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School of Chines Seminar

Colosseum of Warlords: Frontiers in the Age of Civil Wars

軍閥鬥獸場：內戰時代的邊疆

Dr. Ganghao Poh (Nanyang Technological University)

傅港皓博士 (南洋理工大學)

日期 Date: 23 May 2024 (Thursday)

時間 Time: 11:00-12:30 pm

地點 Venue: CPD-7.30, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong

語言Language: English

Abstract:

Frontiers are a crucial element in constructing and maintaining empires throughout the ancient world. This study builds on the existing small but significant pool of scholarship on comparative history between Rome and China by discussing the civil war periods and focusing on the frontiers of empires to highlight the direct causal relationship between frontier exploitation and empire-building.

Using a comparative approach to analyze the frontiers of the Late Eastern Han and Late Roman empires during periods of civil war, this study looks past the traditional narratives that focus heavily on political developments at the imperial center. Instead, it seeks to understand how frontiers constituted an important but overlooked geographical and political space in the construction and maintenance of imperial power and stability. Frontiers were the critical arenas on which warlords competed for the throne during civil wars. At the frontiers, warlords reconfigured existing loyalty networks and conscripted frontier minorities to gain the necessary manpower to overwhelm their opponents thereby reconstructing imperial power. The strategies of exploitation at the frontiers in turn transformed markers of identification amongst ethnic minorities.

邊疆一直是古代時期建立和維持帝國的重要因素。這項研究在有限但重要的羅馬與中國比較歷史學研究基礎上，探討了內戰時期，並著重於帝國邊疆，以突顯邊疆開發與帝國建設之間的直接因果關係。

通過比較的方法分析東漢晚期和羅馬帝國晚期在內戰時期的邊疆，本研究超越了傳統敘事，這些敘事過於關注帝國中心的政治發展。相反，這個研究試圖理解邊疆在帝國權力和穩定的構建與維護中所佔據的重要，但被忽視的地理和政治空間。在內戰期間，邊疆是各方勢力爭奪皇位的關鍵競技場。這些軍閥在邊疆重組了現有的忠誠網路，並徵召邊境少數民族以獲得必要的人力，從而壓倒對手，重建帝國權力。邊疆開發策略的實施也因此改變了少數民族之間的身份標誌。

Speaker:

Ganghao Poh graduated from Stanford University with a PhD in History. He is currently holding the position of a Part-time Lecturer at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He teaches a wide selection of classes in Premodern Chinese History, World History, and Comparative History. He is interested in topics such as empires, race and ethnicity, law and power, as well as religion and gender.

傅港皓畢業於斯坦福大學，獲得歷史學博士學位。他目前擔任新加坡南洋理工大學的兼職講師。他教授廣泛的課程，涵蓋中國古代史、世界歷史和比較歷史等領域。他對帝國、種族和民族、法律與權力以及宗教與性別等主題感興趣。

All are welcome

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