About Us

2026/27 School of Chinese Scholar Seminar

Institutional Body, Textual Enclosure, and Historicist Rhetoric:
Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661–721) and the Shi tong 史通

分享嘉賓 Speaker:
寇陸 教授 Prof. Lu KOU
(East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University)

主持人 Moderator:
繆曉靜 教授 Prof. Xiaojing MIAO 
(School of Chinese, HKU)

日期時間 Date & Time: November 25, 2026 (Wed) 16:00-17:30 (HKT)
語言 Language: 英語 English
地點 Venue: 香港大學百周年校園逸夫教學樓7樓CRT-7.30室
CRT-7.30, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

講座模式 Delivery Mode: 
Face-to-face & Online (via Zoom)

報名 Registration:
https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eeTjAQdFTvCb2Sy

 
摘要 Abstract:
Liu Zhiji’s 劉知幾 (661–721) Shi tong 史通 (A Thorough Exploration in Historiography) has long been celebrated for its comprehensive scope and iconoclastic critique of canonical records. Composed in the early eighth century CE as a private undertaking by Liu Zhiji, the text reflects the court historian’s serious negotiation with changing realities of historiographical institutions and operations: the proliferation of materials and precedents, state centralization and monopolization of archives, bureaucratic constraints on individual court historians, and diverse styles and organizational conventions (tili 體例) of historical records inherited from the Northern and Southern Dynasties. These factors not only blurred the boundary between historical truth and ideological embellishment, but they also raised questions about the ability of courtly language to capture factual reality and reflect historical change, issues with which Liu Zhiji deeply wrestled.

Drawing on Michel de Certeau’s three-fold framework of historiographical operation—a place of socio-institutional production, a set of analytical procedures, and the practice of writing —this talk examines how Liu Zhiji approaches history both as an object of study and as an investigation of the dynamic relationship between the past and present shaped by the institutional forces that governed the articulation of his identity and the intelligibility of his narratives. In particular, this talk focuses on Liu Zhiji’s discussions of speeches, writing, literature, and broader concepts of wen 文 within a historiographical context, illuminating the intersection, as well as tension, between history as lived human experience and history as rhetorical patterning. Ultimately, this talk discusses how the Shi tong complicates the concept and conditions of representing “the real” in historical writing, as Liu Zhiji finds himself both indebted to and resistant to the bureaucratic space that grounds and produces the knowledge of the past.

講者簡介 About the Speaker:

Prof. Lu KOU is an Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, specializing in medieval Chinese literature. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2018. His research interests include court culture, theories of rhetoric, historiography, bureaucracy and literature, and the global Middle Ages. He is currently completing his book manuscript titled War of Words: Contesting Discourses of Legitimation in Early Medieval China.

Notice:
1) The seminar will be conducted primarily in a face-to-face mode; Those who cannot attend the seminar in-person could apply for online participation (via Zoom);
2) All those who would like to attend the seminar are required to register online (Click HERE) on a first-come, first-served basis;
3) Email of confirmation will be sent to the registered email addresses and participants have to show the screenshot or print-out version of the email for entry of the seminar venue;
4) Walk-in or late-comers will not be allowed for entry of the seminar venue unless situation allows.
 

ALL are welcome*
*Pre-registration (Click HERE) is required.