John Kieschnick in China

The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies at Stanford’s department of religious studies, John Kieschnick, MA ’88, PhD ’96, focuses his teaching and research on Chinese Buddhism and on Chinese religion more generally. Among the undergraduate courses he teaches are “Exploring Chinese Religion,” “Chinese Buddhism,” and “The Religious Life of Things.” He has written three books on Chinese Buddhism, including The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture, which explores the role of Buddhism in the history of Chinese art, furniture, food, and architecture. He is currently writing a history of vegetarianism in China from ancient times to the present.

While earning his undergraduate and master’s degrees, he spent a year each at the Shaanxi Normal University in Xian and Peking University in Beijing and worked for ten years at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. During our program, Professor Kieschnick will cover a wide range of topics including the history of Buddhism in China, the Terracotta Warriors, and the history of vegetarian food in China.

Positions

• Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies at Stanford, since 2012 department chair and co-director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University, since 2016

• Professor, department of Chinese culture, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 2011–2012

• Reader, 2007–2011, and lecturer, 2005–2007, in Buddhist studies, department of theology and religious studies, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

• Associate research fellow, 2001–2005, and assistant research fellow, 1996–2001, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

• Postdoctoral fellow, Center for Chinese Studies, UC-Berkeley, 1995–1996

Publications

• Author: Buddhist Historiography in China (Columbia University Press, 2022), The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture, (Princeton University Press, 2003); The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography, (University of Hawai’i Press, 1997)

• Co-editor, India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion and Thought (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013)

Academic History

• BA, Asian languages, 1986, UC-Berkeley

• MA, 1988, and PhD, 1995, Asian languages, Stanford University