Conference Programs

Eighth Conference of the Early Medieval China Group

Columbus Convention Center (Room A224)

Thursday, March 13, 2025, 9:00 am–5:00 pm (EDT)

 

9:00 am Welcome by Antje Richter (University of Colorado Boulder)

 

9:10–11:10 am, Panel 1, Chair: Xiaofei Tian (Harvard University)

 

9:10 Qingxuan Wang (Yale University)

“Law and the Healing Cults of China and Rome, 185–500 CE: A Comparative Study of Celestial Masters Daoism and the Cult of Asclepius”

9:40 Peiyuan Shu (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

“Blessing with Propaganda: Auspicious Inscriptions, Politics, and Material Culture of Southern China in the Third Century CE”

10:10 Zhou Zoushiyu (University of Colorado Boulder)

“Burning for Whom: Nuns’ Auto-Cremation in Chinese Hagiography”

10:40 Ranting Zhang (Columbia University)

“Scripture as Spectacle: The Lotus Sutra and the Performance of Imperial Authority in the Sui Dynasty (581–618)”

 

11:10 am–11:20 pm Break

 

11:20–1:20 pm, Panel 2, Chair: Meow Hui Goh (Ohio State University)

11:20 Deyi Zhang (University of California Davis)

“The Cricket in the Hall: Minuscule and the Sense of Spatiotemporal in Pre-Tang Poetry”

11:50 Nick Allaman (Ohio State University)

“Categorizing Mixed Feelings: ‘Za shi,’ Affect, and Genre in the Selections of Refined Literature

12:20 Ruiyi Cao (Nanjing University)

“Nature and Governance: The Construction of Order and the Literati Ideal in Liu Xie’s Discussion of Official Documents in Wenxin diaolong

12:50 Yanan Xiang (University of Colorado Boulder)

“Competitive Voices: Representations of Childhood Learning in Early Medieval Autobiographical Writing and Historiography”

 

1:20–2:00 pm Break

 

2:00–4:00 pm, Panel 3, Chair: Joe Cutter (Emeritus, UW-Madison and ASU)

2:00 Julian Gee (Harvard University)

“To Expel the Rong: Alien Expulsion Proposals and Concepts of the Other in Third-century China”

2:30 Xinyan Chen (University of California Santa Barbara)

“From ‘Running Tiger’ 虎賁 to ‘Jade Tree’ 玉樹: The Evolution of Male Beauty in the Wei-Jin Dynasties”

3:00 Bingxiao Liu (Stanford University)

“The Expansion of Emotion: Public Displays of Emotions in Early Medieval China”

3:30 Guanqi Wang (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

“Restoration, Kingship, and the Historical Cycle: Pei Ziye’s 裴子野 Evaluation of the Decline of the Liu Song Dynasty (420–479)”

 

4:00–4:15 pm Break

 

4:15 pm Annual Membership Meeting & Presentation of Awards

Seventh Conference of the Early Medieval China Group
Seattle Convention Center, Rm 307 (level 3)
Thursday, March 14, 2024, 9:30 am–5:30 pm (Pacific Time)

9:30 am Welcome by Antje Richter (University of Colorado Boulder)

9:40–11:40 am, Panel 1, Chair: Keith Knapp (Citadel)

9:40     Aaron Zhao (University of California Santa Barbara) 
            “Cavalry in China, 3rd Century BCE to 4th Century CE”

10:10   Yanxi Luo (University of Edinburgh)
            “Anti-transcendence Discourses in the Baopuzi: Sagehood, Mystery Learning, and Rebellions”

10:40   Wing Yan Ho (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
            “Refugees in the 4th to 6th Century: Comparing the Social Policies between the Northern Wei, Liu Song, and Southern Qi”

11:10   Wu Ke (University of Colorado Boulder)
            “On Representations of Lady Xian (ca. 522–602) in Early Medieval Historiography”

11:40 am–11:50 pm Break

11:50–1:50 pm, Panel 2, Chair: Cynthia Chennault (University of Florida)

11:50   Zhu Xu and Yushan Zhang (Harbin Institute of Technology)
            “Translating Architecture: Huiyuan’s Vision and Design of the First Buddhist Scripture Repository in China”

12:20   Yuanqiu Jiang (Rutgers University)
            “Knowing Listeners: Theories of Voice in Early Medieval China”

12:50   Xiaojing Miao (University of Oxford)

            “Individuality through Tradition: The Master of Extreme Torment and ‘Dispelling Illness’”

