To all the Sinologists: I keep finding little dedications on the first volumes of books at the bottom within the stitching of the spine (both front/back). Is there a specific term for this? As far as I can decipher them, the two examples here read: 至子祀 and 開端丰端 #ChinaBooks

I feel that most people underappreciate Local Gazetteers #地方志 for their artistic value. They often contain lots of beautifully drawn pictures and maps of natural and populated areas in the region. Check out some of these pictures from the 熱河志!

For this week‘s #MarginaliaMonday, I have a copy of the 元朝祕史 in store: The text is written in Chinese characters phonetically representing #Mongolian. The annotator seemingly tried to represent it in Mongolian, Western transcriptions, and other Chinese characters. #ChinaBooks #Sinology

Ever seen a hand-copied Chinese #map? I came across a #manuscript copy of the 欽定盛京通志 in our collection this week. If you look closely, you can spot subtle differences from the print edition of this map of Mukden (modern-day Shenyang 沈陽)! #ChinaBooks #Sinology

Found a beautiful Shanhai jing #山海經 in our collection today. While the #illustrations in our 繪圖廣注-edition are reminiscent of Jiang Yinggao’s 蔣應鎬, they have something far more ornamental to them and at times feel almost comical. Really enjoyable read! #ChinaBooks

Found this little known book by Alfred Forke this week: The Origin of the Chinese on the Basis of their Old Pictograms. He discusses #etymology and connects it to early Chinese philosophy, cosmology, and culture. The 1925 volume focuses on agriculture, urbanism, and government. #Sinology

Some additions to the depictions of water in pre-modern Chinese books: the East China Sea off the coast of Fujian #福建 and Zhejiang #浙江 in a 1699 copy of the 元朝祕史 plus its interesting way to depict a desert - as a black void. #ChineseMaps #Cartography

Finally some pictures from the 撼龍疑龍二經, two texts on #Fengshui #風水 compiled in the late 1800s. The pictures show maps of mountain and river landscapes almost looking like abstract paintings. The last picture contains illustrations of various landscape features. #ChinaBooks #Sinology

Yesterday, I finally defended my dissertation with great success. Everyone enjoyed listening to a few #revenge stories from the Gongyang zhuan #公羊傳. And I am proud to have become the first doctor in my family. And a heartfelt thank you to all of my committee members! #Sinology #ChineseStudies

Finally got my personal copy of the #dissertation today. Feels great to bring this chapter to a close and looking forward to what’s next to come academically after my defense on Friday!

Came across Ma Su‘s 馬驌 (1621-1673) Yishi 繹史, the first historical work that included #maps of ancient admin structures. While these maps are interesting in their own right, I am fascinated by the ways water is depicted on each of them. Happy that I came across this! #China

Since #marginalia seem popular on here: Came across this Manchu-Chinese #Shujing #書經, dating to ~1760, with some beautiful Chinese glosses in the head margins. A previous owner seemingly also added his own punctuation in red over the original punctuation in black. #ChinaBooks

CfP: China AG / China Workgroup 2026 (June 13-15, 2026) This year's #conference will take place at JMU in Würzburg, Germany. We welcome all topics concerning China or the Sinophone sphere. Young scholars (BA to Postdoc) are invited to send their abstracts to Raffaela Rettinger. #Sinology

As a scholar of #Confucianism, I‘ll have to start with the Four Books: Last week, I came across this beautifully annotated copy of the Four Books #四書 (ca. 1850), which will make any scholar of intellectual history or provenance more than happy!

I started a new position working on a collection of mainly pre-modern Chinese books once owned by Jozef Mullie at KU Leuven Libraries, making these works available to scholars. Over the coming months, I'll be posting some of the fascinating texts and illustrations I come across. #ChineseStudies

This looks like a very interesting read on how Chinese philosophy can contribute to world/global philosophy! It’s #OpenAccess, so check it out. library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...

