Join us as Professor Mark Csikszentmihalyi explores the spectacular portraits and biographies of Kongzi 孔子 (Confucius) and a selected group of disciples depicted on the frame of a mirror stand that was excavated from a tomb in Jiangxi Province in 2015. These materials, which had remained untouched since 59 BCE, add to what we know about the lives of these people and enhance our knowledge of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty.

This talk examines how and why the disciples came to play a central role for the Han ruling elite, the interweaving of the genres of Confucian biographies and dialogues, and how one of the biographical chapters of the Shiji 史记 was put together.

The event is supported by the Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Culture & Civilisation Programme.

About the speaker

Mark Csikszentmihalyi is the Marjorie Meyer Eliaser Chair of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he is a Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Director of the Graduate Group in the Study of Religion. He has published widely on the thought and culture of Early China and is currently working on a book called A Narrative History of the Dao: Debates about Knowledge in the Second Century BCE.

About the moderator

Scott Cook is a Tan Chin Tuan Professor of Chinese Studies and the Head of Studies, History at Yale-NUS College. He specialises in pre-imperial manuscript studies and early Chinese intellectual history. Before joining Yale-NUS in 2014, he served as Cowles-Kruidenier Chair of Chinese Studies at Grinnell College, where he had taught since 1996.

Watch the full session here: