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.
- Want to be part of the ASLH Early Career Virtual Legal History Workshop in AY2025-26? Hosted by Dirk Hartog & Michelle McKinley. Here's the Call. Application deadline: June 30, 2025 #LegalHistory
- 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.
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- I meant to link a different NYT article instead of this one which has been shared last time. But here is the new NYT gift article. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/u...
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- An interesting followup. The Chinese government has agreed to send Vice President/Chairman Han Zhen to attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony—a gesture of goodwill and a "meet-in-the-middle" approach. Trump just had a seemingly positive phone conversations with Xi. It’s a wait-and-see situation now.
- A typo. Should be Han Zheng.
- For those interested, a virtual talk this Friday (in Chinese).
- A virtual talk in Chinese by Professor Li Chen, "Who are the Victims: Sentimental Politics, Injury Discourses and Revengeful Violence in International Politics," at 7:30-9:30 am, Jan. 10, Eastern Time). 北京1月10日晚8:30陈利老师线上讲座 “谁是受害者？国际关系中的情感政治、伤害话语和报复性暴力". mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jyQAkqmfbw...
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- When I read the news, my first thought was: Isn’t this just another way of currying favor with Trump by gifting him $15 million? How is this any different from bribery? :)
- 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...
- Typo: "Given Trump's love of personal diplomacy."
- 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.
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- Another NYT gift article, on another tactic China has borrowed from U.S. practices on int'l trade: ban on transshipment of exported products by foreign companies to a 3rd country (U.S.). The U.S.-China trade war may escalate quickly if Trump does go all in next year. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/b...
- 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
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- One of my favorite books in the modern China field, not necessarily because we read chapters of her book manuscript in one of my first doctoral seminars at Columbia before it became an award-winning book :).
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- In the Qing period, these two-, three-, or even four-register page formats were used quite often in treatises on the Qing Code or forensic examinations (Xiyuan lu) due to their efficient and convenient allocation of the limited space, even in well-printed commercial editions for muyou & officials.
- Pictures from the western end of "China proper" as famously noted by the Tang-era poet Wang Wei: "I urge you to drink another cup of wine/For beyond the Yang Pass, there will be no old friends."劝君跟进一杯酒/西出阳关无故人.The first one shows remains of the earliest (Qin-Han) Great Wall from over 2000 years ago.
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- Added you to Late Imperial China SP.
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- But the problem with ✘ may be precisely because it has too much political information, esp. all kinds of misinformation, as Trump and Musk like to call it :).
- This is what I warned about before: Other countries, once they gain their competitive advantages, can and will borrow the U.S. playbook to arbitrarily impose trade or high-tech restrictions, also claiming "national security/interest" or "dual-use" as the pretext. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/w...
- China has been surprisingly restrained in its responses to the many U.S. trade/high-tech bans and sanctions over the past eight years, possibly because the current PRC leadership does not want to add international crises to its already very serious economic woes at home.
- 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).
- This's a late 18th-century scroll painting of pets allegedly of the Qianlong emperor (Cf. www.burninghou.se/p/the-empero..., a link from@bokane.org). If the naming practice was true, Qianlong liked the Chinese character 狸 (wildcats/civets), but the names didn't sound more majestic or masculine.
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- I came across these files accidentally, which are unrelated to my research interests. I saw no images attached, though some pictures of the royal pets have survived (probably of the emperors only). Here's one shared by a scholar following my post: www.burninghou.se/p/the-empero.... No name matches.
- Some royal dog names: 栀子Gardenia/喜姐Happy Sister/桃花: Peach Blossom/栗子Chestnut/玉狮子Jade Lion/喜豹 Happy Leopard/玉虎Jade Tiger/可怜儿Poor Little One/妞儿Little Girl 角端犼儿 Horned Mythical Beast Hǒu'er(15yrs) Some cat names: 玛瑙花横儿Carnelian flower branch/秋葵Okra/金橘Kumquat/墨虎 Ink Tiger/喜豹Happy Leopard/双桃儿Double Peach
- A dog named 角端犼儿 held the longevity record (10 days shy of 15 lunar calendar years). 角端 (jiaoduan) is a legendary horned beast in Chinese mythology and 犼儿 (hǒu'er) is another powerful mythical beast. Combining the two in its name perhaps helped to counteract the bad fengshui in the Qing palaces :).
- Besides some male royals, many court concubines loved pets because they often lived lonely lives for decades, with pets becoming their most loyal and often only reliable companions. These pet's names and life cycles might also reflect the circumstances of their lady owners, many of whom died young.
- correction: “These pets' names and life cycles"
- Another from the same site, illustrating a renowned genre (经变画) in Buddhist artworks & sculpture, transforming stories in Buddhist sutras into striking visual narratives. It skillfully merges religious teachings with vivid depictions of daily life. Many can be found in the Dunhuang caves in Gansu.
- 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
- The Thousand-Hand Guanyin(千手观音), of the same UNESCO-listed site, is a masterpiece of 12th-cent. Buddhist art. About 7.7m tall and 12.5m wide, this stunning work features hundreds of intricately carved hands radiating outward, each with an eye, symbolizing Guanyin’s compassion and wisdom.
- This looks quite different from another two famous Thousand-0hand Guanyin statues at Ningxiang, Hunan province, left below, and at the Summer Place in Beijing, right below:
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- Great to see you here. Thanks!
- It measures c.31 meters (about 102 feet) in length, symbolizes Buddha's transition into death and the attainment of ultimate enlightenment; with intricately carved figures of disciples and bodhisattvas around, it shows the artistic excellence & religious significance of the Southern Song Dynasty.
- 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...
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- I should add that my subscription to or sharing of NYT articles does not mean that I endorse its reporting or commentaries. I read and shared them more for the topics/issues discussed than the specific opinions expressed therein.
- 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
Me, whenever I stumble upon a starter pack on things I work on but doesn’t include me: (Do non-South American millennials get Futurama memes?)- [Not loaded yet]
- If there's still space, I would like to join given my research interest/work in the history of intl law. Thanks.
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- Didn't know you're also a Columbia alumbus :) 🤝
- For anyone interested in the newest and most exciting scholarship on China, this is an important venue to follow :).
- We've featured the newest & best scholarship on China for 4 years. Welcome to follow us. Managed by@ruoyunbai.bsky.social @lchen2024.bsky.social and a committee of leading China scholars including @zhangtaisu.bsky.social @yingaa.bsky.social @nianshen.bsky.social and others.
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- For some different benefits from "feeds", three "Lists" with experts in the fields you can click to add to your account. Let me know if you're an expert to be added. lateimperialchina bsky.app/profile/did:... Chinesehistory: bsky.app/profile/did:... Chinese Media & Society bsky.app/profile/did:...
- These lists and feeds may be updated from time to time, and please feel free to indicate if you're interested in being included in the "Lists" or would like to take your account off any of the Lists or Starter Packs (removing from the latter will likely remove your posts from the related feeds).
- 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
- To see posts by experts in the pack, click the link & "add to my feeds". To show your posts in the feeds, add hashtag to posts. #Chinesehistory bsky.app/profile/did:... #Lateimperialchina bsky.app/profile/did:... #Globallegalhistory bsky.app/profile/did:... #Chineselaw bsky.app/profile/did:...
