The group had three interrelated goals: first, to access, read and analyse Javanese texts not studied to date, a basic but indispensable prerequisite to our ability to better generalize and theorize. Second, to re-read texts studied by earlier generations of scholars but employ in their analysis theoretical paradigms previously untapped in the field and knowledge from adjoining areas including religious studies, performance, and cultural studies. Third, and based on the first two goals, to broadly rethink and remap major dimensions of the field including periodization, contextualization, literary categorizations, and interpretive methods.

• To date the group has produced a sorely needed Reader that includes selections from the Javanese texts read throughout the residency period, with translations, notes and references, aimed at students of Javanese language and literature. The Reader was edited by Tony Day and Els Bogaerts and published in the open access Indonesian journal Wacana (December 2021), see:
  http://wacana.ui.ac.id/index.php/wjhi/issue/view/55/showToc

• Group members are also working collaboratively on an edited volume that will showcase the groups’ work, including its theoretical and methodological contributions to the field, i.e. the “new directions” dimension.
• Individual publications by group members, based on the work done while at the IIAS, including textual editions, translations, and scholarly articles, are forthcoming.
• A follow-up workshop will took place online, March 7-9, 2021.

Outreach: during their stay at IIAS group members organized and led many public events with the goal of introducing Indonesian and Javanese cultures to members of the Hebrew University and Israeli society more generally. These included film screenings, public lectures, a book launch, a conference, and the year’s highlight: a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performance accompanied by gamelan music, attended by an audience of two hundred (please watch video).

For a video of the shadow puppet performance, see:

On the group’s residence at IIAS see:

https://iias.huji.ac.il/New-Directions-in-the-Study-of-Javanese-Literature

On the group’s conference, Java in Jerusalem, see:

https://iias.huji.ac.il/event/java-jerusalem-research-group-conference

 

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For further info about Prof. Ronit Ricci's research click HERE.

 

Current Research (2108-Present)

A Medieval Long-Wall of the Mongolian Steppe

Construction and deployment of long (or “great”) walls occurred periodically throughout Chinese history, from the last centuries BCE and up until the 17th century CE. Among the different episodes of long wall construction, walls built during the medieval period, between the 11th to the 13th century CE, are the most enigmatic. This wall (or walls) is made of two main sections, a northern and a southern one, that altogether stretches over at least 3,500 km, making it among the longest walls ever to be constructed in world history. However, in spite of its huge size, the historical records are silent about this monument. Moreover, little modern research has been done on this medieval wall-system and it is hardly mentioned in authoritative works on the Chinese “Great Wall” or on the medieval period in China and Mongolia.

 

In this project I am focusing on one section of the Medieval Long-Wall, located in the northeastern-most part of Mongolia (and continuing into Russia and China as well). This northern line, also known as the “Genghis Wall,” extends some 800km long in one of the most isolated places of the world (fig. 2). In addition to the wall itself, the system includes other structures like fortresses and camps located along its line.

So far we have carried out two field seasons (July 2018 and July 2019) in Northeast Mongolia’s Dornod province. Our aim was to assess the layout of the wall and associated structures and to collect data on the time of its construction, the technique used for building this wall and to try and identify the purposes for which it was constructed. The two expeditions were headed by Prof. Gideon Shelach-Lavi of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Prof. William Honeychurch of Yale University and Dr. Amartuvshin Chunag of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Our research teams included students and researchers from the Hebrew University and from the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. It was funded by the endowment of the Louis Frieberg Chair of East Asian Studies, by funds from the Mandel-Scholion Research Center and by the Ring Foundation.

In July 2018 we built our camp near the wall remains and systematically surveyed its line, as well as some of the forts and camps that are associated with it. During the survey we collected ceramic shards and other artifacts that will help us date the wall. In addition, we brought with us a drone and used it to take aerial photos that revealed and documented the full complexity of the wall system. We also used metal detectors to try and find coins and other artifacts that will help us date the time of construction and use of the wall precisely. The results of this expedition and our analysis of the geography of the wall-line are reported in a paper published in the archaeological journal Antiquity (2020).

In July and early August 2019 we returned to a section of the wall and a cluster of sites next to it (cluster no. 24 – figs. 2 and 3). Our aim was to better date the wall and understand its different components. This time we conducted a series of test excavations. One of these excavations was a section that cut through the wall itself, and the others exposed four locations within the circular and rectangular structures south of it. These excavations exposed the makeup of the different structures, including the wall and a deep ditch that existed north of it. We took numerous samples for dating (using 14C and OSL methods) and for geological and chemical analysis.

 

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Gideon Shelach-Lavi Research

Previous Researches:

 

CHIFENG RESEARCH PROJECT (1998-2007)

The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project (CICARP) was one of the largest international collaborative archaeological field projects ever to be conducted in China. It started from my doctoral research (1994-5) and evolved into a Sino-foreign archeological project comprising experts from the Institute of Archeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, Jilin University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Pittsburgh, USA. For further info click here. 

