Yuri Pines 尤銳 | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (original) (raw)
Papers by Yuri Pines 尤銳
Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 46 : 102–23., 2023
The chapter "Attracting the People" ("Lai min") of The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjun shu) was comp... more The chapter "Attracting the People" ("Lai min") of The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjun shu) was composed ca. 255-251 B.C.E. At that point, the Qin leaders were frustrated: despite a series of military victories, Qin was still unable to subjugate its eastern neighbors. The chapter's author suggests that to attain final success, Qin must shift its attention from the battlefield to a demographic balance of power with its rivals. To attract immigrants from the overpopulated states of Han and Wei, Qin should abandon its rigid policies of turning every subject into a tiller-cum-soldier. Instead, the immigrants should be exempted from military service and granted economic privileges. In marked contrast to the rest of The Book of Lord Shang, the author of "Attracting the People" advocates dividing the population into tillers and soldiers. The new awareness of the economic and demographic costs of warfare reflects changes in Qin's military situation after a century of robust expansion and on the eve of its final drive toward the unification of "All-under-Heaven."
Dao Companion to China’s fa Tradition: The Philosophy of Governance by Impartial Standards, 2024
This is the introduction to the _Dao Companion to China’s fa Tradition: The Philosophy of Governa... more This is the introduction to the _Dao Companion to China’s fa Tradition: The Philosophy of Governance by Impartial Standards_ (Springer 2024), which I have edited. (The "fa 法 tradition" is the translation we adopted for fajia 法家 instead of common but inaccurate “Legalism”). Colleagues interested in the volume’s chapters are welcome to visit https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-53630-4#toc . Am grateful to the volume’s contributors for their hard work!
Zhuzi xuekan 諸子學刊 27 (2023): 161–82, 2023
The Warring States period was the golden age of Chinese intellectuals in terms of social and poli... more The Warring States period was the golden age of Chinese intellectuals in terms of social and political prestige, self-esteem, freedom of expression, and creativity. But my paper focuses on the counter-discourse aimed at undermining the intellectuals’ authority. The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjunshu 商君書) and Han Feizi 韓非子 are two texts that turned tables on fellow intellectuals , which mercilessly exposed the fallacies of the dominant moralizing discourse and its subversive nature. The article explores the gains and losses of this “class betrayal,” which have interesting implications beyond the Warring States-period China.
《商君書》和《韓非子》的共有的一個突出特點是對知識階層（文人）進行了極爲尖銳的批評。本文探討了這兩部書中“反智論”的語境，其内在合理性以及其弱點和代價。筆者認爲《商》、《韓》對知識階層的批評基於其反對士人的傲慢話語及其所帶來的對政治秩序和君臣關係的威脅。這兩部書的作者們認爲：第一，文人都屬於無用之輩，國家所需要是耕戰之士而不是“學士”；第二，文人居高臨下的話語隱含著自私的因素，讓僞君子、僞賢人享受國君厚待；第三，文人的話語含有政治的顛覆性，會弱化君權。而通過尖銳地批評自己所屬的階層（即當“階級叛徒者”），商鞅、韓非及其弟子們力圖展現其至公無私的態度。然而這種態度引起了歷來文人的反感，使商鞅和韓非得到歷史惡名，導致其政治理論也失去了生命力。
Empires and Gods , 2024
Many scholars noted the paradoxical nature of the religion’s political role in imperial China. On... more Many scholars noted the paradoxical nature of the religion’s political role in imperial China. On the one hand, the empire had clear theocratic dimensions. On the other hand, it appears as impressively successful in taming the religion and minimizing its potentially disruptive role in political life. In my essay I trace the roots of this ostensibly paradoxical situation by exploring the role of religion in political life of preimperial and early imperial China. I focus on the evolution of the state’s religious policies during the millennium that preceded China’s imperial unification of 221 BCE and during the first two centuries of the imperial rule. I try to show that China’s major peculiarity was the political establishment’s success in preventing formation of an independent and powerful priestly stratum. This sidelining of religious functionaries, in addition to the avowed desire of the ruling elite to regularize relations with superhuman powers and prevent those from disruptive activities, became the cornerstone of China’s religious life. Remarkably, the nature and intensity of religious beliefs—which fluctuated considerably during the period under discussion—seems to have only marginal impact on this overall trend.
![Research paper thumbnail of 2023: "[Nationalism and nationhood in] Ancient China.” In: The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism, Ed. Cathie Carmichael, Matthew D’Auria, and Aviel Roshwald, 76-95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/110245848/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism, Ed. Cathie Carmichael, Matthew D’Auria, and Aviel Roshwald, 2023
This study historicizes--and questions--two commonly accepted premises: first that the common bon... more This study historicizes--and questions--two commonly accepted premises: first that the common bonds of Chineseness were invariably stronger than centrifugal regional identities, and, second, that a clear separating line divided the Chinese from their neighbors. By focusing on the formative age of Chinese imperial civilization—to wit, the centuries preceding and following the establishment of Chinese empire in 221 BCE—I try to highlight the complexity of identity construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction during these crucial centuries. In particular, I focus on two issues: first, the formation and subsequent disappearance of proto-national regional identities during the lengthy age of fragmentation that preceded China’s imperial unification; and second, fluctuations of “Sino-alien” dichotomy before and after the imperial unification.
Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, 2021
This is the introduction to the volume The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, c... more This is the introduction to the volume The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, co-edited by Yuri Pines, Michal Biran, and Jörg Rüpke. In the introduction, we outline our definition of “empire,” trace three waves of empire-building in Eurasian history, and analyze the factors that contributed to the expansion of Eurasian empires and put limits to this expansion.
Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography, ed. Yuri Pines, Martin Kern, and Nino Luraghi, 2023
This is the introduction to our co-edited volume Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography (Leide... more This is the introduction to our co-edited volume Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography (Leiden: Brill, 2023). In the introduction, we survey the evolution of the Zuozhuan studies through centuries, outline the new questions and new approaches to the text that emerged in recent decades, and explain how these new questions, approaches, and methodologies are reflected in our volume. For the volume itself, see https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/65103
Journal of the American Oriental Society 143.3 , 2023
This is a review article that focuses on Antony Barbieri-Low's _The Many Lives of the First Emper... more This is a review article that focuses on Antony Barbieri-Low's _The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China_ (2022). The book under review presents an engaging and well researched analysis of the changing image of the First Emperor of Qin throughout centuries. Yet the study suffers from insufficient attention to nuances of Chinese political culture, from outright dismission of looted manuscripts (some of which are essential for understanding the Qin), and, primarily, from the author's own biases. Do these biases suggest the author's desire to use the First Emperor as a foil in U .S. political debates?
China Review 23.3, 2023
This article is based on an extensive review of _Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Politic... more This article is based on an extensive review of _Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China_, edited by Daniel A. Bell, Amitav Acharya, Rajeev Bhargava, and Yan Xuetong. I contrast the projects’ laudable aims with methodological weaknesses which made the volume less impressive than it could have been. Furthermore, I discuss why classical Chinese and Indian traditions are less relevant to the field of IR (International Relations) than to other fields of political thought.
