Tang Center for Early China – On Altars of Soil Lecture Series

“De-centering Zhou Historiography: History of the Jiang Han Region in Excavated Sources (1st millennium BCE)”
Guo Jue, Barnard College, Columbia University
April 9, 2021 (12:00-1:15 PM EST)

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The Zhou (ca. 1045-256 BCE) historiography as represented by the received textual corpus from the pre-imperial era has a notable northern perspective. In this study, she proposes a de-centering and regionalizing approach to analyze one highly idiosyncratic bamboo manuscript text from the acquired Qinghua University collection, which was given the title “Chuju” (“Dwellings of Chu”) by the editors. By situating this text in the Jiang Han Region and its local chronology that are informed by the archaeological finds, I argue that the “Chuju” text provides the perspectives for writing a new kind of history of the Jiang Han Region that both problematizes the traditional Zhou
historiographical narrative of Chu and enables a fuller understanding of the first-millennium BCE world in early China.

Guo Jue is an Assistant Professor at Barnard College and a social and cultural historian of Early China. Her scholarly work lies at the intersection of history and archaeology. She uses both historical sources and archaeological materials including settlement data and material culture, entombed objects, and excavated manuscripts to understand past complex societies (terminus ante quem ca. 3rd century CE), with a geographical focus on central-southern China. Her broad research interests include regional history, cultural identity formation, complex society and state formation, environment and historical ecology, social and cultural memory, history writing, as well as religious and ritual practices. She is currently finishing her first book, entitled, Becoming the South: A Deep History of Region and Identity Formation in Early China

The On Altars of Soil series is sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University; the College Arts and Humanities Center, Indiana University; and the Tang Center for Early China, Columbia University. The lecture of Professor Guo is presented in conjunction with the IU East Asian Studies Center Colloquium Lecture Series.

With any further inquiries, please contact the organizers, Glenda Chao (Ursinus College) and Nick Vogt (Indiana University), at: onaltarsofsoil@gmail.com.