BIO

Qiran Jin is a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Literature and History in the Dept. of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. His research interests lie in Chinese philology and lexicography, with a particular focus on the early history of lexicography, manuscript culture, medieval commentarial traditions, Qing evidential scholarship, and digital humanities. His broader interests include the history of early Chinese textual culture, classicism, Dark Learning, bronze studies, and linguistics. Jin is currently working on his dissertation, which explores lexicon production and information management in early China. He is also engaged in a second project, investigating the interaction between form and meaning in third-century philosophical discourse in the context of Dark Learning, and a third project on digital philology, aimed at manuscript reconstruction and text mining. He was named Graduate Fellow at the Princeton Center for Digital Humanities in 2025.

EDUCATION

M.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University.

B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University.

PUBLICATIONS                                                                                                          

Book:

• Duanzhu shuowen kaojiao qunshu leizuan 段注說文攷校羣書類纂. Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 2023.

Edited Book:

• Martin Kern 柯馬丁. Jing shi jie wen 經史皆文. Edited by Jin Qiran 金琪然. Beijing: Sanlian, forthcoming in 2026.

Articles:

• “The Shuowen jiezi between Character and Rhyme Books.” Asia Major. Accepted.
• “On the Rhymed Commentaries of Wang Bi 王弼 (226–249).” T’oung Pao 111 (2025): 259–91.
• “Duan shi Shuowen qianji suojian Duan Wang fenqi” 《段氏說文簽記》所見段王分歧. Zhongyang yanjiuyuan Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊 95 (2024): 653–750.
• “Nang tuo bian” 囊橐辨. Wenxian yuyanxue 文獻語言學 13 (2021): 189–93.
• “Hanfeizi de ‘Jielao’ ‘Yulao’ yin Laozi kao” 《韓非子》的《解老》《喻老》引《老子》考. Wenxian yuyanxue 文獻語言學 7 (2019): 173–98.
• “Wu Yun yin yun shuo kaobian” 伍員音運說考辨. Aomen yuyanxue kan 澳門語言學刊, 2018.1: 49–54.

Essays:

• “Yi yuyanxue xunlian wei zhongdian de yuwen jiaoyu” 以語言學爲重點的語文教育 [under the pseudonym Wang Yunpeng 王雲鵬]. Guangming ribao 光明日報, 03.21.2018.
• “Yi nengli xunlian he xingqu yindao wei zhixiang de yuwen jiaoyu” 以能力訓練和興趣引導爲指向的語言教育. Guangming ribao 光明日報, 03.21.2018.

CONFERENCES & TALKS

ASPA 2026 Annual Meeting, LA| Speaker                                      04/2026

            Presented “‘Discoursing on Swords’ and the Composition of the Zhuangzi.”

Asian Languages in the History of Lexicography, Montpellier | Speaker               03/2026 

 Presented “Reorganization of Philological Information: A Study on the Genre Transformation of the Shuowen jiezi in the Age of Print.”                             

AAS 2026 Annual Meeting, Vancouver | Panel Organizer                          03/2026

 Panel “Information Empire: Notation, Transmission, Translation, and Knowledge Production in Early China.”

Western Branch, ASPA 2025 Annual Meeting, Boulder | Speaker                    10/2025

Presented “The Visualization of the Story of the Duke of Zhou and King Cheng in the Eastern Han.”

The 25th Biennial Dictionary Society of North America Conference, Buffalo | Speaker   05/2025

Presented “Genre Transformation in Dictionary Compilation: A Study on the Dictionary Pairs in Pre-Modern China.”

AOS 2025 Annual Meeting, Boston | Speaker                                   04/2025

Presented “Primers and Everyday Writing Practices in Early Imperial China.”

Invited Talk, Central China Normal University| Speaker                           10/2024

            Presented “Reideologization.”

AOS 2024 Annual Meeting, Chicago | Speaker                                  03/2024

Presented “Building and Breaking Boundaries: Elementary Learning and the Management of Philological Knowledge in Early and Medieval Chinese Bibliographies.” 

Invited Talk, Jintan Library | Speaker                                          07/2023

                        Presented “On Duan Yucai’s Philological Contributions.”

Invited Talk, Sichuan University | Speaker                                      07/2023

Presented “Duan Yucai and Philology.”

Invited Talk, Peking University | Speaker                                       06/2023

                        Presented “The Conceptual History of Xiaoxue.”

Invited Talk, Peking University | Speaker                                      06/2023

                        Presented “Recent Developments in Shuowen Studies.”

AOS 2023 Annual Meeting, LA| Speaker                                       03/2023

Presented “Reorganization of Philological Information.”

WBAOS 2022 Meeting, Tucson | Speaker                                                  11/2022

Presented “Anti-imbrication: Ouyang Xiu’s Sense of the Past.”

The 2nd Workshop of Stylometry and Textual Studies | Speaker                                        09/2020

Presented “‘Shuojian’ and the Composition of the Zhuangzi.”

The 1st Conference of Syntactical Semantics and Classical Chinese | Speaker                        01/2019

Presented the draft of the Semantic Dictionary of Nouns in the Mencius.

International Conference of Research on Wang Niansun and Wang Yinzhi | Speaker             11/2018

Presented “Wang Niansun ‘Du Huainan neipian zazhi houxu ‘yin wu er zhi wu’ li kao” 王念孫《<讀淮南內篇雜志>後序》 “因誤而致誤” 例考.

The 1st Conference of Philology and Linguistics for Young Scholars | Speaker                     07/2018

Presented “Hanfeizi de ‘Jielao’ ‘Yulao’ yin Laozi kao” 《韓非子》的《解老》《喻老》引《老子》考.

The 1st and 2nd Shiji Research Conference | Organizer & Speaker                   12/2016; 11/2017

Presented “Wu Yun yin yun shuo kaobian” 伍員音運說考辨.

Presented “Shiji ‘Jiang xiang biao’ daoshu kao” 《史記·將相表》倒書考. 

3rd Undergraduate Forum of Classical Studies | Speaker                                                       05/2015

Presented “Lun Lunyu ‘Bu yi qi dao de zhi’ de ‘de zhi’” 論《論語》 “不以其道得之” 的 “得之.”

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Peer Review Service: T’oung Pao, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy

Graduate Student Committee, EAS, Princeton | Member                             2025-

Reading Group of Early Chinese Manuscripts, Princeton | Founding Chair            11/2025-

Xingzhihui Association, Columbia | Co-Chair                            08/2020-05/2021

“Micro-Journal of Linguistics” | Chief Editor             06/2018-07/2019

PKU Linguistics Club | Co-Founder & Chair             09/2016-09/2018

Dialect Investigation and Protection in Shangyou County | Team Leader                                07/2017

Reading Group of Shiji, PKU | Chair        09/2016-09/2017

Education Aid at Bozhi Primary School | Member             09-10/2016

“Wenshan Diaolong” Lecture Series on Literature | Organizer                                    09/2015-05/2016

FELLOWSHIP & AWARDS 

The Mabel Wu So S*71 and Ronald M. C. So, Ph.D. *71 Fellowship in Chinese Studies Fund 

                                                                    2024-2025

Princeton Center for Digital Humanities Graduate Fellowship                  2025 Spring

2024 American Oriental Society Graduate Student Award                          05/2024

First Prize Paper in the 1st Conference of Philology and Linguistics for Junior Scholars            07/2018

Excellent Graduate of Beijing Regular Higher Institutions                                                  07/2018

Excellent Graduate of Peking University   06/2018

Chun-Tsung Scholar                                   05/2018

Merit Student of Peking University  2015, 2016, 2017

LANGUAGES                                                                           

Languages: English (advanced), Mandarin (native), Japanese (elementary), German (elementary).