He pioneered the research of Tiandihui and other secret societies using Qing dynasty archives and overturned the findings of earlier Republican-era scholars.
There he advised more than 80 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as over 70 international scholars[1] including Elizabeth J. Perry, who later dedicated her book Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition to Cai Shaoqing and Yu Jianrong.
He was named an "Outstanding Graduate Student Advisor" by the government of Jiangsu province[1] and won the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for his research on Chinese secret societies.
[5] Together with Philip Billingsley, Cai pioneered research on the links between the Warlord Era and banditry during the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China.
Rejecting the simplistic view that blamed the social disorder of the era on the moral bankruptcy of the warlords, they studied how population growth, government breakdown, military buildup and other factors contributed to banditry.