VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Houston Museum of Natural Science presents a special lecture entitled  Everyday Religion in China in the Third Century B.C.

Donald Harper, Ph.D., University of Chicago
Tuesday, October 6, 6:30 p.m.

Since the mid-twentieth century and continuing to the present, archaeological objects and excavated manuscripts have restored a view of the everyday religion in the fourth and third centuries B.C. in China, cutting across social levels and geographic regions. The evidence sheds light on religion in the world of the First Emperor, revealing ideas and practices that engaged elite and non-elite alike, for example: resurrection, demonology, prayers and exorcistic rituals, magical talismans, and a rich variety of popular divination systems. The new knowledge of the religion of the people changes our understanding of religious and intellectual culture at the beginning of the imperial era.

Dr. Donald Harper is Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on archaeological and manuscript evidence related to the history of magic, religion, and science in ancient and medieval China. He is currently preparing a book on Occult Texts and Everyday Knowledge in China in the Age of Manuscripts, Fourth Century B.C. to Tenth Century A.D., and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 for this project.

Pictured:  Civilian Official. Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C). Clay. Height 185 cm. Excavated in 2000 from pit K0006. Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Institute, Xi’an. No. 001172. Photo © Wang Da-Gang.