Bettine Birge Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and History Contact Information E-mail: birge@usc.edu Phone: (213)740-6660 Office: THH 356R

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Research Keywords

Research Specialties

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions

• Indiana University, Research Associate
• Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Western Language Editor, Bibliography of Chinese Legal History
• Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Member of Yuan History Research Group

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations

• "Family Law and the State under the Mongol-Yuan Dynasty in China: Competing Visions and Moral Dilemmas", Family and the State in Chinggisid and Post-Chinggisid Central Eurasia: Symposium in Honor of Denis , Talk/Oral Presentation, Paper, Bloomington, Indiana, Denis Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Stu, Invited, 9/4/2008-9/7/2008  
• "Instabilities in Chinese Family and Marriage Law and the Significance of the Jijeongjogyeok (Zhizheng tiaoge).", Law and Society in 13th-14th Century East Asia: Symposium in Celebration of Publication of Zhizhengt, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Seoul, Korea, Academy of Korean Studies, Invited, 8/14/2007-8/17/2007  
• "Law of the Liao, Chin, and Yuan and its Impact on the Chinese Legal Tradition (in Chinese)", Symposium on Traditional Chinese Legal Culture, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Taipei, Taiwan, Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philolog, Invited, 12/13/2006-12/16/2006  
• "Sexual Misconduct in Mongol-Yuan Law, with some Observations on Chinggis Khan’s Jasagh", The 9th International Congress of Mongolists, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, International Association for Mongol Studies (IAMS, Invited, 8/2006  
• "Legalities and Illegalities: Feminist Historiography and Contested Constructions of the Chinese Family, 10th – 14th Centuries", World History Association (WHA), Annual Meeting, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Long Beach, CA, World History Association (WHA), 6/22/2006-6/25/2006  

Other Presentations

• ""Confucianism and Society in the Song and Yuan Dynasties"", Invited Lecture (in Japanese), Tokyo University, Dept. of History, Tokyo, Japan, 11/30/2006  
• ""Gender and the Law in Transnational Perspective: Khubilai Khan, Widow Chastity, and Changes in Chinese Marriage Law"", Invited Lecture, Southern California Review of Law and Women’s Studies, USC, Los Angeles, CA, 2/1/2005  
• ""The Influence of the Mongol-Yuan Dynasty on Women’s Marriage and Inheritance Rights in China," [Meng Yuan chaodai dui Zhongguo funü gaijia he jichengquan de yingxiang]", Invited Lecture (in Chinese), Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, 3/15/2004  
• ""Some New Research on Women and Gender in the Song and Yuan" [Song-Yuan funüshi yanjiu]", Invited Lecture (in Chinese), Hebei University, Dept. of History, Baoding, China, 11/7/2003  

Other Research

• Preparing mss. Marriage and the Law in the Age of Khubilai Khan (for submission to Harvard University Press) Gender, Ethnicity, and the Law in Mongol-Yuan China(1260-1368): Trans-local Influences and Social Change, 2007-  

Publications

Book

• Birge, B. Gender, Ethnicity, and the Law in Mongol-Yuan China(1260-1368): Trans-local Influences and Social Change.
• Birge, B. Marriage and the Law in the Age of Khubilai Khan: An Annotated Translation with Introduction of the Chapter on Marriage of the Statutes and Precedents of the Yuan Dynasty (Yuan dianzhang).
• Birge, B. (2009). Song-Yuan shidai de funü, caichan, he rujia fanying (960-1368) [Chinese translation of Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yüan China]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.
• Birge, B. Marriage and the Law in Mongol-Yuan China: A Selected Translation with Annotation and Introduction of the Statutes and Precedents of the Yuan Dynasty (Yuan dianzhang).
• Birge, B. (2002). Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yüan China, 960-1368. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Book Chapter

• Birge, B. (2009). "Family Law and the State under the Mongol-Yuan Dynasty in China: Competing Visions and Moral Dilemmas." In Revisiting the Family and the State in Chinggisid and Post-Chinggisid Central Eurasia, 13th-19th Centuries. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana Univ. Press.
• Birge, B. (2008). Law of the Liao, Chin, and Yuan and its Impact on the Chinese Legal Tradition, in New Perspectives on Chinese History, Legal History: The Formation and Transformation of Traditional Chinese Legal Culture. pp. 443-503. Taipei, Taiwan: Academia Sinica.
• Birge, B. (2008). "Liao-Jin-Yuan falü ji qi dui zhongguo falü chuantong de yingxiang." In Zhongguoshi Xinlun: Falüshi. pp. 141-191. Taipei, Taiwan: Zhong Yanyuan, Jinglian.
• Birge, B. (2003). Women and Confucianism from Song to Ming: The Institutionalization of Patrilineality, in The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History. pp. 212-240. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
• Birge, B. (2003). Inheritance and Property Law from Tang to Song: The Move away from Patrilineality. pp. 849-866. Shanghai: Peking Univ. Tang Studies Series, Cishu chubanshe.
• Birge, B. (1989). Chu Hsi and Women's Education, in Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage. pp. 325-367. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Book Review

• Birge, B. (2007). Review of "Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan. Journal of Asian Studies/Cambridge University Press. pp. 240-242.

Conference Proceeding

• Birge, B. (2007). Instabilities in Chinese Family and Marriage Law and the Significance of the Zhizhengtiaoge. In Academy of Korean Studies (Ed.), pp. 219-231. Seoul. Law and Society in the 13th-14th century East Asia-In Celebration of the Publication of the Zhizheng tiaoge.
• Birge, B. (2007). Instabilities in Chinese Family and Marriage Law and the Significance of the Zhizhengtiaoge. In Academy of Korean Studies (Ed.), pp. 219-231. Seoul. Law and Society in the 13th-14th century East Asia-In Celebration of the Publication of the Zhizheng tiaoge.

Encyclopedia Article

• Birge, B. (2007). Chinese Law, History of: Yuan Dynasty (AD 1279 – 1368), in Encyclopedia of Legal History. (Geoffrey MacCormack, et al., Ed.). Vol. NA. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Journal Article

• Birge, B. (2009). Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Nature of Local Sources and Understanding Regional History in Imperial China. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. Vol. 52 (2), pp. 4-13.
• Birge, B. (2008). Sexual Misconduct in Mongol-Yuan Law, with some Observations on Chinggis Khan’s Jasagh. Mongolica: An International Annual of Mongol Studies. Vol. 23
• Birge, B. (2007). Law and its Limits: Judicial Philosophy and Conflicting Verdicts in Song Dynasty Legal Cases. Chung-Hsing Journal of History. (18), pp. 185-192.
• Birge, B. (1995). Levirate Marriage and the Revival of Widow Chastity in Yuan China. Asia Major. Vol. 8 (2), pp. 107-146.

Honors and Awards

• Mellon New Directions Fellowship, 5/2006-10/2011  
• USC Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Award, Grant funds to aid Research, 2006-2008  
• USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, Elected to membership , 5/14/2008  
• Presidential Medal from President of Mongolia for contribution to the understanding of Mongolian history, 8/2006  
• USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, Prize for creativity in research, 2005  
• Fulbright Award, Research Fellowship to Beijing, China, 8/10/2003-6/30/2004  
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Recipient, Fellowship for University Teachers, salary and travel funds for one year of research, 1996-1997  

Service to the Profession

Editorships and Editorial Boards

• Western-language Editor, Bibliography of Chinese Legal History, 2006-  
• English-language Editor, Journal of Chinese History (Chugoku shigaku), 2005-  
• member of editorial board, Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, 2005-