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“PRC Foreign Policy-Making Structures & Securitization in Central Asia”, (in press), presented at OSCE Academy, Bishkek Conference, “Central Asia’s International Relations: Unpacking Decision-Making Actors and Processes”, April 28, 2023.
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My contribution to the collection in honor of Victor H. Mair's 80th birthday in March 2023. “From China to the Silk Roads with Victor Mair,” in Neil Schmid & Diana Shuhang Zhang, eds., Victor H. Mair: A Celebration. Amherst, New York:... more
My contribution to the collection in honor of Victor H. Mair's 80th birthday in March 2023.
“From China to the Silk Roads with Victor Mair,” in Neil Schmid & Diana Shuhang Zhang, eds., Victor H. Mair: A Celebration. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, March 2023.
My translation and transcription with introduction for the Global Medieval Sourcebook of Stanford University. Link above: https://sourcebook.stanford.edu/text/efrosins-tale-solomon-and-kitrovas. I am deeply indebted to Professor Julia... more
My translation and transcription with introduction for the Global Medieval Sourcebook of Stanford University. Link above: https://sourcebook.stanford.edu/text/efrosins-tale-solomon-and-kitrovas.

I am deeply indebted to Professor Julia Verkholantsev, my instructor of Old Church Slavonic at the University of Pennsylvania, for her generous guidance in this project.

“Efrosin's Tale of Solomon and Kitovras” is part of a collection compiled by the priest-monk Efrosin of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (St. Cyril of Beloozero’s Monastery) in the late 15th century CE. The monastery is located north of Moscow and originally functioned as a place of exile for elites and clergymen in disgrace. In 1446 CE, Grand Prince Vasily II came to the monastery, where the Father Superior, Tryphon, absolved him from the oath he had taken not to fight for the Muscovite throne. Following Vasily’s victory in the Muscovite Civil War, the Kirillo-Belozerky Monastery was granted special status and received an inflow of generous donations. The monastery became a place of broad intellectual activities and its prestige within the Muscovite state made it an attractive place for monks. It retained its high status through the reign of Grand Prince Ivan III (r. 1462-1505 CE) during which Efrosin composed the present text.

The manuscript, a book of encyclopedic content that includes writings from the Paleia, was part of Efrosin’s personal notebooks and may have been used for pedagogical purposes. It is absent from the book catalogue of the monastery’s library, which suggests that it was likely kept in Efrosin’s own cell.  The book is thick but compact, approximately 14 x 10 cm and covered in leather bindings.

Efrosin is one of the most remarkable men of letters of the Grand Duchy of Moscow but information about him is sparse. One of the few references to him outside his own notebooks mentions that he departed the monastery for over a year. In addition to religious texts, Efrosin’s collections include subjects such as geography, history, medicine, astronomy, and lexicography, and this breadth is representative of an encyclopedic trend in writings of the period. (See also Efrosin’s version of the “Tale of Dracula” in this sourcebook.) While Efrosin appears to have been in good standing with the Church, he did have a particular interest in texts, such as this story, which had been denounced as “false” or “of little use.” Of the texts he copied, he edited many to his own liking, with revisions, additions, and personal notes. In rewriting the texts in this manner, Efrosin often provided his own interpretations, thus creating original versions.

Efrosin’s creative synopsis of the “Tale of Solomon and Kitovras” is an original version of a longer tale which Efrosin had copied as part of the “Judgements of Solomon” cycle found in the Paleia, a major Old Russian interpretative text that retells much of the Old Testament with apocryphal additions and comments. Based on the image of the biblical king renowned for his wisdom and portrayed as a great holder of knowledge, tales of King Solomon formed a genre with a storied tradition that became a hallmark of Slavic Orthodox literary culture. Legends of Kitovras, a Slavic derivative of “Centaur”, occupy an important place in this tradition. Efrosin’s version takes considerable liberty with the tale and includes themes not present in his source, which he himself copied and included in the same book.

