Policies of the Ancestors: Historiography and the Founding of the Song Dynasty

Policies of the Ancestors: Historiography and the Founding of the Song Dynasty

Charles Hartman - Professor of East Asian Studies, State University of New York at Albany

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Room 220A Hall of Graduate Studies (HGS) See map
320 York Street
New Haven, CT 6511

This lecture will examine an historical event that supposedly occurred in 961 and became known subsequently as “Dissolving Military Power over a Cup of Wine.” This incident, in which the new Song Emperor T’ai-tsu convinces his army comrades to relinquish their military authority over cups of wine at a banquet, became a metaphor for the Song transition from military to civil authority. My lecture will chronicle the political use of this “event” over the course of Song history and its evolution into a “policy of the ancestors.”

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Region: 
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong