Thomas A. Wilson

Professor

East Asian History

EDUCATION

Ph.D., History, University of Chicago

Graduate Department of History, National Taiwan University °ê¥ß»OÆW¤j¾Ç, Taipei, Taiwan

Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (Stanford Center), Taipei, Taiwan

A.M., History, University of Chicago

B.A., East Asian Studies, University of Connecticut, Storrs

RECENT HONORS

  • member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, 1999-2000
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1999-2000
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1998
  • Pacific Cultural Foundation, Taiwan, 1998
  • American Philosophical Society research grant, 1995
  • American Council of Learned Societies research grant, 1993
  • Fulbright-Hays Scholar Research Grant (Council for International Exchange of Scholars) for research in Taiwan, 1993
  • Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad (U.S. Department of Education) and National Academy of Sciences Grant for Advanced Study in the People's Republic of China, 1992-93

    PUBLICATIONS

    "Ritualizing Confucius/Kongzi: The Family and State Cults of the Sage of Culture in Imperial China," in Thomas A. Wilson, ed., On Sacred Grounds: Culture, Society, Politics, and the Formation of the Cult of Confucius (Institute for East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 2003), 43-94

    "Confucianism: The Imperial Cults," Encyclopedia of Religions 2nd Edition, Macmillan Reference, 2003

    "Culture, Society, Politics, and the Cult of Confucius," in Thomas A. Wilson, ed., On Sacred Grounds: Culture, Society, Politics, and the Formation of the Cult of Confucius (Institute for East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 2002), 1-40

    "Sacrifice and the Imperial Cult of Confucius," History of Religions 41 (Feb. 2002) 3: 251-87

    "Temple of Confucius," "Sacrifice to Confucius," etc. (38 entries, approximately 12,500 words) Encyclopaedia of Confucianism (Routledge/Curzon Press, 2003)

    "¤@ ­Ó ³Q ©¿ ²¤ ¾Ç ªÌ ©Ò ¯d ¤U ¤§ ¤£ ¥i ¿i ·À ¦L °O: º~ ¾Ç ¸à ÄÀ ¾Ç ¤§ ­« ¾ã" [The indelible mark of an overlooked scholar: toward a Restructuring of sinological hermeneutics], Taiwan Radical Monthly »O ÆW ªÀ ·| ¬ã ¨s, Taipei, 1998

    "The Ritual Formation of Confucian Orthodoxy and the Descendants of the Sage," The Journal of Asian Studies 55 (Aug. 1996) 3: 559-584 (available on JSTOR and to off-campus Hamilton users)

    "History of Ming Confucianism," in Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy (Garland Press, 1998)

    "Messenger of the Ancient Sages: Song-Ming Confucian Hermeneutics of the Canonical and the Heretical," published in The Hermeneutic Traditions in Chinese Culture, Transactions Publishers, 1999

    Genealogy of the Way: The Construction and Uses of the Confucian Tradition in Late Imperial China (Stanford University Press, 1995)

    "Confucian Sectarianism and the Compilation of the Ming History," Late Imperial China 15 (Dec. 1994) 2: 53-84

    "Genealogy and History in Neo-Confucian Sectarian Uses of the Confucian Past," Modern China 20 (Jan. 1994) 1: 3-33 (Available on JSTOR and to off-campus Hamilton users)

    "§º©ú²M¾§¾Ç¬£§Oª§½×»P©ú¥vªº½sÄ¡" [Confucian Sectarianism and the Compilation of the Ming History] Journal of Hangzhou University 24 (March 1994) 1: 66-72

    link to web page on the Confucius Temple

    Images of the Temple of Culture

    RECENT PAPERS AND INVITED TALKS

  • "Ritual Spaces and Reverent Bodies in Cult Veneration of Confucius," West Coast Branch of the Association for Asian Studies, Seattle WA, Sept. 30-October 2, 2004

     

  • "Confucianism as a Ritual Tradition: Sacrifice and the Question of Confucian 'Religiousness,'" University of Tennessee, April 25, 2003

  • "The Confucianization of East Asian Society," Maryville College, April 24, 2003

  • "Ritual Purity, Ritual Victim in Confucian Cult Sacrifice," University of Pittsburgh, April 1, 2003

  • "Liturgies of Confucian Sacrifice," American Academy of Religions (AAR), Denver, Nov. 17, 2001

  • "A Reconsideration of Missionary Writings on Chinese Religions," Conference on Re-Presenting Chinese Religion, University of Colorado at Boulder, Nov. 16, 2001

  • "A Canonical Reading of the Imperial Sacrifices to Confucius," Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, April 11, 2000

  • "Disputing Confucius: Debates on the Status of the Sage in the State and Family Cults of Confucius," Colloquium on Late Imperial Chinese Culture and Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, March 17, 2000

  • "The Family and State Cults of Confucius," Colloquium on Late Imperial Chinese Culture and Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Nov. 28, 1999

  • "Ritualizing Confucius," Association for Asian Studies (AAS) annual conference, Washington D.C., March 28, 1998

  • "The Indelible Mark of an Overlooked Scholar: Toward a Restructuring of Sinological Hermeneutics," Subjects, Dialogues, Histories: An International Conference in Memory of Professor Edward T. Ch'ien, Taipei, sponsored by the Center for Asia-Pacific/Cultural Studies, National Tsing Hua University, Taipei, February 4, 1997

     

  • "The Role of Ritual in the Construction of Orthodoxy in Late Imperial China," University of Wisconsin, March 1996

  • "The Ritual Formation of Confucian Orthodoxy and the Descendants of the Sage," Harvard University, February 1996

  • "The Family and State Cults of Confucius," Institute of Glogal Studies annual conference, Binghamton University, SUNY, October 1995

  • "The Ritualization of Confucian Orthodoxy and the Descendants of the Sage," University Seminar on Neo-Confucian Studies, Columbia University, May 1995

    CURRENT PROJECTS

    Author of a book on the role of the cult of Confucius in the formation of Confucian orthodoxy based on a examination of debates over the meaning of Confucius in temples devoted to him across the empire. I reexamine our understanding of Confucianism on the basis of two interrelated areas of inquiry: (1) I draw on ritual texts on state and ancestral liturgies and rare materials from the archives of the mansion of Confucius' descendants to scrutinize the place of the worship of Confucius in the formation of Confucian orthodoxy and the internal contestation over its meaning by the emperors, imperial officials, and Confucius' family descendants who performed these rites. (2) I examine the function of the tension between philosophy and religion in modern Western discourses on Confucianism and re-situate nineteenth-century Protestant writings in a genealogy of sinology that has tended to construct a more exclusively rational image of Confucianism. The aim of this project is admittedly to question the terms with which Confucianism has been constructed by demonstrating that the Confucian literati and foreign observers have never agreed on its meaning. (Stanford, forthcoming)

    Co-authoring a book with Professor Michael Nylan (History, Berkeley) tentatively titled Confucius Through the Ages for Random House.

    Film documentary of the sacrifices to feed the spirit of Confucius.

    Teaching and Research interests

  • Asian cultural history
  • rituals of sacrifice in China, India, Greece
  • Confucian thought and ritual
  • Theories of narrative historical writings

    Course syllabi

  • Exploring Culture in the Great Cities of Asia
  • Philosophical Masters of Ancient China
  • Chinese Culture in Imperial Times
  • Modernity and Nationhood in China
  • Chinese Intellectual History: Confucianism
  • Heroes and Bandits in Chinese History and Fiction
  • Mythical Histories in China and Japan
  • Colonial Encounters

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