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SUMMARY:Dunhuang and the Social Contract
DTSTART:20220629T120000Z
DTEND:20220629T140000Z
DTSTAMP:20260416T121618Z
UID:dunhuang-and-social-contract-8178@ceres.rub.de
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac
 ademy)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register
  until 28 June 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\
 , Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast)\n\nLecture Series Ove
 rview:\n\nChinese scholarship on the Dunhuang Caves and materials from the
  so-called Library Cave\, one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 
 20th century\, has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years. An ever-in
 creasing number of academics\, research projects\, and publications have p
 rovided a wealth of scholarly resources for the field. This corpus of rese
 arch merits more attention from western scholars\, not just in Dunhuang St
 udies but from across a variety of disciplines in the humanities and socia
 l sciences. This series of six talks will explore this breath of Chinese s
 cholarship and provide a guide to major areas within Dunhuang Studies\, it
 s key scholars\, publications\, research projects\, institutions\, and tre
 nds.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approach on two le
 vels. The first is that Dunhuang materials\, given their range and diversi
 ty\, can be viewed as a coherent dataset\, the closest we have to an ethno
 graphic collection for medieval Eastern Central Asia. In this sense then\,
  they should be valued in their complex\, interdisciplinary entirety. Seco
 nd\, concentrating on Chinese Dunhuang research in the 21st century\, thes
 e talks also engage an ethnological approach to the academic realm in orde
 r to examine how subfields of Dunhuang Studies are delineated in light of 
 institutions and ongoing social forces. Availing my position as someone in
  the field of Dunhuang Studies working at a Chinese research institute\, I
  will provide on-the-ground observations through discussions with members 
 of the scholarly community in China (i.e.\, ‘thick description’)\, wit
 h an emphasis on the explanation of behaviour and agency that accepts emic
  categories of division of Dunhuang resources and analyses their origins a
 nd usages\, as well as how those categories may enhance or constrain resea
 rch together with the production of knowledge and its dissemination.\n\nEa
 ch of these lectures will systematically cover the following areas: \n\n\
 n	compilation and editing of primary source materials for all fields\n	maj
 or scholars and publications\, cooperative projects\n	research trends (the
 mes and topics)\n	reference and research tools\n\n\nFinally\, given the fr
 amework and sponsor of these talks\, the resources explored will be keyed 
 to the seven thematic research clusters of the BuddhistRoad Project (Cente
 r for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) to further scholarship
  on topics within the context of Eastern Central Asia and their relation t
 o Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nThis second talk explores recent Chinese 
 scholarship on the social contract at Dunhuang: governing structures\, sta
 tecraft\, foreign and ethnic relations\, economic compacts and trade\, as 
 well as lay-clerical relations. Also discussed is research on aspects of 
 ‘civil society’ which\, in the context of Dunhuang\, was largely organ
 ised through kinship relations as well as social and religious association
 s. At the heart of much of this research is a focus on the fundamental shi
 ft during the Tang and Guiyijun periods (7th–11th c.) that witnessed an 
 increasing vernacularisation in terms of patronage together with a shift f
 rom aristocratic elites with connections to the Chinese heartland to more 
 bureaucratic and local modes of governance.\n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research P
 rofessor at the Dunhuang Academy. His scholarship centres on Dunhuang and 
 explores a range of topics\, including the role of Buddhist literature in 
 ritual and art\, medieval economic development\, Esoteric Buddhism (Chin. 
 mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and architectural
  space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on several monographs\,
  including From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religious Exchanges
  Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and r
 itual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first-ever critical bibl
 iographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Comprehensive Guid
 e to Scholarly Resources for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, 
 please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5UvcO
 qoqD4sGdAh_VtWK4BstG1CS1wSSlvP
URL:https://ceres.rub.de/en/events/dunhuang-and-social-contract/
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