Summer Issue, 2013

A view to the next century Organised by the Faculty of Arts as part of its Centenary celebrations, the Second Century Lecture Series brings the most distinguished scholars in their eld to Hong Kong, to share their experiences and wisdom with the University and the public.The event was supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences andThe Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and sponsored by United Airlines and The Peninsula Hong Kong. On May 14, 2013, Professor Jonathan Spence was invited to deliver the inaugural lecture on Below the State: The Many Lives of Those Contesting Authority in Eighteenth Century China. It examined how early Chinese sources from three hundred years ago guide us into the worlds where the ordinary bureaucrats lost their way. It looked at the universe of peddlers and doctors, exiles and wanderers, exam candidates and temple guardians, forgers and inn-keepers, fortune tellers, mountain dwellers and travelling salesmen. 20 eddlers and fortune-tellers, exiles and inn-keepers: these are some of the simple folk who emerge from of cial documents of the early 18th century Chinese state. Their experiences illustrate the complex tapestry of life that existed below the reach of the bureaucracy, and the social history of China in this period was explored in an engaging and fascinating lecture by Professor Jonathan Spence, long regarded as one of the foremost scholars of Chinese history. Professor Spence’s exploration of the social history of early 18th century China grew out of his interest in Emperor Yongzheng ( 雍正皇帝 ) , who reigned from 1722 to 1735, a time when the state was at the pinnacle of its effectiveness. “He was an extraordinarily complicated man,” says Professor Spence. “The more I read the more impressed I became and one could get a sense of what it was like to rule China in the early 18th century.” Wherever there is heavy-handed government, there will inevitably be a counter-force of opposition and people who will “do everything they can to establish their own de nitions of what is say-able and of what is permissible,” Professor Spence says. By examining documents from the time, such as legal texts and regular news missives published by the On Campus Finding the simple folk Jonathan Spence holds the title of Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and has long been regarded as one of the most in uential historians of Chinese history. His writings have ranged from the life and missionary career of Matteo Ricci to works on theTaiping Rebellion, the Chinese Revolution, and Mao Zedong. Spence’s magnum opus, The Search for Modern China , remains one of the most important introductions to Chinese history, well-loved by readers, scholars and students. Spence won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1979, and a MacArthur fellowship in 1988, the same year he was appointed to the Council of Scholars for the Library of Congress. He was made a corresponding member of the British Academy in1997, and Queen Elizabeth II named him, in 2001, a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. In 2004 and 2005, he served as president of the American Historical Association. In 2010, he delivered the annual Jefferson Lecture at the Library of Congress, the US federal government’s highest honour for achievement in the humanities. P