Guoxue xuekan 国学学刊 , 2022
This is a translation of one of my earliest articles about the origins of China's "Great Unity" i... more This is a translation of one of my earliest articles about the origins of China's "Great Unity" ideal. A few updates and corrections were introduced to the translated version. For the readers' convenience, I have merged two separate files (parts A and B) of the translation into one.
T'oung Pao, 2023
The concept of tianming 天命 (Heaven’s Mandate) is often viewed as a foundational principle of Chin... more The concept of tianming 天命 (Heaven’s Mandate) is often viewed as a foundational principle of Chinese political culture. However, as paleographic and textual evidence marshalled in our article suggest, during the formative age of this culture—the Eastern Zhou period (eighth-third centuries BCE)—this concept underwent profound changes and lost much of its appeal. With the collapse of the effective Zhou authority in 771 BCE, tianming became dissociated from the idea of singular and universal rule. Henceforth it could refer to a regional lord’s hegemonic power, or the right to rule one’s state, or just to an opportune moment or individual destiny. The very idea of Heaven as an activist deity that guarantees political order had been questioned by many, further eroding the appeal of tianming. However, the Western Zhou idea of tianming did not perish. It remained “an ideology in reserve,” a part of a broad toolkit of political ideas, to be rediscovered and reutilized by the Han-era imperial ideologues.
Historia, 2023
This is an introduction to Volume 50 of _Historia (היסטוריה)_, the journal of The Historical Soci... more This is an introduction to Volume 50 of _Historia (היסטוריה)_, the journal of The Historical Society of Israel. The volume deals with early historiography (Chinese, Greek, Roman, and Iranian) from a comparative perspective. In the introduction we discuss changing perspective of studies of early historiography and the advantages of comparative methodology. (In Hebrew)
Early China 45 , 2022
These are the opening pages of my article “Didactic Narrative and the Art of Self-Strengthening:... more These are the opening pages of my article “Didactic Narrative and the Art of Self-Strengthening: Reading the Bamboo Manuscript Yue gong qi shi 越公其事”. The full text is freely accessible (open access) from the Early China website
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/early-china/article/didactic-narrative-and-the-art-of-selfstrengthening-reading-the-bamboo-manuscript-yue-gong-qi-shi/CB30CF52ABEDE745AD453DC6A954143B
Yue gong qi shi 越公其事 is a recently published manuscript from the
Tsinghua University collection. The manuscript provides a new version
of the well-known story of King Goujian of Yue 越王句踐 (r. 496–464
BCE), who turned defeat into victory and overcame Yue’s formidable
rival, the state of Wu 吳. My exploration of this text focuses on its two
most notable aspects. First, the story about the policy of self-strengthening
allegedly adopted by Goujian offers new insights into the evolution
of political thought in the Warring States period. Second, the text
allows deeper insight into the genre of didactic historical narratives
that became prominent at a certain point of time between the Springs-and-
Autumns (Chunqiu 春秋, 770–453 BCE) and the Warring States
(Zhanguo 戰國, 453–221 BCE) periods.
Toung Pao, 2020
A brief research note that focuses on the naming patterns in Eastern Zhou texts. The goal is to ... more A brief research note that focuses on the naming patterns in Eastern Zhou texts. The goal is to help translators and students to cope with complexity of personal appellations in preimperial China
Jiang Huai luntan 江淮论坛 , 2021
This is my new Chinese-language study of "Attracting the people" ("Lai min") chapter from the _Bo... more This is my new Chinese-language study of "Attracting the people" ("Lai min") chapter from the _Book of Lord Shang_. The chapter, composed ca. 250 BCE, offers many insights on demographic, economic, and military changes in the state of Qin in a century after the launch of Shang Yang's reforms. It is also indicative of the ideological developments within "Shang Yang's school".
《商君书•徕民》篇是战国晚期比较特殊的作品。作者对“百战百胜”的秦国却克服不了其“三晋”的敌人感到疑惑。基于其对新的人口、经济、军事条件的理解，作者对《商君书》早期篇章的建议做出彻底调整。他主张采取“人口战争”的策略，以改变秦国与“三晋”的人口平衡。〈徕民〉篇的革新思想体现了“商鞅学派”的思想变迁。
Reading Texts on Sovereignty: Textual Moments in the History of Political Thought, ed. Antonis Balasopoulos and Stella Achilleos, 9-16. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021., 2021
This is a final draft of my short study of the concept of sovereignty in the Book of Lord Shang a... more This is a final draft of my short study of the concept of sovereignty in the Book of Lord Shang and its relation to the book's peculiar view of the origins of the state.
Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 74.3 (2020): 687-710. , 2020
This article discusses the chapter "Objection to Positional Power" (Nan shi 難勢) of Han Feizi 韓非子.... more This article discusses the chapter "Objection to Positional Power" (Nan shi 難勢) of Han Feizi 韓非子. It provides a full translation cum analysis of the text and explores systematically the chapter's structure, rhetoric, and its political message. The discussion, which contextualizes the chapter's message within broader trends of the Warring States-period political debates, demonstrates that beneath the surface of debates about "positional power" (shi 勢) versus "worth" (xian 賢), the chapter addresses one of the touchiest issues in Chinese political thought: that of the intrinsic weakness of hereditary monarchy. Furthermore, "Objection to Positional Power" also addresses problems of the meritocratic system of rule and elucidates some of the reasons for Han Fei's dislike of meritocratic discourse. By highlighting some of the chapter's intellectual gems I hope to attract further attention to the immense richness of Han Feizi as one of the most sophisticated products of China's political thought.
The term “name” (ming 名) is one of the semantically richest in early Chinese thought. In differen... more The term “name” (ming 名) is one of the semantically richest in early Chinese thought. In different contexts it can refer to a personal name, to terms of philosophical discourse, to reputation, social status, posthumous fame, and even to legal items. Whereas philosophical usages of ming had been well explored, the importance of ming as repute, fame, and social status had not been at the focus of academic research. In my article I argue that these meanings were highly important as motivators of one’s action. The idea of a transcendent name, for the sake of which even one’s life can be sacrificed, became one of the cornerstones of political debates from the Warring States period on. My article explores these debates that encompassed political and ethical thought, historiography, and literature, and continued from the Warring States period well into the end of the imperial era.
Journal of the American Oriental Society
This article explores textual, paleographic, and archeological evidence about the “Long Wall” of ... more This article explores textual, paleographic, and archeological evidence about the “Long Wall” of Qi, arguably one of the earliest long walls erected on Chinese soil. It analyzes the possible dates of the Wall’s constructions, its route, its defensive role, and its relation to military, political, economic, and administrative developments of the Warring States period (453-221 BCE). I argue that the Long Wall played a significant role in Qi’s military strategy in the fifth-fourth centuries BCE bolstering its defensive capabilities. In the long term, however, the Wall might have inadvertently hindered Qi’s southward expansion, placing it in a disadvantageous position versus its rivals.
Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History, 2018
This chapter introduces basic aspects of the political thought of the Warring States period. This... more This chapter introduces basic aspects of the political thought of the Warring States period. This thought developed in response to a severe systemic crisis of the preceding aristocratic age. Their rivalries aside, the competing thinkers sought a common goal of restoring peace and stability. Most of them shared basic fundamental premises—e.g., the ideal of political unity of All-under-Heaven, the insistence on the monarchic principle of rule, the meritocratic idea of staffing the government with the ablest men disregarding their pedigree, and the notion that the commoners deserve decent economic wellbeing, but are not supposed to take active part in policy-making. But how exactly should these ideas and ideals be realized? This became a focus of intense ideological contention, which contributed to remarkable intellectual creativity and pluralism of the age under discussion. The long-term impact of this age is even more remarkable. It may be surmised that the ideas of rival thinkers formed an ideological framework within which the Chinese empire functioned from its inception until its very last decades.
Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 46 : 102–23., 2023
The chapter "Attracting the People" ("Lai min") of The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjun shu) was comp... more The chapter "Attracting the People" ("Lai min") of The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjun shu) was composed ca. 255-251 B.C.E. At that point, the Qin leaders were frustrated: despite a series of military victories, Qin was still unable to subjugate its eastern neighbors. The chapter's author suggests that to attain final success, Qin must shift its attention from the battlefield to a demographic balance of power with its rivals. To attract immigrants from the overpopulated states of Han and Wei, Qin should abandon its rigid policies of turning every subject into a tiller-cum-soldier. Instead, the immigrants should be exempted from military service and granted economic privileges. In marked contrast to the rest of The Book of Lord Shang, the author of "Attracting the People" advocates dividing the population into tillers and soldiers. The new awareness of the economic and demographic costs of warfare reflects changes in Qin's military situation after a century of robust expansion and on the eve of its final drive toward the unification of "All-under-Heaven."
Dao Companion to China’s fa Tradition: The Philosophy of Governance by Impartial Standards, 2024
This is the introduction to the _Dao Companion to China’s fa Tradition: The Philosophy of Governa... more This is the introduction to the _Dao Companion to China’s fa Tradition: The Philosophy of Governance by Impartial Standards_ (Springer 2024), which I have edited. (The "fa 法 tradition" is the translation we adopted for fajia 法家 instead of common but inaccurate “Legalism”). Colleagues interested in the volume’s chapters are welcome to visit https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-53630-4#toc . Am grateful to the volume’s contributors for their hard work!
Zhuzi xuekan 諸子學刊 27 (2023): 161–82, 2023
The Warring States period was the golden age of Chinese intellectuals in terms of social and poli... more The Warring States period was the golden age of Chinese intellectuals in terms of social and political prestige, self-esteem, freedom of expression, and creativity. But my paper focuses on the counter-discourse aimed at undermining the intellectuals’ authority. The Book of Lord Shang (Shangjunshu 商君書) and Han Feizi 韓非子 are two texts that turned tables on fellow intellectuals , which mercilessly exposed the fallacies of the dominant moralizing discourse and its subversive nature. The article explores the gains and losses of this “class betrayal,” which have interesting implications beyond the Warring States-period China.
《商君書》和《韓非子》的共有的一個突出特點是對知識階層（文人）進行了極爲尖銳的批評。本文探討了這兩部書中“反智論”的語境，其内在合理性以及其弱點和代價。筆者認爲《商》、《韓》對知識階層的批評基於其反對士人的傲慢話語及其所帶來的對政治秩序和君臣關係的威脅。這兩部書的作者們認爲：第一，文人都屬於無用之輩，國家所需要是耕戰之士而不是“學士”；第二，文人居高臨下的話語隱含著自私的因素，讓僞君子、僞賢人享受國君厚待；第三，文人的話語含有政治的顛覆性，會弱化君權。而通過尖銳地批評自己所屬的階層（即當“階級叛徒者”），商鞅、韓非及其弟子們力圖展現其至公無私的態度。然而這種態度引起了歷來文人的反感，使商鞅和韓非得到歷史惡名，導致其政治理論也失去了生命力。
Empires and Gods , 2024
Many scholars noted the paradoxical nature of the religion’s political role in imperial China. On... more Many scholars noted the paradoxical nature of the religion’s political role in imperial China. On the one hand, the empire had clear theocratic dimensions. On the other hand, it appears as impressively successful in taming the religion and minimizing its potentially disruptive role in political life. In my essay I trace the roots of this ostensibly paradoxical situation by exploring the role of religion in political life of preimperial and early imperial China. I focus on the evolution of the state’s religious policies during the millennium that preceded China’s imperial unification of 221 BCE and during the first two centuries of the imperial rule. I try to show that China’s major peculiarity was the political establishment’s success in preventing formation of an independent and powerful priestly stratum. This sidelining of religious functionaries, in addition to the avowed desire of the ruling elite to regularize relations with superhuman powers and prevent those from disruptive activities, became the cornerstone of China’s religious life. Remarkably, the nature and intensity of religious beliefs—which fluctuated considerably during the period under discussion—seems to have only marginal impact on this overall trend.
The Cambridge History of Nationhood and Nationalism, Ed. Cathie Carmichael, Matthew D’Auria, and Aviel Roshwald, 2023
This study historicizes--and questions--two commonly accepted premises: first that the common bon... more This study historicizes--and questions--two commonly accepted premises: first that the common bonds of Chineseness were invariably stronger than centrifugal regional identities, and, second, that a clear separating line divided the Chinese from their neighbors. By focusing on the formative age of Chinese imperial civilization—to wit, the centuries preceding and following the establishment of Chinese empire in 221 BCE—I try to highlight the complexity of identity construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction during these crucial centuries. In particular, I focus on two issues: first, the formation and subsequent disappearance of proto-national regional identities during the lengthy age of fragmentation that preceded China’s imperial unification; and second, fluctuations of “Sino-alien” dichotomy before and after the imperial unification.
Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, 2021
This is the introduction to the volume The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, c... more This is the introduction to the volume The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, co-edited by Yuri Pines, Michal Biran, and Jörg Rüpke. In the introduction, we outline our definition of “empire,” trace three waves of empire-building in Eurasian history, and analyze the factors that contributed to the expansion of Eurasian empires and put limits to this expansion.
Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography, ed. Yuri Pines, Martin Kern, and Nino Luraghi, 2023
This is the introduction to our co-edited volume Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography (Leide... more This is the introduction to our co-edited volume Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography (Leiden: Brill, 2023). In the introduction, we survey the evolution of the Zuozhuan studies through centuries, outline the new questions and new approaches to the text that emerged in recent decades, and explain how these new questions, approaches, and methodologies are reflected in our volume. For the volume itself, see https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/65103
Journal of the American Oriental Society 143.3 , 2023
This is a review article that focuses on Antony Barbieri-Low's _The Many Lives of the First Emper... more This is a review article that focuses on Antony Barbieri-Low's _The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China_ (2022). The book under review presents an engaging and well researched analysis of the changing image of the First Emperor of Qin throughout centuries. Yet the study suffers from insufficient attention to nuances of Chinese political culture, from outright dismission of looted manuscripts (some of which are essential for understanding the Qin), and, primarily, from the author's own biases. Do these biases suggest the author's desire to use the First Emperor as a foil in U .S. political debates?
