Sinologie

Dr. Maxim Korolkov

Research Associate, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen

Dr. Maxim Korolkov earned his PhD from Columbia University in 2020 and taught premodern Chinese history at Heidelberg University (Germany) between 2017 and 2024.

Current research project
Maxim Korolkov is currently working on the research project “Inventing the Chinese Economy: Economic Change in the Formative Period of Chinese Empires, Fourth to Second Century BCE” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which focuses on the economic change during the formative period of Chinese empires from the third century BCE to the third century CE.

Areas of interest and research

  • Economic and institutional history of early imperial China (300 BCE – 300 CE)
  • History of imperial peripheries, frontiers, and trans-regional connections
  • Chinese archaeology
  • Excavated administrative and legal manuscripts from ancient China

Publications

Monographs

  • Institutions and Environment in Ancient Southern East Asia, 3000 BCE to 300 CE. Cambridge Elements Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/institutions-and-environment-in-ancient-southern-east-asia-3000-bce-to-300-ce/CC39D2BB0C5D015C230983E4DB2E3728)
  • The Imperial Network in Ancient China: The Foundation of Sinitic Empire in Southern East Asia. London and New York: Routledge, 2022.
  • Chinese translation: Ma Shuo 馬碩 (Maxim Korolkov). Gudai Zhongguo de diguo wangluo: Zhonghua diguo zai Dongya nanbu de jianli 古代中國的帝國網絡——中華帝國在東亞南部的建立. Shanghai: Zhongguo chuban jituan, 2024.
  • Zouyanshu: A Collection of Dubious Legal Cases from the Beginning of the Han Period. A Study with Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Moscow: Nauka–Vostochnaya Literatura (in Russian).
  • Historical Records (Shiji), Vol. IX. Translation and Commentary (with R.V. Vyatkin, A.R. Vyatkin, A.M. Karapetyanz, M.Y. Ulyanov, S.R. Kuczera, V.V. Bashkeev, S.V. Dmitriev, and M.S. Tseluyko). Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura RAN (in Russian).

Edited volumes

  • Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 47 (co-edited with Rüdiger Breuer). Forthcoming in 2025.
  • Sinologi Mira k Yubileyu Stanislawa Kuczery (Festschrift for Stanislaw Kuczera). Moscow: Institut Vostokovedeniya RAN. (in Russian, co-edited with Sergei Dmitriev)

Peer-reviewed articles

  • Oriental Despotism Revisited: Organization of Water Works and Trajectories of State Power in Ancient China. Monde(s) 27 (2025): 127–46. (https://shs.cairn.info/journal-mondes-2025-1-page-127?lang=en&tab=premieres-lignes)
  • From the “Empire of Convicts” to Labor Market: Convict Labor Regime in the Early Chinese Empires and Its Legacy. Asia Major 37.1 (2024): 1–26. (https://www1.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/en/Publications/AsiaMajor/1190/Article/923)
  • (Political) Community: Grassroots Social Units in Ideology and Practice of the Early Chinese Empires. Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 46 (2024): 155–82. (https://www.academia.edu/125886927/_Political_Community_Grassroots_Social_Units_in_Ideology_and_Practice_of_the_Early_Chinese_Empires)
  • State, Local Communities, and Water Management at the Dawn of China’s Imperial Era in the Light of Newly Excavated Documents. Bamboo and Silk 7 (2024): 219–50. (https://brill.com/view/journals/bsms/7/2/article-p219_3.xml)
  • Knowledge Production in China’s Early Empires: How Qin and Han Officials Gathered Information. Journal of the American Oriental Society 143.4 (2023): 859–80. (co-authored with Brian Lander) (https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos/article/view/2408)
  • Building Empire, Creating Markets: Commercial Policies and Practices in Imperial Qin (221–207 BCE). Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 66.1-2 (2023): 206–36. (https://www.academia.edu/96102022/Building_Empire_Creating_Markets_Commercial_Policies_and_Practices_in_Imperial_Qin_221_207_BCE_)
  • State-Induced Migration and the Creation of State Spaces in Early Chinese Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History.” Journal of Chinese History 5 (2021): 203–25. (co-authored with Anke Hein) (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-chinese-history/article/abs/stateinduced-migration-and-the-creation-of-state-spaces-in-early-chinese-empires-perspectives-from-history-and-archaeology/87D09AD61610E2E7ACC49405863893AB)
  • Calculating Crime and Punishment: Unofficial Law Enforcement, Quantification, and Legitimacy in Early Imperial China.” Critical Analysis of Law 3.1 (2016): 70–86. (https://cal.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cal/article/view/26452)
    “Greeting tablets” in Early China: Some Aspects of the Communicative Ritual of Officialdom in Light of Newly Excavated Inscriptions.” T’oung Pao 98 (2012): 295–348. (https://brill.com/view/journals/tpao/98/4-5/article-p295_1.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOooZibV-YkYNRwx5pLlGQi-LdwqDbve7mJMVtL-jqcnwD7rElFLb)
  • Arguing About Law: Interrogation Procedure Under the Qin and Former Han Dynasties. Études Chinoises XXX (2011): 37–71. (https://www.persee.fr/doc/etchi_0755-5857_2011_num_30_1_956)

