Thomas Michael is a researcher in the School of Philosophy at Beijing Normal University since 2016. He received his Ph.D. in History of Religions from University of Chicago. Professor Michael’s two primary fields of research are Daoist philosophy and Shamanism. In addition to many articles on Daoism, he has also published three books on the topic. His latest book is Philosophical Enactment and Bodily Cultivation in Early Daoism: In the Matrix of the Daodejing(Bloomsbury, 2022), in which he examines the original philosophy of Laozi’s Daodejing and its later transformations. He has also published several studies on the Daoist adept, Ge Hong, including “Mountains and Early Daoism in the Writings of Ge Hong” (History of Religions 56/1:23-54, 2016), which highlights Ge Hong’s continuity with the philosophy and practice of Laozi’s Daoism. Professor Michael also has published extensively on shamanism, and his major articles include “Shamanism Theory and the Early Chinese Wu” (Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83/3: 649-696, 2015) and “Shamanism, Eroticism, and Death: The Ritual Structures of the Nine Songs in Comparative Context” (Religions 10 (1): 1-26), in which he explores early Chinese shamanism through the lens of comparative studies.