 

FUXIN REGIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT (2011-2016)

The Fuxin Regional Archaeological Project was initiated and directed by Prof. Shelach-Lavi in cooperation with Prof. Jilin University, China. It focused on the transition from mobile hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary agriculturalist societies and the evolution of complex societies in northeast China. Our archaeological field research focused on the Fuxin area (阜新) of western Liaoning Province (fig. 1). This was an interdisciplinary collaborative project that brought together archaeologists and students from the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology at Jilin University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University and the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics. The research was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation (Grant no. 501/11) and the National Geographic Society (Grant no. 8614-09). For further info click here.

 

MI RIVER BASIN (SHANDONG) ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT (2018 – Present)

The Mi River Basin (Shandong) Archaeological Project is the first stage in a larger research project that aims at a better understanding of the long-term trajectory from mobile hunter-gatherers to sedentary agricultural societies in East China. It focuses not only on the reasons for this also on its social context and on the economic, social and cultural consequences that resulted from this revolutionary process. The research is supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (Grant no. 728/17). For further info click here.

 

 

Previous Publications:

 

Books

Shelach, G. 2015. The Archaeology of Ancient China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Pines, Y. and Shelach, G . 2012. Kol Asher mi-takhat le-shamaim: Sin Ha-Keisarit (All under Heaven: Imperial China [in Hebrew]), (Yitzhak Shichor chief editor). Volmue 2: Ha-Keisarut Hamukdement (the Early Imperial Period), Tel-Aviv: The Open University Press. 429pp.

Shelach, G. 2012. Zhongguo Beibu Bianjiang Diqu de Shiqian Shehui (中国北部边疆地区的是前社会). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe (China Social Sciences Press). 220pp.

Shelach, G. and Y. Pines . 2009. Kol Asher mi-takhat le-shamaim: Sin Ha-Keisarit (All under Heaven: Imperial China [in Hebrew]), (Yitzhak Shichor chief editor). Volume 1: Mekorot Ha-Keisarut Ha-Sinit (Origins of the Chinese Empire), Tel-Aviv: The Open University Press. 347pp.

Shelach, G. 2009. Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China: Archaeological Perspectives on Identity Formation and Economic Change during the First Millennium BCE. London, Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology Series, Equinox. 203pp.         

Shelach, G. 1999. Leadership Strategies, Economic Activity, and Interregional Interaction: Social Complexity in Northeast China. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press. 280pp.

Edited Books

Kowner, R., G. Bar-Oz, M. Biran, M. Shahar, G. Shelach-Lavi (Eds.) 2019. Animals and Human Society in Asia: Historical, Cultural and Ethical Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Yuri Pines , Lothar von Falkenhausen , Gideon Shelach and Robin D.S.Yates , eds., 2013. The Birth of Empire: The State of Qin revisited. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project, eds., 2011. Settlement Patterns in the Chifeng Region. Pittsburgh: Center for Comparative Archaeology, University of Pittsburgh (The final report of the Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project of which I am one of the PIs.).

The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project ed. 2003. Regional Archaeology in Eastern Inner Mongolia: A Methodological Exploration, Beijing: Kexue chubanshe. (Also published in Chinese).

 

Selected Papers:

 

Shelach-Lavi, G. 2022. How Neolithic farming changed China. Nature Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00899-4

Tu, D., G. Shelach-Lavi, and T.F. Ying, 2022. Economy, Sharing Strategies and Community Structure in the Early Neolithic Village of Chahai, Northeast China. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2022.101420

Jaffe, Y., G. Shelach-Lavi and R. Campbell 2022. Shimao and the Rise of States in China: Archaeology, Historiography and Myth. Current Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1086/719398

Shelach-Lavi, G., Y. Jaffe and G. Bar-Oz (2021). Cavalry and the Great Walls of China and Mongolia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(16): https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024835118

Storozum, M., D. Golan, I. Wachtel, Z. Zhang, J. S. Lotze,and G. Shelach-Lavi, (2021). Mapping the Medieval Wall System of China and Mongolia: A Multi-Method Approach. Land 10(997). https://doi.org/10.3390/land10100997

Shelach-Lavi, G., Honeychurch, W. and Chunag, A (2020). Does extra-large equal extra-ordinary? The ‘Wall of Chinggis Khan’ from a multidimensional perspective. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 7, 22. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0524-2

Jaffe, Y., Castellano, L., Shelach-Lavi, G., & Campbell, R. (2020). Mismatches of scale in the application of paleoclimatic research to Chinese archaeology. Quaternary Research, 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.60

Stevens, Chris J., Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Hai Zhang, Mingyu Teng, and Dorian Q Fuller (2021), A model for the domestication of Panicum miliaceum (common, proso or broomcorn millet) in China. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00804-z

Wachtel I., R. Zidon, and G. Shelach‐Lavi. 2020. Using the Maximal Entropy Modeling Approach to Analyze the Evolution of Sedentary Agricultural Societies in Northeast China. Entropy. 22(3); https://doi.org/10.3390/e22030307.

Shelach-Lavi G, Ido Wachtel, Dan Golan, Otgonjargal Batzorig, Amartuvshin Chunag, Ronnie Ellenblum, and William Honeychurch (Forthcoming 2020), Long-Wall construction in the Mongolian steppe during the Medieval Period (11th to the 13th centuries CE), Antiquity.

