(born 20 October 1930) is a retired Japanese historian of China and professor emeritus of

Osaka University The , abbreviated as UOsaka or , is a List of national universities in Japan, national research university in Osaka, Japan. The university traces its roots back to Edo period, Edo-era institutions Tekijuku (1838) and Kaitokudō, Kaitokudo (1724), ...

, who specializes in

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

history. A member of the

Japan Academy The Japan Academy ( Japanese: 日本学士院, ''Nihon Gakushiin'') is an honorary organisation and science academy founded in 1879 to bring together leading Japanese scholars with distinguished records of scientific achievements. The Academy is ...

, he has received the

Order of Culture The is a Japanese Order (decoration), order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japanese Art, Japan's art, Japanese Literature, literature, science, technolog ...

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese Order (distinction), order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six c ...

, and

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honour which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

in Japan. In 2018, he jointly received the

Tang Prize The Tang Prize ( zh, c=唐獎) is a set of Taiwanese biennial international awards bestowed in four fields: Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Nomination and selection are conducted by an independent se ...

in Sinology with Stephen Owen, "for his mastery and depth of insight in Chinese social-economic history achieved through his original theoretical lens that fuses the distinctive fortes of Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholarship."

Education

Shiba holds a BA, MA, and PhD from the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

Academic career

Several of his specialist works have been translated into English, including the landmark study ''Commerce and Society in Sung China'' (1968, abridged English translation published in 1970), which remains a respected work on Chinese economic history. He has written two chapters that have been translated into English that describe the long-term economic and environmental history of the plains of northern

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Publications

Books

* ''Commerce and Society in Sung China'' (translated by Mark Elvin). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970. '' Commerce and Society in Sung China'' (translation) *"Ningbo and its Hinterland," pp. 391–439, In G. William Skinner, ed., ''The City in Late Imperial China''. Stanford:

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...

, 1977. *“Environment versus Water Control: The Case of the Southern Hangzhou Bay Area from the Mid-Tang through the Qing.” In ''Sediments of Time: Environment and Society in Chinese History'', edited by Mark Elvin and Liu Tsui-jung 劉翠榮, 135–64. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1998.

References

* 1930 births Living people Historians of China Japanese sinologists Writers from Tokyo University of Tokyo alumni Academic staff of Osaka University Members of the Japan Academy {{Japan-historian-stub