Recent conferences, workshops and presentations (after 2009):
An Aborted Historiographic Revolution: Why the fa thinkers lacked the concept of the future” 史学革命及其失败：法家为何缺失了“未来观”？. Presented at the workshop “Fa thinkers and Contemporary Perspectives”, Renmin University of China, November 11, 2023.
“On the Original Historical Sources, Their Transmission, Editing, and Modification: Analyzing the Reliability of Preimperial Historical Texts from the Example of the Bamboo Manuscript Xinian from Tsinghua University Collection” 論原始史料及其傳承、整理和調整：從清華簡《繫年》看先秦史學作品的可信度. Keynote presentation at the conference “Paleography and Chinese Civilization 古文字与中华文明, Tsinghua University, October 21-22, 2023.
“Between Historiography and Political Thought: Revisiting the Bamboo Manuscript Yue gong qi shi from the Tsinghua University Collection” 在史学与政治思想之间：再论清华简《越公其事》. Presented (in Chinese at the conference “Excavated Texts: a Multidimensional Perspectives of Texts, Writings and Thoughts” 出土文献：文本、文字和思想多重维度透视, Zhengzhou University, August 26-27, 2023.
“China’s fa 法 Thinkers (“Legalists”): The Ideology of Rule by Impartial Standards.” Presented at the Colloquium on “Sino-Greek Philosophy”; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (April 24, 2023) and University of Crete, Rethymno (April 27, 2023)
“Class Traitors? The Book of Lord Shang and Han Feizi’s assault on the Intellectuals.” Lecture (on-line), University of Macau, April 26, 2023 and Morrison Lecture, ANU, November 9, 2023
阶级背叛者？——再论《商君书》和《韩非子》中的“反智论” (“Class Traitors? The Book of Lord Shang and Han Feizi’s assault on the Intellectuals”; in Chinese). Presented (online) at the conference “The fa thinkers of the Three Jin states and Chinese civilization” 三晋法家与中华文明, Linfen, Feb 11-12, 2023.
“The Earliest ‘Great Wall’? Long Wall of Qi Revisited.” Presented at the conference “Walls, Borders, and Frontier Zones in the Ancient and the Contemporary World,” Jerusalem, Dec. 20, 2022.
“An abortive rediscovery? Studies of the Book of Lord Shang in modern China (1900-2022) and elsewhere, presented at the symposium “The Development of Oriental Studies Around the World—Research into History of China Overseas and in Japan,” Gakushuin University, Tokyo Dec 18, 2022.
“The Fa Tradition versus Confucianism: Intellectuals, the State, and Meritocracy.” Presented (on-line) at the EACS 2022 conference, panel “Fit to Rule? On Meritocracy in Ancient and Early Medieval China,” Aug 27, 2022.
“Shiji Biographies and the Question of the Intellectual’s Autonomy,” presented at the conference “Lives and power in the Records of the historian: The destinies of the biographical genre,” Collège de France, May 18-20, 2022
“Too big to succeed? Costs of Expansionism during the Springs-and-Autumns Period,” presented at the workshop “Territorial Control in Early China,” Un. of Heidelberg, May 14, 2022
“Han Feizi and the Earliest Exegesis of Zuo zhuan,” presented at the conference “Intertextual Dialogue in Early Chinese Writings,” Singapore Yale-NUS college, May 5-7, 2022.
“‘Chineseness’ in Early China,” presented at the workshop “To Be(come) Chinese” March 1st, 2022, Shandong University (zoom)
“Class Traitors? The Book of Lord Shang and Han Feizi’sassault on the Intellectuals.” Presented at the workshop “Chinese Political Thought: A Global Dialogue beyond ‘Orientalism,’” Jan 20, 2022 (zoom).
“Between Historiography and Political Thought: Revisiting the Bamboo Manuscript Yue gong qi shi from the Tsinghua University Collection” 在史学与政治思想之间：再论清华简《越公其事》. Presented (in Chinese; online) at the conference “Warring States-period Chu bamboo manuscripts from the Tsinghua collection” 清华战国楚简, Nov 19-20, 2021.
“China’s first revolution? The birth of the total state (4th-3rd c. BCE),” presented at the “Revolutions in Asian History” seminar series at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Nov 10, 2021.
“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” 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及其原因. Presented (in Chinese) at the conference “Legalist theory and the rise and fall of Qin” 法家学说与秦政兴亡, Yueyang, Oct 16-17, 2021.