Shelach-Lavi G., M. Teng, Y. Goldsmith, I. Wachtel, C.J. Stevens, O. Marder, X. Wan, X. Wu, D. Tu, R. Shavit, P. Polissar, H. Xu, D.Q. Fuller (2019) Sedentism and plant cultivation in northeast China emerged during affluent conditions. PLoS ONE. 14(7): e0218751.

Li Yali, G. Shelach-Lavi, R. Ellenblum, 2019.  Short-Term Climatic Catastrophes and the Collapse of the Liao Dynasty (907-1125) – The Textual Evidence. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 49 (4): 591-610.

Shelach-Lavi, G. 2019. Archaeology and politics in China: Historical paradigm and identity construction in museum exhibitions. China Information: 33 (1): 23-45.

Wachtel, Ido, Royi Zidon, Shimon Garti, and Gideon Shelach-Lavi. 2018. Predictive modeling for archaeological site locations: Comparing logistic regression and maximal entropy in north Israel and north-east China. Journal of Archaeological Science 92: 28-36.

Shelach-Lavi, G. and Tu Dongdong, 2017. Food, Pots and Socio-Economic Transformation: The Beginning and Intensification of Pottery Production in North China. Archaeological Research In Asia.

Shelach-Lavi, G. Mingyu Teng, Y. Goldsmith, I. Wachtel, A. Ovadia, Xiongfei Wan, and O. Marder. 2016. Human Adaptation and Socio-Economic Change in Northeast China: Results of the Fuxin Regional Survey. Journal of Field Archaeology 41(4): 467-485.

Shelach, G. and Y. Jaffe , 2014. The Earliest States in China: A long-Term Trajectory Approach. Journal of Archaeological Research. 22 (4): 327-364.

Chen Bo, and G. Shelach , 2014. An Archaeological and Regional Perspective on the Fortified Settlements and the Settlement System in the Northern Zone of the Han Empire (206BCE-220CE). Antiquity 88: 222-240.

Shelach, G. 2012. On the Invention of Pottery. Science. 336:1644-1645.

Peterson, C . and G. Shelach , 2012. Jiangzhai: Social and Economic Organization of a Middle Neolithic Chinese Village. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 31:265-301 (Translated into Chinese and published in Nanfang Wenwu 南方文物 2015.4: 250-265).

Shelach, G. , K. Raphael, and Y. Jaffe. 2011. Sanzuodian: The Structure, Function and Social Significance of the Earliest Stone Fortified Sites in China. Antiquity. 85: 11-26.

Other papers can also be found in my Academia.edu site.

 

 

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Irina Lyan Research Projects

 

Current research projects
 

In the name of innovation: Legitimacy, espionage, and nation branding in the Apple v. Samsung “smartphone patent wars”  

This research project (ISF no. 1067/21) sheds light on mechanisms of national image resistance,
shift, and change, examining the so-called “second miracle on the Han river”—South Korea’s
becoming a nation of innovation. For this purpose, I will focus on the Apple v. Samsung “patent
wars” (2011–2018), which began with a lawsuit filed by Apple Inc. against its main component
supplier, Samsung Electronics Co., and evolved into a massive legal dispute lasting more than 7
years, affecting 10 different countries in 4 different continents, and generating more than 250
lawsuits and counterclaims. These legal battles were prompted by the infringement of intellectual
property rights (IPR—mainly, patents), which lie at the heart of any debates regarding
innovation. To gain legitimacy, both sides have raised claims that echo a larger discourse taking
place inside and outside the legal arena on IPR while (re)positioning themselves as leading
technologic innovators and fighters in the name of innovation.

ImagiNation: South Korea in the post-miracle era South Korea, home to and hero of one of the largest, swiftest, and dramatic transformations of the 20 th century, has fueled developmental fantasies and desires of the world’s peripheries eager to learn from its success. Famous for its economic miracle, known as the “Miracle on Han River,” and cultural miracle, known as “the Korean Wave” or Hallyu, Korea has transformed its image from one of the poorest and most marginalized nations in the world to the nouveau riche
status it commands in the realms of technological innovation and cultural creativity. This book
project aims to revisit Korea’s miracles as an outstanding case study for swift image-shifting
events focusing on the mechanisms of imagining the nation. It examines the work of imagination
by asking how national images are born, reproduced, projected, and resisted, addressing the
wider themes of social change and continuity in imagined communities.

Recent Research Project

Korean Wave in the Middle East

The recent success of Korean popular culture beyond national and regional borders, known as
the Korean Wave or Hallyu, has allowed us to explore alternative non-Western globalization,
Asian soft power and cultural diplomacy, emergence of fans’ communities, creative industries
and more. Since 2012, together with colleagues from the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences we organized three international conferences at the Hebrew University and published 8
papers and book chapters on the fandom of Korean popular culture in Israel and the Middle East.
For instance, our study with Nissim Otmazgin (Hebrew University) on Israeli and Palestinian K-
pop fans found that they often seemed to escape or take refuge from political events or personal
problems through fandom activities while active promotion of Korean popular culture in Israel
empowered them. Another study with Sulafa Zidani (MIT) and Limor Shifman (Hebrew
University) on Psy’s “Gangnam Style” video remakes in Israel and the wider Middle East has
dealt with humor, meme, and politics in local reinterpretations of “made-in-Korea” cultural
products. Our next research project together with Elad Segev (Tel Aviv University), Menachem
Blondheim (Hebrew University), and Nissim Otmazgin (Hebrew University) will deal with
Korea’s global position with a focus on entertainment, as reflected in worlds news based on 3
million items captured between 2009 and 2022.

