Reorienting China

Cho-yun Hsu. An internationally recognized authority on ancient Chinese history and comparative civilizations. He was University Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, and elected Academician of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. As one of the founding members of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Hsu was instrumental in supporting and encouraging global research in Chinese Studies. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies Award, the highest honor of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), which recognizes his life-long dedication to the advancement of Asian Studies in the international arena. In 2024, he was awarded the sixth Tang Prize for his contributions to the field of Sinology.He has authored or coauthored numerous publications, including American Life: A Chinese Historian’s Perspective (2021), The Transcendental and the Mundane: Chinese Cultural Values in Everyday Life (2021), China: A New Cultural History (2012), Western Chou Civilization (1988), Han Agriculture: The Formation of the Early Chinese Agrarian Economy (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) (1980), and Ancient China in Transition: An Analysis of Social Mobility, 722–222 B.C. (1965).David Ownby recently retired after more than thirty years as Professor of History at the Université de Montréal. His research focus is intellectual life in contemporary China, and his recent publications include Rethinking China’s Rise: A Liberal Critique by Xu Jilin (as editor and translator), Voices from the Chinese Century: Public Intellectual Debate from Contemporary China (co-edited with Timothy Cheek and Joshua A. Fogel), The Transcendental and the Mundane: Chinese Cultural Values in Everyday Life by Cho-yun Hsu, and Globalization after the Pandemic by Qin Hui (both as translator). His online project, “Reading the China Dream,” is available at readingthechinadream.com.

""Professor Hsu’s expertise on China has developed over many decades. He brings his deep experience to join both textual and archaeological history, and here, in this important book, he offers a unique, individual analysis of China’s history. This revealing volume introduces the full range of China’s important development throughout dynastic rule. In the present day, Professor Hsu’s strong commitment to understanding and sharing China’s past to benefit the present shines through.""—Jessica Rawson, Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford""In Reorienting China, Professor Hsu Cho-yun compellingly explores the rise and development of early China in ever-changing cross-cultural and environmental contexts. Both erudite and provocative, Hsu demonstrates a vision and methodology that will inspire anyone interested in China studies.""—David Der-wei Wang, Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University""In this sweeping narrative, Professor Hsu offers a grand yet nuanced view of Chinese history. Masterfully weaving the latest geographic and archaeological findings with keen historical insights, he reveals how communities across diverse ecological zones interacted with each other and engaged with the outside world. Through this dynamic process of cultural development, Hsu identifies the defining spirit of Chinese civilization—an enduring ethos of tolerance and perseverance rooted in the philosophical principle of 'harmony'.""—Yan Sun, Chairperson of Art and Art History, Gettysburg College