China Review 23.3, 2023
This article is based on an extensive review of _Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Politic... more This article is based on an extensive review of _Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China_, edited by Daniel A. Bell, Amitav Acharya, Rajeev Bhargava, and Yan Xuetong. I contrast the projects’ laudable aims with methodological weaknesses which made the volume less impressive than it could have been. Furthermore, I discuss why classical Chinese and Indian traditions are less relevant to the field of IR (International Relations) than to other fields of political thought.
Guoxue xuekan 国学学刊 , 2022
This is a translation of one of my earliest articles about the origins of China's "Great Unity" i... more This is a translation of one of my earliest articles about the origins of China's "Great Unity" ideal. A few updates and corrections were introduced to the translated version. For the readers' convenience, I have merged two separate files (parts A and B) of the translation into one.
T'oung Pao, 2023
The concept of tianming 天命 (Heaven’s Mandate) is often viewed as a foundational principle of Chin... more The concept of tianming 天命 (Heaven’s Mandate) is often viewed as a foundational principle of Chinese political culture. However, as paleographic and textual evidence marshalled in our article suggest, during the formative age of this culture—the Eastern Zhou period (eighth-third centuries BCE)—this concept underwent profound changes and lost much of its appeal. With the collapse of the effective Zhou authority in 771 BCE, tianming became dissociated from the idea of singular and universal rule. Henceforth it could refer to a regional lord’s hegemonic power, or the right to rule one’s state, or just to an opportune moment or individual destiny. The very idea of Heaven as an activist deity that guarantees political order had been questioned by many, further eroding the appeal of tianming. However, the Western Zhou idea of tianming did not perish. It remained “an ideology in reserve,” a part of a broad toolkit of political ideas, to be rediscovered and reutilized by the Han-era imperial ideologues.
Historia, 2023
This is an introduction to Volume 50 of _Historia (היסטוריה)_, the journal of The Historical Soci... more This is an introduction to Volume 50 of _Historia (היסטוריה)_, the journal of The Historical Society of Israel. The volume deals with early historiography (Chinese, Greek, Roman, and Iranian) from a comparative perspective. In the introduction we discuss changing perspective of studies of early historiography and the advantages of comparative methodology. (In Hebrew)
Early China 45 , 2022
These are the opening pages of my article “Didactic Narrative and the Art of Self-Strengthening:... more These are the opening pages of my article “Didactic Narrative and the Art of Self-Strengthening: Reading the Bamboo Manuscript Yue gong qi shi 越公其事”. The full text is freely accessible (open access) from the Early China website
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/early-china/article/didactic-narrative-and-the-art-of-selfstrengthening-reading-the-bamboo-manuscript-yue-gong-qi-shi/CB30CF52ABEDE745AD453DC6A954143B
Yue gong qi shi 越公其事 is a recently published manuscript from the
Tsinghua University collection. The manuscript provides a new version
of the well-known story of King Goujian of Yue 越王句踐 (r. 496–464
BCE), who turned defeat into victory and overcame Yue’s formidable
rival, the state of Wu 吳. My exploration of this text focuses on its two
most notable aspects. First, the story about the policy of self-strengthening
allegedly adopted by Goujian offers new insights into the evolution
of political thought in the Warring States period. Second, the text
allows deeper insight into the genre of didactic historical narratives
that became prominent at a certain point of time between the Springs-and-
Autumns (Chunqiu 春秋, 770–453 BCE) and the Warring States
(Zhanguo 戰國, 453–221 BCE) periods.
Toung Pao, 2020
A brief research note that focuses on the naming patterns in Eastern Zhou texts. The goal is to ... more A brief research note that focuses on the naming patterns in Eastern Zhou texts. The goal is to help translators and students to cope with complexity of personal appellations in preimperial China
Jiang Huai luntan 江淮论坛 , 2021
This is my new Chinese-language study of "Attracting the people" ("Lai min") chapter from the _Bo... more This is my new Chinese-language study of "Attracting the people" ("Lai min") chapter from the _Book of Lord Shang_. The chapter, composed ca. 250 BCE, offers many insights on demographic, economic, and military changes in the state of Qin in a century after the launch of Shang Yang's reforms. It is also indicative of the ideological developments within "Shang Yang's school".
《商君书•徕民》篇是战国晚期比较特殊的作品。作者对“百战百胜”的秦国却克服不了其“三晋”的敌人感到疑惑。基于其对新的人口、经济、军事条件的理解，作者对《商君书》早期篇章的建议做出彻底调整。他主张采取“人口战争”的策略，以改变秦国与“三晋”的人口平衡。〈徕民〉篇的革新思想体现了“商鞅学派”的思想变迁。
Reading Texts on Sovereignty: Textual Moments in the History of Political Thought, ed. Antonis Balasopoulos and Stella Achilleos, 9-16. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021., 2021
This is a final draft of my short study of the concept of sovereignty in the Book of Lord Shang a... more This is a final draft of my short study of the concept of sovereignty in the Book of Lord Shang and its relation to the book's peculiar view of the origins of the state.
Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 74.3 (2020): 687-710. , 2020
This article discusses the chapter "Objection to Positional Power" (Nan shi 難勢) of Han Feizi 韓非子.... more This article discusses the chapter "Objection to Positional Power" (Nan shi 難勢) of Han Feizi 韓非子. It provides a full translation cum analysis of the text and explores systematically the chapter's structure, rhetoric, and its political message. The discussion, which contextualizes the chapter's message within broader trends of the Warring States-period political debates, demonstrates that beneath the surface of debates about "positional power" (shi 勢) versus "worth" (xian 賢), the chapter addresses one of the touchiest issues in Chinese political thought: that of the intrinsic weakness of hereditary monarchy. Furthermore, "Objection to Positional Power" also addresses problems of the meritocratic system of rule and elucidates some of the reasons for Han Fei's dislike of meritocratic discourse. By highlighting some of the chapter's intellectual gems I hope to attract further attention to the immense richness of Han Feizi as one of the most sophisticated products of China's political thought.
The term “name” (ming 名) is one of the semantically richest in early Chinese thought. In differen... more The term “name” (ming 名) is one of the semantically richest in early Chinese thought. In different contexts it can refer to a personal name, to terms of philosophical discourse, to reputation, social status, posthumous fame, and even to legal items. Whereas philosophical usages of ming had been well explored, the importance of ming as repute, fame, and social status had not been at the focus of academic research. In my article I argue that these meanings were highly important as motivators of one’s action. The idea of a transcendent name, for the sake of which even one’s life can be sacrificed, became one of the cornerstones of political debates from the Warring States period on. My article explores these debates that encompassed political and ethical thought, historiography, and literature, and continued from the Warring States period well into the end of the imperial era.
