Detail: According to the conventional narrative known today, put together in the first part of the 20th century from passages drawn from early sources spliced with new ideas, the Qin was always regarded as a harsh tyrannical rule bound to collapse. By that standard narrative, its successor, the Han, founded by a commoner rather than a king, was determined to do everything differently than the Qin and especially determined to be kinder to its subjects than the Qin. Also, the Han was intent upon valuing the gentler, kinder Middle Way associated with Confucius instead of the Legalism (a set of theories likened to Machiavelli), favored by Qin. For that reason, the conventional narrative insists, the Han army not only prevailed against the remnant Qin supporters, but the Han also went on to rule through two stable dynasties-the Western Han (206 BC-AD 8) and the "restored" Eastern Han (AD 25-220), for some 400 years altogether. This presentation will show that every part of this early 20th-century narrative has been misinterpreted by patriots espousing diametrically opposed visions of the distant past.

Speaker:
Professor Michael Nylan is the author of seven books about Confucian Classics and the archaeology and history of the classical era (4th century BC to the 4th century AD), and two translations. She has written 50 articles (several of which have been translated into Chinese, Japanese and French) on the politics of pleasure theory in early China, gender history, and center-periphery relations, as seen from the excavated and received texts and artifacts. Professor Nylan is currently working on two books, the first on pleasure theory from the 4th century BC through the 10th century AD and the second on the late Western Han capital of Chang'an, in reality and in memory.

Time - 7:00 to 8:00 pm