This lecture is presented within the framework of the Joint Center for Advanced Studies "Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China" as part of the project “Conceptions of World Order and Their Social Carrier Groups”.

Abstract

Whereas a few decades ago, the pre-twentieth century "Chinese World Order" was typically treated as unchanging across the vast span of the imperial period, this talk is premised on the idea that inter-state systems evolve substantially over time. With this spirit in mind, I will propose the fall of the Tang as a pivotal moment that ushered in a very different East Asian World Order. I will consider both the ideological foundation of this state system and the pragmatic rules and protocols governing inter-state interactions.

About Nicolas Tackett

Nicolas Tackett is Professor of History at U.C. Berkeley. He is the author of two books. The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy (2014) examines how a network of powerful families survived at the pinnacle of political power for centuries only to disappear into oblivion suddenly and completely at the turn of the 10th c. The Origins of the Chinese Nation (2017) argues that a national consciousness emerged in China in the eleventh century (i.e., much earlier than typically assumed), and explores how this new consciousness was a product of the diplomatic environment of 11th-c. Northeast Asia.