Professor Jeffrey Riegel

MA and PhD in Chinese, Stanford University
Professor and Head of School

Office : Room 510, Brennan MacCallum Building A18 (map)
Phone : +61 2 9351-7862
Email :

Most of Jeffrey Riegel’s 30-year academic career was spent at the University of California, Berkeley. He retired from the position of Agassiz Professor of Chinese in 2007. He travels frequently to China and has long been committed to helping bring about a greater understanding of China. As Head of the School of Languages and Cultures he has broadened this commitment by stressing the need for Australians to recognize the importance of learning languages other than English and of gaining deeper familiarity with cultures outside the Anglo-American sphere.

Research Areas

• The literature, thought, and material culture of early China, in particular the period from the 7th-2nd centuries BCE.

Current Projects

• A translation and study of the ancient Chinese philosophical text, the Mozi
• A study of the 18th century literary figure, Yuan Mei, and his collection of tales of the fantastic and supernatural
• A study and translation of recently excavated Chinese manuscripts, in particular parts of the Han dynasty medical corpus unearthed at Zhangjiashan.

Selected Publications

Books

• The Annals of Lü Buwei, Stanford University Press, 2001
• Chinese Archaeological Abstracts (=volumes 8-10 of Monumenta Archaeologica) UCLA Institute of Archaeology, 1985

Articles

• “Emperor Qin Shi Huang,” in Albert Dien, editor, Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor (Bowers Museum, 2008), 23-37.
• “Confucius,” an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2002 (substantial revision, 2006).
• “Eros, Introversion, and the Beginnings of Shijing Commentary,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 57.1 (June, 1997), 143-177.
• “Do not Serve the Living as You Serve the Dead: the Lüshi chunqiu Treatises on Moderation in Burial,” Early China 20 (1995), 301-330.

Areas of Teaching and Research Supervision

Teaching

• Chinese literature, thought, and language; Asian cultural and intellectual history.

Supervision

• Chinese texts, Chinese art, Chinese philosophy

Conference Activity

• Buddhist Sculpture Symposium, jointly organized by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the University of Sydney, August 2008.
• Virtue East and West, a conference organized by the Philosophy Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, May 2008.
• Keynote address to the Oriental Society of Australia, December 2006.

Other Professional Contributions

Lectures at the following organizations:

• Sydney University Arts Association, “Inaugural Lecture,” September 2008
• Bowers Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California August 2008
• Wellcome Institute and the British Museum, March 2008
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, March 2008
• Philosophy Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, November 2007
• Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, October 2007
• Society for Asian Art, San Francisco, May 2006
• Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, May 2006
• Association for Asian Studies, Annual Meeting, March 2006, San Francisco
• Shaanxi Normal University, March, 2006