Technical Arts and Historical Writing in Early China

At UC Berkeley, scholars from the US, Europe, and Asia discuss the relationship between technical arts and historical writing in China.

While historical writing is often imagined as process of transcribing political events and editing documentary sources, the standard histories of China’s early imperial period show that politics was closely connected to a variety of technical arts including astronomy, calendrics, and omenology. Early historians were adept at these arts, and they are not only at the center of the genre of “treatises” but also inform the structure and sensibilities of these foundational historical works. These issues are discussed by scholars from the US, Europe, and Asia.

Papers will be presented in English or in Chinese, without translation.

Conference Schedule:

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Morning session 9-12, Dwinelle 3335

• Michael Nylan, UC Berkeley: On Omens and Authorship in the Hanshu “Wu xing zhi”
• Karine Chemla, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS): Abstraction in the early mathematical texts
• Jesse Chapman, UC Berkeley: The historical exegesis of celestial signs in the Shiji and the Hanshu

Afternoon session 1:30-4:30, Dwinelle 3401

• Poo Mu-chou, Chinese University of Hong Kong: The ding tripod in the histories and notions of the past
• Scott McGinnis, UC Berkeley: The “Lüli zhi” in the larger context of the technical literature
• Mark Csikszentmihalyi, UC Berkeley: Precedent and the efficacy of sacrifice in the Han

Opening keynote 5:30, Art History Seminar Room, East Asian Library

• Nathan Sivin, University of Pennsylvania: The Place of the Han Period in the History of China’s Technical Arts

Friday, November 7, 2014

Morning session 9-12, Dwinelle 3335

• Lü Shih-hao, National Taiwan Universtiy: The different timelines between the Tables of the feudal lords in Shiji and Hanshu
• Lee Chi-hsiang, Foguang University: The transfer of the capital eastward to Luoyi, as presented in the “Treatise on Geography” in the Hanshu, with reference to the Han dynasty Prefaces to the Documents
• Tian Tian, Beijing Normal University: Taiyi Sacrifice in the Western Han

Afternoon session 1:30-4:30, Dwinelle 3401

• Liu Tseng-kui, Academia Sinica: Commentaries by Yi Feng as they relate to the histories
• Guo Jue, Barnard College: Contextualizing the “Biography of Turtles and Yarrow Stalks” in the Shiji
• Miranda Brown, University of Michigan: Who was Hua Tuo? Reflections on Medicine as an Art without a Role

Saturday, November 8 2014

Morning session 8:30-9:30, Dwinelle

• Luke Habberstad, University of Oregon: Dyke or Dredge? Technical Knowledge and the Body Politic in the Early Water Control Treatises

Closing keynote 10-11 a.m., Art History Seminar Room, East Asian Library

• Michael Loewe, Cambridge University: The Standardisation of Weights and Measures in China’s Early Empires