Starting my new position at @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social today. Excited to see what these uncatalogued Chinese collections have in store for me over the next months!

It seems that my work is at this point influential enough for me to be on the editorial board of a predatory journal. My paper on "Kang Youwei's J(sic)(sic) Daxue zhu xu (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)" seems very influential... #Academia #PredatoryJournals

I think at this point predatory journals have really given up... They were inspired by the rigorous research in my paper "Title." Sounds a bit fishy. #Academia

CfP: International #Migration & Intercultural Communication: A Cross-Disciplinary Student Congress @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social invites young scholars who haven't obtained their PhD degree yet for a two-day interdisciplinary congress w/ some funding available. More information in the pictures.

Handed in my #dissertation on Making #Revenge Great Again. Looking forward to the defense in March and the comments I’ll get. I‘m really excited for my next steps and some more explorations into Gongyang #Confucianism #公羊學 and #ChinesePhilosophy

The Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露 further reformulates this into a practical principle: 正本而末應，正內而外應 Correct the root and the branches respond; correct the inner and the outer responds

My book for the holidays: Zhao Lu‘s Weird #Confucius Let’s see what this got in store for me and my dissertation! #ChinesePhilosophy #Sinology

CfP: Third Forum on Dialogue of World Civilizations - #Astronomy, Science and Technology on the Ancient #SilkRoad Lanzhou University invites paper submissions for a conference on May 29-31, 2026 with an optional trip to #Dunhuang on June 1-3. More information in the pictures. #Sinology #China

New article by 謝詩楨 on Confucian #resentment 怨 was just published on 哲學評鑒. The piece examines whether Confucianism can withstand Nietzschean challenges and emphasizes the element of care in Confucianism. Fun read! #ComparativePhilosophy #Sinology #ChinesePhilosophy mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ptp1BDmXdd...

My copy of Ling Shu‘s #凌曙 complete works has finally arrived and it looks awesome. For the first time, all his works are collected in one place and the biographical studies already look very promising. Just in time to still be included in my dissertation! #Sinology #ChinesePhilosophy #Philology #清代

On the weekend, I had the chance to teach a two-day course on ritual propriety 禮 in the Lunyu #論語 for @lmumuenchen.bsky.social. Great discussions during our exploration of what li actually is and how it could translate into our contemporary socio-political realities. #ChinesePhilosophy

My new paper on Kang Youwei's #康有為 interpretation of the Daxue #大學 was published just a few days ago. I first presented my research in Olomouc in 2022, so it has been a journey since then, but I am more than happy with the final result! #ChinesePhilosophy #Sinology

Took over my supervisor's History of Chinese Philosophy class this week to introduce the students to contemporary #ChinesePhilosophy. It was a fun lecture followed by a really fruitful discussion. Now, I'm looking forward to a weekend of teaching #Confucianism for @lmumuenchen.bsky.social! #China

The Four Books App offers good translations of Confucian Classics and is now in public beta. Been testing it and have to say that I’m impressed by the translations already available and the additional tools. Will suggest using the app to my students! #ChinesePhilosophy #Sinology t.co/gJTodVI6EX

New Article: A (Very Short) Queer History of China open.substack.com/pub/dougroon...

At the airport to fly back from #廈門. Spent the last day climbing #大王峰 with my Sinology friends. Sad to leave this beautiful place but created many great memories and I hope to come back sometime in the future. #China

Had the chance to visit the #tea trade route and the Zou 鄒 family mansion at #萬里茶道 today. Later, we also went to pick some tea ourselves in the #武夷山 region. I could finally see where and how my tea is made - what an interesting experience! #China

Today, I had the opportunity to present my transcription of and research on long-lost letters from the first Danish Sinologist, Mourier, to Julius Klaproth right next to #武夷山, where #朱熹 built his study. Great atmosphere! #Sinology #ChineseHistory

Trip to Gulang Island #鼓浪嶼 today for a lecture in the Old Japanese Consulate. Great views on an architecturally stunning island. European style villas standing side by side, and trees that look ancient seaming the paths with not a single car in sight.

