and 1991 from the

. She is a member of the American Association of Asian Studies, The

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

, and the World History Association. Her most recent work is ''Dionysus and drama in the Buddhist art of Gandhara'' written jointly with Pia Brancaccio and published in the Journal of Global History.Dionysus and drama in the Buddhist art of Gandhara Pia Brancaccio and Xinru Liu Journal of Global History, Volume 4, Issue 02, July 2009, pp 219-244

Books

*''Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, A.D. 1-600'' (1988) *''A Social History of Ancient India, Beijing: the Publisher of Chinese Social Sciences'' (1990) *''Studies on Monarchism and Despotism in the Ancient World'' (1993) *''Silk and Religion—An Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People in A.D. 600-1200'' (1996) *''The Silk Road, in the series of Essays on Global and Comparative History'' (1998) *''Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads'' (2007) *''The Silk Road in World History'' (2010) *''The Silk Roads: A Brief History with Documents'' (2012) *''Early Buddhist Society, the World of Gautama Buddha'' (2022) *''The World of the Ancient Silk Road ed.'' (2022)

Articles

*"Republics in Ancient India," World History, Beijing, 1996, no.3. *"A Study of Primitive Democracy," Historiography Quarterly, Beijing, 1997 no.2. *"Origin of the Caste System in South Asia," Historiography Quarterly, Beijing, 1998, no.2. *"Social Mobility in the Caste System in South Asia," Historiography Quarterly, Beijing, 1999, no. 4. *"Silk, Robes and Relations between Early Chinese Dynasties and Nomads beyond the Great Wall," in Robes and honor: the Medieval World of Investiture, ed. Steward Gordon, St. Martin's press. *"Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan : Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies," the Journal of World History, Fall 2001. *"Trade and Pilgrimage Routes from Afghanistan to Taxila, Mathura and the Ganges Plains," Hindistan Turk Tarihi Arastirmalari, The Journal of Indo-Turcica, no.1, 2001, 113-140. *"A Silk Road Legacy: The Spread of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and Islam," Journal of World History, Vol. 22 No. 1, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Xinru People's Republic of China emigrants to the United States The College of New Jersey faculty Living people American women academics University of Pennsylvania alumni American Indologists 20th-century Chinese historians American women historians 1951 births Chinese Indologists 21st-century American women