Re-visioning Chinese History, 900-1350:  The New Look of Song and Yuan 
Linda Walton, PhD
8 January, 2022
​9:30 am - 11:00 am, PST
Contributions from archaeology and allied disciplines have dramatically revised our understanding of the traditional dynastic histories of both the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1260-1368).  One prominent feature of this re-visioning is the far more influential role of powerful nomadic states and empires in shaping “Chinese” history, a role obscured in the past by reliance on written texts.

Join First Saturday PDX as Dr. Linda Walton presents an overview of the new look of Chinese history during these centuries.  Based on her recently completed manuscript, tentatively titled Imperial China, 900-1350, Dr. Walton will share this new perspective from the wider Eurasian setting and from new approaches focusing on historical actors, such as women and nomadic peoples, who left few written accounts.
​About the speaker:
​Professor Emerita Linda Walton retired from the Portland State University History Department in 2013 after 35 years of teaching Chinese, East Asian, and world history, 32 of them at PSU. She established the PSU Institute for Asian Studies, served as its director for three years, and chaired the History Department for six years. She was also editor of the Journal of Song-Yuan Studies for three years.
​Post-retirement Professor Walton has continued research in Song and Yuan intellectual and social history along with pursuing a more recent research interest in Confucian academies in contemporary China as cultural heritage sites. She was visiting research professor at Hunan University’s Yuelu Academy Research Institute, 2018-2020. Pandemic permitting, she will be a visiting research professor in 2022 at the University of Edinburgh as part of a European Research Council project on classical cultures in Song China and Byzantium.

Recommended Reading:        
Beverly J. Bossler, Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity (Harvard University Press, 2013       
​https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066694

Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period (University of California Press, 1993)
https://history.washington.edu/research/books/inner-quarters-marriage-and-lives-chinese-women-sung-period

Peter Lorge, The Reunification of China: Peace Through War under the Song Dynasty (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Naomi Standen,
  • Unbounded Loyalty: Frontier Crossings in Liao China (University of Hawai’i Press, 2007).
  • ”Difficult Histories: Changing presentations of the Liao in regional museums in the People’s Republic of China over three decades,” Modern Asian Studies 48.6 (2014): 1519-1565.
  •  “Colouring Outside the Lines:  Methods for a Global History of Eastern Eurasia,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 29 (2019): 27-63.

Nicolas Tackett, Origins of the Chinese Nation: Song China and the Forging of an East Asian World Order (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Hugh Clark, “What’s the Matter with “China”?: A Critique of Teleological History,” The Journal of Asian Studies 77.2 (May, 2018): 295-314.

Jeehee Hong, Theater of the Dead: A Social Turn in Chinese Funerary Art, 1000-1400 (University of Hawai’I Press, 2016).
 
Peter Lorge, “Military Institutions as a Defining Feature of the Song Dynasty,” Journal of Chinese History 1 Special Issue 2: Chinese Military Institutions (July, 2017): 269-295.
 
Shane McCausland, The Mongol Century: Visual Cultures of Yuan China, 1271-1368 (University of Hawai’I Press, 2014).
Video of this presentation can be seen here

​Join us after the webinar from 11 - 11:30am in our First Saturday PDX Tea House to further the discussion and online social time.  Bring your cup of tea! 
​(Separate  access link for this will be provided in your single registration for this event.)
This presentation is offered via Zoom Webinar:
  • Join with computer, tablet, or smartphone. 
  • Register here to receive the links to join the webinar and Tea House in the same registration confirmation email.
  • See our Zoom page for information on how to connect to the event.  
Our program series is supported by Portland State University's Institute for Asian Studies, Northwest China Council and Lan Su Chinese Garden.   All our programs are free and open to the public.