The Sino-Platonic Papers

"Sino-Platonic Papers is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished.


Many of the items have to do with ancient China or the Silk Road, can be downloaded and are free of charge from publication no. 171.
To give you an impression of the topics which can be read, following the content list from item 171 till the most recent publication:


171 June 2006 John DeFrancis / University of Hawaii / The Prospects for Chinese Writing Reform
172 Aug.2006 Deborah Beaser / The Outlook for Taiwanese Language Preservation
173 Oct. 2006 Taishan YU / Chinese Academy of Social Sciences/ A Study of the History of the Relationship Between the
Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions
174 Nov. 2006 Mariko Namba Walter/ Sogdians and Buddhism
175 Dec. 2006 Zhou Jixu / Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania; Chinese Department, Sichuan Normal
University / The Rise of Agricultural Civilization in China: The Disparity between Archeological Discovery and
the Documentary Record and Its Explanation
176 May 2007 Eric Henry / University of North Carolina / The Submerged History of Yuè
177 Aug. 2007 Beverley Davis / Merit, Texas / Timeline of the Development of the Horse
178 Feb. 2008 Victor H. Mair / University of Pennsylvania / Soldierly Methods: Vade Mecum for an Iconoclastic Translation
of Sun Zi bingfa, with a complete transcription and word-for-word glosses of the Manchu translation by H.
T. Toh
179 Feb. 2008 Julie M. Groves / Hong Kong Baptist University / Language or Dialect -- or Topolect? A Comparison of the
Attitudes of Hong Kongers and Mainland Chinese towards the Status of Cantonese.
180 April 2008 Amber R. Woodward / A Survey of Li Yang Crazy English
181 Aug. 2008 Matteo Compareti / Venice, Italy / Traces of Buddhist Art in Sogdiana
182 Sept. 2008 Aurelia Campbell, Jeffrey Rice, Daniel Sungbin Sou, and Lala Zuo / University of Pennsylvania / The Cult of
the Bodhisattva Guanyin in Early China and Korea
183 Oct. 2008 Chunwei Song / Peking University / Heroes Brought Buddhism to the East of the Sea: A Fully Annotated
Translation of The Preface of Haedong Kosŭng Chŏn
184 Oct. 2008 Xiang Li / Seattle, Washington / Irony Illustrated: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Situational Irony in China
and the United States
185 Nov. 2008 Jan Romgard / Stockholm University and the University of Nottingham / Questions of Ancient Human
Settlements in Xinjiang and the Early Silk Road Trade, with an Overview of the Silk Road Research Institutions
and Scholars in Beijing, Gansu, and Xinjiang
186 Mar. 2009 Doug Hitch / The Special Status of Turfan
187 April 2009 Xiuqin Zhou / University of Pennsylvania / Zhaoling: The Mausoleum of Emperor Tang Taizong
188 May 2009 Geoff Wade / Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore / The Polity of Yelang (夜郎) and the Origins of
the Name ‘China’
189 June 2009 Li Chen, Genevieve Y. Leung, Matthew A. Marcucci, and Kenneth Yeh; with a foreword by Victor H. Mair /
University of Pennsylvania / Sinographic Languages: The Past, Present, and Future of Script Reform