David Robinson

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David Robinson

Robert H.N. Ho Professor in Asian Studies and Professor of History

Department/Office Information

History, Asian Studies

315 Alumni Hall

Contact

drobinson@colgate.edu (315) 228-7512

As an undergraduate, I was fascinated by martial arts in China. I spent half my college years in Beijing and Taipei, where I developed a strong interest in local history. Many years later, the result was my first book, Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven. It tried to reconstruct a forgotten world, where bandits and enforcers in and around the capital of Beijing were tied to the emperor and his senior court officials.

A focus on the local unexpectedly drew me into regional and then global history. Later works explored the court culture of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), early modern Chinese military history, Northeast Asia (especially Kory?-Chos?n history), and eventually the Mongol empire and its various Eurasian successor states of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

As I encountered new places and peoples, I grew curious about their connected histories, including the realm of shared historical memories, diplomatic practice, and modes of rulership. In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Early Ming China (2019) and Ming China and Its Allies: Imperial Rulership in Eurasia (2020), are attempts to think about early modern China's rich and diverse connections to neighboring polities. I again approached the question through the prism of the Ming court in Beijing...and its surprisingly deep ties to places from Samarqand, Besh-Baliq, and Tibet to Mongolia, Korea, and more. Korea and the Fall of the Mongol Empire: Alliance, Upheaval, and the Rise of a New East Asian Order (2022) uses the life of the Goryeo ruler King Gongmin to explore Korea's experience as ally to two contemporary superpowers, the Mongol Empire and then the Ming Dynasty, in the second half of the fourteenth century. Ability and Difference in Early Modern China: A Mongol Family at the Ming Court (forthcoming) traces the experiences of one Mongolian family to explore the twin issues of ability and difference, especially as they relate to military affairs.

My current research considers a seeming paradox of Chinese state and society during the Ming period. On the one hand, we see the massive impact of the Ming state on the physical environment, transportation infrastructure, demographic composition, economic structure, and social dynamics of its northern borderlands, arguably the most ambitious border regime in the early modern world. On the other hand, individuals, families, and communities routinely exploited those prodigious state resources to pursue their own interests. In the process they alternately served, subverted, and redefined state objectives.

Foreign relations, military culture and institutions, borderlands, and China's place in Eurasia during the early modern period (circa 1350-1650) are all central interests.

This Chinese-language interview in traces how I went from an interest in martial arts to writing about the Ming dynasty as a successor to the Mongol empire.

BA, Hobart College
MA, PhD, Princeton University

Early modern China, Korea, and Eurasia
Military history, diplomatic history, court culture

