Other Selected Publications

The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China 

Columbia, 2010 (with John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, and Harold D. Roth). A translation of the Huainanzi 淮南子, a major compendium of early Chinese thought presented to the imperial court of the Han Dynasty (203 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) in 139 B.C.E., covering all aspects of political theory and the practical affairs of governance, such as court ritual, military strategy, astronomy, etc. 

The Dao of the Military: Liu An's Art of War

Columbia, 2012. A translation and study of Chapter 15 of The Huainanzi, "An Overview of the Military 兵略," exploring how this source provides a perspective related to but distinct from that of the more famous Art of War by Master Sun 孫子兵法, and presenting the four essential contexts necessary to understand this seminal work of military theory.

"The Altars of the Soil and Grain are Closer than Kin": The Qi Model of Intellectual Participation and the Jixia Patronage Community

Early China 33-34 (2010-2011):37-99. This journal essay explored the development of a new model of literati life and work developed by the Tian rulers of Qi, and that became the basis of the famous Jixia patronage community during the Warring States Period (481-221 BCE). It laid the foundations for Chapter 7 of my new book, To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China from Confucius to the First Emperor. 

Reading "Sunzi" as a Master

Asia Major (third series) 30.1 (2017): 1-24. This journal essay discusses the Military Methods (aka Art of War) of Master Sun (Sunzi bingfa 孫子兵法) as a product of the "Master's discourse" in early China. The followers and proponents of Sunzi were not merely military technocrats, but were engaged in heated debates with the latter-day disciples of Confucius, Mozi, and all of the other major teachers of the Warring States Period. 

What Made Mo Di a Master? Exploring the Construction of a Category in Warring States Sources

T'oung Pao 101.4-5 (2015): 271-297. This journal essay examines the different ways in which the concept of a "Master" was constructed in early China, taking "Master Mo (Mozi 墨子 or Mo Di 墨翟, ca. 468-379 BCE) as a case study. It finds that different sources present us with radically different models of what a Master is and what role such figures should have in social and political life.

The Frontier Between Chen and Cai: Anecdote, Narrative, and Philosophical Argumentation in Early China 

Paul van Els and Sarah A. Queen, eds. Between Philosophy and History: Anecdotes in Early China (SUNY, 2017), 63-92. Using the many permutations of a common story about Confucius (551-479 BCE), this essay explores the ways in which particular anecdotes were refashioned and reused by different literati in early China in order to encode arguments similar to the "thought experiments" used by present-day philosophers (https://a.co/d/03wPgGje).