“אנשי המעלה” ו”שלטון הראויים”: האינטלקטואלים בסין הקיסרית ויורשיהם היום (‘Noble men’ and ‘rule of the worthy’: Chinese imperial intellectuals and their current heirs), presented at the Mandel Educational Leadership seminar, July 5, 2021.
“The Chineseness of PRC political culture: Continuities, ruptures, and reinvention of traditions,” presented (on-line) at TOChina Summer School, June 25, 2021.
“Cosmopolitanism in the Warring States,” presented at the virtual international conference “Cosmopolitan Pasts of China and the Eurasian World,” June 19, 2021.
“Debates about the origins of the state in the Warring States-period China—with a specific focus on the innovative thought of the Book of Lord Shang and Han Feizi” 论战国时期诸子关于国家起源的学说——聚焦《商君书》和《韩非子》中的革新性思想. Presented (in Chinese) at the [on-line] conference “Legalist thought from the perspective of the rule of law and its current value” 法治视野中的法家思想及其当代价值, Oct 2020.
Paleographic Discoveries and a New View of Early Chinese Historiography
从出土文献的新发现重新考察中国早期史学史. Presented (in Chinese) at the annual Wang Guowei lecture at Tsinghua (Qinghua) University 清华大学王国维学术讲座, Sept 25, 2020. An English version presented on-line as part of HUJI seminar, Nov. 2020.
“China and the West: Toward the Great Decoupling” (in Hebrew: סין והמערב: לקראת ההיפרדות הגדולה”?), presented on-line, Hebrew University, June 11, 2020.
“A Total War: Military Ideology of the Book of Lord Shang,” presented at the symposium Army, Politics, and Society in East Asia, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, January 7, 2020
“Debates about the origins of the state in the Warring States-period China” 戰國時期諸子關於國家起源的爭論, presented at the conference “Shang and Zhou state and society” 商周国家与社会, Beijing Normal University, October 12-14, 2019
“Paleographic Discoveries and a New View of Early Chinese Historiography” 從出土文献的新发现重新考察中国早期史学史 (in Chinese); presented at the Twentieth Anniversary of the Cambridge History of Ancient China Conference , Beijing, Sept 11-12, 2019
“Worth vs. Power: Han Fei’s ‘Objection to Positional Power’ Revisited,” presented at the panel “Power Rhetoric and The Rhetoric of Power of the Han Feizi 韓非子”, 21st International Conference of the International Society for Chinese Philosophy, Bern, July 2-5, 2019
“The Messianic Emperor: A New Look at Qin’s Place in China’s History,” presented at the workshop on the Representations of the Qin Empire, Oxford, June 30, 2019.
Co-organizer (with Martin Kern) of the symposium “Rethinking Early Chinese Historiography,” Jerusalem, May 12-16, 2019. Presented “Beyond the ‘one size fits all’: Heterogeneity of early Chinese historiography reconsidered.”
“A Speechless Monarch: Early China’s Battle for Intellectual Authority,” presented at the conference “The King’s Speech: The Royal Voice in Antiquity,” Renmin University of China, April 12-13, 2019.
“Waging a Demographic War: Chapter 15 (“Attracting the People”) of the Book of Lord Shang Revisited”. Presented at the workshop “Making Qin Great Again: New Perspectives on the Shang Jun Shu,” Bonn, November 16-17, 2018.
“Pitfalls of Meritocracy: “Elevating the Worthy” in Early Chinese Thought.” Presented at the workshop Political Meritocracy in Comparative Historical Perspective, Harvard University, November 1-2.2018
“The Great Unity Ideal: The Key to China’s Imperial Longevity?” Presented in Yenching Academy of Peking University as part of “Topics in China studies lecture series,” October 10, 2018.
“Religion and Empire: Chinese case from the comparative perspective” (In Chinese: 宗教与帝国：从比较角度来看中华帝国对宗教的管理). Presented at Beijing Normal University, October 9, 2018.
“Some thoughts on the dating of Yanzi chunqiu,” presented at the conference “Dialogue with Ancient China: International Forum on The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan and Studying Pre-Qin Masters in the New Era,” Renmin University, October 8-9, 2018.
“Pitfalls of Meritocracy: ‘Elevating the Worthy’ in Early Chinese Thought” (in Portuguese, “Armadilhas da Meritocracia: ‘Elevando O Digno’ No Pensamento Primitivo Chinês,” translated by André Bueno). Presented at the International Electronic Symposium on Oriental History, 1-5 October, 2018.
“Monarchism and the Ideal of Abdication” (in Chinese:王权主义与禅让理想). Presented at a symposium “Pre-Qin Political Thought and Confucian-Legalist Tradition” 先秦政治思想与儒法传统, Renmin University, September 26, 2018.
