Li Ling

Li Ling, born in 1948 with ancestral roots in Wuxiang, Shanxi, is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature and a Chair Professor in the Humanities at Peking University, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has long worked in archaeology, paleography and the study of ancient texts, with particular expertise in Chu bamboo and silk manuscripts and Sunzi's art of war. In his writing for general readers he interprets classics in a direct, opinionated style, as in The Homeless Dog: My Reading of the Analects and Victory Through Deception: My Reading of Sunzi. He also writes on archaeological sites and historical memory, including Astonishing Civilizations and Historical Memory and Archaeological Discovery, and has edited works on Chinese and Persian history, engaging with world history and Eastern philosophy.