Li Chen多伦多大学陈利
JD/PhD, UToronto historian of post-1500 Chinese law/politics/culture/intl relations; law & empire & postcolonial studies. Author of "Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes: Sovereignty, Justice, and Transcultural Politics”.
- This will be a terrific opportunity for early-career scholars of legal history, particularly those working on non-Western legal cultures.
- A gift article from NYT on China's suspending of rare earth exports. The nearly 2000 comments by readers are particularly worth reading :) www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/b...
- Snowy Winter in Toronto!
- Happy Lunar New Year to you all! May this year of snake bring you happiness, good health, and success in all your endeavors.
- For those interested, a virtual talk this Friday (in Chinese).
- Reposted by Li Chen多伦多大学陈利New paper posted to SSRN, a few more to come later this week. The primary claim in this one is that legality and authoritarianism can be politically and administratively synergistic. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
- A virtual conference: "In Search of Early Chinese Empires: The Dynamics between Excavated Manuscripts and Transmitted Texts"; Easter Time: (1) 7:30 pm, Dec. 20-- 4 am Dec. 21; (2) 7:30 pm, Dec. 21-- 4am Dec. 22, 2024 Zoom registration link: notredame.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
- Took many pictures during my fall 2023 visiting professorship at Peking Univ. Here's the iconic Reclining Shakyamuni Buddha entering Nirvana at the Dazu Rock Carvings in Chongqing, PRC, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (dated 9th-13th centuries) with a blend of Buddhist, Confucian & Taoist influences.
- How dedicated were late imperial Chinese literati to the civil service exams? Many failed 10 times (about 30 years), but how old could they be? Even the emperors felt compelled to give honorary degrees if they failed again, say, in their late 80s, as seen in the 1852 request for a xiucai, aged 89.
- The reason offered for rewarding their persistence is also interesting.
- A chapter from the recently published Chinese anthology "Law, Knowledge, and Power in the Age of Empire," providing some critical reflections on the use and analysis of historical archives in the field of Chinese (legal) history. t.cn/A6mCvA2N
- After twenty years of field work and digital collection, there are inevitably some intriguing or truly remarkable items in my collection that I may share from time to time, including interesting samples from a variety of legal texts and judicial archives from the Qing period (1644-1911).
- 1. How seriously did late imperial China's rulers treat their pets and/or job of archiving their everyday lives? Here're 2 registers from the No. 1 Historical Archives of the Qing royal family's cats and dogs (with names & years of birth/death). Two cats died after 9 years & one dog after 15 years.
- I should have mentioned this earlier (but was constrained by the word limit): these two registers include royal pets exclusively from the period of 1822–1850 (the Daoguang period).
- Titled "Law, Knowledge & Power in the Age of Empire," its first 5 chapters focus on the history of Sino-Western relations and early modern international law & politics. The next 5 chapters are about Qing China's legal culture & juridical field, plus 4 chapters on archives, teaching, interview, etc..
- Pleased to share a Chinese anthology of my research articles that will be published this month. With 14 chapters, it includes most of my research articles over the last fifteen years outside the monographs. It took 4 years for retranslating/editing/revising/proofreading. More info. at t.cn/A6n3tcDh
- Reposted by Li Chen多伦多大学陈利Join us for Yingyao Wang’s book talk next Friday EST. Zoom ID: 852 364 4345 Passcode: sociology
- Please mark your calendar for Dec. 6, 8:00–10:00 p.m. ET, for @yingyaowang.bsky.social ’s talk on her wonderful new book “Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats Make Policies and Remake the Chinese State” (Columbia University Press, 2024).
- Despite a lot of recent scholarship on early modern Chinese legal culture & judicial practice, China historians have long faced evidentiary hurdles in determining the size and composition of the juridical field. Here's my preliminary attempt as part of a book ms. www.academia.edu/42164749/Jou...
- The printed version of this book's Introduction (in Chinese) is now available at utoronto.academia.edu/LiChen. For my English-language publications, orcid.org/0000-0002-84...
- Here is the (Chinese) introduction to the Chinese anthology of my research articles over the last fifteen years. The link for preorder is included near the end of the article. mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5...
- Please help share the link & Starter Pack of this association with all scholars interested in Chinese law & history. Its members include many accomplished scholars in the fields. You're welcome to visit chineselawandhistory.com and its next conference at the Peking Law School in July 2024.
- One more useful starter pack from "International Society for Chinese Law and Society" and Its related "List" of experts in Chinese law & history: bsky.app/profile/did:... go.bsky.app/4uAxhFwat://did:plc:m27vuuxvgv3ljbnonxzv62jj/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbanc75lac2z
- Socio-legal studies assocuation slsauk.bsky.social
- For anyone interested in the newest and most exciting scholarship on China, this is an important venue to follow :).
