The 2026 Tang Prize in Sinology has been awarded to Professor Ge Zhaoguang, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities at Fudan University’s National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies and Department of History, “for his mastery of ancient Chinese thought. From his early work on Chan Buddhism, Daoism, and the history of philosophical thought, to his more recent series of studies on ‘What is China,’ he has consistently offered original insights and groundbreaking discoveries. His achievements have not only exerted a far-reaching influence within China but have also resonated throughout the global Chinese-speaking academic community, as well as in Japan, Korea, North America, and Europe.”
Born in 1950, Professor Ge came of age during the Cultural Revolution and was sent down to the Miao regions of Guizhou. He was admitted to Peking University at the age of 27, where he later completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies. This experience deeply shaped his attention to grassroots society and communities on the margins. He previously served as an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Yangzhou Teachers College and a Professor in the Department of History at Tsinghua University, and is currently a Professor of Arts and Humanities at Fudan University’s National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies and Department of History. Over the course of his academic career, he has received major awards and recognition both in China and abroad, and his extensive body of work has set an exceptional standard for contemporary Sinological research.
Professor Ge’s scholarship spans a wide range of fields, including the history of Chinese thought, religion, literature, and classical philology. He is especially renowned for his work in the history of thought, with An Intellectual History of China being the defining achievement of the first half of his academic career. In this work, Professor Ge argued that intellectual history should shift its focus from the “center” to the “margins,” from the “classics” to the “ordinary,” and from “elite thought” to the ideas and lived mental worlds of common people. By incorporating everyday knowledge, popular beliefs, and cultural practices into the framework of intellectual history, he broke through the conventional limits of the field and opened new possibilities for dialogue between intellectual history, cultural history, and social history.
In recent years, Professor Ge has devoted considerable effort to exploring historical discourses on “China.” He has successively published a trilogy of studies on “China,” including Here in ‘China’ I Dwell: Reconstructing Historical Discourses of China for Our Time , What is China? Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History , and Lishi Zhongguo De Nei Yu Wai: Youguan “Zhongguo” Yu “Zhoubian” Gainian De Zaichengqing [The Inside and Outside of Historical China: A Reclarification of the Concept of “China” and its “Borders”]. Drawing extensively on traditional textual and visual materials, he has also devoted considerable effort to the exploration, organization, and interpretation of Sinitic records of the diplomatic journey to China from Joseon, Vietnam, and other neighboring states. Methodologically, Professor Ge consistently emphasizes “viewing China from its periphery,” examining China’s complex relations with the surrounding regions through perspectives from beyond its borders. This approach clarifies the historical evolution and multiple meanings of the concept of “China,” shaping new directions in historical research over the past decade and more.
In religious studies, Professor Ge has conducted extensive and penetrating research on Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese popular religion. Representative works include Chanzong Yu Zhongguo Wenhua [Chan Buddhism and Chinese Culture], Daojiao Yu Zhongguo Wenhua [Daoism and Chinese Culture], Zhongguo Chan Sixiangshi: Cong Liu Shiji Dao Jiu Shiji [An Intellectual History of Chinese Chan: From the Sixth to the Ninth Century], and Qufushi Ji Qita: Liuchao Suitang Daojiao De Sixiangshi Yanjiu [A History of Subjugation and Other Things: An Intellectual History of Daoism During the Six Dynasties and Sui-Tang Period]. He has offered incisive analyses of the development of medieval Buddhism in China and explored the powerful appeal of Chan Buddhism among the scholar-official class. While traditional studies of intellectual history often overlooked the influence of popular belief, Professor Ge approached the subject from the standpoint of religion. He examined how the development of early Daoism was shaped and constrained by political norms and Buddhist influence, presenting the richness and diversity of Chinese thought from a perspective that differed from mainstream scholarship.
Trained in classical philology in the Department of Chinese at Peking University, Professor Ge has also dedicated to the studies in Chinese literature, art history, and visual history. Refusing to be confined by modern Western disciplinary divisions, he founded the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Fudan University, where he has worked to promote exchange across traditional fields such as literature, history, philosophy, religion, and art.
What makes Professor Ge especially remarkable is his ability to move fluently across ancient and modern, Chinese and non-Chinese traditions alike, while transcending the conventional boundaries separating literature, history, philosophy, religion, and art. Through his expansive vision, rigorous command of textual sources, and interdisciplinary methodology, he has reshaped the historical studies of Chinese thought and religions, deepening scholarly understanding—both within China and internationally—of China, Chinese thought, and Chinese culture. With his works having been widely translated into English, Japanese, Korean, German, and French, he has not only reconstructed international understanding of Chinese thought and culture, but has also opened new paths for younger generations of scholars to work across disciplinary boundaries.
About the Tang Prize
Since the advent of globalization, humanity has enjoyed unprecedented benefits from advances in civilization and science. Yet a multitude of challenges, such as climate change, the emergence of new infectious diseases, the widening wealth gap, and moral degradation, have surfaced along the way. Against this backdrop, Dr. Samuel Yin established the Tang Prize in December 2012. It consists of four award categories: Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and Rule of Law. Every two years, four independent and professional selection committees, comprising many internationally renowned experts, scholars, and Nobel laureates, choose Tang Prize laureates who have made substantive contributions and generated a far-reaching impact on the world, regardless of race, nationality, gender, or religion. A cash prize of NT$50 million (approximately US$1.6 million) is allocated to each category, with NT$10 million (approximately US$320,000) of it being a grant intended for research or educational outreach programs to encourage professionals in every field to examine mankind's most urgent needs in the 21st century, and become leading forces in the sustainable development of human society through their outstanding research outcomes and active civic engagement.
