Ting Zhang

Ting Zhang received her B.A. and M.A. from Peking University and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She is a cultural and legal historian of late imperial China, with a particular research interest in print culture, law, and the circulation of information in the Qing period. Her first book, Circulating the Code: Print Media and Legal Knowledge in Qing China explores the production and reception of legal knowledge, and the role of legal information in the formation of early modern Chinese legal culture. For this research, she draws upon 131 different editions of the Qing Code and many other legal imprints, using sources in libraries and on-line digital open source collections.

She is working on a new book-length project “News on the Street: Public Notices and Information Networks in Qing China”, focusing on public notices (gaoshi or jietie). It will explore the dynamism of information networks in Qing society, the contestation between the state and society over the power and authority of disseminating public information, the nature and authority of local regulations and local “law”, and the dissemination of government information and its impact on society.  

Ting Zhang has received fellowships or grants from the Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies, The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, the Doris G. Quinn Foundation, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the China Scholarship Council, and the Association for Asian Studies. Before joining the University of Maryland, she has taught courses at Peking University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Delaware, and UC San Diego. Her publications, in English and Chinese, include a book, four journal articles, six book chapters, and two translations.

Selected Publications:

• Circulating the Code: Print Media and Legal Knowledge in Qing China (University of Washington Press, 2020). The Chinese translation of the book, Falü yu shushang: Shangye chuban yu Qingdai falü zhishi de chuangbo, is published by Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, Beijing, China, 2022)
• “Buying and Selling Law Books in Qing Beijing,” East Asian Publishing and Society, Vol.7, Issue 2, 2017. 
• “The Code, Legal Secretaries, and Book Merchants: The Publication and Circulation of Legal Books in Qing Jiangnan” (Lüdian, muyou, yu shushang: lun Qingdai Jiangnan falü shuji de chuban yu liutong), Zhejiang daxue xuebao (Journal of Zhejiang University), Vol. 45, No. 1, 2015. 
• “Marketing Legal Information: Commercial Publications of the Great Qing Code, 1644-1911” in Madeleine Zelin and Li Chen eds., Chinese Law: Knowledge, Practice, and Transformation, 1530s to 1950s, Brill, 2015. 
• “Introduction to the New Qing History Studies in the United States” (Man tan Meiguo xin Qingshi yanjiu), in Manxue luncong (A collection of essays on Manchu studies), Vol. 1, Liaoning minzu chubanshe, 2011.
• “Penitence Silver and the Politics of Punishment in the Qianlong Reign (1736-1795),” Late Imperial China, Vol. 31, No. 2, December 2010. 
• “Penalties Beyond the Laws: Administrative Fines Imposed on Officials in the Qianlong Reign” (Fa wai zhi fa: Qianlong chao guanyuan fa yizuiyin), in Ming Qing luncong (A collection of essays on the Ming and Qing dynasties), Vol. 9, Zijincheng chubanshe, 2009.
• “Ethnic Groups in Manchu Lineages and the Distribution of the Manchu Eight Banners” (Manzhou benbuzu goucheng yu baqi zuoling fenbu), co-authored with Kai Xu, in Qingshi luncong (Essays on Qing history), Zhonghua Shuju, 2007.
• “Historical Research on the Qing Imperial Palace in the Digital Age: Focusing on the Western Studies on the Qing Imperial Palace” (Qingdai gongshi yanjiu yu e kaoju shidai: yi xifang Qingdai gongshi yanjiu wei zhongxin), co-authored with Kai Xu, in Qingdai gongshi yanjiu (A study on the Qing imperial palace), Zijincheng Press, 2007. 
• “Administrative Divisions and Provincial Boundaries in Republican Period Manchuria” (Qian lun Minguo shiqi dongbei jiusheng de huafen), Shehui kexue jikan (Journal of social science), December 2003.