“A Dialog between Texts and Archeology: An Example of Qin’s History” (in Chinese: 文本與考古的對話：以秦國歷史為例). Presented at the conference “History of Chinese archeology: retrospect and prospects” 中國考古學史研究的回顧的展望 (Beijing University, June 22-23, 2018).
“Early Chinese Historiography,” presented at the workshop Ancient Historiography in Comparison (the third bi-annual workshop for PhD students, Renmin University), June 14, 2018.
中国古代“大一统”思想的来源及其长远的政治影响 (The concept of ‘Great Unity’ in early Chinese political thought: Its origins and its long-term impact), presented at Fudan University, April 24, 2018; Hebei Normal University, May 7, 2018; Shanxi Normal University, June 8, 2018; Nankai University, July 4, 2018; Shandong University, September 25, 2018.
中国古代“大一统”思想的来源及其长远的政治影响 (The concept of ‘Great Unity’ in early Chinese political thought: Its origins and its long-term impact), presented at Fudan University, April 24, 2018; Hebei Normal University, May 7, 2018.
Participated in the colloquium “Globalization and Dialogues,” Fudan University, April 23, 2018. The topic of the colloquium: 从哲学与社会科学的视角看儒学的“天道观”与“人论日用”(Looking at Confucian view of Heaven’s Way and of Quotidian Ethics from the Points of View of Philosophy and Social Sciences).
“Axiality and Empire-Building Reconsidered: The Chinese Case in Comparative Perspective,” presented at the symposium “Re-examining the Idea of the Axial Age and Axial Civilizations,” Uppsala, April 5-7, 2018.
“War, Punishments, and Rewards in the Book of Lord Shang 商君書: A study in Social Engineering?” Presented at École normale supérieure, Lyon, March 5, 2018; a variant presentation at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) on April 23, 2018; a Chinese variant at Xiamen University, May 18, 2018.
“Secular Theocracy? State and Religion in Early China,” presented at the workshop “Empires and Religions,” co-organized by Michal Biran, Eva Cancick-Kirschbaum, Jörg Rüpke and myself, Berlin, March 1-3, 2018.
על ביטחון וחוסר ביטחון עצמי: מחשבות על “מחשבת סי ג’ין-פינג” (On self-confidence and the lack thereof: thoughts about “Xi Jinping’s Thought”), presented at the symposium: 19th Congress of the CPC: the turning point? Jerusalem, Hebrew University, November 28, 2017.
“The Earliest ‘Great Wall’? Long Wall of Qi Revisited.” Presented at Heidelberg, July 2017.
“A missed rediscovery? Shang Yang in modern Chinese political thought.” Presented at the conference “Rethinking Time in Modern China: A Sinological Intervention.” Tel Aviv University, 15 May, 2017.
“The least revolutionary and the most rebellious nation? Rebellions and revolutions in China, past and present.” Presented at a conference dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Institute of African and Asian Studies, Jerusalem, Dec. 14, 2016.
“Political thought of the Book of Lord Shang: An Experiment in Social Engineering?” 从“社会工程学”角度再论《商君书》的政治思想. Presented at the conference on Legalist Theory and its Historical Impact, Renmin University, November 19-20, 2016.
“Chu Identity as seen from its Manuscripts: A Reevaluation,” presented at the panel (co-organized by myself and Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann), “Cultural identities in the Zhou world: The state of Chu revisited,” part of the 21st EACS meeting, St. Petersburg, August 25-27, 2016. Also presented in Bochum University, and Beijing Normal University, July and September 2017.
“The First Emperor as a Historical Junction – a Messianic Interpretation.” Presented at a conference “Emperor Qin Shihuang and his Mausoleum in Global Perspective.” University College, London, August 18-20, 2016.
“Traditional Chinese Political Thought and its Potential Value to China and to the West” 中国传统政治文化及其对西方和对中国的潜在启示. Presented at “The Second Sino-Western Economic and Cultural Summit” 第二届东西方经济文化高峰论坛, Mediterranean Cruise, July 20-24, 2016.
Co-organizer (with Li Wai-yee) of the conference “Keywords in Chinese Thought and Literature,” Jerusalem, June 15-16, 2016. Presented a paper “‘To die for the Sanctity of the Name’: Name (ming 名) as a prime-mover of political action in early China.”
The ‘Rule of Law’ or Social Engineering: Rethinking political thought of the Book of Lord Shang“法治”还是“社会工程学”？——《商君书》的政治思想新论 . Presented at Renmin University, April 2016.
