University of Florida Homepage

Cynthia Chennault

Emerita Associate Professor — Chinese
Ph.D., Stanford University

Areas of Research

Chinese poetry and social history during the Six Dynasties and early Tang (4th through 7th centuries); contexts of new themes and genres.


Edited volumes

Cynthia L. Chennault, Keith N. Knapp, Alan J. Berkowitz, and Albert E. Dien. Early Medieval Chinese Texts: A Bibliographic Guide. 546 pp. Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2015. Second printing, 2018.

Early Medieval China. Vols. 6–16 (2000–2010).


Selected chapters, articles, and essays

“The World of Poetry.” In The Six Dynasties, 220–587, Cambridge History of China, vol. 2, ed. Albert E. Dien and Keith N. Knapp (Cambridge University Press, 2019), 623–661.

“Lofty Gates or Solitary Impoverishment? Xie Family Members of the Southern Dynasties.” T’oung Pao 85 (1999.2): 249–327. Reissued in Chinese (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2018), trans. and ed. Fan Zhaofei, in Zhongguo zhonggu guizuzhi lunji (Western Scholarship on the Aristocracy of Early Medieval China), 56124.  Reissued in Chinese, trans. Jia Jiaoyang, in Journal of Tongren University (2016), vol. 3: 4–37.

“Representing the Uncommon:  Temple Visit Lyrics from the Liang to Sui Dynasties.” In Interpretation and Literature in Early Medieval China, ed. Alan K. Chan and Yuet-keung Lo (Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 2010), 189–222.

“Odes on Objects and Patronage during the Southern Qi.” In Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History, ed. Paul W. Kroll and David R. Knechtges, (Provo, Utah: Tang Studies Society, 2003), 331–98.

“Xie Lingyun and Xie Tiao.” In The Routledge Handbook of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair and Zhenzhun Zhang.  Forthcoming.

Review. Jack W. Chen. Anecdote, Network, Gossip, Performance: Essays on the Shishuo xinyu. Journal of Chinese Studies (2022), vol. 75: 293–300.