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Spirituality, Religion and Society Lecture Series
Daoist Patronage and Practices of Arts, Literati Culture, Local Politics and Society in Late Qing and Early Republican Nanyang
Professor Xun Liu
Associate Professor, Department of History,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Date: 20 April 2018 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Venue: Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
Abstract
Using a variety of new and underused primary sources such as temple steles, poems, calligraphic brushworks, local gazetteers, and literati writings, this talk reconstructs the history of Daoist monastic practice and patronage of arts at the Xuanmiao Monastery in late Qing and early Republican city of Nanyang in North China. Prof. Liu shows how such Daoist practice and patronage of literati arts help the Daoist monastery generate and accumulate cultural capital and moral prestige, and build and maintain the Daoists’ ideological, social and political ties with local literati and merchants. He argues that the Xuanmiao monastic patronage and practice of arts attests to the existence of an active and lively Daoist artistic tradition in the late imperial China. Further and more importantly, Prof. Liu demonstrates that the Daoist cultural capital and moral prestige in turn enabled the Xuanmiao Monastery and its Daoists to engage in public activism in modern reforms in education, social philanthropy, medicine, and other public areas, and to play a vital role in shaping the modern development and configuration of local society and politics in late Qing and early Republican Nanyang.
About the Speaker
Professor Xun Liu is a historian of late imperial and modern China. He received his Ph.D in East Asian history from University of Southern California and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard’s Fairbank Center (2002 – 2003) and UC Berkeley’s Institute of East Asian Studies (2005 – 2006). He has authored Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai (Harvard Asia Center/HUP, 2009), and co-edited two critical volumes: Daoism in 20th Century: Between Eternity and Modernity (with David Palmer, 2012), and Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture (with Vincent Goossaert, 2014). In addition, he has published over a dozen research articles on subjects of social history of Daoism, inner alchemy, body, and literati religiosity.
Spirituality, Religion and Society Lecture Series
Daoist Patronage and Practices of Arts, Literati Culture, Local Politics and Society in Late Qing and Early Republican Nanyang
Professor Xun Liu
Associate Professor, Department of History,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Date: 20 April 2018 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Venue: Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
Abstract
Using a variety of new and underused primary sources such as temple steles, poems, calligraphic brushworks, local gazetteers, and literati writings, this talk reconstructs the history of Daoist monastic practice and patronage of arts at the Xuanmiao Monastery in late Qing and early Republican city of Nanyang in North China. Prof. Liu shows how such Daoist practice and patronage of literati arts help the Daoist monastery generate and accumulate cultural capital and moral prestige, and build and maintain the Daoists’ ideological, social and political ties with local literati and merchants. He argues that the Xuanmiao monastic patronage and practice of arts attests to the existence of an active and lively Daoist artistic tradition in the late imperial China. Further and more importantly, Prof. Liu demonstrates that the Daoist cultural capital and moral prestige in turn enabled the Xuanmiao Monastery and its Daoists to engage in public activism in modern reforms in education, social philanthropy, medicine, and other public areas, and to play a vital role in shaping the modern development and configuration of local society and politics in late Qing and early Republican Nanyang.
About the Speaker
Professor Xun Liu is a historian of late imperial and modern China. He received his Ph.D in East Asian history from University of Southern California and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard’s Fairbank Center (2002 – 2003) and UC Berkeley’s Institute of East Asian Studies (2005 – 2006). He has authored Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai (Harvard Asia Center/HUP, 2009), and co-edited two critical volumes: Daoism in 20th Century: Between Eternity and Modernity (with David Palmer, 2012), and Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture (with Vincent Goossaert, 2014). In addition, he has published over a dozen research articles on subjects of social history of Daoism, inner alchemy, body, and literati religiosity.
Title:
Daoist Patronage and Practices of Arts, Literati Culture, Local Politics and Society in Late Qing and Early Republican Nanyang
Speaker:
Professor Xun Liu (Associate Professor, Department of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Date:
April 20, 2018
Time:
12:00 nn – 1:30 pm
Venue:
Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong (Map)
Language:
English
Enquiry:
(Tel) (852) 3917-5007
(Email) ihss@hku.hk
Using a variety of new and underused primary sources such as temple steles, poems, calligraphic brushworks, local gazetteers, and literati writings, this talk reconstructs the history of Daoist monastic practice and patronage of arts at the Xuanmiao Monastery in late Qing and early Republican city of Nanyang in North China. Professor Liu shows how such Daoist practice and patronage of literati arts help the Daoist monastery generate and accumulate cultural capital and moral prestige, and build and maintain the Daoists’ ideological, social and political ties with local literati and merchants. He argues that the Xuanmiao monastic patronage and practice of arts attests to the existence of an active and lively Daoist artistic tradition in the late imperial China. Further and more importantly, Professor Liu demonstrates that the Daoist cultural capital and moral prestige in turn enabled the Xuanmiao Monastery and its Daoists to engage in public activism in modern reforms in education, social philanthropy, medicine, and other public areas, and to play a vital role in shaping the modern development and configuration of local society and politics in late Qing and early Republican Nanyang.
Professor Xun Liu is a historian of late imperial and modern China. He received his Ph.D in East Asian history from University of Southern California and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard’s Fairbank Center (2002 – 2003) and UC Berkeley’s Institute of East Asian Studies (2005 – 2006). He has authored Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai (Harvard Asia Center/HUP, 2009), and co-edited two critical volumes: Daoism in 20th Century: Between Eternity and Modernity (with David Palmer, 2012), and Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture (with Vincent Goossaert, 2014). In addition, he has published over a dozen research articles on subjects of social history of Daoism, inner alchemy, body, and literati religiosity.
This is an event organized by the “Rethinking Spirituality and Religion in Asia” Cluster.
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