March 7-8, 2025

Workshop – A Very Lively Death
Death Culture and the Culture of the Living in Early China

Locations:
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University

Introduction:
This international conference sets out to explore the curious, creative, and surprising aspects of early Chinese approaches to death. Our aim is to offer a set of new perspectives pertaining to the strong ties between the worlds of the dead and the living in Warring States, Qin, and Han China. Such ties, we believe, manifest themselves in a cultural picture of the underworld much livelier than one would have imagined. Beginning in 5th-4th centuries BCE, and extending into the early imperial period, the afterlife came to be perceived as a continuation of the life lived. Our meeting seeks to explore and further explicate this transition, building upon prior scholarship in fields such as archaeology, literature, philosophy, and cultural history.

Co-organizers:

Avital Rom, University of Cambridge
Andrew Meyer, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Schedule:

Friday, March 7
9:45-10:15 –          Arrival at the venue and coffee
10:15-10:30 –         Welcome and opening remarks
10:30-12:15 –         Panel 1
12:15-13:30 –         Lunch break
13:30-15:15 –         Panel 2

Panel 1 – Chair: Heng Du (Wellesley College)
10:30-10:55 Constance Cook (Leigh University)
Illness and the Cosmic Body in 4th Century BCE
10:55-11:20 Avital Rom (University of Cambridge)
Ghostly Tunes: Musical communications between the dead and the living
11:20-11:45 Lisa Indraccolo (Tallinn University)
The Talking Dead: The trope of the loquacious skull and the unchatty ghost in Early China
11:45-12:15 Q&A

Panel 2 – Chair: Flavia Fang (Institute of Historical Research, University of London)
13:30-13:55 Andrew Meyer (Brooklyn College, CUNY)
How the Other Half Dies: Aristocratic Visions of Afterlife and “Near Death” in the Warring States
13:55-14:20 Elisa Levi Sabattini (Tel Aviv University)
Dreams of Death and Political Legitimacy
14:20-14:45 Mark Csikszentmihalyi (University of California, Berkeley)
Seeing and Recalling the Living: A Gentleman’s Guide to Benevolence and Killing
14:45-15:15 Q&A

Saturday, February 22
10:00-10:15 Arrival and coffee
10:15-12:00 – Panel 3
12:00-13:30 – Lunch break
13:30-14:50 – Panel 4
15:00-15:45 – Discussion and concluding remarks

Panel 3 – Chair: Andrew Meyer (Brooklyn College, CUNY)
10:15-10:40 Sarah Queen (Connecticut College)
A Very Lively Death Record: Gongyang Readings of Chunqiu Deaths
10:40-11:05 Scott Cook (Yale-NUS)
Look Both Ways before Crossing the Road: The Price of Human-Ghost Interaction in Early Chinese Texts
11:05-11:30 Paul Goldin (University of Pennsylvania)
Why Would Anyone Commit Suicide?
11:30-12:00 Q&A

Panel 4 – Chair: Li Feng (Columbia University)
13:30-13:55 Hajni Elias (University of Cambridge)
Remembering the Young: Visibility of Children in Han Material Culture
13:55-14:20 Joachim Gentz (University of Edinburgh)
The Matrix of Death: Very Lively Tensions Between Static and Motional Aspects in Han Depictions of the Afterworld
14:20-14:50 Q&A