The Research Center of Chinese Classical Documentology used to be the Institute of Ancient Books Organization and Research of Shandong University, founded in 1983. In 2002 it was incorporated into the Institute of Literature, History and Philosophy. It has its own independent doctoral degree programs master degree programs（since 1987）and（since 1998） in classical Chinese documentology, and shares with the School of Literature and Journalism doctoral and master degree programs in Chinese classical literature. The present director is Professor Zheng Jiewen.
This research center is well known for outstanding achievements in four fields: (1) Collation and research on Confucian Classics and other historical documents of the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties. The Center recently published Liang Han Quan Shu (“The Complete Works of the Han Dynasties”); (2) Collation and research on ancient Chinese philosophy, with the Zi Hai (“Complete Works of the Thinkers's Catalogue”) project committee at the center of these efforts; (3) Research on catalogues and editions of ancient documents and the history of publication; (4) Compilation and research of regional documents of Shandong.
This research center now has 5 full-time professors (4 of whom are doctoral advisors), 3 full-time associate professors, 4 full-time lecturers, 2 full-time librarians, 9 part-time professors (with 4 cooperative doctoral advisors), 10 part-time associate professors (with 6 cooperative master advisors) and 4 part-time lecturers. Of these staff, 22 have doctoral degrees.
In establishing itself as a superior environment for scientific research and teaching, this research center has formed three offices with outstanding research characteristics, reasonable labor arrangement, and sustainable development potential. The three research offices are the Office of Literature, History, and Documents, along with Unearthed Documents, the Office of Confucian Classics and Chinese Academic History, and the Office of the Catalog and Editions of Documents, together with Regional Documents. The members of this center form a strong team of widely respected scholars with achievements in a wide range of fields. With many young and middle-aged scholars, the center is still very full of potential. With Profs. Zheng Jiewen, Xu Chuanwu, Du Zexun, And Wang Chenglue at the head, the center has taken on many significant national and provincial research projects. Ample funding for research guarantees robust academic development. Over the years this center has produced and abundance of high quality work which have had a great impact on the humanities research in and out of China. Every year there are more articles being published in CSSCI journals.
In recent years, the members of this research center have been in charge of 25 national or provincial research projects in total, with research fund adding up to over 10 million RMB. In particular the compilation and research project of Zi Hai is a key project supported by the National Social Science Foundation in 2010, with funding of 800,000 Yuan each year, being the national project with the largest fund in the field of humanities and social science of SDU. The center has published more than 50 academic books and more than 270 academic essays, more than 100 of which are in CSSCI journals;. It has won 18 national, ministerial or provincial awards for outstanding work in social science, with 2 first-place prizes, 2 second-place prizes and 2 third-place prizes from the Ministry of Education for outstanding work in social science, as well as 2 awards from Shanding Province for decisive breakthroughs in social science. One doctoral thesis was rated among the One Hundred Outstanding Thesis for Doctorial Degree of 2008 and another thesis won the nomination prize for National Outstanding Doctoral Thesis of 2009.
