Chinese Studies

Prof. Dr. Achim Mittag 閔道安

Professor of Chinese Language, Literature and Philosophy, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen
Academic Career

  • 2005- Professor of Chinese Language, Literature and Philosophy, University of Tübingen
  • 1994–2005 Research Fellow – Visiting Scholar – Visiting Professor (Bielefeld; Leiden; Marburg; New York; Essen)
  • 1986–1994 Lecturer, Institute of Far Eastern Studies, University of Munich
  • 1989 PhD Sinology, Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Munich
  • 1985 MA Sinology, University of Munich

Research Focus
Prof. Mittag specializes in Chinese historiography and historical thinking as well as Chinese intellectual history and "Classical Learning" (jingxue 經學). He has researched Song dynasty (940-1279) interpretations of the Book of Odes, the phenomenal posthumous rise of Wang Anshi (1021-1084) in the Confucian temple, as well as Chinese concepts of time and Chinese ways of mapping the world. He also researches manifold aspects of historical thinking and writing in pre-modern China, participating in many interdisciplinary projects on comparative historiography. He is currently working on a three-volume sourcebook for Chinese historiography and historical thinking from the ancient past to the present.

Major Publications
Prof. Mittag is co-author of a prize-winning book on historical thinking in Europe and China (with Thomas Göller, Geschichtsdenken in Europa und China, 2008). He co-edited three volumes on comparative historiography (with Jörn Rüsen and Michael Gottlob, Die Vielfalt der Kulturen: Erinnerung, Geschichte, Identität, 1998; with Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer and Jörn Rüsen, Historical Truth, Historical Criticism, and Ideology: Chinese Historiography and Historical Culture from a New Comparative Perspective, 2005; and with Fritz-Heiner Mutschler, Conceiving the "Empire": China and Rome Compared, 2008). Two other conference volumes in this field are forthcoming.

Other Activities
For several years, Prof. Mittag has spearheaded efforts to establish Tübingen’s pioneering Chinese language teacher training programme to promote the teaching of Chinese at German high schools. Since 2014, he has also served as co-editor of the Journal of Asian History.