"The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Its Non-Han Auxiliaries." China and Asia: A Journal of Historical Issues 5.2 (2024): 177-223.
“Korea in the Mongol Empire.” In Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire, eds. Michal Biran and Kim Hodong. Cambridge University Press, 2023, pp. 679-706.
“Storytelling with a Point: Ming China, Japan, and the Mongols.” In The Mongols and Global History, edited by Anne Dunlop. Florence: I Tatti―The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, 2023, pp. 97-114.
「츠덜묵溪宅촁禱瑙끓」[The Ming Court and the Legacy of the Yuan Mongols]. Translated by Zheng Dechang 練돠낀. Ouya yicong《킹饑陋님》 6 (2022).
“Delimiting the Realm under the Ming Dynasty.” The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, eds. Michal Biran, Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 284-315.
“The Ming Empire.” In Oxford World History of Empire, eds. Peter Bang, C. A. Bayly & Walter Scheidel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020, vol. 2, pp. 533-70.
「벌셥刀쓱苟돨멕쟝功퍅棍슥疼鋼옘」[Rethinking the Late Kory? in an International Context]. Translated by Shu Jian 竭숯영. Yuanshi ji minzu yu bianjiang yanjiu jika 《禱袈섟췽痢宅긋쉰桔씩섞엷》37 (2020): 266-80.
“Controlling Memory and Movement: The Early Ming Court and the Changing Chinggisid World.” A special issue on Mobility and Transformation in Mongol Eurasia in the Journal of the Social and Economic History of the Orient 62/1-2 (2019): 503-24.
「禱츠裂셥돨櫓벌긋쉰：鹿暾켓宅좼땜돨궐싹槨절」[Borderlands during the Yuan-Ming Transition: A Comparison of Yunnan and Liaodong]. In《츠덜暾켓撈잿宅역랙벌셥欺減桔擎삔》, ed. Shang Chuan �눈 and Xiong Jing 襟쑨. Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 2018, pp. 1-14.
“Celebrating War with the Mongols.” How Mongolia Matters: War, Law, and Society, ed. Morris Rossabi. Brill, 2017, pp. 105-28.
“The Continuing Relevance of Fr. Henry Serruys (1911-1983): The History of the Mongols in China.” Leuven Chinese Studies 36 (2017): 11-29.
「홍헷袈柬柰苟돨츠날�嶠嵐刻」 [Martial Spectacles of the Ming Court in a Global Context]. Gugong xuekan믐묵欺엷 18 (2017): 37-42.
“Why Military Institutions Matter for Chinese History.” The Journal of Chinese History 2 (July 2017): 235-42.
“Why Military Institutions Matter for Ming History.” The Journal of Chinese History 2 (July 2017): 297-327.
“Rethinking the Late Kory? in an International Context.” Korean Studies 41 (2017): 75-98.
「킹쳄돨츠날묵溪袈桔씩땡檄」[The Ming Court in Anglophone Scholarship: A Review Essay], Gugong xuekan 믐묵欺엷 17 (2016): 420-24.
“Justifying Ming Rulership on a Eurasian Stage.” In Ming: Courts and Contacts, 1400-1450, eds. Craig Clunas et al. British Museum Press, 2016, pp. 8-14.
「댕禱뒨벌돨緞綾뵨츠놓긋쉰漣꿉」[Early Ming Border Policies and the Shadow of the Great Yuan Nation]. Zhongguoshi yanjiu dongtai『櫓벌袈桔씩땡檄』 5 (2016): 32-36.
“Chinese Border Garrisons in a Transnational Context: Liaodong under the Early Ming Dynasty.” In Chinese and Indian Warfare―From the Classical Age to 1870, eds. Peter Lorge and Kaushik Roy. Routledge, 2015, pp. 57-73.
“Wu: The Arts of War.” In Ming: 50 years that changed China, eds. Craig Clunas and Jessica Harrison-Hall. British Museum Press, 2014, pp. 112-55.
“Military Labor in China, circa 1500.” In Fighting for a Living: A Comparative History of Military Labour 1500-2000, ed. Erik-Jan Z㉨rcher. Amsterdam University Press, 2014, 43-80.
「鱇쪼鋼邱�돨欺減瑙끓」 [The Scholarly Legacy of Henry Serruys]. Mingshi yanjiu luncong 『츠袈桔씩쬠님』 14 (2014): 230-33.
“Yuan Dynasty.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies, ed. Tim Wright. Oxford University Press, 2013.
“Ming Dynasty.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies, ed. Tim Wright. Oxford University Press, 2013.
「츠덜품퍅뽈杆逕죤」 [The Royal Hunt during the Early Ming Dynasty]. Mingshi yanjiu luncong 『츠袈桔씩쬠님』 12 (2013): 51-64. Translated by Afeng 각루.
“Mongolian Migration and Ming China.” Journal of Central Eurasian Studies 3 (2012): 109-29.>
“Princely Courts of the Ming Dynasty.” Ming Studies 65 (2012): 1-12.
“Princes in the Polity: The Anhua Prince’s Uprising of 1510.” Ming Studies 65 (2012): 13-57.
“Introduction.” In Culture, Courtiers, and Competition: The Ming Court (1368-1644), ed. David M. Robinson. Harvard University Asia Center, 2008, pp. 1-20.
“The Ming Court.” In Culture, Courtiers, and Competition, ed. Robinson, pp. 21-60.
“The Ming Court and the Legacy of the Yuan Mongols.” In Culture, Courtiers, and Competition, ed. Robinson, pp. 365-421.
“Mongoru teikoku no hÞkai to KÞrai KyÞmin’Þ no taigai seisaku” βτⅤλ뒨벌ㅞ굼돯ㅘ멕쟝묜咨珙ㅞ뙘棍漣꿉. In Ch㉠goku Higashi Ajia gaikÞ kÞry㉠ shi no kenky㉠ 櫓벌땜ⅱⅨⅱ棍슥슥직ㅞ桔씩, ed. Fuma Susumu 뤼쯩쏵. Kyoto University Press, 2007, pp. 145-84. Translated by Mizukoshi Tomo 彊督列.
Translation of Iwami Hiroshi 喫숨뙂. “Professor Yamane Yukio and the Study of the Ming Period.” Ming Studies 51-52 (Spring and Fall, 2005): 8-11.
“Disturbing Images: Rebellion, Usurpation, Rulership--Korean Writings on Emperor Wuzong (r. 1506-1521).” Journal of Korean Studies 9, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 97-127.
“Images of Subject Mongols under the Ming Dynasty.” Late Imperial China 25, no. 1 (June 2004): 59-123.
Translation of Fuma Susumu 뤼쯩쏵 “Ming Studies in Japan, Part 1.” Ming Studies 47 (Spring 2003): 21-61.
“Banditry and the Subversion of State Authority in China: the Capital Region during the Middle Ming Period (1425-1525).” Journal of Social History 33 (March 2000): 527-63.
“Politics, Force, and Ethnicity in Ming China: Mongols and the Abortive Coup of 1461.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 59, no. 1 (June 1999): 79-123.
“Korean Lobbying at the Ming Court: King Chungjong’s Usurpation of 1506.” Ming Studies 41 (Spring, 1999): 37-53.
“Notes on Eunuchs in Mid-Ming Hebei.” Ming Studies 34 (July, 1995): 1-16.