The Academy is honoured to invite Professor CHENG Zhangcan, School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing Univertisty, to speak for 2024 Distinguished Sinologist Lecture Series with below details:
Jiankang of the Six Dynasties and the Western Regions Civilization
2024/5/18 | 10:30–12:00 | Conducted in Putonghua
Speaker: Professor CHENG Zhangcan (School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University)
Venue: Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Level 7, Shaw Tower, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/h32zSSbw2c
Abstract: This lecture begins by celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the graduation in 1924 of the scholar Xiang Da (1900–1966) from the Nanjing Higher Normal School and the first publication ninety years ago of his well-known work Tangdai Chang’an Yu Xiyu Wenming (Tang Dynasty Chang’an and the Western Regions, 1933). Jiankang, the capital city of the Six Dynasties, and Chang’an, the Tang dynasty capital, as political centres of contemporary East Asia had close contact with the civilizations of the Western Regions. In the field of research into the history of civilization, ‘three essential factors’—metallurgy, written script, and city—have come to be regarded as respectively representing the three important aspects of civilization, namely, material culture, the cultivation of the spirit, and the system of governance. The lecture takes Jiankang as its focus and investigates the ‘presence’ and influence of the civilization of the Western Regions there. Special emphasis is placed on material culture (such as gifts of items from the Western regions), the cultivation of the spirit (for instance contributions made by immigrants from the Western Regions living in Jiankang), and the system of governance (for example sacred and secular Buddhist pañcavārṣika assemblies and portraits of periodic offering), and the discussion will developfrom these three angles.
HKBU students: For CCL attendance, please collect and complete the Co‐curricular Learning Evaluation Form onsite, and submit it into the collection box at the end of the lecture.
Note: A CCL-recognised event must be at least 1.5 hours long. Please observe the requirements if students wish to update the attendance record.
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