| Medieval Studies

Cong Ellen Zhang

Associate Professor

FIELD & SPECIALTIES

Imperial China, especially the Song dynasty (960-1279)
culture and society, family, filial piety, biji writing, literati culture, cultural geography

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.

Performing Filial Piety in Northern Song China (960-1127): Family, State, and Native Place. University of Hawaii Press, 2020.

Articles and translations:

“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