Journal of the American Oriental Society
This article explores textual, paleographic, and archeological evidence about the “Long Wall” of ... more This article explores textual, paleographic, and archeological evidence about the “Long Wall” of Qi, arguably one of the earliest long walls erected on Chinese soil. It analyzes the possible dates of the Wall’s constructions, its route, its defensive role, and its relation to military, political, economic, and administrative developments of the Warring States period (453-221 BCE). I argue that the Long Wall played a significant role in Qi’s military strategy in the fifth-fourth centuries BCE bolstering its defensive capabilities. In the long term, however, the Wall might have inadvertently hindered Qi’s southward expansion, placing it in a disadvantageous position versus its rivals.
Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History, 2018
This chapter introduces basic aspects of the political thought of the Warring States period. This... more This chapter introduces basic aspects of the political thought of the Warring States period. This thought developed in response to a severe systemic crisis of the preceding aristocratic age. Their rivalries aside, the competing thinkers sought a common goal of restoring peace and stability. Most of them shared basic fundamental premises—e.g., the ideal of political unity of All-under-Heaven, the insistence on the monarchic principle of rule, the meritocratic idea of staffing the government with the ablest men disregarding their pedigree, and the notion that the commoners deserve decent economic wellbeing, but are not supposed to take active part in policy-making. But how exactly should these ideas and ideals be realized? This became a focus of intense ideological contention, which contributed to remarkable intellectual creativity and pluralism of the age under discussion. The long-term impact of this age is even more remarkable. It may be surmised that the ideas of rival thinkers formed an ideological framework within which the Chinese empire functioned from its inception until its very last decades.
Cambridge University Press, 2021
All major continental empires proclaimed their desire to rule ‘the entire world’, investing consi... more All major continental empires proclaimed their desire to rule ‘the entire world’,
investing considerable human and material resources in expanding their territory.
Each, however, eventually had to stop expansion and come to terms with a shift to
defensive strategy. This volume explores the factors that facilitated Eurasian
empires’ expansion and contraction: from ideology to ecology, economic and
military considerations to changing composition of the imperial elites. Built around
a common set of questions, a team of leading specialists systematically compare a
broad set of Eurasian empires -from Achaemenid Iran, the Romans, Qin and Han
China, via the Caliphate, the Byzantines and the Mongols to the Ottomans,
Safavids, Mughals, Russians, and Ming and Qing China. The result is a state-of-the
art analysis of the major imperial enterprises in Eurasian history from antiquity to
the early modern that discerns both commonalities and differences in the empires’
spatial trajectories.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2020
This is the front matter and Introduction to my newly published book on early Zhou historiography... more This is the front matter and Introduction to my newly published book on early Zhou historiography. The study is based on the juxtaposition of recently unearthed texts (most notably the bamboo manuscript Xinian 繫年, the fully annotated translation of which is provided) and the transmitted texts (most notably Zuozhuan 左傳).
Customers in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, East Asia, and most of Latin America who purchase the book through the Columbia University Press website (http://cup.columbia.edu/book/zhou-history-unearthed/9780231196635) can receive a 20% discount off the price of the book by using the promo code CUP20.
For customers in the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, and South Africa, contact John Wiley & Sons (customer@wiley.com) to order a book and for information regarding price and shipping cost.
Like every major culture, Chinese has its set of “keywords”: pivotal terms of political, ethical,... more Like every major culture, Chinese has its set of “keywords”: pivotal terms of political, ethical, literary and philosophical discourse. Tracing the origins, development, polysemy, and usages of keywords is one of the best ways to chart cultural and historical changes. This volume analyzes some of these keywords from different disciplinary and temporal perspectives, offering a new integrative study of their semantic richness, development trajectory, and distinct usages in Chinese culture.
The authors of the volume explore different keywords and focus on different periods and genres, ranging from philosophical and historical texts of the Warring States period (453-221 BCE) to late imperial (ca. 16th-18th centuries CE) literature and philosophy. They are guided by a similar set of questions: What elevates a mere word to the status of “keyword”? What sort of resonance and reverberations do we expect a keyword to have? How much does the semantic range of a keyword explain its significance? What kinds of arguments does it generate? What are the stories told to illustrate its meanings? What are political and intellectual implications of the keyword’s reevalution? What does it mean to translate a keyword and map its meaning against other languages?
Throughout Chinese history, new ideas and new approaches often mean reinterpreting important words; rupture, continuities, and inflection points are inseparable from the linguistic history of specific terms. The premise of this book is that taking the long view and encompassing different disciplines yield new insights and unexpected connections. The authors, who come from the fields of history, philosophy, and literature, explore keywords in different genres and illuminate their multiple dimensions in various contexts. Moreover, despite their different temporal focus, they take into consideration the development of selected keywords from the Warring States to the late imperial period, sometimes adding excurses that extend to contemporary usage.
(Visit also the publisher's site at https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=4021)
Columbia University Press, 2019
This is the advertisement of the newly published abridged and updated edition of my translation c... more This is the advertisement of the newly published abridged and updated edition of my translation cum study of the Book of Lord Shang (Shangjunshu 商君書). In this edition I abridged those sections that were too technical and could fit only a very few readers’ interest. I have also corrected several inaccuracies in the previous version of the translation.
Please note that anyone who uses the promo code “CUP30” to buy the book from the publisher's site (https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-lord-shang/9780231179898) will receive a 30% discount off the price of the paperback edition of the book. For customers in the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, and South Africa, please contact CUP distributor John Wiley & Sons (E-mail: customer@wiley.com), to order a book. Once again, the CUP30 code will work for the discount.
Hope that the low price will benefit the students!
The downloadable file is the introduction to my translation cum study of The Book of Lord Shang, ... more The downloadable file is the introduction to my translation cum study of The Book of Lord Shang, one of the foundational texts in Chinese political thought. The book, attributed to a major reformer, Shang Yang (d. 338 BCE), proposes creation of a new type of political entity: a powerful centralized state that will penetrate the entire society and reshape the lives of its subjects. Through the means of sophisticated social engineering, the ruler will be able to turn every subject into a diligent tiller and a valiant soldier. This will bring about the desired goal of “a rich state and a strong army,” and, eventually, lead to unification of “All-under-Heaven” into a powerful empire. Ideas promulgated in the Book of Lord Shang played a crucial role in the empowerment of the state of Qin, which duly unified the Chinese world in 221 BCE creating the first imperial polity on Chinese soil.
See more on https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-lord-shang/9780231179881
The introduction is excerpted from The Book of Lord Shang by Yang Shang, edited and translated by Yuri Pines. Copyright (c) 2017 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved
Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China (co-edited by Yuri Pines, Paul Rakita Gold... more Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China (co-edited by Yuri Pines, Paul Rakita Goldin and Martin Kern) is based on the 2012 eponymous conference in the Institute for Advanced Study, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The book explores ancient Chinese political thought during the centuries surrounding the formation of the empire in 221 BCE. The individual chapters examine the ideology and practices of legitimation, views of rulership, conceptualizations of ruler-minister relations, economic thought, and the bureaucratic administration of commoners.
The contributors analyze the formation of power relations from various angles, ranging from artistic expression to religious ideas, political rhetoric, and administrative action. They demonstrate the interrelatedness of historiography and political ideology and show how the same text served both to strengthen the ruler’s authority and moderate his excesses. Together, the chapters highlight the immense complexity of ancient Chinese political thought, and the deep tensions running within it.
