Professor Zhao Shengqun, from Yixingxian, Jiangsu province, was born in February 1957. He holds a Ph.D in Literature and currently holds the title of Distinguished Professor at Shandong University. Previously, Professor Zhao has served as Chair of the Department of Ancient Document Studies at Nanjing Normal University, Thesis Advisor for MA students and Dissertation Advisor to Ph.D students in the field of Ancient and Classical Chinese Documents Studies, as well as Director of the Research Center for Classical Document Studies of Nanjing Normal University. He was supervisor of a “name-brand program” for the province of Jiangsu, and received a government subsidy from the State Council. In addition to his academic positions at Shandong University, Professor Zhao also serves as a member of the Chinese Ancient Documents Studies Scholarship Adjudication Commission, President of the Chinese Association for  Historical Document Studies, Vice President of the Chinese Association for Shiji (A Record of History) Studies, Vice President of the International Association for Confucian Studies, a member of the Committee for the Editorial and Compilation Project on the Twenty-four Dynastic Histories and the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, a Consultant for the editorial work and publication of the Books on Confucian Classics Research series in Taiwan, and a member of the editorial board for the following academic journals: The Journal for Editorial Treatment and Collation of Ancient Books (Northeast Normal University), Studies in Classical Documents (Nanjing University), and Documents and Culture of the Pre-Qin Dynasty Period (Northwest Normal University). In the last few years, Professor Zhao has attended or participated in more than 20 international academic conferences, and has presented lectures and speeches at numerous institutions of higher education and research institutions at their invitation, such as Beijing University, Beijing Normal University, Zhejiang University, “Academia Sinica” (Taiwan), Taiwan University, Taiwan Political University, Tsinghua University (Taiwan), and Kaohsiung [Gaoxiong] Normal University.

Professor Zhao has focused primarily on research and study of ancient documents from the pre-Qin period and the period of the Qin, Western Han and Eastern Han dynastic eras. For many years he has paid special attention to the organization, collation, and study of the texts of the Zuo, Guliang, and Gongyang commentary traditions of the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals) and Shiji (A Record of History) while teaching in the curriculum of the School of Literature at Shandong University in the area of Ancient Documents Studies.