https://tangcenter-columbia.org/december-11-2026/
This talk focuses on variations in Qin emperors’ edicts on weights and measures, which were installed and reinstalled on these objects to commemorate unification, mandate standardization, eulogize the dynastic progenitor, and affirm his successor’s authority. It argues that subtle differences among surviving examples expose a tension between the imperial center’s ideal of uniformity and local implementation. Although models of standardization originated at the center, their reproduction depended on officials and artisans in particular sites; the very objects that proclaimed uniformity therefore preserve traces of variation.
Rather than treating these differences as irregularities, it asks what they reveal about the transmission and copying of imperial documents, artisanal production, and the literacy required to reproduce imperial commands. These objects thus offer a material gauge of how the “unified” empire performed on the ground: imperial models were replicated across localities, but divergences among their copies reveal the processes—and limits—through which central commands were translated into local practice.
Speaker: Yong-ha Kim, Columbia University
Title: “Unified Variations: Reproducing Qin Imperial Edicts on Weights and Measures”
Time: 4:30-6:30 PM EST
Venue: 403 Kent Hall and Zoom
