Xing Wen, or Wen Xing (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 邢文;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Xíng Wén; Wade-Giles: Wen Hsing; born 1965) is a Chinese scholar and researcher in Chinese art, archaeology, and classical Chinese studies. He is Robert 1932 and Barbara Black Professor in Asian Studies, Emeritus, and Professor of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages, Emeritus at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

Life and education

Xing Wen was born in 1965. He attended the Nanjing College of Food Economy, current

Nanjing University of Finance and Economics The Nanjing University of Finance & Economics (NUFE; ), colloquially abbreviated as Nancai (), is a public university located in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. As indicated in its name, the university specializes in financial and economic disciplines, ...

as an undergraduate student, graduating in 1986 with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

, after which he taught planning and statistics courses at the college for a few years. He then went to

Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University (NNU or NJNU; ) is a public research university in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1902 as Sanjiang Normal School, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher normal schools in China, and has become a research-intensi ...

for graduate study and obtained his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in Chinese art history in 1992. He did his Ph.D. work on the

Mawangdui Mawangdui () is an archaeological site located in Changsha, China. The site consists of two saddle-shaped hills and contained the tombs of three people from the Changsha Kingdom during the western Han dynasty (206 BC – 9 AD): the Chancellor Li ...

silk manuscripts both at the Graduate School of

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...

under the guidance of Professor

Li Xueqin Li Xueqin (, 28 March 1933 – 24 February 2019) was a Chinese historian, archaeologist, and palaeographer. He served as Director of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor of the Institute of Sinology of T ...

李學勤 and in the Anthropology Department at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as a post-doctoral student of Professor

Kwang-chih Chang Kwang-chih Chang (15 April, 1931 – January 3, 2001), commonly known as K. C. Chang, was a Chinese / Taiwanese-American archaeologist and sinologist. He was the John E. Hudson Professor of archaeology at Harvard University, Vice-President of th ...

張光直. He received his Ph.D. in history from

in 1996 with a dissertation on the silk manuscript version of the ''Zhouyi'' 周易, i.e.,

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

. This dissertation was awarded the 1st China National Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations in 1999.

Career

Xing was Robert 1932 and Barbara Black Professor in Asian Studies at

and Distinguished Professor of Chinese Department and Philosophy and History Research Institute at

Southwest Jiaotong University Southwest Jiaotong University () is located in national central city Chengdu, Sichuan Province, affiliated to the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. It's a national key university co-supported by the Ministry of Education o ...

. He was Director of the Center for Research on Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts in the School of Archaeology and Museology at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

during 2000–2002, chaired the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at

in 2014, held the directorship of The Dartmouth Institute for Calligraphy and Manuscript Culture in China since 2014, and served as Associate Dean for Disciplinary Development, Academic Research, and Internationalization of the School of Humanities at

from 2017 to 2020.

Controversies

Xing was involved in several controversies regarding the authenticity of some purchased bamboo-slip manuscripts collected by top universities in China.

Zhejiang University Bamboo Slips

In 2012, Xing published a series of articles in China's foremost national newspaper

Guangming Daily The ''Guangming Daily'', also known as the ''Enlightenment Daily'', is a national Chinese-language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China. It was established in 1949 as the official paper of the China Democratic League. St ...

to argue that the so-called

Warring States The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...

period (475-221 B.C.) bamboo slips collected by

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the na ...

were fake. Professor Cao Jingyan 曹錦炎 of

argued that Xing's articles were misleading since he never touched any real bamboo slips. Liu Shaogang 劉紹剛, research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, also challenged Xing's approach of calligraphic examination.

Peking University Bamboo Slips

In 2016, Xing published several articles in

again to challenge the authenticity of the bamboo-slip version of the ''Laozi'', i.e., the

Tao Te Ching The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...

, collected by

. Professor

Alan Chan Alan Chan Heng Loon (born 22 February 1953) is a former Singaporean civil servant. He was the former chief executive of the Singapore Press Holdings. Early life Chan was born to a bilingual family fluent in English and Chinese. He studied in Hai ...

The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and ...

included Xing's argument in the

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. Eac ...

. Chinese professors Li Kai 李開 and Yao Xiaoou 姚小鷗 and Western scholars Christopher Foster and Thies Staack all challenged Xing's argument from various perspectives.

Interdisciplinary initiatives

Xing is known for his initiative and expertise in Mathematical Art History 數理美術史 and Mathematical Humanities 數理人文學. In 1999, he formally proposed to establish a new field of study, "The Study of Bamboo-slip and Silk Manuscripts" 中國簡帛學, at a

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...

international conference. In recent years, he proposed several new interdisciplinary fields, such as the Chinese Mathematical Philosophy 中國數理哲學 (2017), the Authentication Studies of Excavated Manuscripts 簡帛辨偽學 (2018), Cognitive

Manuscriptology Manuscriptology is another word for codicology, namely the study of history and literature through the use of hand-written documents. The term is in use particularly among scholars of South Asian cultural history because many South Asian manuscr ...

認知手稿學 (2018), Cognitive Bamboo-and-Silk Manuscriptology 認知簡帛學 (2018), Cognitive Paleography 認知古文字學 (2019), and Cognitive Oracle-bone Studies 認知甲骨學 (2019). His new book on mathematical art history is also informed by artificial intelligence and data science.

Selected works

* Xing, Wen (2014). ''Dao, Neo-Confucian Principle, and Chan Buddhism in Chinese Calligraphy and Painting'' 道理禪與中國書畫 (in Chinese). Beijing: Academy Press. Awarded the 2nd China Fine Arts Award. * * * and more books

References

External links

Professor Xing Wen's Site

website.
Calligraphy and Manuscript Culture

website.
Dartmouth News

website.
National Geographic

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

website. XWtext updated.txt Displaying XWtext updated.txt. {{DEFAULTSORT:Xing, Wen 1965 births Living people Chinese art historians Chinese epigraphers Chinese sinologists People's Republic of China calligraphers Nanjing Normal University alumni Chinese Academy of Social Sciences alumni Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Academic staff of Peking University Dartmouth College faculty