Irina Lyan: Research Publications

Major recent publications (2020-2022)

• Lyan, Irina (2022). Shock and Surprise: Theorization of the Korean Wave through mediatized emotions. International Journal of Communication. (forthcoming).
• Lyan, Irina (2022). Ex-periphery: South Korea in the development discourse. In Korea and the Global Society: Engagement and Reciprocity. Edited by Yonson Ahn. Routledge. (forthcoming).
• Lyan, Irina (2022) “Start-up Nation” vs. “The Republic of Samsung:” Power and politics in the partner choice discourse in Israeli-Korean business collaboration. Critical Perspectives in International Business, 18(2), 243–260.
• Lyan, Irina and Frenkel, Michal (2022). Industrial espionage revisited: Host country- foreign MNC legal disputes and the postcolonial imagery. Organization, 29(1), 30–50.
• Lyan, Irina (2021). Between two homelands: Diasporic nationalism and academic pilgrimage of the Korean Christian Community in Jerusalem. S/N Korean Humanities, 7(1), 37–70
• Lyan, Irina (2021). “Koreans are the Israelis of the East”: A postcolonial reading of cultural similarities in cross-cultural management. Culture and Organization, 27(6), 507–525.

 

Ideas, ideals, and values formed during these centuries shaped the political trajectory of the Chinese empire for millennia to come and some of them remain relevant well into our days. How these ideas were formed, debated, and modified, what was their transformative value and how they were adapted to the realities of pre-imperial and imperial ages are the questions Prof. Pines explores in most of his studies. His most recent project in this regard (ISF grant 511/11) was translation cum study of the Book of Lord Shang, one of the most controversial texts from early China. Visit here for a sample of related articles.

Prof. Pines's second research focus of is early Chinese historiography. Historical and quasi-historical texts created during the Springs-and-Autumns and the Warring States periods provide important clues to the political, social, economic, and military realities that shaped ideological choices of that age. But how reliable our sources are? To answer these questions we should ask: how were historical records produced, by whom, and for which audience? What were the goals of recording history and how were historical records used and abused in political controversies of that age? Prof. Pines's exploration of these topics started with the study of the Zuo zhuan 左傳—the largest and by far the most important historical text of pre-imperial era—and continues through analysis of other historical and quasi-historical texts. His current research (ISF grant 240/15) focuses on the unearthed historigraphical manuscripts from the state of Chu that shed a new light on our understanding of early Chinese history writing. For a sample of publications, see here and here.

Prof. Pines's third research interest is analyzing strengths and weaknesses of Chinese empire from a comparative perspective. Manifold similarities between Chinese empire and those of other large continental empires in Eurasia both in terms of challenges faced and in replies to these challenges are undeniable. How then Chinese empire did attain much higher longevity than any comparable polity worldwide and what was the price of this achievement? In his earlier studies, Prof. Pines emphasized the empire’s exceptional ideological prowess: its fundamental ideological orientations were shaped long before it was formed, and their hegemonic position was never challenged prior to the end of the 19th century. Currently Prof. Pines is participating in a collaborative project co-organized by Michal Biran, Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Jörg Rüpke and himself that focuses on a systematic analysis of Eurasian imperial entities.

In addition to these grand questions, Prof. Pines explores from time to time issues in political history of early China; the impact of regional ethno-cultural identities on political dynamics of pre-imperial and early imperial age; topics related to early Chinese religion; the impact of early Chinese ideology on subsequent intellectual trajectory of imperial and post-imperial China; and so forth.

 

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Yuri Pines׳ Research Projects

Current research projects

China in the Aristocratic Age: The Springs-and-Autumns Period Revisited

The Springs-and-Autumns period (Chunqiu 春秋, 770-453 BCE) is often paired with the
subsequent Warring States period (Zhanguo 戰國, 453-221 BCE) as the formative age of
Chinese civilization. At a closer look, however, the Springs-and-Autumns period appears
dramatically different from what is often associated with normative orientations of Chinese
social and political life. It was the age when political fragmentation was considered a norm and
not an aberration, when many states were moving from monarchic to de-facto oligarchic form of
rule, when political participation of the lower strata was acceptable and even partly
institutionalized, when pedigree mattered much more than abilities in determining the
individual’s career, and when the lineage cohesiveness was subversive of rather than conducive
to preserving the sociopolitical order. In many respects, therefore, the Springs-and-Autumns
period appears as an inversion of traditional Chinese political values rather than their
affirmation. Reevaluating this age and its place in the larger picture of China’s history is the goal
of the proposed research. By integrating the existent secondary studies with the new perspectives
on traditional textual sources and their reliability, and with the newly available material and
paleographic data I hope to be able not only to re-chart the Springs-and-Autumns-period social,
political, and cultural history, but also provide a new understanding of this period’s place within
the longue durée of China’s sociopolitical development. (The project is supported by ISF grant 568/19)

