Social Memory and State Formation in Early China
Li Min 李旻: Social Memory and State Formation in Early China
Monday, October 8, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
The Presentation Room, Charles E. Young Research Library (11348 YRL), UCLA Library
The Author’s Talk is a new presentation series launched by the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library (EAL). The first author to present in this inaugural Author’s Talk series is Professor Li Min 李旻, who will speak about research for his new book, Social Memory and State Formation in Early China, that was just published by the Cambridge University Press in June 2018. We initiate the new series as a token to commemorate the EAL’s 70th Anniversary and to create a venue that will enable the EAL to collaborate with faculty members across campus.
"In this book, Li Min proposes a new paradigm for the foundation and emergence of the classical tradition in early China, from the late Neolithic through the Zhou period. Using a wide range of historical and archaeological data, he explains the development of ritual authority and particular concepts of kingship over time in relation to social memory, weaving together the major benchmarks in the emergence of the classical tradition, particularly how legacies of prehistoric interregional interactions, state formation, urban florescence and collapse during the late third and the second millennium bce laid the critical foundation for the Sandai notion of history among Zhou elite.
Moreover, the literary-historical accounts of the legendary Xia dynasty in early China reveal a cultural construction involving social memories of the past and subsequent political elaborations in various phases of history. This volume enables a new understanding of the long-term processes that enabled a classical civilization to take shape in China. Li Min is Associate Professor of East Asian Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles."
(From the Cambridge University Press.)
Submit Your Reseach!
We encourage faculty members to share their research through the East Asian Library Author’s Talk Series. Please feel free to get in touch with Hong Cheng (Chinese Studies Librarian), Tomoko Bialock (Japanese Studies Librarian), Sanghun Cho (Korean Studies Librarian), or Su Chen (Head of the EAL) for more information.
In the year 2018, the East Asian Library celebrates its 70th Anniversary since its founding in 1948.