Event Date: 23 June 2016
Royal Asiatic Society
14 Stephenson Way
London NW1 2HD
The Royal Asiatic Society presents:
BOOK LAUNCH
Professor Michael Loewe (Cambridge) – Problems of Han Administration
Michael Loewe calls on literary and material evidence to examine three problems that arose in administering China’s early empires. Religious rites due to an emperor’s predecessors must both pay the correct services to his ancestors and demonstrate his right to succeed to the throne. In practical terms, tax collectors, merchants, farmers and townsmen required the establishment of a standard set of weights and measures that was universally operative and which they could trust. Those who saw reason to criticise the decisions taken by the emperor and his immediate advisors, whether on grounds of moral principles or political expediency, needed opportunities and the means of expressing their views, whether as remonstrants to the throne, by withdrawal from public life or as authors of private writings.
Introduction by Dr Gordon Johnson (President, RAS):
Talk:
Questions:
accompanying images:
