Wei Shang

Du Family Professor of Chinese Culture

Office: 404 Kent Hall
Office Hours: TBD
Phone: (212) 854-1526
Email: ws110@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Peking University (’82)
MA: Peking University (’84)
PhD: Harvard University (’95)

Classes Taught

AHUM UN1400 Colloquium on Major Texts: East Asia
CHNS GU4507 Readings in Classical Chinese
EAAS GR8030 Pre-Modern Chinese Fiction

Research Interests

Pre-modern Chinese Literature, Cultural and Intellectual History with special attention to Fiction and Drama of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).

Professor Wei Shang specializes in pre-modern Chinese literature and culture, especially the fiction and drama of the Ming and Qing dynasties. His research interests also include print culture, book history and intellectual history of the same period. His book “Rulin Waishi” and Cultural Transformation in Late Imperial China (2003) addresses the role of Confucian ritualism and fiction in shaping the intellectual and cultural changes of the eighteenth century. His other publications are concerned with Jin Ping Mei Cihua (The Plum in the Golden Vase), late Ming culture, fiction commentary, and medieval poetry, including Writing on Landmarks: From Yellow Crane Tower to Phoenix Pavilion (2020). He is the editor and co-editor of several volumes in both English and Chinese, and a contributor to The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature (2010).

Selected Publications

Books:

江山勝跡：人文風景的建構與傳承 Cultural Landscape: Its Construction and Transformation, co-edited with Xiao Han. Beijing University Press, 2025, 299 pages.

Rulin Waishi and Cultural Transformation in Late Imperial China. Harvard University Asian Center, 2003.

Writing on Landmarks: From Yellow Crane Tower to Phoenix Pavilion (Tixie mingsheng: cong huanghe lou dao fenghuang tai). Beijing: Sanlian Publishing House, 2020.

Old-Style Prose: An Annotated Anthology for Young Readers (Gei haizi de guwen). Beijing: Moveable Type, 2019.

Dynastic Crisis and Cultural Innovation: From the Late Ming to the Late Qing and Beyond (co-edited with David Der-wei Wang). Harvard University Asian Center, 2005.

A special issue of Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture: Literature and Visual Culture in Early Modern China (co-edited with Xingpei Yuan), Duke University Press, 2015.

Articles:

 “Theatrical Performance and Spectatorship in Dramatic Sanqu Writings Modeled on Zaban: From “The Country Pumpkin Knows Naught of the Theater” to “Gaozu Returns to His Hometown”, in Literature & Art Studies 文藝研究, 2025 (5): 5-37.

“Reflecting on the May-Fourth ‘Vernacularization Movement’: Discourse, Practice, and Historical Significance.” 國際漢學研究通訊 Newsletter for International China Studies, 2024 (28): 3-99.

“A Place Made Well Known by a Poem: Ji (跡）and Wen (文）in Landscape Poetry.” The Journal of Peking University, 2023 (5): 99-112.

“The Emergence of the Novel: From Outlaws of the Marsh to The Plum in the Golden Vase.” Approaches to Teaching The Plum in the Golden Vase (ed., Andrew Schonebaum). Modern Language Association of America, New York, 2022, pp. 310-327.

“Para-text and Narrative Time of Rulin Waishi.” Wenxue yichan 文學遺產 (Literary Heritage), 2021 (6): 4-16.

“On Rulin Waishi‘s Original Edition and Other Related Issues.” Gudian wenxue qianyan yu pinglun 古典文學前沿與評論 (Frontiers and Review of the Classical Chinese Literary Study), 2021 (2): 199-220.

A review article: “Toward a Theory of Traditional Chinese Theater and Performance Arts: A Review of A Remarkable Game: What is so Great about Peking Opera.” Wenyi yanjiu 文藝研究 (Literature and Art Studies), 2022 (4): 151-164.

“Fictional Performances: Royal Birthday Ceremonies and the Self-Imagination of the Empire in Yesou puyan”. Literary Heritage (Wenxue yichan), no. 3, 2017: 155-167.

“The Formation of a Poly-textual Novel:  From The Water Margin to The Plum in the Golden Vase”. The Journal of Fudan University, no. 5, 2016: 31-58.

“A Lively Illusion: Occidental Lens, Linear Perspective, and the Phantom of the Grand Prospect Garden” (I, II, III). Studies of Cao Xueqin (Cao Xueqin yanjiu), no. 1, 2, 3, 2016: 95-117 (I); 103-123 (II); 38-62 (III).

“Truth Becomes Fiction When Fiction is True: The Story of the Stone and the Visual Culture of the Manchu Court”.  A special issue of Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture: Literature and Visual Culture in Early Modern China, October 2015: 207-248.

“Writing and Speech: Rethinking the Issue of Vernaculars in Early Modern China”, Rethinking East Asian Languages, Vernaculars, and Literacies, 1000-1919 (edited by Benjamin Elman). Brill: Leiden/Boston, 2014: 254-301.