Made my way to Xiamen University 廈門大學 for a Sinology workshop on German-Chinese relations throughout history and had the chance to visit Lu Xun‘s #魯迅 study room where he often stayed over night to keep using the library during his time here. Looking forward to a great workshop! #ChineseHsitory

This Open Access volume might be interested for some Sinology scholars and historians on here! #lateimperialchina #chinesehistory link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

As the lack of English secondary literature specifically dedicated to Gongyang Confucianism #公羊學 makes this School of Chinese Philosophy and #Confucianism rather inaccessible, I have decided that it is time for a bibliography post including introductory and more specific works on Gongyang thinkers.

Received a few books from China a few days ago and am super excited for some more #公羊學. Especially interested in what seems to be the only other monograph ever written on #劉逢祿 besides 吳龍川‘s 劉逢祿《公羊》學研究 (2008). And 曾亦 is usually a safe bet for good research on Chinese Philosophy! #Sinology

Yesterday, I presented part of my research on Gongyang Confucian revenge at the Qing Intellectual History Network. Great session with lots of interested questions and nice discussion afterwards. Thanks to everyone who joined us! #公羊學 #Confucianism

I was invited to present some of my research on #Revenge in Gongyang Confucianism #公羊學 at the Qing Intellectual History Network next week. Feel free to join us at the link below on November 10! #ChinesePhilosophy #Sinology

This Thrusday, I was able to join Prof. Nicolas Standaert‘s emeritation lecture on “The Art of Turning Muddled” (難得糊塗). From challenges universities are facing over their achievements to his famous 4Vs, it felt like he really brought together insights from his whole career.

Wow, this is super interesting! I‘m always fascinated by different annotation systems people come up with. While my annotations are rather tame (lines, brackets, circles, notes, some “code” letters here and there,…) I’ve come across some WILD note-taking!

If you are interested in #Yinyang philosophy or new to Chinese thought overall, definitely check out this episode of HoPWaG featuring Robin R. Wang! Meeting her in Beijing in 2015 had a great impact on how I understand Yinyang and the five phases today.

Had the chance to join a workshop on image annotation in IMMARKUS led by @hildedw.bsky.social, Rainer Simon, Sunkyu Lee, and Dawn Zhuang today. This was great fun and definitely a tool I will use when working with visual media and texts in the future! #digitalhumanities

Today, I have finally received my author copy of Chinese Philosophy and Its Thinkers to which I contributed a 15-page chapter on Li Zhi #李贄 and the thinkers surrounding him together with Phillip Grimberg. #ChinesePhilosophy #Sinology

Lots of engaged questions and helpful criticism for what was possibly my last conference presentation as a PhD. Thanks to all who joined my talk on Kang Youwei's #康有為 notion of inner sageliness and outer kingliness #內聖外王 as presented in the preface to his lost 大學注!

Had the chance to present my analysis of Jiang Qing's #蔣慶 notion of revenge and its roots in Kang Youwei's #康有為, Liao Ping's #廖平, and Chen Zhu's #陳柱 ideas at FAU Erlangen's #DeutscherOrientalistentag yesterday. Thanks to my colleagues for the great panel!

Handed in my #dissertation @fau.de today! It's on its way to #Erlangen now. My thesis concerns commentarial practices in early imperial (Han 漢) China, analysing Zheng Xuan's 鄭玄 commentary to the Liji 禮記. #chinesehistory #sinology #chinesestudies #commentary #philology #ritual #hermeneutics

I'm always so amazed by how long people can work on a single project/book. A similar case is Chen Li #陳立 who worked on his 公羊義疏 for at least thirty years. Unhappy with what Xu Yan #徐彥 did during the Tang, he began compiling this massive subcommentary around the age of 20.