1:20     Yuxuan Tay (UCLA)
            “Like Mother, (un)like Sons: Wu Zhao Vis-à-Vis Zhongzong and Ruizong’s Buddhistic Legitimation through the Case Study of Imperial Prefaces”

1:50–2:30 pm Break

2:30–4:30 pm, Panel 3, Chair: Kate Lingley (University of Hawai’i)

2:30     Michael Norton (Harvard University)
            “Statues of Light: The Iconography of the Five Tan Yao Caves Revisited”

3:00     Meng Tong (University of Kansas)
            “Monk Travelers on the Forgotten Road: Patronage of the Early Fifth-century Buddhist Cleric Donors at Binglingsi Cave 169”

3:30     Fan Zhang (Tulane University)
            “Revisiting Empress Dowager Wenming’s Mausoleum: Yonggu Stone Chamber and Mausoleum Rituals of the Northern Wei Dynasty”

4:00     Jinchao Zhao (Tongji University)
            “On the Patronage of Miniature Stone Pagodas in Sixth-century Shanxi and Gansu: Dedication, Organization, and Migration”

4:30–4:40 pm Break

4:40 pm Annual Membership Meeting

Sixth Conference of the Early Medieval China Group
Sheraton Boston, Room: Boston Common
Thursday, March 16, 2023, 9:30 am–5:30 pm (EDT)

9:30 am Welcome by Antje Richter (University of Colorado)

9:40–11:40 am, Panel 1, Chair: D. Jonathan Felt (Brigham Young University)

9:40     Ouyang Biqing (Zhejiang University) 
            “Rethinking Bronze Mirrors in the Three Kingdoms Period”

10:10   Paul Fahr (Ruhr University Bochum)
            “Rise of the Meritocracy: Liu Yu’s Way to Power and its Historical Significance”

10:40   June Zhang (University of Cambridge)
            “Play and Prestige: Weiqi 圍棋 as a Device for Spiritual and Literary Cultivation in Early Medieval China”

11:10   Lu Kou (Columbia University)
            “‘Working in the Office’: Community, Leisure, and Poetry in Early Medieval China”

11:40 am–11:50 pm Break

11:50–1:50 pm, Panel 2, Chair: Meow Hui Goh (Ohio State University)

11:50   Nicholas Williams (Arizona State University)
            “Buddhist Verse in Chinese and the Origins of Tonal Prosody”

12:20   Dessi Vendova (Graduate Theological Union)
            “Embodied Virtue: Two Chinese Versions of the Story of Rūpāvatī, a Female Past Birth of the Buddha”

12:50   Yuzhou Bai (Princeton University)
            “The Impacts of the Nine Ranks System on Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism”

1:20     Tyler Feezell (Dartmouth College)

            “Lingbao Daoism, Messianic Figures, and Yu Xin’s ‘Pacing the Void’ Stanzas”

1:50–2:30 pm Break

2:30–4:30 pm, Panel 3, Chair: Xiaofei Tian (Harvard University)

2:30     Tero Tähtinen (Tampere University)
            “Spatial Tensions in Tao Yuanming’s tianyuan Poetry”

3:00     Suiyun Pan (Harvard University)
            “Approaching the Sea: Xie Lingyun’s Poetic Trajectory Toward a New Understanding of (Un)appreciation”

3:30     Dominic Toscano (Oberlin College)
            “Time and the Lyric in the Poetry of Bao Zhao”

4:00     Christopher Elford (Hamilton College)
            “The Court Culture of the Copy: Group Composition and Stylistic Originality in Liang Dynasty Literary Salons”

4:30–4:40 pm Break 

 
4:40 pm Annual Membership Meeting 

Fifth Conference of the Early Medieval China Group
Saturday, April 2, 2022, 9:30am–4:50pm (MDT)
 

 

 

 

Fifth Conference of the Early Medieval China Group

Saturday, April 2, 2022, 9:30 am–4:30 pm (MDT)

 

9:30 am Welcome by Antje Richter (Univ. of Colorado)

 

9:40–11:20 am, Panel 1, Chair: Xiaofei Tian (Harvard University)

 

9:40 Zhao Yi (University of Kansas)

“Heaven, Yellow Springs and Buddhism: Axis Mundi Jars in the Wu Kingdom (222–280

CE) and Western Jin Dynasty (266-316 CE)”

 

10:10 Li Sijia (University of Colorado)

“‘How Would Later Generations Know Who Finalized My Writings?’: Textual

Production in Lu Yun’s 35 Letters”

