Established in October 2018, Department of Classical Chinese Philology is the youngest teaching and research institution of the School of Chinese Language and Literature. Yet Classical Chinese Philology as an academic discipline has a history of nearly 40 years in BNU. In December 1981, BNU established the Department of Ancient Book Collation—one of the first of its kind in China, with Qi Gong and Guo Yuheng serving as deputy directors. In 1982, Professor Qi Gong established the discipline of Classical Chinese Philology in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature and the Department of Ancient Book Collation, set up a master’s degree program, and recruited the first class of postgraduate students into the Department of Chinese Language; the Department of Ancient Book Collation began to recruit postgraduate students in 1985. In 1984, Classical Chinese Philology was among the second batch of majors approved by the State Council to confer doctor’s degrees. The Department of Chinese Language and Literature began recruiting postgraduate students in 1986, and the Department of Ancient Book Collation began to recruit postgraduate students in 2006. The discipline of Classical Chinese Philology at Beijing Normal University is continuously developing with the collaboration of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature (known as the School of Chinese Language and Literature today) and the Department of Ancient Book Collation (later known as the Department of Ancient Books and Traditional Culture).

At present, there are seven teachers in the Department, including four professors, two associate professors, and one lecturer.

Following the national layout of the Research Committee on Ancient Book Collation of Chinese Higher Institutions, and the academic tradition and advantages of our university, the Department of Ancient Book Collation establishing in 1987 the collation and study on literary works of the Yuan Dynasty as its main research branch. Under the leadership of the second director Prof. Li Xiusheng, members of the Department launched large-scale projects such as the Bibliology of Literary Works of the Yuan Dynasty in China and the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty. The compilation of the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty started at the end of 1991 and a succession of volumes was intermittently published from 1997 until the completion of the project in 2004. This set of works consists of sixty volumes containing more than 30,000 articles by more than 3,000 writers, with a total of more than 28 million words. Guangming Daily acclaimed the compilation and publication of the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty as a huge cultural project, which “has important practical and profound historical significance for promoting the traditional culture of the Chinese nation and building socialist spiritual civilization” . In 2006, the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty won the first prize of the 4th Awards of Outstanding Research Achievements of Chinese Higher Institutions in Humanities and Social Sciences. As a result, the discipline of Classical Chinese Philology in BNU further strengthened its leading position in the collation and study on literatures of the Yuan Dynasty.In 2007, it was appraised as a secondary state-level key discipline by the Ministry of Education.

Li Xiusheng, Editor-in-Chief of the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty, is a well-known scholar in the study of Yuanqu. He participated in the compilation of the textbook the History of Chinese Literature edited by You Guoen and others in the 1960s. At the turn of the 21st century, Li published a number of academic monographs, and the Summary of Ancient Editions of Traditional Chinese Operas and the Study of Chinese Literature in the 20th Century: Literature in the Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties won first prizes respectively in the 5^th and 7^th Award for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Science of Beijing, and his monograph the History of Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty is also a key research achievement in this field.

The Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty promoted the establishment of the Research Center on the Culture of the Yuan Dynasty at the Department of Ancient Book Collation, as well as the development of the Classical Chinese Philology discipline. At the end of 2008, the Department of Ancient Book Collation was renamed as the Department of Ancient Books and Traditional Culture. Under the joint efforts of Professor Han Geping, director of the Department, and other scholars engaged in Classical Chinese Philology, a database for the Collection of Ancient Books of the Yuan Dynasty was constructed, and a succession of collation works was published, including the Journal of  Anthologies of the Yuan Dynasty (edited by Li Jun), Annotations to the Collection of Fu of the Yuan Dynasty (edited by Han Geping), and the Collection of Ancient Books of the Yuan Dynasty ( Han Geping as editor-in-chief) . This series includes “Confucian Classics Study: Studies of The Classic of Poetry” (edited by Li Shan), “Confucian Classics Study: Studies of the Spring and Autumn Annals” (edited by Han Geping), “Philosophical Writings: Art Writings” (edited by Wei Chongwu), “Miscellaneous Works: Individual Anthologies” (edited by Li Jun), the Anthology of Liu Guan (edited by Wei Chongwu and Zhong Yanfei) and other volumes. These  won the first and second prizes of the National Excellent Ancient Book Award many times. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Complete Works Writers in the Yuan Dynasty by Associate Professor Wang Yuan has been well received by academics. In addition, the Research Center on the Culture of the Yuan Dynasty-founded journal Study on Literatures and Culture of the Yuan Dynasty (edited by Wei Chongwu) has been a positive influence on the field of the study on literature and history of the Yuan Dynasty.

At present, the discipline of Classical Chinese Philology is undertaking a major project of the National Social Science Fund of China “The Catalogue of Existing Works of Writers in the Yuan Dynasty (Chinese Language)” (edited by Han Geping), a key project of the National Social Science Fund of China “The Textual Study of the Writings of Writers in the Yuan Dynasty” (edited by Li Jun), a general project of the National Social Science Fund of China “Research on the Transformation of Northern Confucianism during the Jin and Yuan Dynasties” (Wei Chongwu), a project under the Elite Program of Higher Institutions of Beijing “New Treatise on Literature of the History of Yuan Dynasty” (Wang Yuan), a major project of the Research Committee on Ancient Book Collation of Chinese Higher Institutions “The Supplement to the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty” (hosted by Li Xiusheng, Li Jun and Wei Chongwu), a key project of the Research Committee on Ancient Book Collation of Chinese Higher Institutions “The Chronicle Annotations to the Poetry Anthology of Fanghui” (Wei Chongwu), and some other projects, all of which fully demonstrate the strength of the discipline of Classical Chinese Philology in the collation of and study on the literatures of the Yuan Dynasty.

In August 2014, the Society of Literature of the Yuan Dynasty was established. Professor Li Xiusheng was elected as Chairman, Professor Han Geping was elected Executive Chairman, Professor Wei Chongwu was elected Secretary-General and Executive Director, and Professor Li Jun was elected Executive Director, which further showcased the leading role of BNU’s discipline of Classical Chinese Philology in the study on literary works of the Yuan Dynasty. At present, the Society has successfully held five annual meetings, and effectively promoted the vigorous development of the study on literary works and literatures of the Yuan Dynasty.

In addition, teachers of this discipline have also made great achievements in other research areas. For example, the Complete Library of the Wei and Jin Dynasties edited by Professor Han Geping are listed in the “Ten Complete Works of Different Chinese Dynasties” launched by the Research Committee on Ancient Book Collation of Chinese Higher Institutions along with the Complete Works of the Yuan Dynasty. The Review of the Seven Scholars of Jian’an Period, Annotations to the Annotation to the Collection of Fu of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Annotations to the Complete Works of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove by Prof. Han Geping and Zhanghua Study by Associate Professor Wang Yuan are important achievements in the study of the literatures and writers of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Lecturer Fang Tao presided over a National Social Science Fund’s Post-funding project “Collected Commentaries on the Classics of the Spring and Autumn Period”, and its final results won the first prize of the 3rd Dong Zhi’an Award for the Study on Pre-Qin Literary Works and Literatures. He is currently hosting a key project of the Research Committee on Ancient Book Collation of Chinese Higher Institutions “Editorial Notes of the Anthology of Du Yu”.

Chinese ancient books are the main carrier of Chinese traditional culture that lasts five thousand years. The collation and study,  and the cultivation of professional talent in this research field are the two main tasks of the Department of Classical Chinese Philology.