# Xu Ben Publication Map v0.1 This file maps Xu Ben's books and major series as a publication layer for the civilisation-diagnostician turn project. Primary starting source: Chinese Wikipedia page "徐賁 (作家)", accessed through web search on 2026-06-16: - https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%90%E8%B3%81_%28%E4%BD%9C%E5%AE%B6%29 Status: preliminary. Wikipedia is used only as a starting bibliography. Entries need verification against publisher pages, library catalogues, ISBN records, Douban, or author pages. ## Why This Matters The current hypothesis is that Xu Ben's essays and media articles may cluster around book projects. If so, short public essays are not free-floating opinions; they may be promotion, pre-publication condensation, afterlife, or auxiliary explanation for book-length projects. This would help explain why certain periods show lexical clusters: - civic-public vocabulary around public life / citizenship books; - cynicism and culture-critique vocabulary around essay collections; - enlightenment / humanities vocabulary around the "启蒙" and humanities-lecture books; - authoritarianism-control vocabulary around the "暴政 / 极权" line; - AI-humanism vocabulary around the 2025 AI-era humanities books. ## Publication Timeline | Year | Title | Place / Layer | Publisher | Preliminary Theme | Possible Article Relation | |---:|---|---|---|---|---| | 1992 | *Situational Tensions of Critic-Intellectuals* | English academic | Peter Lang (ISBN 9780820417493) | academic baseline; critic-intellectuals | early scholarly frame | | 1996 | 《走向后现代与后殖民》 | Mainland | 中国社会科学出版社 | cultural theory; postmodern/postcolonial | early cultural criticism baseline | | 1998 | 《文化批評往何處去》 | Hong Kong | 天地圖書 | cultural criticism | pre-mainland / HK version of later theme | | 1999 | *Disenchanted Democracy* | English academic | University of Michigan Press | democracy; disillusionment | English academic/public-political baseline | | 2005 | 《知识分子》 | Mainland | 华东师范大学出版社 | intellectuals; public role | public-intellectual self-positioning | | 2008 | 《人以什么理由来记忆》 | Mainland | 吉林出版集团 | memory; public ethics | memory/trauma essays | | 2009 | 《通往尊严的公共生活》 | Mainland | 新星出版社 | public life; dignity; civic vocabulary | likely linked to 2008-2010 civic-public essays | | 2010 | 《在傻子和英雄之间》 | Mainland | 花城出版社 | essays; moral/political judgement | public commentary / civic judgement | | 2011 | 《什么是好的公共生活》 | Mainland | 吉林出版集团 | public life; civic ethics | likely linked to public-life essays | | 2011 | 《文化批评往何处去》 | Mainland | 吉林出版集团 | cultural criticism | mainland reappearance of 1998 HK theme | | 2012 | 《統治與教育》 | Hong Kong | 牛津大学出版社 | rule; education; authoritarian formation | likely linked to education/control essays; not mainland-published | | 2013 | 《政治是每个人的副业》 | Mainland | 东方出版社 | politics as public concern | civic-public / political participation | | 2014 | 《怀疑的时代需要怎样的信仰》 | Mainland | 东方出版社 | belief; doubt; public ethics | ethical/pedagogical essays | | 2014 | 《听良心的鼓声能走多远》 | Mainland | 东方出版社 | conscience; moral judgement | public ethics | | 2014 | 《明亮的对话》 | Mainland | 中信出版社 | dialogue; public reasoning | likely linked to public reasoning essays | | 2015 | 《颓废与沉默》 | Mainland | 东方出版社 | cynicism; silence; culture critique | likely linked to cynicism/public-culture essays | | 2015 | 《阅读经典》 | Mainland | 北京大学出版社 | classics; humanities education | humanities educator turn | | 2018 | 《经典之外的阅读》 | Mainland | 北京大学出版社 | reading; humanities education | humanities educator turn | | 2018 | 《犬儒與玩笑》 | Hong Kong | 牛津大学出版社 | cynicism; jokes; political culture | HK/uncirculable version of cynicism line | | 2019 | 《人文的互联网》 | Mainland | 北京大学出版社 | internet; humanities | pre-AI digital-humanities/humanities mediation | | 2020 | 《暴政史》 | Hong Kong | 牛津大学出版社 | tyranny; power; masses | authoritarianism-control / institution-failure line | | 2021 | 《与时俱进的启蒙》 | Mainland | 上海三联书店 | enlightenment; public humanities | "启蒙三部曲" / civilisation-pedagogical frame | | 2021 | 《批判性思维的认知与伦理》 | Mainland | 北京大学出版社 | critical thinking; cognition; ethics | public reasoning / education | | 2022 | 《人文启蒙的知识传播原理》 | Mainland | 上海三联书店 | enlightenment; knowledge transmission | "educator-for-a-nation" phase | | 2024 | 《西方人文经典讲演录》 | Mainland | 上海三联书店 | western humanities classics; lecture series | hinge into humanities educator/civilisation diagnostician | | 2024 | 《極權下的人性》 | Hong Kong | 壹壹陸工作室 | totalitarianism; human nature; literature | authoritarianism-control + subjectivity under domination | | 2025 | 《人类还有希望吗：人工智能时代的人文启蒙和教育》 | Mainland | 上海三联书店 (ISBN 9787542688330, 2025-05) | AI; humanities; education | AI-era humanities matrix. Previously listed separately as《AI时代的人文启蒙和教育》(subtitle) — same book. | | 2025 | 《極權下的日常生活》 | Hong Kong | 壹壹陸工作室 | totalitarianism; everyday life; witness | likely linked to 2026 Aisixiang "见证极权统治下的日常生活" | | 2025 | 《極權魅惑的政治心理》 | Taiwan | 山頂視角 | totalitarianism; political psychology | authoritarianism-control / political psychology | | 2026 | 《孤独简史》 | Mainland? | unknown | loneliness; civilisational diagnosis | **UNVERIFIED**: mentioned in seed note via 新京报 June 2026 article; not yet in Douban/WeRead. | | 2026 | 《孤独、空虚与无聊》 | Mainland? | unknown | loneliness; emptiness; boredom | **UNVERIFIED**: paired with 《孤独简史》, same source. | | unknown | 《AI时代重读人文经典》 | Mainland? | unknown | AI; humanities classics | **UNVERIFIED**: not found in Douban/WeRead/publisher listings. May be unpublished or confused title. | | unknown | 《極權下的身分焦慮》 | Hong Kong? | unknown | totalitarianism; identity anxiety | **UNVERIFIED**: not found in any online source. May be planned. | | unknown | 西方人文經典系列（15冊） | Taiwan? | 崧博出版 | humanities classics | Publisher confirmed; specific 15-vol series not individually verified. | ## Series / Clusters ### Public Life / Civic-Political Cluster Approximate period: 2008-2014. Representative books: - 《通往尊严的公共生活》 - 《什么是好的公共生活》 - 《政治是每个人的副业》 - 《明亮的对话》 Expected article vocabulary: - civic_public high; - institutional_design moderate-to-high; - media_pedagogical_voice moderate; - authoritarianism_control present but not dominant. ### Cynicism / Culture Critique Cluster Approximate period: 2015-2018. Representative books: - 《颓废与沉默》 - 《犬儒與玩笑》 Expected article vocabulary: - diagnostic and culture-critique vocabulary; - public ethics; - possible unevenness between theory chapters and op-ed-like later essays. ### Humanities / Enlightenment / Educator Cluster Approximate period: 2015-2024. Representative books: - 《阅读经典》 - 《经典之外的阅读》 - 《人文的互联网》 - 《与时俱进的启蒙》 - 《人文启蒙的知识传播原理》 - 《西方人文经典讲演录》 - 西方人文經典系列（15冊） Expected article vocabulary: - subjectivity_humanism and civilisation_diagnosis rising; - media_pedagogical_voice high; - evidence regime shifts toward canonical thinkers and lecture-style synthesis. ### Tyranny / Totalitarianism / Institution-Failure Cluster Approximate period: 2020-2025. Representative books: - 《暴政史》 - 《極權下的人性》 - 《極權下的日常生活》 - 《極權魅惑的政治心理》 - 《極權下的身分焦慮》 - 《統治與教育》 as earlier precursor. Expected article vocabulary: - authoritarianism_control high; - subjectivity_humanism may appear as "humanity under domination"; - institution-failure diagnosis rather than reform-oriented institutional design. This cluster explains why 2021-2026 Aisixiang texts can have a high institutional aggregate without indicating a return to constructive institutional reform analysis. ### AI / Humanistic Enlightenment Cluster Approximate period: 2025-2026. Representative books: - 《AI时代的人文启蒙和教育》 - 《AI时代重读人文经典》 - possibly related to 《人类还有希望吗》, 《孤独简史》, and 《孤独、空虚与无聊》 from the seed note, pending bibliographic verification. Expected article vocabulary: - contextual AI; - subjectivity_humanism; - civilisation_diagnosis; - media_pedagogical_voice; - less technical AI vocabulary than humanistic-defence vocabulary. ## Working Interpretation The publication map suggests that Xu Ben's essays should be read as part of publication cycles: - public-life essays around civic/public-life books; - cynicism essays around cynicism collections; - humanities essays around classics/enlightenment books; - tyranny/totalitarianism essays around Hong Kong/Taiwan political books; - AI-humanism essays around 2025-2026 AI/humanities books. This means the next corpus analysis should add a `publication_context` field where possible: - `none_or_unknown` - `book_promotion` - `book_afterlife` - `prepublication_fragment` - `topic_cluster_overlap` ## Verification Log (2026-06-16, cc) Verified via web search: - *Situational Tensions* (1992): Peter Lang, ISBN 9780820417493, Sociocriticism series. - *Disenchanted Democracy* (1999): University of Michigan Press. - 《人类还有希望吗》(2025): confirmed as 上海三联书店, ISBN 9787542688330, published 2025-05. **Merged with previous separate entry《AI时代的人文启蒙和教育》** — same book (main title vs subtitle). Not found online: - 《AI时代重读人文经典》: not in Douban, WeRead, or publisher listings. May be unpublished, planned, or a confused title. - 《極權下的身分焦慮》: not found in any online source. May be planned. - 《孤独简史》+《孤独、空虚与无聊》: mentioned in seed note as referenced in a June 2026 新京报 article, "due later that month." Not yet in any book database. Plausible as upcoming titles but unconfirmed. Partially verified: - 崧博出版: confirmed as Taiwan e-book publisher. Specific 15-volume 西方人文經典 series not individually confirmed. - 壹壹陸工作室 極權 series: Wikipedia-sourced entries not independently confirmed against publisher pages; the publisher itself is small and hard to verify online. ## Remaining Verification Tasks 1. Link Aisixiang article titles to publication clusters where defensible. 2. Add `publication_cluster` to article metrics for known matches. 3. Re-check 《孤独简史》+《孤独、空虚与无聊》 after June 2026 if not yet confirmed. 4. Verify 壹壹陸工作室 entries if Hong Kong publisher pages become available.