Tenured Associate Professor of Chinese Philosophy

Department of Philosophy,

School of Humanities,

Tsinghua University

Oi19870727@gmail.com/ yuanai@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Personal Website: https://www.phil.tsinghua.edu.cn/philen/info/1016/1074.htm

My research interests lie in topic-centred comparative philosophy, particularly in areas such as nonverbal communication, silence and silencing, humour and laughter. I am also deeply engaged with themes related to human vulnerability and resilience, exploring complex realities through concepts such as luck and responsibility, acceptance and courage, moral expertise, and the relationship between anger and social injustice in early China.

2025-now Tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy, Tsinghua University

2022-2025 Associate Professor of Philosophy, Tsinghua University

2020-now Junior Fellow of the Tsinghua-Amsterdam University Joint Logic Centre (http://tsinghualogic.net/JRC/?page_id=2395)

2019-2022 Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Tsinghua University

2014-2018 D.Phil, Oriental Studies, University of Oxford (Supervisor: Prof. Dirk Meyer)

2012-2013 M.A. Sinology, SOAS, University of London (Supervisor: Prof. Andrew Lo)

2010-2012 M.Phil, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Philosophy (Supervisor: Prof. Xiaogan Liu, Co-supervisor: Prof. Kwong Loi Shun)

2006-2010 B.A. Renmin University, Philosophy (Dissertation Supervisor: Prof. Tao Liang)

I am looking forward to working with graduate students on comparative philosophy and Chinese philosophy. At the PhD level, I supervise Haoran Sun, working on the philosophy of family. At the MA level, I supervise projects on a broad range of topics related to Chinese philosophy, from the Warring States Period to the present-day philosophical discussions. Michael Schapers graduated in 2023, working on literary forms and argument in the Xunzi. Zihou Han, Feifan Yin, and Yun Li, are currently working on topics of freedom, final virtues and moral exemplars; I also supervise multiple undergraduate theses with native speakers of Chinese and English. They work on topics including disability in early Chinese philosophy, toleration in the Laozi, and pluralism in comparison.

I have six years of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate courses. I developed the first English course on “Philosophy of the Zhuangzi”. My theoretical course on “Cross-Cultural Studies of Body and Language” was evaluated in the top 5% of the university level.

1. Member of the Editorial Board: 《哲学评鉴》https://easychair.org/cfp/cpr2022

2. Member of the Editorial Board: Book series on Chinese Buddhism and Asian Civilisation. https://link.springer.com/series/60063

3. 2022- English editor and Chinese copy editor of International Studies on Confucianism 国际儒学 (CSSCI 扩展版) (https://gjrxthu.cbpt.cnki.net/WKB/WebPublication/index.aspx?mid=GJXR)

4. Guest Editor with Prof. Chen Bisheng, Special Issue: Changes in Mainland Chinese Confucian Studies, Asian Studies 2024, Chief Editor Prof. Jana Rosker, (https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/)

1. Edited Volume: Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Daodejing. Ai Yuan and Xiaogan Liu, eds., Springer, 2025.11

2. Monograph: Nonverbal Communication in Early China. (work in progress).

3. The Paradox of Silence and Silencing, An Early Chinese Discussion. (work in progress)

1. “Introduction: Daodejing as World Philosophy”, Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Daodejing, Ai Yuan and Xiaogan Liu, eds. Springer, forthcoming 2025.11.

2. Ai Yuan, “Silence in the Daodejing”, Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Daodejing, co-edited with Liu Xiaogan. Springer, forthcoming 2025.7 (Peer-reviewed, contract signed).

3. Fenrong Liu, Jeremy Seligman and Ai Yuan, “Introduction to Pre-Qin Logic”, Pre-Qin Logic: Beyond Mohism, co-edited with Fenrong Liu and Jeremy Seligman, forthcoming 2026.

4. Ai Yuan and Bisheng Chen eds., “Introduction: Towards a Communicative Encounter ‒ Traditional Chinese Philosophy in Contemporary Discourses.” Asian Studies 2024, 12(1), 7–17.

5. “Toleration and Justice in the Laozi: Engaging with Tao Jiang's Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China”, Philosophy East and West 2023, 73 (2):466-475.

6. “Rhetorical Questions in the Daodejing: Argument Construction, Dialogical Insertion, and Sentimental Expression”, in Global Laozegetics: Engaging the Multiplicity of Laozi Interpretations and Translations, a special issue in Religions, guested edited by Mish Tadd, 2022, 13, 252.

