The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (HJAS) is an English-language scholarly journal published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard-Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture...

. HJAS features articles and book reviews of current scholarship in East Asian Studies

East Asian studies

East Asian Studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present...

, focusing on Chinese

History of China

Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...

, Japanese

History of Japan

The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...

, and Korean

History of Korea

The Korean Peninsula was inhabited from the Lower Paleolithic about 400,000-500,000 years ago. Archeological evidence indicates that the presence of modern humans in northeast Asia dates to 39,000 years ago. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began...

 history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 and religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, with occasional coverage of politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 and linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

.

History

Serge Elisséeff

Serge Elisséeff

Sergei Grigorievich Elisséeff was a Franco-American academic, an early Sinologist and Japanologist. He began studying Japanese at the University of Berlin, but he transferred to Tokyo Imperial University in 1912, making him the first Westerner to do so.Elisséeff served in 1916 as Privat-Dozent at...

 founded the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies in 1936 under the auspices of the Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard-Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture...

, an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1928 to further the spread of knowledge and scholarship on East

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

 and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. Elisséeff's wide range of knowledge came to be reflected in the diverse character of the journal during the twenty-one years he served as its editor (1936-1957).

Since the days of Elisséeff, the journal has been guided by:

• John Bishop (editor), 1958-1974
• Timothy Connor, 1975
• Donald Shively
  Donald Shively
  Donald Howard Shively was an American academic, historian, Japanologist, author and professor emeritus of East Asian Languages and cultures at University of California, Berkeley.-Early life:...
  
  , 1976-1983
• Ronald Eagan, 1983-1987

• Howard Hibbett
  Howard Hibbett
  Howard Hibbett （b. 1920）is a translator and professor emeritus of Japanese literature at Harvard University. He held the Victor S. Thomas Professorship in Japanese Literature....
  
  , 1988-
• Joanna Handlin Smith, present-  

Publishing History

The journal was published three times yearly from its inception until 1947. From 1948 until 1957 it was released biannually, but from 1958 to 1976 the journal was released only annually or in two-year periods. Since 1977 it has been published twice yearly in June and December.

Contents

The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, with Monumenta Nipponica

Monumenta Nipponica

Monumenta Nipponica is a biannual academic journals of Japanese studies. It is affiliated with Sophia University .- Contents :Each issue contains three to four main research articles, and ten to fifteen reviews of recent books in Japanese studies, dealing with Japanese society, culture, history,...

, is one of the largest and most influential American journals on East Asian scholarship. The journal focuses on analytical articles and does not print translations, unlike Monumenta Nipponica

Monumenta Nipponica

Monumenta Nipponica is a biannual academic journals of Japanese studies. It is affiliated with Sophia University .- Contents :Each issue contains three to four main research articles, and ten to fifteen reviews of recent books in Japanese studies, dealing with Japanese society, culture, history,...

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