【会议】美国亚利桑那州立大学“中国历史上的文化与权力”国际会议 | 201903-38（总第884期）
ASU International Conference on Culture and Power in China’s History
HoytTillman, ASU Professor
Vision
Politicalpower was embedded in Chinese culture in extraordinarily intense and uniquelycomplex ways. For instance, Frederick Wakeman characterized the contestedrelationship between imperial rulers and their scholar-officials as“counterpoised collaborators.” The court and the social elite sharedconsiderable interests in “parenting” the people, but Chinese elitesnevertheless held diverse views and approaches to state ideology, culturalvalues, social norms, and state policies, etc. Even more than the landedaristocracy of Europe, educated Chinese men only governed, outside of theirhometowns, after successfully passing the civil service examinations, whichtherefore placed more emphasis on a constructed and evolving cannon of culturalknowledge as the justification of power (and as a practical tool for itsimplementation). In contrast to the “divine right of kings” in Europe, rulersin China were held to the moral standard of Confucius’ “sage king” and tocompetency in at least employing “talent” to govern the empire, or else losethe “Mandate of Heaven.” In other words, intellectual contestations overculture and morality had real-life implications for evaluating and sometimesreforming political programs.
Today, rulers and public intellectuals in China continue toutilize and manipulate China’s traditions to shape the currency of culturalcapital and its role in the realm of power. To enhance our grasp of the nuancedinteractions between culture and power, we are planning a forum of selectedinternational scholars to examine crucial cases or examples of the tensionsbetween culture and power in China’s history. These individual case studieswill serve as a basis for our collective effort to clarify this perineal issueof the relationship between culture and power in defining how Chinese peopleunderstood the social and natural order.
Scope
Individual papers will cover a wide range of topics and disciplines. Forexample, two papers address the issue of culture and power from the perspectiveof the history of science. Four additional papers center on modern China fromthe vantage point of intellectual and cultural history. The largest number ofpapers focus on the intellectual history of traditional China; however, severaldeal with culture and power through classical, ritual and religious studies.Other individual papers explore legal cases at the Manchu court, local societyand administration during the Song, and other cultural issues in late imperial China.
【编辑】鲁畅