Willard Peterson

Position
Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, East Asian Studies and History, Emeritus
Office
41 William St, Rm 111
Bio/Description

Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Professor of East Asian Studies and History, specializes in Chinese intellectual history of the Ming-Qing period and in early Chinese thought. He received an M.A. in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University (1964) and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University (1970), He is the author of several studies on the seventeenth century, including Bitter Gourd: Fang I-chih and the Impetus for Intellectual Change (Yale University Press, 1979), and on the early period, including "Making Connections: The Commentary on the Attached Verbalizations in the Book of Change", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 42 (1982). He authored chapters on "Confucian Learning in Late Ming" and "Learning from Heaven" in volume 8 of the Cambridge History of China (1998). He is the editor of Volume 9 Part 1, The Ch’ing Dynasty to 1800 (2002), and the editor of Part 2 (2016) as well as the author of chapters there on “Arguments over learning based on intuitive knowing in early Ch’ing,” “Advancement of learning in early Ch’ing: Three cases,” and “Dominating learning from above during the K’ang-hsi reign.”   He is also a contributor and co-editor of The Power of Culture: Studies in Chinese Cultural History (Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 1994) and of Ways with Words: Writing about Reading Texts from Early China (University of California Press, 2000).

Education

  • Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages, Harvard University 
  • M.A. in Chinese History, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University
  • B.A. in History (Honors), University of Rochester

 

Selected Publications

  • Bitter Gourd: Fang I-chih and the Impetus for Intellectual Change (Yale University Press, 1979)
  • "Confucian Learning in Late Ming" and "Learning from Heaven" in volume 8 of the Cambridge History of China (1998)
  • "Making Connections: The Commentary on the Attached Verbalizations in the Book of Change", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 42 (1982)
  • The Ch’ing Dynasty to 1800, volume 9, part two of The Cambridge History of China (Cambridge University Press, 2016), editor.
  • “Introduction: The Ch’ing dynasty, the Ch’ing empire, and the Great Ch’ing integrated domain,” in volume 9 part two, The Cambridge History of China (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 1-15.
  • “Arguments over learning based on intuitive knowing in early Ch’ing,” chapter 11 in volume 9 part two, The Cambridge History of China, 458-512.
  • “Advancement of learning in early Ch’ing: three cases,” chapter 12 in volume 9 part two, The Cambridge History of China, 513-570.
  • “Dominating learning from above during the K’ang-hsi period,” chapter 13 in volume 9 part two, The Cambridge History of China, 571-605.