Studies in comparative imperial history

This multi-participants international collaborative project aims to create a comparative framework through which we can analyze fundamental functioning parameters of pre-moder and early modern Eurasian empires. The project started in 2015 and is currently run by five colleagues: Michal Biran (Hebrew University), Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna,  Karen Radner, LMU Munich,  Jörg Rüpke , University of Erfurt, and myself.  Our two first meetings focused on the empires’ spatial dimensions (see details here and the resultant book here) and on empires and religions (see here). The next leg, planned for 2023, will explore the imperial elites and different ways employed to control or co-opt them. Two further meetings will focus on the role of the emperors and the place of the
military in the empires’ history. We hope that our project will highlight differences, similarities, and mutual influences among different imperial models and contribute to our understanding of what is an empire and how empires functioned in different civilizational settings.

 

Recent Research Projects

Rethinking early Chinese historiography in light of newly discovered historical texts

For generations scholars have been puzzled by the stark contrast between the overarching importance of history-writing in imperial China and the meagerness of historical texts from the centuries preceding the imperial unification of 221 BCE. Recently, however, a series of newly discovered bamboo manuscripts from the Warring States period (453-221 BCE) have allowed us to reappraise the history of early Chinese historiography. These manuscripts, the most notable of which is the historical text Xinian 繫年 (String of years or Linked years) from the state of Chu, shed new light on the questions related to the production, circulation, and audience of historical texts in early China, their different political, ritual, and ideological usages, and their roles in the cultural and intellectual dynamics of China’s extraordinarily vibrant pre-imperial age. My studies of the text culminated with its translation cum study  be published in 2020. The
major byproduct was a new engagement with Zuozhuan 左傳, the major—and hugely controversial—historical text that covers the Springs-and-Autumns period. Zuozhuan stood at the center of the international workshop “Rethinking Early Chinese Historiography” (May 2019; ISF grant 978/18). The workshop resulted in two forthcoming publications—a volume Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography co-edited by myself, Martin Kern, and Nino Luraghi, and a special issue of the Hebrew journal Historia focused on comparative early historiography (due to be published in 2022; co-edited by myself and Alexander Yakobson). The research was supported by ISF grant 240/15.

 

The Book of Lord Shang: the ideology of the total state

Around 2011, I started exploring the ideology of the Book of Lord Shang (Shangjunshu 商君書),
a hugely controversial attributed to Shang Yang 商鞅 (d. 338 BCE) but penned partly by Shang Yang’s later followers. The abundance of appalling statements in this text, as well as its bad state of preservation and relatively low literary qualities hindered in-depth study of its content, particularly in Western Sinology. In my publications, crowned with my translation cum study of the text I tried to show its underlying logic, elucidate the richness of its philosophical content, contextualize it in sociopolitical realities of the Warring States period, and highlight its intellectual boldness (that research was supported by ISF grant 511/11). Currently, my attention shifts to a closely related text, Han Feizi 韓非子, attributed to Han Fei 韓非 (d. 233 BCE). Originally, I was attracted to Han Feizi primarily because of its tragic dimensions: Han Fei was fully committed to the idea of autocratic rule and was simultaneously fully aware that the autocrat himself is the weakest part of the political system. Now am moving further to explore Han Feizi’s intellectual sophistication and unusual skill with which this controversial text undermines moralizing discourse of self-serving intellectuals. Yet the brilliance with which the thinker exposes the machinations of rival intellectuals contains the seeds of another tragedy: that of an intellectual who warns that no intellectual should be trusted. One of the forthcoming outcomes of this engagement is a volume which am editing for Springer, Dao Companion to China’s fa traditions: The Philosophy of Governance by Impartial Standards.

 

Research Publications

Major recent publications (2020-2022)

