Ye Hua is a predoctoral scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, where she received the "First Research Article" Fellowship. Her current focus is the project “The Emergence of National Fengshui Masters and the Dynamic Interplay of Geomantic Expertise Between State and Local Society in Late imperial China (14th–18th centuries).” She is also a member of the “Uncovering Traces of Ming Occupations with Sociological Theory (UTMOST)” Working Group.
Ye is a PhD candidate at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong (since September 2022). Before entering the PhD program, she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Chinese history from Fudan University. Her dissertation investigates the rise of geographic physiognomy (xiangdishu 相地術) in southern China, a branch of Chinese geomantic knowledge that interprets mountain and river topographies to shape human fortune, from the 12th to the 18th century. Focusing on the interactions between state and society, the study traces how embodied expertise—rooted in direct engagement with the southern mountainous landscape—developed into a widely accepted technology for sustaining social order and regulating daily life. Ye’s broader research examines Chinese cosmology and its visual and material expressions in everyday practice.
