Liang Cai

Dr. Liang Cai has specialized in Chinese political, legal, and intellectual history. Focusing on Qin-Han dynasties (221 BCE–23 CE), the fountainhead of Chinese civilization, Dr. Cai’s publications cover Confucianism, bureaucracy, law, social networks, and archaeologically excavated manuscripts. Collaborating with computer scientists, Dr. Cai has been engaged in a digital humanities project that aims to create a structured biographical data and social network analysis of early Chinese empires.

 

Among Dr. Cai’s other areas of research and teaching expertise are classical Chinese thought, China in world history, early imperial China, legal history, digital humanities, and legacy of Chinese empires in contemporary China and global communities.

 

Dr. Cai’s first book Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire contests long-standing claims that Confucianism came to prominence with the promotion of Emperor Wu in the Han dynasty. It was a witchcraft scandal in 91–87 BCE, she argues, that created a political vacuum and permitted Confucians to rise to power and transform China into a Confucian regime. Her book won the 2014 Academic Award for Excellence presented by Chinese Historians in the United States and was a finalist of 2015 Best First Book in the History of Religions presented by the American Academy of Religion. 

 

Dr. Cai's second book, Convict Politics: From Utopia to Serfdom in Early China (221 BCE–23 CE), explores newly excavated manuscripts alongside traditional sources, contextualized through data on officials extracted from textual narratives. By uncovering the convict politics and economy in the early Chinese empires, she offers a novel framework for understanding Confucian discussions on law and legal practice. While a substantial number of convict laborers helped operate the local bureaucratic apparatus in early China, the central court reemployed numerous previously convicted men as high officials. Convict politics emerged, she argues, because while the system often criminalized people including the innocent, it was juxtaposed with redemption policies and frequent amnesties in pursuit of a crime-free utopia. This dual system paralyzed the justice system, provoking intense Confucian criticism and resulting in a deep-seated skepticism towards law in the Chinese tradition with a long-lasting political legacy. Her book offers a historical case study that encourages reflection on utopian thinking and highlights the dangers of applying perfectionist ideals in the real world.