Academic Staff
Dr. LEBOVITZ David J.
Assistant Professor
Early Chinese literature, thought, and religion; Chinese philology and manuscript culture; early Chinese poetics; formation and interpretation of the Chinese classics; Chinese philosophy, rhetoric, exegesis, and material culture
- HJ605
- +852 3400 8931
- david.lebovitz@polyu.edu.hk
- Academia.edu
Research Overview
David Lebovitz is a philologist of early Chinese texts and traditions. He studies Chinese literature, intellectual history, and the formation of texts in manuscript culture, especially during the Warring States through Han periods (c. BCE 450–220 CE). In particular, Dr. Lebovitz’s primary monograph project uses newly unearthed manuscript materials from the Warring States to illuminate collections, conceptions, and genres of verse formed during this time period, especially in relation to the canonization of the Shijing, or Classic of Poetry.
Dr. Lebovitz’s work has been supported by Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, and Taiwan Ministry of Education funding. He has held fellowships and visiting research posts at Wuhan University, Tsinghua University, and Hong Kong Baptist University, where he was previously a postdoctoral research fellow.
Education and Academic Qualifications
- Ph.D., East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
- M.A., Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University
- B.A., Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests
Research Output
- Authority, Augury, Anthology, and The Poetry: A media history of early Chinese verse [research monograph, in progress]
- Verse Albums and Music Charts in the Tsinghua Manuscripts [translation and prolegomena, in progress]
- Treasured Oases: A selection of Jao Tsung-I’s Dunhuang studies, Collected Works of Jao Tsung-i: Xuantang Anthology, Brill (forthcoming, 2022)
- “Molecular Incoherence, Continuity, and the Perfection of the Laozi,” in Early China 44 (2021), 237–319.
- “Dunhuang,” in Wiley Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2021
- Jao Tsung-I, “Did Men of Tang Belt out ‘Tang ci’? An explanation of the poem ‘I only fear the spring breeze will chop me apart’ 「唐詞是宋人喊出來」的嗎？說「只怕春風斬斷我」[accepted] in Tang Studies 40 (2022).
- Yuasa Kunihiro 湯淺邦弘, “On Stanzaic Inversion in the Qin feng Ode “Si tie” (Iron-Black Horses) in the Anhui University Bamboo Manuscript of the Shijing (安大簡『詩経』秦風駟驖の章次転倒について),” in Bamboo and Silk 4, no. 1 (2021), 149–171.
- Li Jing 李静 and Lu Jialiang 魯家亮, “Summary of Research on Bamboo and Wood Slip Manuscripts from the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties for the Year 2015” (2015年秦漢魏金簡牘研究概述), in Bamboo and Silk 2, no. 2 (2019), 104–140.
- Li Tianhong 李天虹, “Interpreting the Warring States Graphs Zi and Chui in Light of the Yancang Chu Slips“ (由嚴倉楚簡看戰國文字資料 中「才」、「錘」兩字的釋讀), in Bamboo and Silk 1, no. 1 (2018), 32–52.
- Li Zhi 李贄, “After Sakyamuni Buddha,” 釋迦佛後, “The Hub of the Heart Sutra” 心經提綱 “Notes on ‘The Hub’” 心經提綱說 and “How the Three Teachings Lead Back to Confucianism” 三教歸儒說, in A Book to Burn & A Book to Keep (Hidden): Selected Writings, Li Zhi,（《焚書》、《藏書》選譯）edited by Haun Saussy, Rivi Handler-Spitz, and Pauline Lee. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016, pp. 114–9, 119–21, 278–82; 282–86.
- “History, Anthology, or Literature? Verse collections in the Tsinghua manuscripts” HKBU-BNU United International College, via Voov, 23 April, 2022
- “Was it Really So, Royal Uncles? Notions of Authenticity in the Reception, Redaction and Reconstruction of Some Avuncular Remonstrations” Understanding Authenticity in China’s Cultural Heritage seminar series, Oxford, via Zoom, 28 October 2020
- “Historicized Poetry, Poetized History, and/or Heretical Prophecy: Renditions of the Rui Liangfu Legend in Early China,” invited lecture, Bernard Karlgren Seminar series, University of Göteborg, 10 April
- “Poetry as Commentary in the Tsinghua Verse Albums? Some questions concerning the previously unknown verses of the Zhou Gong zhi qinwu 周公之琴舞” Society for the Study of Early China, via Zoom, 9 June 2022
- “Is Poetic Sequence a Substrate for Narrative History in the Anhui Shijing 詩經 (Classic of Poetry)? A first look at Huang niao 黃鳥 (Yellow Birds), in sequence” American Oriental Society, Western Branch Meeting, Boulder and Hong Kong via Zoom, 8 November 2021
- “Authentically Old Leftovers? Philology, robbery, and the Yi Zhou shu in historical perspective.” Society for the Study of Early China, via Zoom, 4 August, 2020
- “Auto-Commentary, Proto-Commentary, and the Historicizing Impulse in Shijing 詩經 Hermeneutics,” Society for the Study of Early China, Denver, 21 March, 2019
- “Prosodic Structure, Paratext, and Form in the Tsinghua *Rui Liangfu bi Manuscript,” Warp, Woof, Wen/Phoneme, Pattern, Pun, University of Zurich, 12-14 April 2018
- “Textual Variance in Laozi Homologs and Interpretive Variance in Traditional Laozi Commentaries,” at the Canonical Texts and Commentaries Workshop, Beijing, China, 23 June 2017
- Sarah Allan, Buried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Early Chinese Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts. Albany, SUNY Press, 2015, in Journal of Chinese Humanities 6, no. 1 (2020), 115–121
- Geoffrey Redmond, The I Ching (Book of Changes): A Critical Translation of the Ancient Text. New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017, in Journal of Chinese Religions 46, no. 2 (2018): 215–219
Treasured Oases: A selection of Jao Tsung-I’s Dunhuang studies, Collected Works of Jao Tsung-i: Xuantang Anthology, Brill (forthcoming, 2022)