In the source version, Solomon captures Kitovras to help him with the construction of the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. While held in captivity, Kitovras exhibits the ability to know the fates of several people. He tells Solomon how to obtain the Shamir stone needed to build the temple and stays with him through its completion. When Solomon doubts Kitovras’ strength, Kitovras throws him to the edge of the promised land. Upon his return, Solomon orders sixty bodyguards around his bed for protection against Kitovras.

In his edition, Efrosin added, for example, a description of the beast, but gave him cow legs instead of the horse legs depicted in the miniature drawn by the icon-painter Ephraim Trebes in section 127 of the same manuscript and in Nicetas of Heracleia’s commentary on Achilles and the Centaur, copied in the Kirillov Mythographer. The dialogue and Kitovras’s response to Solomon that, “Best of all is one’s own freedom,” is also Efrosin’s personal addition, and a deliberate choice for emphasis. Specialists have suggested that this line can be read in the context of the trend for monks, like Efrosin, to leave the monastery for extended periods of time, thereby living with a sense of independence that is reflected in the writings of the period as a whole. The modifications and additions that Efrosin made to the dialogue between Solomon and Kitovras and to the plot itself thus make his retelling stand out among other versions of this classic tale.
This paper explores the ways in which the Maoist ideology of continuous struggle was manifested in the linguistic changes that arose in Chinese society following the Communist victory in proclaiming the People􏲉s Republic of China in 􏲑􏲒􏲓􏲒􏲈... more
This paper explores the ways in which the Maoist ideology of continuous struggle was manifested in the linguistic changes that arose in Chinese society following the Communist victory in proclaiming the People􏲉s Republic of China in 􏲑􏲒􏲓􏲒􏲈 1949. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the worldview associated with the Chinese brand of Marxism-􏲔Leninism that formed the core of Mao Zedong Thought and the propaganda system engineered to promote it, as it is in this context that the political was able to triumph in all spheres including linguistic. The formalization of language into set phrases will then be considered, along with its precedent and efficacy. Once this is established, specific linguistic changes will be analyzed in the pattern of two general themes: identity, especially political identity, and military-style rhetoric.
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The persistent attention drawn to BRI and “New Silk Road” rhetoric has not been matched with a centralized allocation scheme to direct projects into a Chinese grand strategy. In this context, the publicity surrounding, for example,... more
The persistent attention drawn to BRI and “New Silk Road” rhetoric has not been matched with a centralized allocation scheme to direct projects into a Chinese grand strategy. In this context, the publicity surrounding, for example, non-committal memoranda of understanding, serves the wider goal of “marketing” the great “rejuvenation” of China and its ascension to great power status. In Central Asia in particular, a favorite refrain using often spurious historical ties to evoke a “Silk Road Spirit” of cooperation.