 

10:40 Xinchang Li (University of Colorado)

“Creation of Self in Xi Kang’s Autobiographical Writings”

 

11:10 Oliver Hargrave (University of Oxford)

“Materiality and the Text: Yan Zhitui on the Care of Books as Physical Objects”

 

11:40 am–11:50 pm Tea/Coffee Break

 

11:50–1:20 pm, Panel 2, Chair: Monique Nagel-Angermann (University of Münster)

 

11:50 Dennis Murphy (Georgia Institute of Technology)

“The White Horse Lord: Gongsun Zan and the Early Medieval Transition”

 

12:20 Hsiang-Lin Shih (St. Olaf College)

“Confronting Death with Fellow Mortals: Cao Cao’s (155–220) Poetic Approaches to

Mortality”

 

12:50 Zhinan Chen (University of Washington)

“The “Bibliocaust” Revisited: An Examination of the Destruction of Books in Jiangling in 555”

 

1:20–2:00 pm Lunch Break / Social Hour on Gather.Town

 

2:00–3:30 pm, Panel 3, Chair: Keith Knapp (The Citadel)

 

2:00 Guanrui Gong (University of Colorado)

“Birds and Beasts and Dots and Strokes: (De-)Humanized Nature in Early Medieval Chinese Calligraphic Criticism”

 

2:30 Amy Zhang (Harvard University)

“Bao Zhao’s yuefu and the Poetics of Impersonation”

 

3:00 Qiulei Hu (Hunter College)

“The Decentralization of the Past in the Luoyang qielan ji 洛陽伽藍記 (Records of Monasteries of Luoyang)”

 

3:30–3:40 pm Tea/Coffee Break

 

 

3:40 pm Annual Membership Meeting

 

 

 

 

 

Fourth Conference of the Early Medieval China Group
Saturday, March 27, 2021, 9:30am–4:50pm (MDT)

 

Fourth Conference of the Early Medieval China Group
Saturday, March 27, 2021, 9:30am–4:50pm (MDT) 9:30 am Welcome by Antje Richter (Univ. of Colorado)

 

9:40–11:20 am, Panel 1, Chair: J. Michael Farmer (Univ. of Texas)

9:40     Yixin Gu (Princeton Univ.)

“Is There a Text Beyond Variance? Concepts and Realities about Textual Stability in Early Medieval China”

10:05 Qiaomei Tang (Grinnell College)

“Vice or Virtue? Conflicting Views on Female Jealousy in Early Medieval China” 10:30 Guanrui Gong (Univ. of Colorado)

“Embodying Himself: Bodily Images and the Case for a Sinner in Shen Yue’s ‘Confessions’”

10:55 Marie Bizais-Lillig (Univ. of Strasbourg)

“The Shijing, a Source of Knowledge and Inspiration in Medieval China”

 

11:20–11:30 am Tea/Coffee Break

 

11:30 am–1:10 pm, Panel 2, Chair: Keith Knapp (The Citadel)

11:30 Shing Müller (LMU Munich)

“Balls or Peaches: On the Iconography of a Mural in the Tomb of Song Shaozu (477)” 11:55 Sijia Li (Univ. of Colorado)

“Observing a Hair of a Tiger: Diseases, Bibliocaust, and Images of Xiao Yi”

12:20 Soojung Han (Princeton Univ.)

“Empress Dowager Lou the Kingmaker: Identity Politics in Northern Qi (550–577)” 12:45 Winston C. Kyan (Univ. of Utah)

“Filial Crossings: The Shanzi Jataka at Dunhuang from the N. Zhou (557–581)”

 

1:10–2:00 pm Lunch Break / Social Hour on GatherTown

 

2:00–3:40 pm, Panel 3, Chair: Cynthia Chennault (Univ. of Florida)

2:00     Zornica Kirkova (Berlin State Library)

“Chanted Objects and Painted Worlds: Screens in Early Medieval Chinese Poetry” 2:25        Xiaojing Miao (Univ. of Colorado)

“A Life of Changes: Tao Yuanming’s Autobiographical Poetry”

2:50     Evan Nicoll-Johnson (Univ. of Alberta)

“Liu Xiaobiao’s Annotations to Shishuo xinyu and the Invention of Literary History” 3:15          Yiyi Luo (Beijing Capital Normal Univ.)

“Early Reception of Yu Xin in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries”

 

3:40–3:60 pm Tea/Coffee Break

 

 

3:50–4:50 pm Annual Membership Meeting