Book chapters

  • Early Sinitic Empires and the Frontier Zone Economy in Southern East Asia. In Lara Fabian et al., eds. Economies of the Edge: Frontier Zone Processes at Regional, Imperial, and Global Scales (300 BCE – 300 CE). Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Press, 2025. 15–44. (https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1582/chapter/22720)
  • Rule by Impersonal Standards in the Early Empires: Ideas and Realities. In Yuri Pines, ed. Dao Companion to China’s Fa Traditions: The Philosophy of Governance by Impartial Standards. New York: Springer, 2024. 201–30. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-53630-4_8)
  • Handwriting in the Official Documents from Liye and Bureaucratic Politics in the Qin Empire. In Abigail Armstrong et al., eds. Keeping Record: The Materiality of Rulership and Administration in Early China and Medieval Europe. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2024. 97–117. (https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111323664-005/html?srsltid=AfmBOopZKps4qHCRfQGxkBjrlLI0c0XHJ5ewaPdd3woJoTP88CytrOGl)
  • Southern Sea Ports of the Han Empire: Urbanization and Trade in Coastal Lingnan. In Sitta von Reden, ed. Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Vol. 3. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. 295–337. (https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110607628-008/html?srsltid=AfmBOoppvKYl0bd4Ol8LwJQBtiBmyyJnl6cn-pgKzpJ-degCHkDspLLg)
  • Between Command and Market: Credit, Labor and Accounting in the Qin Empire (221-207 B.C.E.). In Elisa Sabattini and Christian Schwermann, eds. Between Command and Market: Economic Thought and Practice in Early China. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2022. 162–243. (https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004466432/BP000014.xml?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOooPdDK9pMrkh73ODyxGBkdTXjrjIap-gJDcGOpOWacLeZs6bf8s)
  • Fiscal Transformation During the Formative Period of Ancient Chinese Empire (Late Fourth to First Century B.C.). In Jonathan Valk and Irene Soto Marín, eds. Ancient Taxation: The Mechanics of Extraction in Comparative Perspective. New York: State University of New York Press, 2021. 203–71. (https://www.academia.edu/51001883/Fiscal_Transformation_during_the_Formative_Period_of_Ancient_Chinese_Empire_Late_Fourth_to_First_Century_BCE_)

Encyclopedia entries

  • “Liye.” In Daniel T. Potts, Ethan Harkness, Jason Neelis, and Roderick McIntosh, eds. The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781119399919.eahaa00662)
  • “Mawangdui Mummy.” In Gino Caspari, ed. The Book of Mummies. Spiez: ArchaeoExploration. 42–51. (https://www.academia.edu/69914900/Mawangdui_Mummy)

