Over the summer Lei Yang, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Literatures, and Lin Deng, Lecturer in Chinese, read Kenneth W. Harl’s new book, Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization (New York: Harper, 2023), which accounts a history of nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe from prehistoric times to the fourteenth century. It introduces the steppe peoples of Central Asia in the context of their contributions to shaping world civilization and their impact on the histories of the West and the East, a perspective transcending the old ethnocentrism and parochialism in historiographies.
Lei and Lin read this book with a global vision and discussed the possibility of using topics and sources in the book to enrich their teaching themes and materials. In particular, Lei suggests that some chapters of the book can be incorporated into reading assignments to facilitate intensive discussions among students. For instance, the book can be read side-by-side with the Chinese histories, such as Shiji (Records of the Historian) and the Hanshu (Book of the Han), and classic Western historiographical works. This type of assignment will offer students an opportunity to explore both the sedentary and nomadic societies’ perspectives, helping them develop a more sophisticated understanding and interpretation of significant historical eras and events. Lin resonates with Lei’s proposal and is excited to embark on efforts to utilize the rich linguistic and material histories of the Eurasian steppe in her teaching. Her first attempt will be to add artifacts, such as Scythian and Kushan coins, of ancient Central Asia as teaching materials to her linguistics course on writing systems in Spring 2025. Collectively, Lei and Lin also find Harl’s approach widens the aperture of history and culture in China studies. A range of topics, such as the introduction of the chariot and the spread of Mahayana Buddhism into China, are great themes to be incorporated into their courses on Chinese history and culture. In addition, they concur that scholarship revolving around the steppes provokes deep understanding of global interactions across civilizations. The inclusion of these new themes will help students knit a network of knowledge, weaving together Western and Eastern histories and broadening students’ perspective as global citizens.
More broadly, Lei and Lin discussed how Harl’s book sheds light on decentralizing single dominant perspective and interdisciplinary collaboration in their future teaching and research. While recent research in regional studies began to decentralize single narrative and advocate multiple discourses for a more comprehensive understanding of global events, Lei and Lin have noticed that the present undergraduate education still lags in transitioning from the traditional parochial framework, which primarily focuses on separate areas and individual civilizations. Nomadic peoples who lived in the vast Eurasian Steppe and constantly interacted with well-known empires. In this regard, it is extremely meaningful to showcase to our students the unique roles played by the steppe peoples in shaping global history. In terms of developing interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and research, topics mentioned in Harl’s book, such as lives in caravan cities, the history of military technology, the geopolitics in the Middle East, international trading routes and the spread of major religions, offer valuable inspirations.