James Peter Geiss (14 March 1950 – 19 December 2000) was an American scholar who published several books and articles on Chinese history, specifically on the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE).
A graduate of Williams College and Princeton University, he completed his doctoral dissertation, Peking under the Ming (1368-1644) in 1979.
He collaborated with Chu Hung-lam to translate original Chinese texts for Louise Levathes's popular book, When China Ruled the Seas (1994) .
After his death in 2004 the Princeton University Press published new versions of all volumes as Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader, revised and updated by Geiss's coauthors Yuan and Tang.
The James P. Geiss Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to support research in Ming studies, was established in his honor in 2001.