Liu Zhiwei

Liu Zhiwei was born in Shaoguan, Guangdong, in 1955. He is a professor in the Department of History at Sun Yat-sen University and vice president of the Chinese Social History Association. He graduated from the Department of History at Sun Yat-sen University in 1983 and has taught there since. His long-term research focuses on the social and economic history of the Ming and Qing dynasties and on historical anthropology; he has proposed the theory of the "tribute system" and served as chief editor of The Ye Mingchen Archives. His publications span several fields, including academic monographs such as Between State and Society, The Tribute System and the Market, and Looking for China in History, as well as Borrowing the Topic, a collection of essays on books and people. He has also worked on legal norms, clinical medical datasets, and electronic system simulation, reflecting a broad interdisciplinary interest. In cultural studies, he has contributed to edited volumes on the Wenxuan and Han-Tang culture. His work combines solid historical sources with clear expression and has influenced both specialist and general readers.