• Yuri Pines, Zhou History Unearthed: The Bamboo Manuscript Xinian and Early Chinese Historiography. New York: Columbia University Press (Translations from the Asian Classics Series), 2020. (Winner, Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines, 2021).
• Yuri Pines, Michal Biran, Jörg Rüpke, eds., The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021
• Li Wai-yee and Yuri Pines, eds., Keywords in Chinese Culture. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2020.
• “Didactic Narrative and the Art of Self-Strengthening: Reading the Bamboo Manuscript Yue gong qi shi 越公其事,” Early China 2022.
• 从《商君书•徕民》看“商鞅学派”的思想变迁——兼论战国晚期秦国人口及军事变化 (Intellectual change within “Shang Yang’s school” as observed from “Attracting the People” chapter of the Book of Lord Shang: also discussing demographic and military changes in the late Warring States-period state of Qin). Jiang Huai luntan 江淮论坛 6 (2021), 5-13.
• “De in the Zuozhuan,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 48 (2021): 130-142.
• “Names and Titles in Eastern Zhou Texts,” T’oung Pao 106.3 (2020): 228-234 (714-720).
• Juan Carlos Moreno García and Yuri Pines, “Maat and Tianxia: Building world orders in ancient Egypt and China.” Journal of Egyptian History 13 (2020): 227-270.
• “Limits of All-under-Heaven: Ideology and Praxis of ‘Great Unity’ in Early Chinese Empire.” In: The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, ed. Yuri Pines, Michal Biran, and Jörg Rüpke, 79-110. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
• “‘To die for the Sanctity of the Name’: Name (ming 名) as prime-mover of political action in early China.” In: Keywords in Chinese Culture, eds. Li Wai-yee and Yuri Pines, 169-218. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2020. Major Previous Monographs and Edited Volumes
• The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China. New York: Columbia University Press (Translations from the Asian Classics Series), 2017. (Winner, 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title).
  - Paperback edition (abridged and revised): 2019.
• The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.
• Envisioning Eternal Empire: Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009. (Winner: Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines)
  - L’invention de la Chine éternelle: Comment les maîtres-penseurs des Royaumes combattants ont construit l’empire le plus long de l’histoire (Ve - IIIe siècles av. J.-C.), translated by Damien Chaussende. Paris: Belles Lettres, 2013.
  - Zhanwang yongheng diguo: Zhanguo shidai de Zhongguo zhengzhi sixiang shi 展望永恒帝国：战国时代的中国政治思想, translated by Sun Yinggang 孫英剛. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2013 ; hardback edition 2018.
• Foundations of Confucian Thought: Intellectual Life in the Chunqiu Period, 722-453 B.C.E. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002.
• Yuri Pines, Paul R. Goldin, and Martin Kern, eds., Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
• Yuri Pines, Lothar von Falkenhausen, Gideon Shelach and Robin D.S. Yates, eds., Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin revisited. (New Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.

 

(mainly Persian, Arabic and Chinese) and different historiographical traditions, and classifies the acquired information into a sophisticated prosopographical database, which records the individuals acting under Mongol rule in the 13th and 14th centuries. On the basis of this unique corpus, the project maps and analyzes mobility patterns, and the far-reaching effects that this mobility generated. More specifically, it analyzes modes of migrations in Mongol Eurasia; reconstructs the religious, scientific and commercial networks active both within and beyond the empire‘s frontiers; and scrutinizes the imperial institutions through the persons who manned them. 

For details see http://mongol.huji.ac.il/

 

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Micha Biran Research

 

2017

 

Biran, Michal, ed. In the Service of the Khans: Elites in Transition in Mongol Eurasia, Asiatische
Studien 71.4 (2017),1051-1245; 194pp.

The Mongol empire (1206–1368) caused massive transformations in
the composition and functioning of elites across Eurasia. While the Mongols
themselves obviously became the new Eurasian elite, their small number as
compared to the huge territory over which they ruled and their initial inexperience
in administrating sedentary realms meant that many of their subjects
also became part of the new multi-ethnic imperial elite. Mongol preferences,
and the high level of mobility—both spatial and social—that accompanied
Mongol conquests and rule, dramatically changed the characteristics of elites
in both China and the Muslim world: While noble birth could be instrumental
in improving one’s status, early surrender to Chinggis Khan; membership in
the Mongol imperial guards (keshig); and especially, qualifications—such as
excellence in warfare, administration, writing in Mongolian script or astronomy
to name but a few—became the main ways to enter elite circles. The
present volume translates and analyzes biographies of ten members of this
new elite—from princes through generals, administrators, and vassal kings, to
scientists and artists; including Mongols, Koreans, Chinese and Muslims—
studied by researchers working at the project “Mobility, Empire and Cross
Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia” at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The annotated biographies assembled here not only add new primary sources
—translated from Chinese, Persian and Arabic—to the study of the Mongol
Empire. They also provide important insights into the social history of the
period, illuminating issues such as acculturation (of both the Mongols and
their subjects), Islamization, family relations, ethnicity, imperial administration,
and scientific exchange.
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/asia/71/4/html

 

2019

1. Kowner, Rotem,, Guy Bar-Oz, Michal Biran, Meir Shahar and Gideon Shelach. Animals
and Human Society in Asia: Historical, Cultural and Ethical Perspectives. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2019. Xviii+433 pp.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of human-animal
interactions in Asia throughout history. With twelve thematically-arranged chapters, it
examines the diverse roles that beasts, livestock, and fish ― real and metaphorical--have
played in Asian history, society, and culture.
Ranging from prehistory to the present day, the authors address a wealth of topics including
the domestication of animals, dietary practices and sacrifice, hunting, the use of animals in
war, and the representation of animals in literature and art. Providing a unique perspective
on human interaction with the environment, this volume is cross-disciplinary in its reach,
offering enriching insights to the fields of animal ethics, Asian studies, world history and
more.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-24363-0

2. Biran, Michal, ed. 2019. Mobility, Transformation and Cultural Exchange in Mongol
Eurasia. JESHO 62/2-3. 267pp.

The Mongol Empire is as an early example of the transformative role of mobility,
celebrated in the contemporary social sciences. The only way in which the Mongols
who by the time of Chinggis Khan numbered less than a million nomads, were able to
create and rule their huge empire was by fully mobilizing the resources—both human
and material—from the regions under their control. This high measure of mobility
fostered robust cross-cultural exchanges in various fields, resulting in a huge
expansion of knowledge and connectivity, cultural relativism, and a common imperial
culture—political, material, institutional—with regional variants. These developments
set the stage for major transformations in world history. The various case studies in
this double special issue- by Hodong Kim, Sheila Blair, Peter Jackson, Qiao Yang,
Yashuhiro Yokkaichi, David Robinson and Michal Biran tackle various case-studies of
mobility and transformation while looking at the Mongol Empire in Eurasian
perspective, and highlighting the impact of the Mongols’ indigenous culture on the
proto-global world of the 13th and 14th centuries.