Due to complications from the Sino-Soviet split, it is necessary for Chinese narratives to point back to an imagined sense of harmonious times in the distant past. That these happen to coincide with the periods when the Chinese empires were at their strongest and most extended naturally invites comparisons to a rejuvenated imperialism as Chinese engagement with the region grows. The BRI’s own propaganda cycle has the effect, therefore, of encouraging onlookers to see grand designs – even if their coherency is greatly exaggerated – that are naturally interpreted to be sinister. The great contradiction is that, just as foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy, a strong Chinese posture on the world stage is applauded as a win at home, where, just as with the Wolf Warrior phenomenon, citizens can take pride that, since their country is now considered strong, its leadership is formidable and legitimate.
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Translation from the Russian of Суюнбаев, М. Сумерки аналитиков или апология многовекторности («большая игра» в центральной евразии: наличие отсутствия?). В кн.: Внешнеполитическая ориентация стран Центральной Азии в свете глобальной... more
Translation from the Russian of Суюнбаев, М. Сумерки аналитиков или апология многовекторности («большая игра» в центральной евразии: наличие отсутствия?). В кн.: Внешнеполитическая ориентация стран Центральной Азии в свете глобальной трансформации мировой системы международных отношений. Бишкек, 2009, с.91-98.
Excerpted from: Суюнбаев М.Н. Узбеков Д.С. Геополитические особенности Центральной Евразии. – Бишкек: ЧП Сарыбаев, 2018, с. 219-226.
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Translation from the Russian of Суюнбаев М.Н. Узбеков Д.С. Геополитические особенности Центральной Евразии. – Бишкек: ЧП Сарыбаев, 2018, с. 8-22.
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This paper investigates the context of Nixon’s seminal 1967 article, “Asia After Viet Nam,” connects its rhetoric with early signals to the Chinese government in Peking and shows how the rhetoric in Nixon’s essays, public statements and... more
This paper investigates the context of Nixon’s seminal 1967 article, “Asia After Viet Nam,” connects its rhetoric with early signals to the Chinese government in Peking and shows how the rhetoric in Nixon’s essays, public statements and inauguration was used to signal to the Chinese, and how this was received in China. It then examines articles published responding to Nixon’s inaugural in the primary CCP newspaper, the People’s Daily, and the rhetorical strategy of highlighting purported collaboration between the Soviet revisionists and the American imperialists. The paper concludes by showing the connection between Nixon’s public rhetoric and the restart of talks in Warsaw and analyzing the significance of these signals amidst the geopolitical context in order to add critical nuance to our understanding of the roots of US-PRC rapprochement.
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While much has been written on the ‘Silk Roads’ as conduits of cultural, linguistic, religious, and economic exchange across Eurasia, this was once but one of a plurality of terms used in similar context. One of the more significant of... more
While much has been written on the ‘Silk Roads’ as conduits of cultural, linguistic, religious, and economic exchange across Eurasia, this was once but one of a plurality of terms used in similar context. One of the more significant of these routes was the ‘Jade Road’, with terminus at Khotan, famous for the nephrite jade found at its neighboring White Jade River 白玉河 (Yurungkaš River 玉龍哈什河) and Black Jade River 黑玉河 (Karakaš River 喀拉哈什河).  As recent archeological investigations have shown, elements of this ‘Jade Road’, dating to the Neolithic Period and Bronze Age, greatly predated trade in silk and set the stage for the intercultural and trade connections that were to come. This impression is supported by references in early Chinese literature such as the Mù Tiānzǐ Zhuàn 穆天子傳 and Shān Hǎi Jīng 山海經. It is thus fitting that when the ‘Silk Road’ came into use as an historiographical framework, the ‘Jade Road’ was its natural comparison as one of the 'two ancient roads' which carried both goods and ideas across Central Eurasia. In this context, if the ‘Silk Road’ implies a focus extending from China westward, the ‘Jade Road’ was especially prevalent for the flow of ideas and goods eastward and northward, from both South and Central Asia to China and beyond. This paper, therefore, investigates the role of the Khotanese jade trade in the evolution of intercultural connections surrounding the Tarim Basin and neighboring civilizations with particular attention to historiography and ‘Jade Road’ narratives in Chinese and Western literature. The case will be made, moreover, for renewed consideration of the ‘Jade Road’ as a nuanced corrective to balance the overarching ‘Silk Road’ narratives that do not properly credit the centrality of Central Asians and their civilizations.
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The Silk Road, like any concept, is a product of its time, both the time of its invention and that of its popularization. The fact that the phrase “Silk Road” was chosen indicates something about the people who formulated it. My paper... more
