Elman To Present Lecture At Institute For Advanced Study

Benjamin Elman, Visiting Mellon Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, will speak on "Classicism, Civil Examinations, and Natural Studies in Late Traditional China, 1600-1800," on March 7 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the Institute campus. The lecture will be followed by a reception in the Fuld Hall Common Room.

"What role did Chinese classical studies ('Confucianism') play in the partnership between an autocratic imperial court and its elegant bureaucracy?" Elman asks. "Why were there test questions on the natural 'sciences' in civil service examinations during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644)? In the absence of 'public' schools in imperial China, 1600-1800, how did someone gain a classical education?"

Elman's illustrated talk will show how "The civil examinations provide historians with a unique vantage point for the study of classical studies and literati culture in late traditional China. The political partnership between Chinese (or Manchu) emperors and classically trained elites played a central role in intellectually defining 'high culture' and socially assigning high and low status in traditional society up to 1800."

Professor Elman, a scholar of late traditional and modern Chinese intellectual and cultural history, earned his B.A in philosophy at Hamilton College and his Ph.D. in Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor of Chinese History at the University of California, Los Angeles since 1986, he directed UCLA's Center for Chinese Studies 1997-99. He was been named Visiting Mellon Professor at the Institute from 1999-2001.

Currently preparing a study of the cultural history of modern science in late imperial China, Professor Elman's most recent book is A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (University of California Press, 2000).

Elman's talk is one of a series of public lectures presented by faculty members of the Institute for Advanced Study throughout the year.