Cheng Shaoxuan, born in January 1984 in Huai’an, Jiangsu, is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Liberal Arts of Nanjing University. He is in charge of the Enhanced Foundation Class of Ancient Chinese Characters and serves as the director of the Center for the Study of Excavated Documents.

He was admitted to the Humanities Honors Program of the Teaching Enhancement Department (now Kuang Yaming Honors School) at Nanjing University in May 2002. In 2004, he chose the study of ancient Chinese characters in the archaeology major of the School of History, under the guidance of Associate Professors Zhou Yan and Wei Yihui. He graduated in June 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in history. In September 2006, he was recommended to be admitted to the Center for Excavated Documents and Ancient Chinese Characters Studies at Fudan University, and studied for a master’s degree under the guidance of Professor Chen Jian. In March 2009, he began pursuing a doctoral degree under the supervision of Professor Qiu Xigui, and his doctoral dissertation, A Study on a Lost Ancient Book about Shizhan in Fangmatan Bamboo Slips, was successfully defended in November 2011. He was awarded a Doctor of Literature degree in January 2012.

He started working at the Center for Excavated Documents and Ancient Writing Studies of Fudan University in May 2012 and has since served as an assistant researcher and associate researcher. In October 2019, he joined the School of Liberal Arts at Nanjing University as a professor. He became a master’s supervisor in 2018 and a doctoral supervisor in 2019.

He specializes in paleography and has been mainly devoted to the collation and research of unearthed numerical texts from the Qin and Han dynasties in recent years. He also engages in research on the combination of paleography and Old Chinese phonology and the development of ancient Chinese character databases. He has published over 50 academic papers in journals such as Collected Works of Institute of History and Philology and Literature and History, authored 1 monograph, co-authored 1 work on the collation of unearthed documents, participated in the compilation of 1 toolbook for unearthed documents, edited 1 collection of papers, and developed multiple databases on ancient Chinese characters. He has hosted and completed 2 provincial and ministerial-level projects, 1 national-level project, and undertaken and completed 2 sub-projects of national major projects. Currently, he is in charge of 1 national major project and undertakes 1 national social science project specialized in obscure and rare subjects.

He has received numerous academic awards at various levels and was awarded the first prize of the second “Li Xueqin and Qiu Xigui Youth Award for the Study of Excavated Documents and Ancient Chinese Civilization”. In 2014, he was selected for the Shanghai Morninglight Program, and in 2019, he was selected for the National Young Talents Program.