Empire without Emperors? Rethinking aspects of China’s “modernization.” Presented at Universities of Edinburgh, Newcastle, Hamburg, March-May 2016.
Analyzing the Nature and Authenticity of Xinian on the basis of its usage of grammatical particles—including the preliminary discussion of Xinian original sources 從《繫年》虛詞的用法論其文本的可靠性——兼初探《繫年》原始資料的來源 (in Chinese), presented at the conference “New Discussion of the Qinghua Xinian and Ancient History” 清华简《系年》与古史新探, Beijing, Qinghua University, October 30-31, 2015.
Co-organizer (with Michal Biran, Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum and Jӧrg Rupke) of the workshop “All-under-Heaven? The Empire’s spatial dimensions” (first part of the multi-workshop project “Comparative Studies in Imperial History”), Eisenach, June 2015. Presented a paper: “Limits of All-under-Heaven: Ideology and Praxis of Great Unity in Early Chinese Empire.”
“Xifang de zhengzhixue yu Zhongguo chuantong zhengzhi sixiang: cong hulue dao renke?” 西方的政治学与中国传统政治思想：从忽略到认可？ (Western political sciences and traditional Chinese political thought: from neglect to recognition?), presented at a conference on traditional Chinese political thought, Nankai University, Tianjin, October 17, 2014.
“Agriculturalism and beyond: Economic Thought of the Book of Lord Shang,” presented at the panel on Early Chinese Economic Thought and Practice, European Association of Chinese Studies conference, Braga, July 24, 2014.
“Diversity and Unity of Narratives: Early Chinese Historiography in Light of the Newly Discovered Chu 楚 Manuscripts,” presented at the 12th annual Conference of Asian Studies in Israel, Haifa University, May 26, 2014.
“Belabored Monarch? The ‘Wu yi’ 無逸 Chapter revisited, revised version” presented at the conference The Classic of Documents and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy, Oxford, March 22, 2014.
“The Book of Lord Shang: An Ideal of the Total State,” presented at a conference “Traditional Non-Confucian Perspectives on Social and Political Organization and Order”, City University of Hong Kong, March 15, 2014.
“‘The People’s Army’? Rethinking Military Ideology in the Book of Lord Shang,” presented at the workshop “War of Ideas, Ideas of War: The Role of Military Thought in Early China”, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, June 6, 2013
“History without anecdotes? Preliminary analysis of the bamboo Xinian,” presented at the Anecdotes in Early China Workshop, Leiden, May 31-June 1, 2013
“Belabored Monarch? The ‘Wu yi’ 無逸 Chapter revisited,” presented at the conference The Classic of Documents and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy, Princeton May 17-18, 2013.
“Empire without Emperors? Rethinking aspects of China’s ‘modernization’”, presented at a conference “The Rise of Modern China” (in honor of Prof. Yitzhak Shichor), Haifa, Dec 25, 2012.
“The Political Resilience of the Chinese Empire,” presented at the international workshop Analyzing Collapse: Destruction, Collapse and Memory, Jerusalem, December 12, 2012.
“Post-imperial Emperors? The Impact of Traditional Chinese Political Culture in the Post-Imperial Period,” presented at the first international colloquium in memory of S.N. Eisenstadt, Dynamics of Continuity, Patterns of Change: Between World History and Comparative Historical Sociology, Jerusalem October 14-15, 2012
“Minzu guojia, quanqiuhua yu ‘da yitong’: cong zhong xifang lishi he zhengzhi wenhua bijiao lun ‘tianxia dashi’ de fazhan quxiang” 民族国家，全球化与”大一统”：从中西方历史和政治文化比较论”天下大势”的发展趋向 (Nation-state, globalization and Great Unity: Analyzing trends in World history from the comparative perspective of Chinese and Western history and political culture), presented (in Chinese) at Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学), Nankai University, Tianjin; Renmin University, Shandong University, and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2012-14).
“Pre-planned Empire: The Ideal of ‘Great Unity’ and its Actualization in China’s Imperial History” (in Hebrew), presented at a symposium “All-under-Heaven: Imperial China,” Open University (Ra’anana), June 17, 2012.
“The Chunqiu Annals in the light of the Zuo zhuan and Gongyang zhuan exegesis,” presented at a panel “Canon and Power in China,” at the 11th Conference of Asian Studies in Israel, Tel-Aviv, May 22, 2012.
Co-organizer of an international workshop “Ideology of Power and Power of Ideology in Early China” (Jerusalem, Institute for Advanced Studies, May 1-6, 2012). Presented a paper “Immobilized Emperor: ‘Dynastic Cycles’ Revisited.”
