Xinru Liu (born 1951) is a

professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of early

Indian history According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

and world history at

The College of New Jersey The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...

, and has held since 1993 a full professorship at the Institute of World History,

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 ...

. Liu had little formal schooling but instead worked as a peasant and then as a factory worker during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. She taught herself English and history and gained admittance to the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

, where she earned a PhD in 1985 for work on Ancient Indian and Chinese History. Her PhD dissertation was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

as ''Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, A.D. 1-600'' (1988). She has written many books on Indian and Chinese history. Liu has won a Grant from

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

, 1984, a Grant from

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...

, 1990. Her book, "Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, A.D. 1-600" won the award for Outstanding Research Works done between 1977 and 1991 from the

. She is a member of the American Association of Asian Studies, The

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

, and the World History Association. Her most recent work is ''Dionysus and drama in the Buddhist art of Gandhara'' written jointly with Pia Brancaccio and published in the Journal of Global History.Dionysus and drama in the Buddhist art of Gandhara Pia Brancaccio and Xinru Liu Journal of Global History, Volume 4, Issue 02, July 2009, pp 219-244

Books

*''Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious Exchanges, A.D. 1-600'' (1988) *''A Social History of Ancient India, Beijing: the Publisher of Chinese Social Sciences'' (1990) *''Studies on Monarchism and Despotism in the Ancient World'' (1993) *''Silk and Religion—An Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People in A.D. 600-1200'' (1996) *''The Silk Road, in the series of Essays on Global and Comparative History'' (1998) *''Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads'' (2007) *''The Silk Road in World History'' (2010) *''The Silk Roads: A Brief History with Documents'' (2012) *''Early Buddhist Society, the World of Gautama Buddha (2022) *''The World of the Ancient Silk Road ed. (2022)

Articles

*"Republics in Ancient India," World History, Beijing, 1996, no.3. *"A Study of Primitive Democracy," Historiography Quarterly, Beijing, 1997 no.2. *"Origin of the Caste System in South Asia," Historiography Quarterly, Beijing, 1998, no.2. *"Social Mobility in the Caste System in South Asia," Historiography Quarterly, Beijing, 1999, no. 4. *"Silk, Robes and Relations between Early Chinese Dynasties and Nomads beyond the Great Wall," in Robes and honor: the Medieval World of Investiture, ed. Steward Gordon, St. Martin's press. *"Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan : Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies," the Journal of World History, Fall 2001. *"Trade and Pilgrimage Routes from Afghanistan to Taxila, Mathura and the Ganges Plains," Hindistan Turk Tarihi Arastirmalari, The Journal of Indo-Turcica, no.1, 2001, 113-140. *"A Silk Road Legacy: The Spread of

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and Islam," Journal of World History, Vol. 22 No. 1, 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Xinru People's Republic of China emigrants to the United States The College of New Jersey faculty Living people American women academics University of Pennsylvania alumni American Indologists People's Republic of China historians American women historians 1951 births Chinese Indologists 21st-century American women