In 221 BCE the state of Qin vanquished its rivals and established the first empire on Chinese soi... more In 221 BCE the state of Qin vanquished its rivals and established the first empire on Chinese soil, starting a millennia-long imperial age in Chinese history. Hailed by some and maligned by many, Qin has long been an enigma. In a path-breaking study, the authors integrate textual sources with newly available archeological and paleographic materials, providing a boldly novel picture of Qin’s cultural and political trajectory, its evolving institutions and its religion, its place in China’s history and the reasons for its success and for its ultimate collapse.
Terracotta warriors excavated from the tomb complex of the First Emperor of Qin have distinct fac... more Terracotta warriors excavated from the tomb complex of the First Emperor of Qin have distinct facial features and a particular kind of fascination, offering a unique “ face-to face” encounter with ancient China. This is why the exhibition “ Qin — The Eternal Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors,” held at the Bernisches Historisches Museum in 2013, was centred on the terracotta figures. A second aim of the exhibition, however, was to extend this scope and give an insight into a period of more than 1,000 years of Chinese history and civilization. The first section showed the roots and rise of the Qin principality up until the development of the Chinese Empire. The second section was centred on the tomb complex of the First Emperor and his terracotta army. Finally, the third section dealt with Qin Shi Huangdi ’ s legacy for subsequent eras. Particular attention was also given to the archaeological challenges of the excavation and conservation of the terracotta army. This accompanying publication covers all of the topics dealt with in the exhibition and expands upon them. Similarly to the exhibition, the publication is also divided into three sections. The first section offers an outline of the political situation in the territory of presentday China during the first millennium BC ( Chapter 1 ), traces the rise of the Qin State from its origins until the foundation of the Empire in the year 221 BC ( Chapter 2 ), and gives an insight into the funerary culture of Qin society ( Chapter 3 ). The second section initially focuses on the First Emperor of Qin ( Chapter 4 ) and the organization of the Chinese Empire founded by him ( Chapter 5 ). It then describes in detail the tomb complex of the First Emperor ( Chapter 6 ) and the terracotta army ( Chapter 7 ). The third section of the book deals with the historical heritage of the Qin dynasty. It first examines the Han dynasty ( 202 BC–AD220 ) as the immediate successor of the Qin, and outlines a number of developments in the history of the Chinese Empire until its collapse in the year 1911 ( Chapter 8 ). Finally, it shows how the historical figure of the First Emperor and the terracotta army are perceived in contemporary China ( Chapter 9 ). The catalogue section is also divided into three parts and documents all objects on display in the exhibition. A chronological table, a reading aid for correct pronunciation of certain Chinese terms, and a list of the most important Chinese place and personal names and other terms mentioned in this book complete the publication.
Publisher's blurb: This ambitious book looks after the reasons for the exceptional durability ... more Publisher's blurb:
This ambitious book looks after the reasons for the exceptional durability of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia (221 BCE-1911 CE). Pines identifies the roots for the empire's longevity in the activities of the thinkers of the Warring States period (453-221 BCE), who, in their search for solutions to the ongoing sociopolitical crisis, developed ideals, values, and perceptions that became essential for the future imperial polity. In marked distinction from similar empires worldwide, the Chinese empire was envisioned and to a certain extent "pre-planned" long before it came into being. Resultantly, it was not only a military and administrative but also an intellectual construct; and Pines argues that it was its ideological appeal which allowed its survival and regeneration after repeated periods of turmoil.
Envisioning Eternal Empire presents a panoptic survey of philosophical and social conflicts in Warring States political culture. Through examining much of the extant corpus of pre-imperial literature, including both the transmitted texts and the archeologically discovered manuscripts, the author locates common ideas of competing thinkers, which underlie their ideological controversies. This bold approach allows Pines to transcend previously fashionable perspective of the competing "schools of thought" and to show that beneath the immense pluralism of the Warring States' thought one may identify common ideological choices that eventually shaped traditional Chinese political culture. This results in a refreshingly novel perspective on the foundational period in Chinese intellectual history.
Pines' analysis of political thought of the Warring States period focuses on the thinkers' perceptions of three main components of the pre-imperial and imperial polity: the ruler, the elite and the commoners. With regard to each of them, the author identifies both the common ground of the Warring States discourse, and intrinsic tensions, which thinkers failed to resolve. Thus, thinkers staunchly supported the idea of the omnipotent universal monarch yet were aware of the mediocrity and ineptitude of acting sovereigns; were committed to the government career yet feared to compromise their integrity in service of corrupt rulers; declared their dedication to "the people" yet firmly opposed the lower strata's input into political processes. In the author's eyes, the persistence of these unresolved tensions eventually became one of the most important assets of China's political culture. The ensuing imperial political system was not excessively rigid, but sufficiently flexible to adapt itself to a variety of domestic and foreign pressures and this remarkable adaptability within the constant ideological framework contributed decisively to the empire's longevity.
Envisioning Eternal Empire will become indispensable for studies of early Chinese intellectual and political history.
本书致力于追寻中华帝国存在长达2000年之久的原因，尤锐从战国时代思想家的活动入手，因为他们对解决社会政治危机提出的理想、价值观和理念在后来的帝国政体中变得至关重要。作者认为中华帝国的长存不仅是... more 本书致力于追寻中华帝国存在长达2000年之久的原因，尤锐从战国时代思想家的活动入手，因为他们对解决社会政治危机提出的理想、价值观和理念在后来的帝国政体中变得至关重要。作者认为中华帝国的长存不仅是一个军事和行政建制的结果，而且是一种智识的建构，是意识形态上的诉求允许帝国的长存并得以一次次从混乱中重生。
本书全景式的考察展现了战国政治文化中哲学与社会的冲突。作者通过考察包括传世与出土文献的先秦文献，从诸子百家的思想中总结出它们的共识，表明在并驾齐驱的各家学说之下，意识形态的共识最终塑造了中国传统的政治文化。这使我们获得了探讨战国时期对中国思想史影响的全新视角。
This book, based on my PhD dissertation, explores political, religious, and ethical thought durin... more This book, based on my PhD dissertation, explores political, religious, and ethical thought during China’s aristocratic age: the Springs-and-Autumns period (Chunqiu 春秋, 770-453 BCE). I argue that the speeches scattered throughout Zuo zhuan 左傳, the major historical text that covers that period, can serve as a reliable source for tracing the mindset of contemporaneous statesmen. Pace the title, the book shows not only how amid the crisis of the aristocratic society ideas emerged that were eventually incorporated into the subsequent Confucian ideology, but also how much the ideas of the aristocratic age differed from the normative orientations of later Chinese political culture. It was the age when political fragmentation was considered a norm and not an aberration, when justifications were sought for powerful ministers’ sidelining of their rulers, when pedigree mattered more than abilities in determining the individual’s career, when the concept of the Mandate of Heaven had little to do with the notion of universal rule, and when the lineage’s cohesiveness was subversive of rather than conducive to preserving the sociopolitical order. In many respects, this period appears as an inversion of traditional Chinese political values rather than their affirmation.
