Liu Zhendong was born in March 1966 in Yanshi County, Henan Province. He is a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He graduated from the Department of History at Northwest University with a major in Archaeology in 1987, and obtained a Master’s degree in History from the Department of Archaeology, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 1990. He joined the Institute of Archaeology, CASS in the same year and has been working there ever since.
He was promoted to Research Fellow in 2007 and obtained a PhD in Literature from Ritsumeikan University, Japan, in February 2014. From October 2017 to May 2024, he served as the Director of the Xi'an Research Office of the Institute of Archaeology. In 2020, he was appointed as a PhD supervisor by the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
He has consistently led or participated in archaeological excavations at the sites of Chang'an during the Western Han Dynasty, the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and the Northern Dynasties. He has also contributed to excavations at the Han-Wei Ancient City in Luoyang, Henan; Yecheng in Hebei; and the ruins of St. Paul's College in Macau. His primary research focuses on the capital city systems of the Qin and Han dynasties and ancient burial systems. His research topics also encompass building materials from the Western Han, Sixteen Kingdoms, and Northern Dynasties periods, Western Han bone divination lots, and Buddhist sculptures from the Northern Dynasties.
Publication:
•The Guigong Palace in the Han capital city Chang'an (Co-authored). Cultural Relics Press, 2007.
•Treasures survived from ruined capital: buddhist figures unearthed from Chang'an, the capital of the Northern Zhou dynasty (Chief Editor). Cultural Relics Press, 2010.
•“The Evolution and Changes in the Layout of Western Han Chang’an City” (Sole-authored), in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Han Archaeology and Han Culture, Qilu Press, 2006.
•“On Zang Lv on Han Bamboo Slips Excavated from Shuihudi Site and Funeral Institution for Feudal Lords of Western Han” (Sole-authored), Huaxia Archaeology, No. 3, 2022.
•“Discovery and Preliminary Study of the Changle- gong Palace-site of the Western Han Period” (First Author), Archaeology, No. 10, 2006.
•“A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF WESTERN HAN BRICKS AND TILES” (First Author), Acta Archaeologica Sinica, No. 3, 2007.
•The Order of the Netherworld: An Introduction to Ancient Chinese Burial Institutions (Sole-authored). Cultural Relics Press, 2015.
•“A Comprehensive View of the Han Chang'an City--in Memory of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Archaeological Work of the Han Changan City” (Sole-authored), Archaeology, No. 1, 2017.
•“Newly Discovered Canopies and Curtains from the Han to Northern and Southern Dynasties Period” (Sole-authored), Cultural Relics, No. 3, 2018.
•“New Understanding of Tombs in Ancient China:A Case Study of Han Period Tombs” (Sole-authored), Archaeology and Cultural Relics, No. 4, 2020.
