Speaker: Yuri Pines, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem One of the most notable features of imperial China is the exceptional durability of the imperial political system. Having been formed in the aftermath of Qin 秦 unification (221 BCE), this system lasted intact for 2132 years, until the abdication of the child emperor Puyi 溥儀 on February 12, […]

Speaker: Ronald Egan, Stanford University Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) is remembered first as a poet in various forms (shi 詩, ci 詞, and fu 賦) and only then as a prose stylist. Even among his prose writings Su Shi is remembered primarily, to judge from modern selections of his works, for his output in the traditional literary […]