https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/62/2-3/jesh.62.issue-2-3.xml

3. Biran, Michal. Cengiz Han, trans. Ahmet Fethi Yildirim. Istanbul: VakifBank Kultur yayinlari,
2019.

This is the Turkish translation of Biran’s Chinggis Khan 2007 (2013)..
Sadece Moğolların ve Orta Asya'nın değil, başta Çin ve İslam dünyası gelmek üzere, bütün
tarihin seyrini etkilemiş bir isim Cengiz Han. Yirmi yıllık bir mücadeleyle, tarihin en geniş
topraklarına hükmeden imparatorluklarından birini kuran ve İslam dünyasının 13. yüzyılda büyük
bir fetret devri yaşamasına yol açan bu sıradışı adamın hayatı hakkında hala çok az şey
biliyoruz.
Ortaçağ Moğol tarihi uzmanı Michal Biran bu kitabıyla, Cengiz Han'ın Asya ve İslam dünyası
üzerinde hem yıkıcı hem de yapıcı etkileri olduğunu göstermeyi amaçlıyor. Bir yandan kitlesel
katliamlar, yıkım ve yağmacılıkla anılan Cengiz'in, bir yandan da Orta Asya Türk-İslam
medeniyeti başta gelmek üzere büyük bir kültürel, siyasi, idari miras bıraktığını anlatıyor.
Cengiz Han'ın olağanüstü yaşam öyküsünü, onun çocukluğundan liderliğini kabul ettirişine,
fetihlerinden siyasi mirasına varıncaya kadar pek çok yönüyle anlatan bu kitap, tarihin hala en
çok merak uyandıran isimlerinden birine büyüleyici bir bakış.

https://www.amazon.com/Cengiz-Han-Turkish-Michal-Biran/dp/6057947401

 

2020

4. Biran, Michal, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti, eds. Along the Silk Roads in Mongol
Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, Intellectuals. Berkely: University of California Press, 2020]

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established the largest
contiguous empire in the history of the world, extending from Korea to Hungary and from Iraq, Tibet,
and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two thirds of the Old World, the Mongol Empire enabled
people, ideas, and objects to traverse immense geographical and cultural boundaries. Along the Silk
Roads in Mongol Eurasia reveals the individual stories of three key groups of people—military
commanders, merchants, and intellectuals—from across Eurasia. These annotated biographies bring to
the fore a compelling picture of the Mongol Empire from a wide range of historical sources in multiple
languages, providing important insights into a period unique for its rapid and far-reaching
transformations.

https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520298750/along-the-silk-roads-in-mongo...

 

2021

 

5. Pines Yuri, Michal Biran and Jörg Rüpke, eds. The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires
Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

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.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/limits-of-universal-rule/16E32FBD5C...

6. Michal Biran, Jonathan Brack and Francesca Fiaschetti, eds. 몽골제국, 실크로드의 개척자들:
장군, 상인, 지식인 Mongol jegug, Silk Road-eui gaecheokja deul: janggun, sang’in, jisik in... Tr.
Yi Jaehwang. Seoul: Chaekgwa hamggye (Cum Libro), 2021.[ Korean Translation of Along the
Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, Intellectuals. Berkely: University of
California Press, 2020]

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established the largest
contiguous empire in the history of the world, extending from Korea to Hungary and from Iraq, Tibet,
and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two thirds of the Old World, the Mongol Empire enabled
people, ideas, and objects to traverse immense geographical and cultural boundaries. Along the Silk
Roads in Mongol Eurasia reveals the individual stories of three key groups of people—military
commanders, merchants, and intellectuals—from across Eurasia. These annotated biographies bring to
the fore a compelling picture of the Mongol Empire from a wide range of historical sources in multiple
languages, providing important insights into a period unique for its rapid and far-reaching transformations.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/1289191328
https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000001951255

 

2021

7. Etan Kolberg and Michal Biran, eds. Studies in Arabic and Islam for Yohanan Friedman on his 80 th
Birthday. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2021. [Hebrew]
איתן קולברג ומיכל בירן, עורכים. עיונים בערבית ובאסלאם. ירושלים: האקדמיה למדעים, תשפ"א.

https://academy.ac.il/Shop/Entry.aspx?nodeId=993&entryId=22503

The proceedings of a Symposium that took place at the Israel Academy of Sciences and
Humanities in honor of Professor Yohanan Friedman on the occasion of his 80 birthday. The six articles
discuss a variety of Islamic-related subjects from the inscriptions of the Dome of the Rock via Islamic
law, art history and Arabic philology to the Islamic polemic against ISIS. The book also includes an
introduction to Prof. Friedman’s research and his comments.

