Tang Prize Lecture at AAS-in-Asia 2024

Event Website

Event Name

Tang Prize Lecture at AAS-in-Asia 2024

Event Dates

July 11, 2024

Time

10:30 AM~12:00 PM (GMT+7)

Venue

Universitas Gadjah Mada (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) + Livestreaming

Speaker

Dame Jessica Rawson, Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford and 2022 Tang Prize Laureate in Sinology

Title

China’s Great Tombs and the Treasures They Have Revealed

Abstract

While the pyramids of Egypt often represent the ancient world, China's remarkable tomb tradition deserves a much more prominent place. All the fine bronzes, jades, and ceramics in our museums, which tell us about China's past, particularly from periods up to and including the Tang dynasty (618–906 AD), come from these tombs. These riches were essential provisions for the afterlife of emperors and lords. This practice stemmed from a long-established respect for the powers of the ancestors in the lives of their descendants.

The lecture illustrated the early stages of this central Chinese tradition from the Neolithic (c. 3000 BC) to the tomb of the First Emperor in the third century BC. His immense tomb lies more than thirty metres below ground and was a triumph of engineering; his Terracotta Warriors are famous, of course. There are also remarkable splendours in the tombs of his successors, the Han (206 BC–AD 220), with jade suits for the Imperial Princes and fine silver and glass imported from Western Asia. The lecture also explored later developments in the immense underground structures for the emperors of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties near Beijing.

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