As a PhD dissertation product, this book shares strengths and weaknesses of other dissertation-based monographs. In the years after its completion I reconsidered and fine-tuned many of my original arguments. Nonetheless, I think I can stand behind most of my conclusions presented in this book and am glad to share it with Academia.edu community.
לראשונה בעברית, הסדרה "כל אשר מתחת לשמיים": תולדות הקיסרות הסינית, מציעה לקהל הקוראים הישראלי דיו... more לראשונה בעברית, הסדרה "כל אשר מתחת לשמיים": תולדות הקיסרות הסינית, מציעה לקהל הקוראים הישראלי דיון מרתק, מעודכן ורחב יריעה, העוסק במקורותיה, צמיחתה ומסלול חייה של הקיסרות הסינית. הקיסרות הסינית הוקמה בשנת 221 לפסה"נ, והתקיימה, בכמה הפסקות, עד למהפכה הרפובליקנית בשנת 1911 במשך רובה של תקופה ארוכה זו הגיעה סין להישגים כלכליים, מנהליים, טכנולוגיים ותרבותיים, מן הכבירים והמרשימים בתבל. המורשה של הישגי הקיסרות כמו גם של כישלונותיה, בייחוד במאות ה-19 וה-20 מעצבת במידה רבה את הדינמיקה המניעה את תקומתה העכשווית של סין, ואת כניסתה אל מרכז העניינים הגלובלי.
הכרך השני שבסדרה מתמקד בתקופה בת למעלה מאלף שנים, מאז ייסודה של שושלת חאן, השושלת הקיסרית השניה שקמה בשלהי המאה השלישית לפסה"נ, ועד התפוררותה ונפילתה של שושלת טאנג, בראשית המאה העשירית. הכרך בוחן את דפוסי תפקודה של הקיסרות בתקופה זו, את תנודותיה בין המערכת הביורוקרטית הריכוזית ובין המערכת האריסטוקרטית הביזורית, את דרכי התמודדותה עם האיומים מבית ומחוץ, את מחזורי ההתפשטות וההצטמקות, האחדות והפיצול, ואת התהליכים והתמורות שהתחוללו בחייה הכלכליים, החברתיים, הרעיוניים, הדתיים והתרבותיים. הכרך מבהיר כיצד תהליכים מורכבים ורווי סתירות אלה הביאו בהדרגה להתגבשות המערכת הפוליטית והחברתית היציבה שתאפיין את סין הקיסרית המאוחרת. תשומת לב מיוחדת מוקדשת בכרך זה ליחסי סין עם שכנותיה, ולתרומת אחדות מהן - בייחוד השליטים הנכריים של צפון סין בין המאות הרביעית לשישית- לתקומתה של הקיסרות הריכוזית.
כן כולל הכרך דיון מפורט בשתי המסורות הדתיות החשובות של סין: הדאואיזם והבודהיזם, ובוחן בהרחבה התפתחויות בתחום הציור והפיסול, השירה והכתיבה ההיסטורית, ההגות הפילוסופית וחיי היום-יום של בני העילית ושל פשוטי העם. כמו בכרך הקודם, הדיון מתבסס על שילוב שיטתי בין הממצאים הכתובים למקורות החומריים, ומאפשר הצגה של תמונה מקורית, רחבה וייחודית של הצגה של תמונה מקורית, רחבה וייחודית של דפוסי תפקודה של הקיסרות הסינית המוקדמת.
The Encyclopedia of Empire
Qin was the first imperial polity in China’s history and despite its brevity its influence remain... more Qin was the first imperial polity in China’s history and despite its brevity its influence remained palpable throughout the imperial millennia. It annexed its rivals by military means, but the unification of “All-under-Heaven” was legitimated long before it happened by competing thinkers of the preceding Warring States period. Qin relied on a highly centralized and impressively effective bureaucratic organization, which allowed it to fully utilize human and material resources of the realm. However, its excessive mobilization of the populace backfired, causing huge popular uprisings and the dynasty’s swift collapse.
Asiatische Studien 77 (3-4), 2023
Spring and Autumn Historiography is a useful book, even though it is also somewhat of a missed op... more Spring and Autumn Historiography is a useful book, even though it is also somewhat of a missed opportunity. It is useful because the author excels in deciphering the formulaic language of one of the most enigmatic early Chinese texts, making this text more accessible to students and scholars. It is disappointing, because the author could have advanced our understanding of this text much further, had she opted for a more nuanced historical approach and had she paid more attention to previous and current research. The text under discussion is Chunqiu 春秋, which I prefer to translate as the Springs-and-Autumns Annals; Van Auken opts for a singular "Spring and Autumn" (to avoid confusion, I shall hereafter refer to the text as Chunqiu). As Van Auken acknowledges, the first time she looked at the text she "thought it was boring" (p. xiii), and this is the impression shared by the overwhelming majority of modern readers. The dry chronicle of major events in the life of the state of Lu 魯 and its neighbors and allies between 722 and 481 (or 479) BCE is surely not engaging reading. For two millennia, however, the text was a must for any educated man of letters, because it was widely believed that its formulaic language contains the "great meaning in subtle words" 微言大義 allegedly embedded there by Confucius 孔子 (551-479 BCE) himself. In the early twentieth century, however, as the traditional examination curriculum was abolished, while Confucius lost his position as China's "utmost sage" 至聖, the interest in Chunqiu receded dramatically. 1 An attempt to re-engage the text from a post-Confucian perspective is therefore highly welcome. Van Auken's book is based on her PhD dissertation, "A Formal Analysis of the Chuenchiou (Spring and Autumn Classic)" completed back in 2006 (University of Washington, under the supervision of William G. Boltz). That seventeen years separate the dissertation and the current monograph may reflect the publishers' 1 Throughout the twentieth century, scholars who addressed Chunqiu did it primarily at sidelines of the studies of one of its commentaries, primarily Zuozhuan 左傳 (Zuo Tradition) and Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳 (the third commentary, Guliang zhuan 穀梁傳, merited much less scholarly attention). In the twenty-first century, signs of renewed interest in Chunqiu abound, including a new journal, Chunqiu studies 春秋學研究, the inaugural issue of which was published by Shanghai guji chubanshe 上海古 籍出版社 in May 2023.
Philosophy East and West 73.2, 449-458, 2023
This is part of the multi-author review of Tao Jiang's opus magnum, Origins of Moral- Political P... more This is part of the multi-author review of Tao Jiang's opus magnum, Origins of Moral- Political Philosophy in Early China, published in Philosophy East and West 73.2 (2023), 449-458
Journal of Asian Studies, 2022
This brief (JAS) review focuses on methodological problems posed by Tao Jiang's opus magnum.
Bamboo and Silk, 2022
This is my review of Yang Bo's 楊博, 戰國楚竹書史學價值 探研 (Studies on the Historiographic Value of the Wa... more This is my review of Yang Bo's 楊博, 戰國楚竹書史學價值 探研 (Studies on the Historiographic Value of the Warring States Period Bamboo Manuscripts from Chu) (Shanghai 2019, 544 pp.).
