Xiang Chu, a Distinguished Professor in Sichuan University, is famous scholar in Dunhuangology, philology, linguistics, Buddhism and literary history.

He was born in 1940 in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Nankai University in 1962. At the same time, he wasadmitted as a postgraduate student ofAncientChineseLiteratureHistoryin Sichuan University. He mainly studiedLiterature of the Six Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynastiessupervised by famousProfessor Pang Shizhu. He was transferred to Sichuan University to do teaching from a middle school in 1980.

Professor XIANG iscurrently a member of the Social Sciences Committee of theNationalMinistry of Education and a member of the Leading Group for the Compilation and Publication of National Ancient Books, honorarydirector of the Institute of Chinese Secular Culture of Sichuan University(the Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of theNationalMinistry of Education) & dean of theacademyof Chinese Culture of Sichuan University.

He is also an academic leader and doctoral supervisor of three disciplines in classical Chinesedocuments(A StateKeyDiscipline of China), ancient Chinese literature and Chinese language& characters studies.

Professor XIANGisvery proficient in BuddhistCanon and ancient Chinese books, and has profound cultivation in Chinese traditional research. He isskillful in collecting, collating, investigating, combinating and mutualcomprehending ancient texts. He integrated linguistics, philology, literature and religious studies, forming his own unique academic feature.

His research achievements in Dunhuang Studies won honors for the motherland thathave convinced foreign scholars who claim that“Dunhuang Studies are in foreign countries”.

His works includea series of“Dunhuang LiteratureTextual Research”, “Wang Fanzhi’sPiom Collating and Annotating”, “Hanshan'sPiom Annotating”, “Annotating to Selected Texts ofDunhuangTransformation Texts(Bianwen)”, “Zhuma House Draft” etc., and he has published more than 100 academic papers.

Owing to that he won a lot of prizes including the first prize of the Young Linguist Award of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the first prize of the“Outstanding Achievements in Humanities and Social Sciences of the first, second and fifth occasion of the National Ministry of Education”, and“The Simian Academic Originality Award”(the first occasion). In 2017, he was honored with a honorary title of“Sichuan Social Science Distinguished Contribution Expert” by the People’s Government of Sichuan Province.