Classical Learning and the Politics of the Common Good in Early China
The talk will be conducted in hybrid format. The in-person part of the event has limited space (max. 18 people) and pre-booking is required. If you are an Oxford student or staff member and wish to book a space, please contact Giulia Falato (giulia.falato@orinst.ox.ac.uk). To attend online, please see registration details below.
Recent work on the Documents classic has led Professor Nylan to return to her initial interests in Chinese history and what propelled her to be a Han historian, and specifically what institutions (domestic and official) are needed for human beings to flourish and for the court to claim legitimacy for most of its subjects? As a scholar of classical learning during the early empires (roughly 323 BC–AD 316), Professor Nylan asks the basic question: what do the Five Classics enjoin as vital to good governance in the way of court culture, court customs, and sociopolitical institutions? (In the early empires, the Documents classic — and not the Analects, Mencius, or Rites classics — was the key repository of authoritative political models.)
Date: 4 November 2021, 17:00 (Thursday, 4th week, Michaelmas 2021)
Venue: Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
Venue Details: Hybrid event
Speaker: Professor Michael Nylan (University of California, Berkeley)
Organising department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organisers: Dr Yi Lu (University of Oxford), Dr Coraline Jortay (University of Oxford), Professor Denise van de Kamp (University of Oxford), Dr Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford), Dr Giulia Falato (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: giulia.falato@orinst.ox.ac.uk
Host: Dr Giulia Falato (University of Oxford)
Part of: China Studies Seminar series
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jphBti2mTL6wAcrTSllsNg
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Clare Orchard