Cong Ellen Zhang - Corcoran Department Of History

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Cong Ellen Zhang

Professor

Contact NAU 256 Office Hours: T 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM and Th 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Field & Specialties

Imperial China, the Song dynasty (960-1279)political history, culture and society, women and family, biji writing, literati culture

Education

B.A. Nankai University, Tianjin, P. R. China M.A. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. University of Washington, Seattle

Publications

Books:

Transformative Journeys: Travel and Culture in Song China. University of Hawaii Press, 2011 (Chinese edition: Xing wanli lu: Songdai luxing yu wenhua 《行万里路：宋代旅行与文化》. Trans. Li Wenfeng 李文锋. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2016).

Dangdai xifang Hanxue yanjiu jicui, sixiang wenhua shi juan 《当代西方汉学研究集萃》 (Contemporary Western Sinological Works, Cultural and Intellectual History). co-edited with Ping Yao. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2012, 2016.

Record of the Listener: Selected Stories from Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi (English translation of selected stories of Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi). Hackett Publishing, 2018. 

Chinese Funerary Biographies: An Anthology of Remembered Lives. Co-edited with Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Ping Yao. University of Washington Press, 2019. (Traditional Chinese edition: 《追懷生命：中國歷史上的墓誌銘》, 上海古籍出版社，2021; Simplified Chinese edition: 《追怀生命：中国历史上的墓志铭》, 2023)

Performing Filial Piety in Northern Song China (960-1127): Family, State, and Native Place. University of Hawaii Press, 2020 (Chinese edition: 《家庭 乡里 朝堂：北宋士人与孝道》, trans. Liu Yunjun 刘云军. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2022.)

Chinese Autobiographical Writing: An Anthology of Personal Accounts. Co-edited/translated with Patricia Ebrey and Ping Yao. University of Washington Press, 2023 (Chinese edition: 《书写自我：中国历史上的个人记述》. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2023).

《中古探微：伊沛霞論文精選》(Essays on Middle Period China by Patricia Ebrey), co-editor/translator (with Ping Yao, Sumei Yi, Hsiao-wen Cheng, and Xiaolin Duan), Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2023.

Special Issue Editor:

"Family Relations in Chinese History," Journal of Chinese History 6.2 (2022)

"Filial Piety in Chinese History," Chinese Historical Review 20.2 (2013)

Articles and translations:

“Filial Piety, Family, and the Law in  Song China (960-1279).” In A Global History of Crime and Punishment, Vol. 2 (the Medieval Age), pp. 43-69, edited by Karl Shoemaker. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

"Order, Culture, and Local Administration on the Northern Border: Han Qi in Dingzhou (1048-1053)." Journal of Song Yuan Studies 51 (2022): 39-72.

"Introduction" (State of the Field Essay) to special issue on "Family Relations in Chinese History." Journal of Chinese History 6.2 (2022): 193-200. 

"Brother, Uncle, and Patriarch: A Northern Song 'Family Man.'" Journal of Chinese History 6.2 (2022): 269-294.

“The Many Lives of the Woman of Huaiyin in the Song (960-1279): Text, Genre, and Female Morality.” Tsing-hua Journal of Chinese Studies 51.1 (March 2021): 199-249. 

“A Friend and Political Ally: ‘Funerary Inscription for Mr. Culai’ by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072).” In Chinese Funerary Biographies: An Anthology of Remembered Lives, co-edited by Patricia Ebrey, Ping Yao, and Cong Ellen Zhang. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2019.

“A Son Preserving His Father’s Memory: ‘Funerary Inscription for Chao Juncheng’ by Huang Tingjian (1045-1105).” In Chinese Funerary Biographies: An Anthology of Remembered Lives, co-edited by Patricia Ebrey, Ping Yao, and Cong Ellen Zhang. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2019.

“How Long Did It Take to Plan a Funeral?: Liu Kai’s (948-1101) Experience Burying His Parents.” Frontier of History in China 13.4 (2018): 508-530.

“A Family of Filial Exemplars: The Baos of Luzhou.” Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 4.2 (2017): 360-382.

 “Negative Role Models: Unfilial Stories in Song Biji (Miscellaneous Writing).” In Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China, edited by N. Harry Rothschild and Leslie V. Wallace (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2017), 39-55.

“Of Revelers and Witty Conversationalists: Song (960-1279) Biji (Miscellaneous Writing) as Literature of Leisure.” Chinese Historical Review, 23.2 (2016): 130-146.

“Things Heard in the Past, Material for Future Use: A Study of Song (960-1279) Biji Prefaces.” East Asian Publishing and Culture 6.1 (2016): 22-53.

 “Bureaucratic Politics and Commemorative Biography: The Epitaphs of Fan Zhongyan.” In State Power in China, 900-1400, edited by Patricia Ebrey and Paul Jakov Smith (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016), 192-216.

"The Rise and Fall of a Northern Song Family: the Baos of Luzhou." Chinese Historical Review, 20.2 (Nov. 2013): 138-158.

"Anecdotal Writing on Illicit Sex in Song China (960-1279)." Journal of the History of Sexuality, 22.2 (May 2013): 255-282.

"To Be 'Erudite in Miscellaneous Knowledge': A Study of Song (960-1279) Biji Writing," Asia Major Third Series, 25.2 (2012): 43-77.

“Introduction” (Cong Zhang and Ping Yao) to Xifang zhongguo shi yanjiu, sixiang wenhua shi. 13000 Chinese characters. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2012, 1-19.

“Kongzi jisi yu Rujia de yishi sixian” (Chinese translation of Thomas Wilson, “Culture, Society, Politics, and the Cult of Confucius.” In On Sacred Grounds. Harvard University Asia Center, 2002, 1-41.). co-translator (with Kuan-yi Leu). In Ping Yao, Cong Zhang eds. Xifang zhongguo shi yanjiu. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2012, 89-112.

“Between Life and Death: Song Travel Writings about Zhang (Miasma) in Lingnan,” The Journal of Song Yuan Studies 41 (2011): 193-227.

“Sites, Places, and the Empire: Lu You’s Travel on the Yangzi River in 1170” in Medieval Travel and Travelogue. Ed. Jean-François Kosta-Thefaine (New York, AMS Press, 2009), 205-230.

“Communication, Collaboration, and Community, Inn-wall Writing during the Song (960-1279).” Journal of Sung Yuan Studies, 35 (2005), 1-27.

Current Research

Family, Culture, and Politics in Northern Song China: The Life of Han Qi (1008-1075)