In 2012, the Advanced Institute for Confucian Studies was created by combining the previously existing Institute of Confucian Studies, the Center for Confucian Research, the Institute of Literature, History, and Philosophy, and the editorial board of the journal Literature, History, and Philosophy. All of these institutions touted many decades of achievement in the field of Chinese humanities, and have produced outstanding scholars who have left their marks on the field. Today, we are the largest research organ dedicated to Chinese classical studies in China.

The current heads of our department are Dean Xu Jialu, Executive Dean Wang Xuedian, Party Secretary Li Pingsheng, Vice Deans Yan Binggang, Wang Jiahua, Xu Qingwen, Wang Zhen, and Vice Party Secretary Li Pengcheng.

At the center of the Institute’s research and education programs are classical studies, with a focus on Confucianism. Our programs offer curricula for undergraduates, masters, doctoral, and post-doctoral students. They contain six sub-research departments, namely the Departments of Chinese Philosophy, Chinese History, Chinese Literature, Chinese Classics and Philology, Textual Studies, and Folk Studies.

Our Institute has accumulated numerous honors and government commissions to further the work of researching Chinese humanities. It has been selected as 儒家文明省部共建协同创新中心, and one of the centers of operation for the Nishan World Confucius(尼山世界*文明*中心？) Organization. The Institute’s Textual Studies major has been recognized at both the provincial and national level as an important center for training. The Folk Studies Department has been named a base of research for Shandong provincial non-material cultural studies, as well as a national base of research for traditional Chinese holidays and festivals under the National Department of Culture and Tourism.

Our Institute’s library houses an impressive collection of more than 100,000 volumes related to Chinese humanities and classical studies, including more than ten thousand ancient, string-bound books from China’s dynastic and Republican eras.

The Institute proudly employs an excellent team of international instructors, with accomplished professors from within China as well as Japan, Korea, America, and Hong Kong. To date, the institute has produced more than seven hundred master and doctoral graduates. We have created a special “Classical Studies” undergraduate program which over eight years has graduated more than two hundred students.

The Institute carries on a long tradition of outstanding research in the humanities and classics at Shandong University. Over the past half a century, the university and in particular the Institute’s predecessors have made outstanding achievements in the fields of Chinese literature, history, philosophy, and textual criticism. These achievements have been recognized by the entire academic community throughout China, as they have made important contributions in the theory and practice of these fields. Other specific sub-fields where we have made significant academic progress are historiography, textual scholarship, Pre-Qin and Han Dynasty literature, modern linguistics, and studies on Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu.

Because of the status and resources of the Institute, we have been selected as the permanent organizer for the biannual meetings of such international organizations as the Nishan World Civilization Forum and World Confucianism Congress. As the largest research organ dedicated to Chinese classical studies in China, we are committed to the best possible education for our students, and to the continued exchange and appreciation of traditional Chinese learning.