Identifying the Dead in Medieval China

In approaching the study of individuals in medieval China (here, 10th–14th centuries), art historians and historians often attempt to categorize people by “identity” to better understand and contextualize their lives. Identities might include social class and profession (scholar-official, merchant, military official), ethnicity (Han, Jurchen, Kitan, Mongol), geographic situation (urban, rural, northern, southern), and religious/philosophical affiliation (Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Nestorian), among others. Often, the textual record encourages this type of broad categorization—muzhiming often identify the profession, hometown, gender, and other characteristics of the subject, for example. However, when investigating individuals within their funerary context, the idiosyncratic, and sometimes fluid nature of identity markers becomes more pronounced. Indeed, the burial context of individuals often contradicts some of the categorizations implied by muzhiming or other texts.

In this workshop, we bring together scholars working on aspects of China’s middle period to chart paths forward for our scholarship. How can we interpret signifiers of identity in medieval China broadly, and in the funerary context in particular? What are best practices for studying people largely excluded from the textual record?

For a full list of participants, abstracts, and short biographies please see: https://hiaa.brown.edu/identifying-dead-medieval-china

The symposium will be held in person, all are welcome, please register here: https://events.brown.edu/history-art-architecture/event/335710-identifying-the-dead-in-medieval-china-symposium