The Medieval Chinese Oligarchy (2025)

"Clergy, Kinship, and Clout in Yuan Dynasty Shanxi," International Journal of Asian Studies, 13.2 (2016): 197-228 (in English).

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, people in north China took advantage of a Mongol policy that gave Buddhist officials a status equivalent to what civil officials enjoyed as a strategy for family advancement. Monk Zhang Zhiyu and his family provide a case study of an emerging influential Buddhist order based at Mount Wutai that connected the Yuan regime with local communities through the kinship ties of prominent monks. Within this Buddhist order, powerful monks like Zhiyu used their prestigious positions in the clerical world to help the upward social mobility of their lay families, displaying a distinctive pattern of interpenetration between Buddhism and family. This new pattern also fit the way that northern Chinese families used Buddhist structures such as Zunsheng Dhāranī pillars and private Buddhist chapels to record their genealogies and consolidate kinship ties.

2013: Between Merit and Pedigree: Evolution of the Concept of “Elevating the Worthy” in Pre-imperial China

“Between Merit and Pedigree: Evolution of the Concept of ‘Elevating the Worthy’ in pre-imperial China,” in: Daniel Bell and Li Chenyang, eds., The Idea of Political Meritocracy: Confucian Politics in Contemporary Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013: 161-202., 2013

The paper explores the evolution of meritocratic ideas in pre-imperial China. I show that these ideas, embedded in the concept of “elevating the worthy,” appeared first in the wake of the disintegration of the pedigree-based aristocratic order of the Springs-and-Autumns period (770-453 BCE), and proliferated rapidly throughout the Warring States period (453-221 BCE), being shared by every major intellectual current. Yet the proliferation of the concept of “elevating the worthy” generated manifold tensions, among which the most significant one was between the conflicting notions of “worthiness” and “merit.” For some, e.g., Confucius and his followers, “worthiness” was primarily related to one’s morality; yet other thinkers claimed that morality cannot be objectively measured and warned that unless precisely defined, “worthiness” can be manipulated to promote hypocrites and one’s partisans rather than truly capable public servants. From analyzing conflicting views of “worth” and “merit” I explore such crucial problems of meritocratic system as its relation to the idea of social fairness, to the government’s efficiency, and to the possibility to enhance the morality of public servants. The experience of pre-imperial and early imperial China remains highly relevant for possible implementations of meritocratic principles of rule well into our days.

REVIEW of Harry Miller: State Versus Gentry in Late Ming Dynasty China, 1572-1644. 220 pp. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Oriens Extremus, 2012

2015 [review essay] "The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy" by Nicolas Tackett (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2014). Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 75.1 (2015): 235-45.

2015

“Confucians, Social Networks, and Bureaucracy: Donghai 東海Men and Models for Success in the Western Han China (206 BCE–9 CE)”, Early China, 42(2019), 1-35.

“Confucians, Social Networks, and Bureaucracy: Donghai 東海Men and Models for Success in the Western Han China (206 BCE–9 CE)”, Early China, 42(2019), 1-35.

In this study I take men from Donghai, a region of northeast China, as a case study for examining models of success in the Western Han (206 b.c.e.-9 c.e.). Employing digital tools to mine data from The Grand Scribe's Records (Shi ji) and The History of the Western Han (Han shu), I explore the social networks and career patterns of men from a region that enjoyed a reputation for producing a remarkable number of high officials and celebrated Ru. I focus on three questions. First, what was the social mechanism that enabled people to distinguish themselves at both the local and the imperial levels? Second, did these celebrated men from Donghai serve as bridges connecting the local to the capital, directing resources back to their hometown and helping their local fellows achieve success? Third, did their positions in the central government remove them from local society by transforming them into capital-dwelling elites primarily concerned about the success of their families in the central court? In addressing these questions, I probe the dynamics between bureaucratic hierarchy, social networks, and the flow of talent and resources. I investigate various understandings of prestige and the strategies for climbing the ladder of success. Furthermore, I ask which forms of social prestige-for example, academic reputation, wealth, social networks-could bypass the hierarchical system imposed by the imperial bureaucracy, providing direct access to lofty positions. Did the patterns of success seen in the Donghai group reflect a bias built into the sources, constitute a regional variation, or provide a universal model for success in early imperial China? In early imperial China, fortunate Ru who secured the sponsorship of powerful men rose high in the bureaucracy, but no institutionalized avenue had yet been established that regularly and predictably selected Ru for office. 1 To win political power, most Ru had to accumulate 1. Western scholars have debated the terms "Confucian" and "Ru," with some holding that the Ru constituted an intellectually heterogeneous group in the Han dynasty. Although not all Ru were necessarily followers of Confucius, the term was

The Dynamics of Elite Domination in Sung China (review article)

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 1988

2016 [book chapter] "Governing a Multicentered Empire: Prefects and Their Networks in the 1040s and 1210s.” In State Power in China, 900-1325, edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Paul Jakov Smith. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2016.

Zheng Zhilong: The “in-between” man who would be king. From a remark and two comparisons to a hypothesis

2019

“Ranking Men and Assessing Talent: Xiahou Xuan’s Response to an Inquiry by Sima Yi”

Published In Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, edited by Wendy Swartz, Robert F. Campany, Lu Yang, and Jessey Choo, pp. 125-46. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

“Ranking Men and Evaluating Talent” is a study of institutions and practices related to civil service recruitment in early medieval China. The correspondence between the Regent Sima Yi (179–251) [posth. Jin Emperor Xuan] and the elite gentleman Xiahou Xuan (209–254) provides a basis for reflecting on kinship, patronage, and power during this era of political tension and conflict.

Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch'ing China, 1723-1820, by Beatrice S. Bartlett