Book reviews

  • Review of Debin Ma and Richard Von Glahn, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of China. Vols. 1, 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). The Journal of Asian Studies 82.3 (2023): 453–55.
  • Review of Brian Lander. The King’s Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021). Agricultural History 97.1 (2023): 172–74.
  • Review of Charles Sanft. Literate Community in Early Imperial China: The Northwestern Frontier in Han Times (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019). Journal of Chinese Studies 70 (2020): 232–39.
  • Review of Yuri Pines, Lothar von Falkenhausen, Gideon Shelach, and Robin D.S. Yates, eds. Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin Revisited (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2014). Asian Archaeology 4 (2018): 151–56.
  • Review of Ulrich Lau and Thies Staack. Legal Practice in the Formative Stages of the Chinese Empire: An Annotated Translation of the Exemplary Qin Criminal Cases from the Yuelu Academy Collection (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016). Journal of the American Oriental Society 137.2 (2017): 383–91.
  • Review of Anthony Barbieri-Low and Robin D.S. Yates. Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China: A Study with Critical Edition and Translation of the Legal Texts from Zhangjiashan Tomb no. 247, vols. 1, 2 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015). Journal of Chinese History 1.2 (2016): 369–71.

Guest lectures

  • (2025) How to Measure the Economy of Early Imperial China: Preliminary Thoughts. Hunan University (in Chinese)
  • (2025) Continental Empire and Maritime Frontier: Lingnan Port Towns during the Han Period and the Birth of the “Maritime Silk Road.” Peking University (in Chinese)
  • 2025) Gateway to the World: How the Han Dynasty Reinvented the Inner Eurasian Connectivity. Beijing Normal University (in Chinese)
  • (2024) Lecture series “Economic History of Early China.” Peking University (in Chinese)
  • (2023) Empire Marches South: New Evidence on How Southern East Asia Became Chinese. Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich
  • (2022) Inventing East Asia, 1000–200 BCE: From Interaction Sphere to Empire. Peking University (in Chinese)
  • (2022) Southern Sea Ports of the Han Empire: Urbanization and Trade in Coastal Lingnan, 300 BCE – 300 CE. Freiburg University
  • (2022) Human Migrations in the Formation of Early Chinese Empires. Lecture series “New Perspectives on the Old World,” Hong Kong Baptist University
  • (2021) The Imperial Network in Ancient China: The Foundation of Sinitic Empire in Southern East Asia. University of Pennsylvania
  • (2018) From Dependent Labor to Labor Market: Credit, Labor, and Accounting in Early Chinese Empires. Freiburg University
  • (2017) Fiscal Sociology and New Fiscal History: A Comparative Investigation of Pre-modern Fiscal Regimes and its Implications for the Study of Fiscal History of the Qin and Han Empires. Central China Normal University, Wuhan (in Chinese)

