Qing Xitai卿希泰

Period

Modern

Dates

1928 — 2017

Role

Daoist ScholarsProfessor at Sichuan University

Birthplace

Santai (present-day Santai, Sichuan)

Life

Qing Xitai, a native of Santai, Sichuan, was a professor at Sichuan University. In 1980 he founded the Institute for Religious Studies at Sichuan University (later the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture), the first institution for the study of religion at a Chinese university, and served for many years as its director; he is a leading figure in contemporary Chinese Daoist studies. The four-volume History of Chinese Daoism that he edited (1988–1995, revised edition 1996) is by far the largest and most systematic general history of Daoism in Chinese, and has been translated into Korean and other languages. He also edited the four-volume Chinese Daoism, the four-volume History of Chinese Daoist Thought (2009), and Daoism and Chinese Traditional Culture, founded the journal Religious Studies, and trained a large number of doctoral researchers in Daoist studies. Sichuan University thereby became a major center of Daoist studies on the mainland.

Contributions & Influence

• Edited the four-volume History of Chinese Daoism, the most systematic general history of Daoism in Chinese
• Founded the Institute for Religious Studies at Sichuan University, establishing it as a major center of Daoist studies
• Edited History of Chinese Daoist Thought and trained a large number of researchers

Works

• History of Chinese Daoism (four volumes, editor-in-chief)
• History of Chinese Daoist Thought (four volumes, editor-in-chief)
• Chinese Daoism (four volumes, editor-in-chief)
• New Explorations in Daoist Culture