6.      Hilde De Weerdt

Dear colleagues and friends, Many thanks to everyone who came to the SSYCDS annual meeting at the AAS in Vancouver! We had a full house again this year, with a bigger room and a longer layout of food. Check out this video of the buzzing room: https://bsky.app/profile/ssycds.bsky.social/post/3mhzmvhr3bc2p. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm. It seems the larger gathering is now our new normal. 2025-2026 has been yet another strong year for the society, despite the vagaries of higher education. Under the leadership of our secretary, Yiwen Li, our membership has grown for the third year in a row—an achievement made possible by your general support. Our treasurer, Man Xu, has maintained the Society’s finances in a healthy state amid inflationary pressures. With Charles Hartman and Paul Smith at the helm, the No. 54 issue of the *Journal of Song Yuan Studies* has been released. Check it out here: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55954. Your clicks are more helpful than you might think—every one counts! And if you love the feeling of holding a real book, subscribe or renew your membership to get a physical copy in your hands. Two things we hope to put on your radar: first, three of our board members are cycling off this year, and we’ll be electing three new members. Please consider nominating yourself or a colleague, and keep an eye out for our call for nominations. Coming soon! Second, we hear you about missing our messages via the listserv. University email firewalls are getting higher (for good reasons), but we are also exploring more modern ways to stay in touch. We’ve set up a WhatsApp community, which you can join here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/H5TiQUWGIXo1ANofVGJIQh. You don’t need a US phone number; any number that can receive a confirmation text will work. The group will share exactly the same content as the listserv, providing a convenient alternative if the listserv isn’t reaching you. Finally, I’m attaching the list of publications by our members announced at the AAS meeting. Congratulations again! We look forward to receiving more submissions from you and celebrating our members’ achievements again next year. If you have any suggestions for how we can improve for the future, please feel free to reach out to me (yzuo@ucsb.edu) or Yiwen (yiwenli@cityu.edu.hk)—we’d love to hear from you! Sincerely yours, Ya Zuo President of the Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties 1. James M. Hargett James M. Hargett ed. *Wading Barefoot through a Mountain Stream: The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake (1587-1641)* (University of Washington Press, 2026) New Book link: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295753690/wading-barefoot-through-a-mountain-stream/ This book will be published on or about 1 March. 2. Julia K. Murray Julia K. Murray, “The Formation and Significance of Images of Confucius and Disciples at the Apricot Altar (Xingtan tu 杏壇圖),” in Chen Zhi ed., *The Narration of Ancient China (Part 2),* (Leiden: Brill, 2025), pp. 172-210. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004722415_009 [open access] 3. Jeehee Hong Jeehee Hong and Wu Hung eds., *Affect and Materiality: Emotion in Chinese Art* (Chicago: Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago; Art Media Resources, 2025). 4. King Kwong Wong King Kwong Wong, “Harmony Between In-Laws: Rethinking Yuan-Koryŏ Royal Marriages and Rulership,” February 2026 issue of the *Journal of Asian Studies*. 5. Christian de Pee Christian de Pee, “The Naitō Hypostasis: Naitō Konan (1866-1934) and the Japanese Imperialist Legacy in the Historiography of Middle-Period China (800-1400 CE).”* History and Theory* 65 (2026), no. 2, forthcoming. 6. Hilde De Weerdt Book *The Arts of Governance: Sinitic Political Advice Literature from Medieval Times to the Present*. U of Hawaii Press, 2026. Edited Essay Collection Critical Approaches to Chinese Infrastructures. Forum of six essays across the humanities social sciences. *The Journal of Asian Studies,* Dec. 2027. Articles The Unbearable Modern-Centricity of the Infrastructure Turn. In Critical Approaches to Chinese Infrastructures. *The Journal of Asian Studies*, Dec. 2027. When, Where, How, and What Is Infrastructure? Introduction to Critical Approaches to Chinese Infrastructures. *The Journal of Asian Studies*, Dec. 2027. Beyond Chinese Studies: Where Chinese History Sits—and Why This Matters. In Chinese Studies in Europe, special anniversary issue in *Journal of the European Association of Chinese Studies* 7.1 (2026). Lecturing and Reading at Court and in the Provinces: The Role of the ‘Classics Mat’ in the Vernacularization of Learning in Song and Yuan China. *Asia Major *39.2 (2026). Contextual Semantic Text and Image Annotation in the MARKUS Environment. [with Brent Ho, Rainer Simon, Lee Sunkyu, Sander Molenaar, Xi Wangzhi, Dawn Zhuang, Iva Stojević, Tu Hsieh-Chang, Lin Nung-yao, Taylor Zaneri, Meret Meister] *Digital Humanities Quarterly *19.4 https://dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/19/4/000808/000808.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/19/4/000808/000808.html__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZfPvvwe1$> Fluid Boundaries and the Art of In-Betweenness: Practicing Middle Period History Globally. In Tian Xiaofei, ed., In the Middle of What? *Early Medieval China* 30 (2024): 142-47. Chinese translation: 变动的边界与中间地带的艺术：全球视角下的中古史实践 (tr. *郑易林*). 传统文化 2.4: 17-21 (2024). https://shorturl.at/vikYD <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/shorturl.at/vikYD__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZdgErEpl$> Book chapters From the Arts of Governance to the Learning of Emperors: Reading Taizong Mirror Literature (ca. 600-1400). In Anna Shields and Robert Hymes, eds., *From Tang to Song: Transmissions and Inventions in China's Middle Period*, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2026. Neo-Confucian Learning and Governing during the Southern Song and Yuan Dynasties (1127-1368), in Kiri Paramore, ed., *The Cambridge History of Confucianism*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026. Software MUNDa: Spatial and Quantitative Analysis Platform for entity and event data, with Lin Nung-yao, Tu Hsieh-Chang, and Dawn Zhuang. https://munda.xmarkus.org/ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/munda.xmarkus.org/__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZbJwFEWb$> 2025 X-MARKUS: Multi—media Information and Retrieval System for entity and cluster data, with Tu Hsieh-Chang and Dawn Zhuang. https://xmarkus.xmarkus.org/ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/xmarkus.xmarkus.org/__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZXed7z3l$> 2025 IMMARKUS: Image Annotation in X-MARKUS, with Rainer Simon, Lee Sunkyu, Iva Stojević, Meret Meister, and Xi Wangzhi. immarkus.xmarkus.org <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/immarkus.xmarkus.org__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZWh3ILtp$> 2024- COMARKUS: Contextual Annotation in X-MARKUS, with Hou Ieong (Brent) Ho, Sander Molenaar.comarkus.xmarkus.org <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/comarkus.xmarkus.org__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZXdUckhW$> 2024- Translations The End of a Dynasty. In C. Lamouroux, *The Song Dynasty*, Princeton University Press, 2026 (translated from the French: La fin d’une dynastie, in Christian Lamouroux, *La Dynastie des Song*, pp. 239-276). The Birth of a New World. In C. Lamouroux, *The Song Dynasty*, Princeton University Press, 2026 (translated from the French: La naissance d’un nouveau monde, in Christian Lamouroux, *La Dynastie des Song*, pp. 189-237). Book reviews Chinese Statecraft: Political Theory and Administrative Pratice in Ming China, edited by T. Brook and L. Dai.*Ming Studies *2026 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0147037X.2026.2615544 <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0147037X.2026.2615544__;!!KjDnqvtInNPT!kog2KuXiqe7khTCw6P1i0P5YMABsvYd6V4lGlG0eUoJKDhWsnQhNaQNQYjo9vWOr-I1qX3vHWSaHJWQVJ_ItFdPnZeQ1L4cE$>