Lewis, Mark Edward 1954-

PERSONAL:

Born 1954. Education: Received B.A. and Ph.D. from University of Chicago.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 200, Stanford, CA 94305-2024. E-mail—mel1000@stanford.edu.

CAREER:

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, Kwoh-Ting Li Professor of Chinese Culture, 2002—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Prix Budget, Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of the Institut de France, 2002, for Writing and Authority in Early China.

WRITINGS:

Sanctioned Violence in Early China, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1990.

Writing and Authority in Early China, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1999.

The Construction of Space in Early China, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2006.

The Flood Myths of Early China, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2006.

The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert Buswell, University of Hawaii Press, 1990; The Cambridge History of Ancient China, edited by Michael Loewe and Edward Shaughnessy, Cambridge University Press, 1999; and The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations, edited by Torkel Brekke, Routledge, 2006. Author of articles for academic journals, including Philosophy East and West and Sino-Platonic Papers.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mark Edward Lewis is the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor of Chinese Culture at Stanford University. He has written several books that explore aspects of Chinese history, particularly those that relate to war and development of a cohesive culture. His writing has been well received by general readers as well as scholars, who recognize Lewis as one of the foremost leaders in his field. In a review of Writing and Authority in Early China, Martin Svensson of Philosophy East and West summarized Lewis's strengths much as other reviewers have in stating that "Lewis has a clear and concise style, a keen sense for spotting significant connections between seemingly disparate phenomena, and a most impressive grasp of primary and secondary sources."

Lewis's first book, Sanctioned Violence in Early China, considers the period 722 BCE to 220 CE and views violence in a context broader than just military history or warfare. Ritual sacrifice, blood oaths, revenge, imperial hunts, and religious ceremonies are some of the other activities in which violence was a factor in the emerging civilization. Aside from that, skirmishes between related nobles—a type of small-scale war—were a popular way to preserve one's honor. Out of this violence rose the Warring States, the period of Chinese history that preceded its great dynastic empire. Summarizing the book in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Derk Bodde wrote that "the great achievement of this book is its weaving together of several kinds of ideas and behavior, not ordinarily thought of as being either ‘violent’ or interrelated, into an integrated fabric providing a plausible rationale for the dynamics of early China."

Lewis's second book, Writing and Authority in Early China, "is a monument of scholarship," according to Martin Kern in the China Review International. In it, Lewis gives a detailed overview of early Chinese texts and inscriptions (many in bronze and bone), mainly dating from the thirteenth century BCE through the second century BCE, some of which have previously not drawn the attention of Western scholars. Lewis's analysis reveals the philosophical approach to writing employed by the early Chinese, their reasons for writing, the artistry and ritualistic importance of writing, the authority and power inherent in writing, the physical materials used to create their documents, and how the knowledge incorporated into the writings was preserved and transmitted to others. Included are chapters dealing with mythology, history, political speeches, and the development of a literary canon. Kern noted that Lewis consults sources from a wide variety of languages in order to create "the first single-handed Western endeavor to encapsulate the knowledge of early Chinese textual history in one synthesizing account."

Lewis's third book, The Construction of Space in Early China, contemplates the formation of the uniquely Chinese concept of space, from the smallest unit—the body—to the larger divisions of the family, the city, and the region, all of which are believed to be units of a larger, cosmic whole that must fit together harmoniously. Reviewing The Construction of Space in Early China in the China Review International, Thomas Michael noted that the book's "dense" writing "allows Lewis to showcase his remarkable mastery of a huge number of early Chinese writings … [and] covers a breathtaking number of topics, and while it does not provide a detailed theoretical treatment of each and every one of them, it offers a solid starting point and challenge for future work in the field of early China studies."

Lewis's The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han is the first volume in a proposed six-volume series on imperial China, for which Lewis will also write the second volume. In this book Lewis presents the theory that the characteristics unique to Chinese culture were first developed during the time of the Qin and Han dynasties—roughly from 221 BCE to 220 CE—and have persisted consistently to the present day. Furthermore, these two dynasties were as influential to Asia in terms of art, culture, and politics as the Greek and Roman empires were to Western civilization. Reviewing the book in the Library Journal, Charles W. Hayford declared that "this opening volume … foretells that the series will become the new gold standard" of Chinese history.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, June, 1992, Ann Waltner, review of Sanctioned Violence in Early China, p. 907; February, 2000, Charles Holcombe, review of Writing and Authority in Early China, p. 189.

Booklist, April 15, 2007, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han, p. 19.

China Review International, fall, 2000, Martin Kern, review of Writing and Authority in Early China; spring, 2006, Thomas Michael, review of The Construction of Space in Early China.

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, June, 1992, Karen Turner, review of Sanctioned Violence in Early China, p. 391; June, 2001, Robert Ford Campany, review of Writing and Authority in Early China, p. 198.

Journal of Asian History, fall, 1991, Benjamin E. Wallacker, review of Sanctioned Violence in Early China.

Journal of Asian Studies, November, 1990, Chun-Shu Chang, review of Sanctioned Violence in Early China, p. 905.

Journal of Military History, April, 1991, Anthony B. Fairbank, review of Sanctioned Violence in Early China, p. 234.

Journal of the American Oriental Society, October 1, 1992, Derk Bodde, review of Sanctioned Violence in Early China, p. 679.

Library Journal, April 1, 2007, Charles W. Hayford, review of The Early Chinese Empires, p. 102.

London Review of Books, August 2, 2007, review of The Early Chinese Empires, p. 33.

Philosophy East and West, October, 2000, Martin Svensson, review of Writing and Authority in Early China, p. 614; January, 2001, Lothar von Falkenhausen, review of Writing and Authority in Early China, p. 127.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 1999, review of Writing and Authority in Early China, p. 149.