The Silk Road, like any concept, is a product of its time, both the time of its invention and that of its popularization. The fact that the phrase “Silk Road” was chosen indicates something about the people who formulated it. My paper contextualizes the development of the concept regarding both the intellectual and political climate as well as the background of those who first used the term. I determine that it is simultaneously Euro-centric and Sino-centric: the former because the name focuses on what the Roman and Greek writers noted and Sino-centric because it does not mention the products received in return and overstates the use of silk, among other reasons. Moreover, the traditional conception implies that the raison d’être of the ‘route’ is to deliver silk to the west, a misleading characterization that discounts the centrality of Central Asia, while, in fact, Central Eurasia was the heart and key of the system and a region full of vitality itself. Prior to 1929, when ‘Silk Road’ was first translated from an English-language academic article which had in turn, taken the term from German scholarship, Chinese did not have a term for the unity of routes to the west, regardless of name. My paper thus highlights the consequences of translation as the term evolved from various German scholars into French and English before reaching Chinese. In each of these iterations, and continuing onward to the present-day, the ‘Silk Road’ grew to encompass ever more both temporally and spatially, expanding significantly, as I show, from the original, limited academic usage into a popular, ambiguous metaphor for globalization.
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In the period marking about a half-century after the Qianlong emperor’s blitz into Central Asia, profound shifts occurred in regional power dynamics. It was during this time that, in great part due to its profitable relationship with Qing... more
In the period marking about a half-century after the Qianlong emperor’s blitz into Central Asia, profound shifts occurred in regional power dynamics. It was during this time that, in great part due to its profitable relationship with Qing Xinjiang, Khoqand rose to dominate the Ferghana Valley. In borders and boundaries, as evidenced and brought about by the Qing’s dealings with nomadic groups, this period saw a shift from a personal principle emphasizing the relationships of all parties to the Qa’an in the form of the Qing emperor to a territorial principle that encompassed stricter control over a more defined set of boundaries. In the Qing imperial messages to each Central Asian ruler, while a broad ejen-albatu relationship was emphasized as its foundation, this gradually became an excuse for non-intervention that morphed into disinterest, provided that the security of its now-entrenched position in Xinjiang was not threatened. As the Qing retreated from Central Asia, the court ceded more authority to officials in Xinjiang and, implicitly, the sedentary power it had helped the most to promote, laying the foundations for a new era at the dawn of the new century.
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This paper will investigate early Christian-Buddhist literary dialogues in order to understand how the Jesuit message diverged from acceptable discourse prior to its prohibition by the Tokugawa government in 1614. It will be particularly... more
This paper will investigate early Christian-Buddhist literary dialogues in order to understand how the Jesuit message diverged from acceptable discourse prior to its prohibition by the Tokugawa government in 1614. It will be particularly focused on how the Jesuits presented their faith as both alternatively similar and diametrically opposed to Japanese traditions, and how, in turn, their message was received by Japanese intent on protecting their homeland from an infection of Christian heresy. This term, heresy (Jap. jaho), was, after all, the label applied to the “teaching” – “religion” was not yet an established concept in East Asia – in the 1614 decree that ended their official mission. As Josephson-Storm has elucidated in his book, The Invention of Religion in Japan, “heresy” is invoked to rebuke not that which is radically different but that which is similar yet unassimilable. At first glance, this appears to explain how the Jesuit approach of “accommodation” in certain respects and confrontation in others made their teaching into a pariah of a centralizing Japanese state. Since the True Pure Land sect of Buddhism, by way of its message of salvation through faith, is most similar to the promise of Christianity, this paper will focus on how writers on both sides of the divide staked their positions on the key questions separating faith in Amida Buddha and faith in the Christian God. From this investigation it will be shown that the language of similarity from both sides in the end functioned to weaken the Christian position by making it replaceable by a more “pure” version calibrated to the conditions of Japanese society.
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Until Borbone's 2021 publication, all translations, including Borbone's in Italian and French, of the History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma, first discovered by the American missionary Isaac Hollister Hall in 1886, were based on the... more
Until Borbone's 2021 publication, all translations, including Borbone's in Italian and French, of the History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma, first discovered by the American missionary Isaac Hollister Hall in 1886, were based on the edition Lazarist Catholic priest Paul Bedjan published in 1895. The present (2021 English) edition, by contrast, is based on three manuscripts. Combined with Borbone's extensive commentary and notes, this makes his latest edition the most comprehensive scholarship to date on the History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sauma, a crucial work for our understanding of the Church of the East and the Mongol Empire.
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Translated & edited by Vito Acosta. Adapted from: Kamal Abdoulla & Michel Malherbe, Parlons Azerbaidjanais: Langue et culture. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2008.
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