院系成員

I am a historian of religion who studies Daoism and its position within traditional Chinese communities, increasingly with an emphasis on ecological questions. From that basis, I generally critique the extent to which mainstream views of traditional culture are determined by our modern imagination and the secular categories of analysis it takes for granted. A major phenomenon that I work on is ritual, which I see as one of the most important fields of knowledge and authority within the history of the Chinese empire, culture, and local communities.

My historical expertise is at home in two historical periods: the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and the contemporary world of traditional communities. Most of what I do is a combination of textual research (both the received canon and manuscripts) and fieldwork. As for the latter, I have closely worked with a family of Daoist priests in northern Taiwan in the early 2000’s, but the bulk of my fieldwork has been carried out in Hunan Province, where I have had the fortune to work with two Daoist families since 2004.

Most recently, I have begun to do fieldwork on the religious practice of the Iu Mien (a Yao group), who migrated from southern China to the Chiang Rai region in northern Thailand. Their rituals relate closely to those of Daoism and, specifically, the vernacular traditions of central Hunan. One of the projects I am developing studies their repertoire of rituals for settling communities within the wild world of mountains and forests.

My first book, Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel (University of Hawai’i Press, 2015), shows the ritual bedrock of a popular Ming “novel” in the vernacular language. My new monograph, The Presence of Peach Spring: Daoism, Ritual, and Locality (Harvard University Asia Center, 2026), situates the hallowed medieval story of Peach Blossom Spring in the north of Hunan Province, where it is maintained within a complex network of ritual lore. Furthermore, I am currently co-editing (with Gil Raz) a voluminous new work on Daoism in 38 chapters: The Daoist World (Routledge, 2026).