Martin Kern | |
---|---|
Born | 1962 (age 61–62) |
Academic background | |
Education | Peking University |
Alma mater | University of Cologne |
Thesis | Die Hymnen der chinesischen Staatsopfer (1996) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Sinology |
Sub-discipline | Chinese poetry and literature |
Martin Kern is a German-American sinologist. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Cologne,Kern taught briefly at the University of Washington and Columbia University before accepting an assistant professorship at Princeton in 2000,before receiving a full professorship five years later. He specializes in Chinese literature,poetry,literary thought,philology,and historiography. He has served as the co-editor of the sinology journal T'oung Pao since 2009. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for a monograph project on early Chinese poetry. He served as the president of the American Oriental Society in 2023–2024.
Martin Kern was born in Germany in 1962,where he attended school. He began study at the University of Cologne in 1985,before taking several years to study as an exchange student at Peking University. He returned to Cologne,where received his M.A. in 1992 and his Ph.D. (in sinology,German literature,and art history) four years later. [1] [2] [3]
After receiving his doctorate,Kern briefly taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington and as an assistant professor at Columbia University. In 2000,he became an assistant professor of Chinese Literature at Princeton University. He advanced to an associate professorship in 2003,and a full professorship in 2005. In 2017,he became the founding director of the International Center for the Study of Ancient Text Cultures at the Renmin University of China in Beijing. [1] [2] Kern's research focuses on Chinese literature,poetry,literary thought,historiography,and philology,as well as the history of Sinology as a field. [2] [4]
Kern is a member of the American Philosophical Society. He was vice president of the American Oriental Society in 2022–2023 and president in 2023–2024. [1] [4] He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for a monograph project on the early history of Chinese poetry. [2] He has served as the co-editor of the sinology journal T'oung Pao since 2009. [1]
The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition,themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics. The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors,now known as Classical Chinese. A common Chinese word for "classic" literally means 'warp thread',in reference to the techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes.
The Shiji,often known in English as Records of the Grand Historian or The Grand Scribe's Records,is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st centuries BC by the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian,building upon work begun by his father Sima Tan. The work covers a 2,500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time,and describes the world as it was known to the Chinese of the Western Han dynasty.
The Classic of Poetry,also Shijing or Shih-ching,translated variously as the Book of Songs,Book of Odes,or simply known as the Odes or Poetry,is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry,comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. It is one of the "Five Classics" traditionally said to have been compiled by Confucius,and has been studied and memorized by scholars in China and neighboring countries over two millennia. It is also a rich source of chengyu that are still a part of learned discourse and even everyday language in modern Chinese. Since the Qing dynasty,its rhyme patterns have also been analysed in the study of Old Chinese phonology.
Qu Yuan was a Chinese poet and aristocrat in the State of Chu during the Warring States period. He is known for his patriotism and contributions to classical poetry and verses,especially through the poems of the Chu Ci anthology:a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by his verse writing. Together with the Shi Jing,the Chu Ci is one of the two greatest collections of ancient Chinese verse. He is also remembered in connection to the supposed origin of the Dragon Boat Festival.
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The Canon of Laws or Classic of Law is a lost legal code that has been attributed to Li Kui,a Legalist scholar and minister who lived in the State of Wei during the Warring States period of ancient China. This code has traditionally been dated to the early fourth century BCE. Still,scholars now widely consider it to be a forgery from the fifth or sixth-century CE.
Gustaaf Schlegel was a Dutch sinologist and field naturalist.
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Wilt L. Idema is a Dutch scholar and Sinologist who taught at University of Leiden and Harvard University (2000–13),presently emeritus at both universities. He specializes in Chinese literature,with interests in early Chinese drama,Chinese women's literature of the premodern period,Chinese popular narrative ballads,and early development of Chinese vernacular fiction.
Liu Wu (刘武),posthumously named Prince Xiao of Liang,was a Han prince. He was a son of Emperor Wen and Empress Xiaowen,and a younger brother of Emperor Jing. He played a prominent role in the suppression of the Rebellion of the Seven Princes. He was also responsible for the assassination of the minister Yuan Ang.
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Ken-ichi Takashima is,according to the editors of the Thesaurus Linguae Sinicae,"the world's leading authority on Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions".
Anthony François Paulus Hulsewé was a Dutch Sinologist and scholar best known for his studies of ancient Chinese law,particularly that of the Han dynasty.
Tian Yuan Tan is a Singaporean scholar of Chinese literature. Since 2019,he has served as Shaw Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of University College. Prior to his appointment at Oxford,he was Professor of Chinese Studies at SOAS,University of London.
August Eduard Erkes was a German sinologist and ethnologist.