Conference papers
 

  • (2025) State as the Provider of Capital in Early Imperial China. Conference “The Political Economy of Capital in the Pre-Modern World,” University of Tübingen
  • (2025) Communication Rituals, Social Networking, and Status Negotiation in the Han Provincial Society. 4th Conference of the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology, Lisbon, Portugal
  • (2025) Roundtable “Key Issues in the Study of the Early Chinese Economics.” 10th Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (SEAA10), Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • (2025) China’s First Colonial Experience in Inner Asia from a Comparative Perspective. AAS-in-Asia 2025, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • (2024) Destruction and Reconstruction of the Silk Road Economy in the Hexi Corridor, Second Century BCE to Fourth Century CE. Silk Roads Archaeology Workshop, University of Oxford
  • (2024) Can We Quantify the Economy of the Early Empires? Reflections on Data and Methodologies. Workshop “Economic Issues in Ancient Chinese Prehistory and History,” University of Munich
  • (2024) A Good Life for All? Economic Opportunities, Inequality, and Living Standards in the Han-Era Nanyang Basin, Henan. European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) 25th Biennial Conference, Tallinn University
  • (2024) Funerary Evidence for Changing Standards of Living in the Late Warring States and Early Imperial China (Ca. 350 BCE – 200 CE). Workshop “In Search of Economic Growth in Ancient Eurasian Societies,” Columbia University
  • (2023) Portals to the World or Portals to the Void? The Han Empire’s Continental and Maritime Frontiers Compared. Hexi Corridor Workshop “Edge of an Empire, Centre of the World,” University of Munich
  • (2023) Converging Roads to Prosperity? Egalitarianism, Institutional Innovation, and Economic Growth in Ancient Greece and China. International Conference “Sino-Balcanica: Intersection of Culture, Language, and History,” Ohrid, North Macedonia
  • (2023) Continental Empire, Maritime Frontier: Sea-Oriented Urban Economies in the Han Far South, 200 BCE – 200 CE. The 15th Conference of Asian Studies Israel, Tel Aviv University
  • (2023) Grand Canal before the Grand Canal: Water Control, Agricultural Expansion, and Grain Shipment in the Middle Yangzi Region in the Light of Newly Excavated Texts. 2023 Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Boston
  • (2023) Imperial Representation, Local Identity, and Provincial Politics: The Cases of Roman Asia Minor and Han Korea (co-presenter). 124th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, New Orleans, USA
  • (2022) From Connectivity to Conquest: Trajectories from Interaction Space to Territorial State to Empire in East Asia, ca. 1000–200 BCE. International Conference “Antiquities to Compare? Discussions on Pre-Imperial Trajectories, from the Mediterranean to China,” Fudan University, China, and ENS Paris, France
  • (2022) Domesticating the Territory in Early China. International Workshop “Territorial Control in Early China.” Heidelberg University
  • (2022) Constructing, Deconstructing, and Reconstructing Imperial Territory. International Workshop “Territorial Control in Early China,” Heidelberg University
  • (2021) Money for the Empire: Qin Bronze Coins in the Frontier Contexts. International Conference “Identity and Value in Global Perspective. Dialogue between Ancient East and West,” Heidelberg University
  • (2021) Urbanization in the Southern East Asia Maritime Zone, 300 BCE to 300 CE: Textual and Archaeological Evidence. Conference “Urbanization and Settlement Networks as Nodes of Connectivity in Afro-Eurasian Frontier Zone (300 BCE – 300 CE),” Freiburg University
  • (2021) Networks, Empires, World-Systems: The Dynamics of Early Sinitic Empires, ca. 300 BCE – 300 CE. International Online Workshop “China and Global History,” University of Vienna
  • (2020) State-Induced Migration and the Creation of State Spaces in Early Chinese Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History (co-presenter). Online Conference “State and Migration in Chinese History,” University of Washington
  • (2019) Empire-Building and Market-Making at the Qin Frontier: Imperial Expansion and Economic Change, 221–207 BCE. 2019 Confucius China Studies Program Forum, Düsseldorf
  • (2019) Change in the Legal Regulation of Market during the Qin Imperial Period Reflected in the Qin Manuscripts. 9th Conference “Excavated Manuscripts and Legal History”, East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai (in Chinese)
  • (2019) The Southern Frontier Zone of the Sinitic World: Empire-Building and Economic Change, ca. 500 BCE – ca. 300 CE. Conference “Economies of the Edge: Frontier Zone Processes at Regional, Imperial, and Global Scales (300 BCE – 300 CE),” Freiburg University
  • (2019) Construction, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction of Imperial Territoriality. Workshop “Representations of the Qin Empire,” University of Oxford
  • (2018) (Political) Community: Grassroots Socio-Territorial Units in Ideology and practice of Early Chinese Empires. International Workshop “Making Qin Great Again: New Perspectives on the Shang Jun Shu,” University of Bonn
  • (2018) Social Engineering or Consumer Education: Sumptuary Laws at the Dawn of Imperial Era. Conference “Asian Studies Israel 2018,” Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • (2018) State of Migration: Migration Management and the Formation of Imperial Institutions in Late Warring States and Early Imperial China. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
  • (2016) Criteria for Discerning Individual Writing Habits of Qin Scribes, With Some Notes on “Signatures”, “Originals”, and “Copies” in the Qin Official Documents.” Workshop “Scribal Hands and Scribal Practices in Manuscripts from Warring States and Early Imperial China,” Heidelberg University
  • (2016) Fiscal Transitions in Early China from the Warring States to the Empires (Late Fourth to First Centuries B.C.” Workshop “The Mechanics of Extraction: Comparing Principles of Taxation and Tax Compliance in the Ancient World,” Institute for the Study of Ancient World, New York University
  • (2016) The Politics of Value and the Formation of the Empire: State Lending, Control over Labor, and the Development of Labor Market in Early Chinese Empires. International Scholarly Conference on the History of Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties Periods, Xiangyang, China (in Chinese)
  • (2016) Originals and Copies of the Official Documents and Bureaucratic Politics in the Qin Empire. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Seattle, USA

Memberships
Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS)
Society for East Asian Archaeology (SEAA)
European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology (EAAAA)