From Political Theory to Administrative Reality: Researching Late Imperial Chinese Official Handbooks and Working Aids

Lecture by Pierre-Étienne Will, Chair of History of Modern China, Collège de France

Tuesday, November 05, 2013
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
6275 Bunche Hall

Professor Pierre-Etienne Will, the Chair of Modern Chinese History at the College de France, has been one of the major leaders over the past quarter century  in the building of Chinese Studies in Europe on the twin foundations of strong sinological training and a deep sense of historical problems and issues.  UCLA is privileged to have him visit for a week in order to deliver two of his College lectures “outre-mer” in this, his final year at the College. They will take place on November 5 and November 7, 2013.  He is also offering two seminars for interested students and faculty in reading Chinese texts selected from his major bibliographic project on late imperial administrative handbooks.

Professor Will has held the chair of History of Modern China at the Collège de France since 1992 and is Directeur d’études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales since 1988. He specializes in the socio-economic and political history of late-imperial and early republican China. His publications include, Bureaucracy and Famine in Eighteenth-Century China (Stan­ford, 1990; original French edition Paris, 1980; Korean and Chinese translations), Nourish the People: The State Civilian Granary System in China, 1650-1850 (Ann Arbor, 1991, with R. Bin Wong), several edited volumes, including China, Democracy, and Law: A Historical and Contemporary Approach (with Mireille Delmas-Marty; Leiden, 2012, original French edition Paris, 2007), and numerous articles on Chinese economy, society, politics, bureaucracy, law, water management, and more. He is currently completing Official Handbooks and Anthologies of Imperial China: A Descriptive and Critical Bibliography (Leiden, forthcoming). He heads the Collège de France Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, and is co-editor of the journal T’oung Pao.

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