Kedao Tong

Kedao Tong is a PhD candidate in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies. His research focuses on the socio-cultural history of Chinese Buddhism and topics related to animals in the Chinese and the broader East Asian contexts. He is currently writing a dissertation on the history of the practice of animal release in Chinese religions from the fifth to the early twentieth centuries. 

Kedao received an MA in Chinese from Stanford University, where he wrote a thesis that explores the writing of women’s epitaphs from China’s Northern Dynasties (439-581 AD). Prior to coming to Stanford, he received an Honors BA in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto. He has also taken up coursework and language training in Hong Kong and Japan, and has a background in editorial work in academic and non-academic settings. 

Kedao has published articles in the Journal of Chinese Religions and the International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture. His other publications include academic translations of English-language studies on early and late imperial China and a book review in the Japan Studies Review. 

Select Publications:

“Revisiting the Xiaoshi Jingang keyi 銷釋金剛科儀: A Textual and Reception History.” Journal of Chinese Religions 51.1 (2023): 47–96. 

“Pitiful Animals and Perturbed Humans: The Financing of Communal Animal Release in Chinese Buddhism, 1600s–1940s.” International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 33.1 (2023): 231–265.