“Reassessing Textual Sources for Pre-imperial Qin History,” presented at the conference “Before Empire: An International Conference on the Early History and Archaeology of Qin,” Columbia University in the City of New York, April 6-7, 2012.
Organizer of Sino-Israeli Workshop: “New Perspectives on Pre-Modern Chinese History”, Jerusalem, March 11-12, 2012. Presented paper “Omnipotent and inactive: Xunzi’s solution to the problems of monarchism”
“Between Merit and Pedigree: Evolution of the Concept of “Elevating the Worthy” in pre-imperial China,” presented at “The Idea of Political Meritocracy: A Nanyang Technological University Interdisciplinary Symposium” 6-8 Jan 2012, Singapore.
The Book of Lord Shang: A Case-Study in Formation of Preimperial “books”, presented at the conference “The Rise of Writing in Ancient China”, University of Chicago, October 15-16, 2011.
Co-organizer of the Workshop Rhetoric as a Political Tool in Early China, Jerusalem, May 24-25, 2011. Presented a paper “Alienating rhetoric in the Book of Lord Shang and its moderation”.
“A cultural disaster? Abolition of the Emperorship Revisited,” presented at the symposium 100 years of China’s Republican Revolution (1911): Preliminary Summary, Jerusalem, March 9, 2011.
“The Fish’s Joy or Existential Despair? Reflections on Zhuangzi,” presented at the symposium in memory of Dan Daor, Jerusalem, Dec 29, 2010.
“From Historical Evolution to the End of History: Past, Present and Future from Shang Yang to the First Emperor,” presented at the XVIII EACS conference, Riga, July 15-17, 2010.
“Monarchism, ‘totalitarianism’ and dissent in early China,” presented at the Conference “Ahead of his Time – The Intellectual Legacy of Jacob L. Talmon,” the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 13-14, 2010.
“Prestige of the Monarchy vs. Prestige of the Monarch: The Riddle of Traditional Chinese Political Culture,” presented at Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich, May 27, 2010.
“The Rise and Fall of Maoist Religion in the People’s Republic of China and the Problem of Religious Deficit in Current China,” presented at the conference “Secular Religion: A Concept or an Offensive Term?” (the 16th Adele Singer Rifkind Conference on Cultural and Religious Pluralism), Jerusalem, Van Leer Institute, May 4, 2010.
“The First Emperor as a Historical Junction: A Messianic Interpretation,” talk at Harvard University, March 30, 2009; Heidelberg University, November 24, 2009; Haifa University, April 29, 2010.
“The Myth of Aggravating Despotism: The Status of the Emperor in Traditional China,” (in Hebrew) presented at the 9th Conference of Asian Studies in Israel, Haifa, April 27, 2010.
“Early Chinese political thought and traditional Chinese political culture revisited,” presented at the Research Training in Old Chinese: History and Historiography
University of Cambridge, March 25, 2010.
“Chinese Studies,” presented at the panel at Area Studies and Social and Cultural Theory at An International Workshop on Southeast Asia, “Regions”, and Social Theory, the Truman Institute, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, March 4, 2010.
“The Bitter Love: The Confucian Intellectual and the Ruler” (in Hebrew), presented at the colloquium “Confucianism: Past, Present, and…. Future?”, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, December 30, 2009.
“Chinese Communist Politics between Progress and Stability” (in Hebrew) presented at the colloquium “New China at 60: A Preliminary Summary,” the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, December 2, 2009.
“The Chunqiu in the Light of a Comparison between the Zuo and the Gongyang exegeses,” presented at the First Committee Meeting on the Study and Translation of the Wujing, Beijing, June 27-29, 2009.
“The First Emperor as a Historical Junction: A Messianic Interpretation,” talk at Harvard University, March 30, 2009; Heidelberg University, November 24, 2009; Haifa University, April 29, 2010.
“Political Mythology and Dynastic Legitimacy in the Rong Cheng shi manuscript,” presented at the panel “Rethinking Warring States History in the Light of Recently Unearthed Bamboo Manuscripts“ at the AAS conference, Chicago, March 27, 2009.
“A Hero Terrorist: Adoration of Jing Ke Revisited,” talk at McGill University, Montreal, March 24, 2009.
“From Teachers to Subjects: Ministers Speaking to the Rulers from Yan Ying 晏嬰 to Li Si 李斯”, presented at the conference “Addressing the Autocrat: The Drama of Early Chinese Court Discourse,” University of Oklahoma, March 21, 2009.