Orientalistische Literaturzeitung , 2021
Review of _Lu Jia’s New Discourses. A Political Manifesto from the Early Han Dynasty_, trans. by ... more Review of _Lu Jia’s New Discourses. A Political Manifesto from the Early Han Dynasty_, trans. by Paul R. Goldin and Elisa Levi Sabattini. _Orientalistische Literaturzeitung_ 116.1 (2021): 76–79
Journal of the American Oriental Society 140.3, 2020
History of Political Thought 41.3 (2020): 513-516
Journal of Chinese history, 2019
Offers detailed review and criticism of Su Li's book published by Princeton UP in 2018.
My review of Wu Xiaolong, Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China (Cambridge 2017)... more My review of Wu Xiaolong, Material Culture, Power, and Identity in Ancient China (Cambridge 2017). Published in Journal of Asian Studies 77.3 (2018): 791-792.
Journal of the American Oriental Society 138.1 (2018)
Journal of Chinese Religions, 2017
Explores weaknesses of Jiang Qing's argument, particularly from a historical point of view
China Review International 19.3, 2012
Early China, 2011
How the first large-scale centralizing project in China, the Zhou conquest polity, had been laid ... more How the first large-scale centralizing project in China, the Zhou conquest polity, had been laid out in the physical-geographical space? How the Zhou kings managed to control political entities in far east detached from the royal centres in Wei River Valley by many hundreds kilometres, and why their authority ended roughly a hundred kilometres to the west and the north from the Zhou metropolitan area? Why the ill-famed Rong “barbarians” were able to smash the power of the Zhou in the west in 771 BC? When, why and how the west-east migration of Zhou aristocratic lineages, which, indeed, became one of the main catalysts of the ceaseless warfare of the following centuries, begun? Based on a wide range of sources, including delivered texts from the Zhou and Han periods, Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, archaeological data, as well as on results of the ongoing Sinological historical scholarship, Li Feng’s first book sheds light on many aspects of the history of the Early China, some of which have been treated rather superficially in earlier general histories of the Western Zhou period published in the west.
Journal of Chinese Studies, 2009
This is a handout for my webinar Early Chinese Historiography Reconsidered: The Impact of Paleogr... more This is a handout for my webinar Early Chinese Historiography Reconsidered: The Impact of Paleographic Revolution. The webinar will take place on Wed, 11.11.2020, 16:30 Jerusalem time (GMT+2). You are welcome to join at bit.ly/3583JD6. For those who are interested in the topic, I recommend to print the handout in advance and to use it parallel to my PPT.
Announcement of research grant for advanced students in traditional China/traditional Japan field... more Announcement of research grant for advanced students in traditional China/traditional Japan field, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Department of Asian Studies is happy to announce scholarships for MA students in Chinese Stud... more The Department of Asian Studies is happy to announce scholarships for MA students in Chinese Studies (all areas of and subjects within this broadly defined field are eligible). The scholarship is in the sum of 50,000 NIS per year, for two years pending on the successfully passing the requirements of the first year and on our ability to receive funding for the continuation of this program. Conditions and Eligibility: The scholarship is open for students who will be registered to an MA program at the Hebrew University in the academic year of 2022-2023. Preference will be given to first year MA students in the Department of Asian Studies, but candidates from other departments and those that already started their MA can apply. The scholarship will be awarded according to academic merits. To receive the scholarship for the second year (pending our ability to get funding for it) the students will need to submit a progress report, to have been accepted to the research oriented (with a thesis) MA program, and have an MA advisor who will approve their progress and the subject of their MA thesis. Candidates should send, in one file, the following documents to the secretary of the Department of Asian Studies
Chinese empire was renowned for high cultural prestige and exceptional productivity of history wr... more Chinese empire was renowned for high cultural prestige and exceptional productivity of history writing. In distinction, only a very few historical texts survived from the millennium preceding China’s imperial unification of 221 BCE. Yet recent paleographic discoveries and a more nuanced understanding of transmitted texts allow us to reassess the formative age of China’s historiographic tradition. Our symposium gathers specialists in history, philosophy, literature, paleography, and archeology, for a joint exploration of a broad variety of historical and quasi-historical texts now available. Our goal is to understand the role of history-writing in the intellectual and political life of pre-imperial China. Who produced historical texts, and for what audiences and purposes? What were the sources that historians utilized, and how did they get access to them? What inspired trust in the historian, and where was his authority coming from? How did historical texts circulate? How are they related to contemporaneous ideological cleavages? What was their role in the formation of regional and trans-regional identities? How did history-writing evolve during these centuries and how is it related (or not) to subsequent imperial-age historiography? What are the differences and similarities between early Chinese historiographic traditions and those in other ancient civilizations? By engaging these questions we hope to raise our understanding of early Chinese historiography to a new level.
Organizers:
Yuri Pines (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Martin Kern (Princeton University)
For further details and abstracts, visit http://ias.huji.ac.il/content/rethinking-early-chinese-historiography#overlay-context=content/rethinking-early-chinese-historiography
A Humboldt Foundation International Workshop Comparative Studies in Imperial History in memory of... more A Humboldt Foundation International Workshop
Comparative Studies in Imperial History
in memory of S. N. Eisenstadt
Empires and Religions
Freie Universität Berlin, March 1-3, 2018
The Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies offers post-doctoral fellowships for the 2021-20... more The Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies offers post-doctoral fellowships for the 2021-2022 academic year. The post-docs are open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences specializing in East Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia.
The Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is glad to announce the lau... more The Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is glad to announce the launching of a new English-language graduate program in Chinese Studies in the 2018-19 academic year. The program includes advanced Chinese language courses and a wide variety of seminar courses on Chinese history, archaeology, philosophy, intellectual history and political thought; traditional China's interactions with Asian and European cultures, as well as the culture, society, and politics of traditional, modern, and contemporary China. Students in the program will join a vibrant academic community and enjoy opportunities for stimulating scholarly exchanges through international workshops, conferences and guest lectures by world-renowned scholars, sponsored by the Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies and the Confucius Institute at the Hebrew University. Scholarship support may be available for eligible candidates who are PRC citizens through the China Scholarship Council. Admission to the program requires a Lower Advanced level of English proficiency. Prior to graduation, candidates are expected to attain upper advanced level in English.
Ancient China and pharaonic Egypt were two of the most long-lived polities of the ancient world. ... more Ancient China and pharaonic Egypt were two of the most long-lived polities of the ancient world. Both of them succeeded in integrating a diversity of regions and peoples under a single monarch and in creating unique self-referential cultures, which survived periods of political fragmentation and of conquest by foreign peoples. Under these conditions, key concepts emerged that served to express order, justice, harmony, and good government. They provided an indispensable ideological tool to legitimize royal authority as well as a world view that helped define Egyptian and Chinese values when compared to neighboring areas and peoples, usually regarded as the "Other." Two of these concepts, Egyptian maat and Chinese tianxia, may prove particularly useful for comparing the very particular ways in which Egyptian and Chinese leaders thought about their role in the world, both as builders of cosmic order and as efficient rulers that held together the peoples they governed.
