From Landscape to Spectacle: Archaeology in Confucius Hometown
In this IIAS Lunch Lecture Dr WANG Yi will talk about the archaeological survey project named \"Landscape, Ruins, and Memory: Archaeological Survey in the Wen-Si Region\" (2010).
IIAS Lunch Lecture by Dr Yi WANG.
Qufu city (35°36’ N, 117°02’ E, Shandong province, China), located in the hills area traversed by the Wen and Si rivers, is well known in China as Confucius’ (551~479 BC) hometown, and the purported birthplace of the legendary Yellow Emperor. The lineage of Duke Zhou, who was regarded as the cultural model by Confucius, established Qufu as the capital city of Lu State (11th c. ~ 256 BC). Peaks on this hilly terrain, which used to be treated as indigenous sacred sites during the Bronze Age, were later included in the imperial landscape as the "eastern part". An example is Mount Tai, 91 kilometers north of Qufu city, which became one of the major destinations for imperial pilgrimage when the Qin Emperor unified the country (221 BC), and which was later on, during the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), renamed the "East Great Mountain"
During the past century, several archaeological sites from the Neolithic time and Bronze Age have been found in this area. In the 1970s, archaeological surveys and excavations were carried out around the site of the capital city of the Lu State (11th ~3rd c. BC), the city where Confucius used to live, mapping out the spatial structures and urban settlements of this Bronze age city. In 2010, an intensive archaeological survey project, named "Landscape, Ruins, and Memory: Archaeological Survey in the Wen-Si Region", was initiated with the aim of locating and recording the distribution of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Imperial Period archaeological sites in the region. The goal of the survey was to attempt to understand the dynamic transformations in the historical landscape of this region, particularly how the ruins of the city and its sacred sites were incorporated into the cultural spectacle revolving around its memory. This lecture will introduce some initial findings and outcomes of the first four years of this project.
Dr Yi WANG is affiliated fellow of IIAS, and assistant professor at the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Registration is required
Lunch is provided by IIAS. Please register for this lunch lecture using the form below.
About IIAS Lunch Lectures
Every month, one of the IIAS researchers will present his or her work-in-progress in an informal setting to colleagues and other interested attendees. IIAS organises these lunch lectures to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and exchange thoughts and ideas.
Inline photo: The "Azure Clouds Temple" on the slope of Mount Tai, Shandong Province, China © Rolf Müller