7. 《道德經反問句初探》，王中江 编，《老子學集刊》，北京：中华书局，2023，270-298. (translated article)

8. “The Performance of Silence in Early China: The Yanzi chunqiu and Beyond”, Early China 44, 2021:321-250.

9. 《跨文化视野下"沉默"在早期中国的开展与践行——从《晏子春秋》谈起》，《船山學刊》, 2022(5):18.3.(translated article)

10. 《全球視野」：朱子經典詮釋及虛詞增刪－《經學與實理：朱子四書學研究》讀後》, 《鹅湖月刊》2022, (562): 56-60.

11. “Laughter in Early China, The Zhuangzi and Beyond”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 84(2), 2021: 321-340.

12. 《早期中国笑的修辞与实践-庄子文本为中心》，《国际汉学译从》，2024.7.187-208. (translated article)

13. “Timeliness in the Huainanzi”, in Dao and Time – Classical Philosophy, edited by Livia Kohn, Saint Petersburg: Three Pines Press, 2021: 177-193.

14. “Courage and Well-Being in the Zhuangzi”, in Cross-cultural Studies in Well-Being, a special journal issue in Science, Religion & Culture, guest edited by Owen Flanagan and Wenqing Zhao, 2019, 6(1): 85-95.

15. “If Moral Experts, What Do They Tell Others? Answers for Dilemmas from Early Chinese Expertise Zhuangzi and Confucius”, in Moral Expertise: New Essays from Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives, edited by Jamie Carlin Watson and Laura Guidry-Grimes, 2018: 143-156.

16. 《面对未知与无奈的勇气，庄子论幸福生活》，《现代儒学---现代视野下的庄子哲学》，复旦大学上海儒学院编，商务印书馆，2024年第十五辑，44-59. （translated article）

17. “On Acceptance”, 《东吴哲学学报》，2016年, 第33 期, 页97-121.

1. 2021- Beijing Social Science Fund Project, Project Name: Silence: Cross-Cultural Perspectives of Early Chinese Logic and Rhetoric. 

2. 2022- National Social Science Fund Junior Project, Project Name: Cross-Cultural Studies of Luck in the Zhuangzi.

3. 2020-2023 Tsinghua Creative Research Project, Project Name: Speech Act Theory and Silence in Early China. 

4. 2023- Tsinghua Creative Research Project, Project Name: Cross-Cultural Studies of Nonverbal Communication in Early China.

5. 2023- Tsinghua University Creative Teaching Fund, Chinese philosophy- Writing and Communication.

1. 2018. laughter in early China”, first place of the Charles Fu Young Scholar Award of the ISCP (International Society for Chinese Philosophy)

2. 2018. “Laughter in the Zhuangzi” first place of the SACP Young Scholar Award (Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy).

3. 2017. “Filial piety in the Zhuangzi”, second place of the EACP Young Scholar Award (European Association of Chinese Philosophy).

I am currently working on nonverbal communication in early China. In addition, together with Prof. Paul D’Ambrosio, Prof. Ouyang Xiao, and Prof. Daniel Sarafinas, we will edit a book on Laozi, focusing on Chinese scholarship.

1. 2025.5, talk of “Nonverbal Communication in Early China,” for 中山大学comparative philosophy series organised by Prof. Jun-Heyok Kwak.

2. Invited Talk 2023.3 Warwick University Chinese Philosophy Series: “Silence in the Analects, Zhuangzi, and Yanzi Chunqiu”

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/research/worldphilosophies/activities/chinese_philosophy_seminar_series/

3. 2022.8 “Receptions of Confucius’ Silence”, in the EACS panel “Exploring the Sound of Silence: The unspoken, omitted, and hidden in Early and Medieval China” (online) organised by Lisa Indraccolo.

4. Invited Talk 2022.11. “Toleration in the Daodejing”, Beijing Normal University International Master Class

https://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202211/30/WS63871f77a3102ada8b224a34.html

5. 2022.1 “Rhetorical Questions in the Daodejing”, Co-organised with Jeremy Seligman, and Yinlin Guan, Conference on “Textual Analysis as the Basis for Understanding Chinese Logical Thought”, https://warpweftandway.com/on-line-conference-textual-analysis-as-the-basis-for-understanding-chinese-logical-thought/