Richard J. Sage is a research associate at the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Hong Kong Baptist University and honorary lecturer at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. A scholar of Chinese intellectual history, Dr. Sage primarily studies Daoist traditions and their interconnection with Buddhist and Confucian ideas and ideologies. His recent research examines the political instrumentalization classical Chinese literature, philosophy, and religion from antiquity to the early modern era. His latest publications in T’oung Pao and Asia Major explore state-sponsored Daoist propaganda during the late Northern Song period.
Prior to his current appointments in Hong Kong, Dr. Sage was a research fellow at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and visiting lecturer at the Institute of Sinology, University of Munich. He was the Winner of the 2020 Young Scholar Award of the European Association for Chinese Studies and Runner-Up at the 2016 Young Scholar Award of the European Association for Chinese Philosophy.

Publications

• Histories of Spiritual Traditions in China: A Selection of Jao Tsung-I’s Essays in Religious Studies, transl. and ed. Frank P. Saunders, Jr., vol. ed. Richard J. Sage, Leiden: Brill (2024).
• “Messianic Deity and Daoist Sage-Ruler: Song Huizong’s Commentaries on the Daoist Classics,” in Asia Major, 3rd series, 36.2 (2023), 115-46.
• “We don’t need no (Confucian) Education! A Northern Song Reading of the Liezi,” in T’oung Pao 109.5-6 (2023), 579-624.
• “‘Annihilation of the Heart:’ The Ideal of Non-Perception in the Liezi,” in Problemos, 2016 Supplement, 75-93.
• “Aesthetics,” in: A Cultural History of Chinese Literatures, Vol. 1: Antiquity, vol. ed. Lisa Indraccolo, series eds. Carlos Rojas & Jack W. Chen, London: Bloomsbury, co-author Chen Zhi (submitted, aimed for publication in 2025).
• “Wenzi in Translation” in: “The Wenzi,” in: Works of Philosophy and Their Reception, ed. Andrej Fech, Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter (submitted, aimed for publication in 2025).
• “Liezi During the Northern Song: The Heyday of a Neglected Daoist Classic,” in New Perspectives on Song Dynasty Philosophy, eds. Hon Tze-ki & Rickard Gustavsson (in preparation).
• “The Ten Essays on Zhuangzi and Liezi” in Global Reception of the Classic Zhuangzi, Vol. 2: Song to Ming, vol. eds. Mark Csikszentmihalyi, Tobias Benedikt Zürn & Richard J. Sage (in preparation).