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160 MEMORIAL DR
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139 United States Get Directions
https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=14

Building 14, Third Floor: 14E-304

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Today

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Christopher Foster “Fall of the Scribes, and the Rise of Literati in Han China”

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Presented by Christopher Foster Independent Scholar, Library of Congress   Abstract: This talk takes unheralded scribes from early China as its tragic protagonists. Aided by the analysis of newly unearthed manuscripts, I argue that the spread of literacy at sub- and non-elite levels came to alter the course of Chinese history, ultimately leading to the canonization of the (now) Confucian classics. The story goes as follows: China’s first enduring empire, the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), was run initially by hereditary scribal families. Scribes enjoyed a privileged status and earned positions in the Han bureaucracy based on their literacy. This literacy was guarded through government-sanctioned examinations, which tested knowledge of primers called the “scribal volumes.” Yet the scribes were victims of their own bureaucratic success. As the Han empire grew ever larger and more cumbersome, controlling access to these primers wavered. Informal education networks sprouted at the fringes of the Han empire, transmitting the scribal volumes extralegally to unintended audiences, even conscripted peasant soldiers. Competition ensued over mastery of the written word, as a criterion for judging who was best suited to run the empire. A space opened for a new form of classicism during the Han, one championing the “moral […]

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

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