 

The study, which is supported by the Spencer Foundation, draws on textbooks analysis and interviews with middle school students (Grades 10-12) in Shanghai and Henan. Its results would deepen our understanding of the political goals of Chinese education, and supply empirical evidence regarding the implementation process of the Chinese government's Patriotic Education campaign and its effects on the attitudes of Han Chinese youth of different backgrounds.

https://scholars.huji.ac.il/ornanaftali/home

 

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Orna Naftali – Dept. Website – Research Projects

 

New personal website

 

Current Research Projects

Education, Nationalism and Youth Militarization in the PRC (1949-present)

Drawing on Chinese-language government, media, and educational sources, the
project explores the promotion of military values and techniques in Chinese schools
of the 2010s, while highlighting the intersection between the militarization of youth
education and culture and the construction of national identity, masculinity, and
femininity in the PRC. While the focus is on contemporary China, the study
investigates breaks and continuities in the militarization of Chinese education since
1949. It further explores key similarities between PRC militarization processes and
the militarization of youth education worldwide. Drawing on the results of recent field
interviews with high school students of various socioeconomic backgrounds in China,
the project further examines youth perceptions of the messages they receive via
school and the media, and their personal attitudes toward war, peace, and the military.

 

Recent Research Projects

War and the Military in Contemporary Chinese Education

Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has implemented an extensive Patriotic
Education campaign in the military, government organizations, mass media, public
sites, and most noticeably, in the nation's schools. Launched shortly after the
Tiananmen Incident, the campaign has sought to foster the spirit of "love for the
nation" and "love for the army" among students while helping them imbibe "national
defense values" and "acquire the ability to resist foreign invasion." To date, however,
we have no systematic study on how Chinese schools present the concept of war to
students or how students respond to these school messages. The project addresses this
gap. Drawing on interviews with high school students and educators in a rural and
urban area, the study examines the effects of the Patriotic Education and National
Defense Education programs on Chinese youth notions of the military and armed
conflict.
(Sponsored by a Spencer Foundation research grant, 2016-2019)

 

Education and the Formation of National Identity in China

In the past two decades or so, China has witnessed a significant rise in public
expressions of nationalist sentiment, particularly among young people. Some studies
suggest that this phenomenon does not reflect genuine popular feelings, but rather was
orchestrated by the Chinese state through a "patriotic education” campaign waged in
schools and the mass media since the early 1990s. Drawing on an analysis of school
textbooks, official documents, and media materials, as well as data from written
surveys and in-depth interviews with students and teachers in vocational and
academic high schools in an urban and rural location in China, the study sought to
evaluate this thesis by exploring the effects of schooling and the Chinese
government's "patriotic education" campaign on the construction and interpretation of
national identities among Han Chinese youths of different locales and socioeconomic
backgrounds.
(Sponsored by Israel Science Foundation [ISF] Grant No. 405/12) 

 

Major Recent Publications

 

Journal articles & chapters in edited volumes

• Naftali, Orna. 2022. "Law Does Not Come Down From Heaven" Youth Legal Socialisation Approaches in Chinese Textbooks of the Xi Jinping Era.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 51(2): 265–291.
• Naftali, Orna. 2021. "Celebrating Violence? Children, Youth, and War Education in Maoist China (1949-76)". Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 14 (2): 254-273.
• Naftali, Orna. 2021."Being Chinese Means Becoming Cheap Labour "Education, National Belonging, and Social Positionality among Youth in Contemporary China" The China Quarterly 245: 51–71.  
• Naftali, Orna. 2020. "Youth Military Training in China: Learning to Love the Army". Journal of Youth Studies. Published Online first, pp. 1-19.
• Naftali, Orna. 2020. "Life is Wonderful because of the Military: PLA Recruitment Campaigns in Contemporary China". In Brendan Maartens and Tom Bivins (eds.). Propaganda and Public Relations in Military Recruitment: Promoting Military Service in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Pp. 178-191. London: Routledge.

 

Previous Major Publications

Books

• Naftali, Orna. 2016. Children in China (China Today Series). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
• Naftali, Orna. 2014. Children, Rights, and Modernity in China: Raising Self- Governing Citizens (Studies in Childhood and Youth). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Journal articles & chapters in edited volumes

• Naftali, Orna. 2019. "Rights of Children and Youth in China: Protection, Provision, and Participation". In Sarah Biddulph and Joshua Rosenzweig (eds.). Handbook on Human Rights in China. Pp. 273-99. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar 
• Naftali, Orna. 2018. "These War Dramas are like Cartoons: Education, Media Consumption, and Chinese Youth Attitudes towards Japan" Journal of Contemporary China 27 (113): 703-718
• Naftali, Orna. 2014. "Chinese Childhood in Conflict: Children, Gender, and Violence in China of the Cultural Revolution, Period (1966-76)." Oriens Extremus 53: 85-110
• Naftali, Orna. 2014. "Marketing War and the Military to Children and Youth in China: Little Red Soldiers in the Digital Age." China Information: A Journal on Contemporary China Studies 28 (1): 3-25

 

He is currently working on two books on Japan’s cultural diplomacy in Asia in historical perspective, and a comparative between the development of the Korean and Japanese media industries and their expansion into markets abroad in the past three decades.

 

nissim.otmazgin@mail.huji.ac.il