My area of research is the socio-cultural history of Buddhism in China. Instead of focusing on major Buddhist monastics or profound Buddhist philosophy, I am interested in how Buddhism was lived and practiced on the ground, especially by the laity. My first book, which examines a substantial body of narratives extolling the Diamond Sutra in the Tang dynasty (618–907), pays attention to the role of the laity in shaping Diamond Sutra devotionalism. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book engages scholarship in history, religion, textual studies, manuscriptology, and literature to understand the religious practices of the laity as it investigates the interaction between storytelling, textual production, ritual, and material culture. Contrary to the common representation of laypeople as passive believers, the book shed light on a Tang laity empowered enough to shape the religion by compelling the monastic establishment to accommodate the changes they initiated.
