Current Research Interests
Personal Letter Writing in Early Medieval China
I have been working on epistolary literature and culture in early medieval China for some years. Apart from my main project, the monograph Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China that is going to be published by University of Washington Press, I have written articles on various aspects of the topic:
"Beyond Calligraphy: Reading Wang Xizhi's Letters." T'oung Pao 96 (2011): 370–407.
"Notions of Epistolarity in Liu Xie's Wenxin diaolong." Journal of the American Oriental Society 127.2 (2007): 143–60.
"Letters and Letter Writing in Early Medieval China." Early Medieval China 12 (2006): 1–29.
"Familiäre Mahnbriefe: Die Herausbildung eines epistolaren Subgenres in der Han-Zeit [Letters of Familial Admonition: The Emergence of an Epistolary Subgenre in the Han Dynasty]." In: Han-Zeit: Festschrift für Hans Stumpfeldt aus Anlaß seines 65. Geburtstages. (Lun Wen: Studien zur Geistesgeschichte und Literatur in China 8). Ed. Michael Friedrich et al. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006. S. 379–95.
"Briefe und ihre Leser in der Dichtung der frühen Kaiserzeit [Letters and Their Readers in Early Imperial Poetry]." In: Aspekte des Lesens in China in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart: Referate der Jahrestagung 2001 der Deutschen Vereinigung für Chinastudien (DVCS) . Ed. Bernhard Führer. (Edition Cathay 54). Dortmund: Projekt, 2005. 122–144.
"Briefe [Letters]." In: Lexikon der chinesischen Literatur. Ed. Volker Klöpsch; Eva Müller. München: Beck, 2004. 44–45.
A related ongoing project is an online Table of Non-Official Letters from Early Medieval China that collects scholarship on and translations of individual early medieval letters.
I am also working on a Handbook of Chinese Letter Writing, to be published with Brill in Leiden as part of the series Handbook of Oriental Studies. The volume will collect about two dozen research articles dedicated to various aspects of Chinese epistolary culture. I am preparing a workshop, to be held in Boulder in August 2012, to gather the prospective contributors to this project.
Medical Narratives in the Letters of Wang Xizhi
Since letter writers often communicated medical conditions, treatments, and suffering (either their own or that of their correspondents), my research in personal letter writing has led to a new project, the exploration of medical narratives in early medieval China, especially in the letters by Wang Xizhi. Wang's letters constitute the earliest corpus of individual health reports in Chinese literature and are thus a highly significant source of Chinese medical history that hitherto has not been adequately appreciated. My approach is inspired by an originally Western discipline – the medical humanities that have been emerging over the last decades, producing a great number of studies on a broad range of subjects. I am convinced that the complex interface between literature and medical knowledge is a promising field in Chinese Studies as well and is thus most deserving of our scholarly attention. To pursue this project I was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge (UK) for the 2011 fall semester. I am collaborating on this project with Charles Chace, a medical practitioner, who has published extensively on Chinese medicine.
(in preparation, together with Charles Chace) "Writing about Maladies and Moods: The Medical Narratives in Wang Xizhi's Letters."
Chinese Literary Thought
Chinese literary thought is another focus of my research, especially the most influential text within this field, Liu Xie's (ca. 470 – ca. 530) magnum opus Wenxin diaolong. Forthcoming publications:
(accepted) "Liu Xie's Wenxin diaolong." In: Six Dynasties Handbook. Ed. Albert Dien et al.
"Empty Dreams and Other Omissions: Liu Xie's Wenxin diaolong Preface." Asia Major 25.1 (2012): 83–110.
Xie Lingyun
An early medieval writer I keep returning to is the poet and Buddhist lay scholar Xie Lingyun (385–433). I have written an extensive biographical essay about him and plan to continue this line of research, especially on the subject of Xie Lingyun's landscape poetry.
"Xie Lingyun." In: Classical Chinese Writers of the Pre-Tang Period. (Dictionary of Literary Biography). Ed. Curtis Dean Smith. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 232–246.
(in preparation) "The Body in the Landscape: Remarks on Xie Lingyun's Poetry."
Wang Chong
I have also studied the philosopher Wang Chong (27 – ca. 100 CE), whose ideas figured prominently in my dissertation. I have published a biographical essay about him and am working on an article dedicated to the discursive strategies in his Lunheng. Publication:
"Wang Chong." In: Classical Chinese Writers of the Pre-Tang Period. (Dictionary of Literary Biography). Ed. Curtis Dean Smith. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 199–205.
Literary Representations of Poverty and Mendicancy
Notions of poverty, poverty alleviation, and mendicancy in early and medieval Chinese literature and pictorial art are also among my research interests.
"Die Wahrnehmung von Armut im Alten China [The Perception of Poverty in Early China]." In: China und die Wahrnehmung der Welt. Ed. Antje Richter; Helmolt Vittinghoff. (Jahrbuch der Deutschen Vereinigung für Chinastudien 2). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007. 1–19.
(in preparation) "Mendicancy in Medieval China: Narratives and Topoi
Selected Earlier Research Projects 
Notions of Sleep in Early Chinese Literature
My dissertation was dedicated to the exploration of notions of sleep in early Chinese literature. While I was expressly excluding the topic of dreams for this study, I have since then also been interested in literary representations of dreams and dreaming, especially in medieval literature.
Das Bild des Schlafes in der altchinesischen Literatur. (Hamburger Sinologische Schriften 4). Hamburg: Hamburger Sinologische Gesellschaft, 2001.
"Der Schlaf in der medizinischen Literatur des Alten China [Sleep in Early Chinese Medical Literature]." Chinesische Medizin 17.4 (2002): 24–44.
"Sleeping Time in Early Chinese Literature." In: Night-Time and Sleep in Asia and the West: Exploring the Dark Side of Life. Ed. Brigitte Steger; Lodewijk Brunt. Richmond: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. 24–44.
(in preparation) "Ghosts and Dreamers in Medieval Accounts of the Strange"
Chinese Popular Prints
Chinese popular prints are a genre of pictorial art that not only lies at the crossroads of Chinese religion and art history but also provides a unique intersection between elite and popular cultures. I have been fascinated by popular prints for many years, not the least because these apparently humble images may communicate immensely complex cultural ideas.
"Mit Schätzen beladen heimkehren: Der Schubkarren als glückverheißendes Motiv in volkstümlichen chinesischen Drucken [Coming Home with Riches: The Wheelbarrow as an Auspicious Motif in Popular Chinese Prints]." Monumenta Serica 52 (2004): 277–324.