Kung fu tzu biography of barack

Join us as Professor Mark Csikszentmihalyi explores the spectacular portraits and biographies of Kongzi 孔子 (Confucius) and a selected group of disciples depicted on the frame of a mirror stand that was excavated from a tomb in Jiangxi Province in 2015. These materials, which had remained untouched since 59 BCE, add to what we know about the lives of these people and enhance our knowledge of Confucianism in the Han Dynasty.

This talk examines how and why the disciples came to play a central role for the Han ruling elite, the interweaving of the genres of Confucian biographies and dialogues, and how one of the biographical chapters of the Shiji 史记 was put together.

The event is supported by the Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Culture & Civilisation Programme.

About the speaker

Mark Csikszentmihalyi is the Marjorie Meyer Eliaser Chair of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he is a Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Director of the Graduate Group in the Study of Religion. He has published widely on the thought and culture of Early China and is currently working on a book called A Narrative History of the Dao: Debates about Knowledge in the Second Century BCE.

About the moderator

Scott Cook is a Tan Chin Tuan Professor of Chinese Studies and the Head of Studies, History at Yale-NUS College. He specialises in pre-imperial manuscript studies and early Chinese intellectual history. Before joining Yale-NUS in 2014, he served as Cowles-Kruidenier Chair of Chinese Studies at Grinnell College, where he had taught since 1996.

Watch the full session here:

Professor of Humanities (Chinese Studies and History) Scott Cook and Professor Mark Csikszentmihalyi at the lecture. Image by Glen Ang for Yale-NUS College.

On 22 March 2022, Yale-NUS College hosted a public lecture by Marjorie Meyer Eliaser Chair of International Studies and Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of California at Berkeley, Mark Csikszentmihalyi. The lecture, titled “New Views of Confucius and his Disciples from the Han Tomb at Haihunhou”, examined recently excavated materials from a tomb in Jiangxi Province, China and assessed their roles in deepening the understanding of Confucianism practice in the Han Dynasty.

Prof Csikszentmihalyi opened the event by explaining the historical context behind the tomb. Excavated in 2015, the tomb was the final resting site of Liu He, an ill-fated emperor of China. Originally the Prince of Changyi, Liu He was installed as the emperor of the Han Dynasty in 74 BC, but was deposed just 27 days later. Liu He was also demoted to the rank of Marquis, and sent back to Haihun (now known as Jiangxi Province). Therefore, his tomb is known as the Haihunhou (海昏侯) Tomb, or the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun.

Prof Csikszentmihalyi delivering his lecture, with a slide focusing on the historical context and significance of the tomb. Image by Glen Ang for Yale-NUS College.

During the lecture, Prof Csikszentmihalyi discussed the bamboo slips written with the Analects, an ancient book comprising of a collection of sayings attributed to Kongzi 孔子 (Confucius).  He noted that the version of the Analects found in the tomb was a variant version of the text, known as Qi Lun, or the Qi version. This version was thought to be lost to time, even though it had been mentioned by other ancient texts. The rediscovery of the Qi Lun therefore points more conclusively to its existence, and the fact that the Qi Lun was in circulati

Chinese banker and politician (1880–1967)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Kung and Hsiang (祥) is a generation name.

Kung Hsiang-hsi (Chinese: 孔祥熙; pinyin: Kǒng Xiángxī; Wade–Giles: K'ung Hsiang-hsi; 11 September 1880 – 16 August 1967), often known as Dr. H. H. Kung, also known as Dr. Chauncey Kung, was a Chinese banker and politician. He married Soong Ai-ling, the eldest of the three Soong sisters; the other two married PresidentSun Yat-sen and PresidentChiang Kai-shek. Together with his brother-in-law, Soong Tse-ven, he was highly influential in determining the economic policies of the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government of the Republic of China in the 1930s and 1940s.

Biography

Early life

Kung was born during the late Qing dynasty into a prosperous banking and trading family in Taigu County, Shanxi Province, where he attended a mission school in spite of his family's doubts. He then attended North China Union College in Tongzhou, near Beijing, where he took courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry, subjects which were not offered in traditional Chinese schools. Upon hearing of the Boxer attacks, he returned to Taigu, but his family prevented him from leaving the house. After the Taiyuan Massacre, which included members of the Oberlin Band, he carried letters from several of the murdered missionaries to Beijing by hiding them between the layers of his cloth shoes. Returning to Taigu, by using the powers of the Boxer Indemnity, he distributed relief to the families of those killed, buried the dead, and confiscated the estate of a family which had supported the Boxers.

In the summer of 1901, Luella Miner, a missionary and Oberlin graduate, arranged for Kung to travel to Oberlin for further study. Upon landing in San Francisco, however, because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Kung and his companion were locked up for several weeks before the Chinese Consul-General posted b

Biographies

H. H. Kung | Mark Wu | Lan-Hua Liu | More

Hsiang-hsi Kung was born into a comfortable Taigu banking and trading family in 1881.  He was fond of saying that he was a 75th generation lineal descendant of Confucius (romanization of the Chinese “Kung Fu-tzu.”)  When he was young he became attracted to the Oberlin missionaries.  The Oberlin mission clinic helped him overcome a chronic medical problem. Despite family opposition his father and grandfather encouraged him to enter the mission school because they had experience with the world outside through their petroleum business.

After graduating in Taigu he went to the North China Union College in Tungchow, near Beijing. There he excelled in math, physics and chemistry.  In the summer of 1900 he returned to Taigu as news of the Boxer Uprising began arriving.  He attempted to intercede on behalf of the mission.  Fearing that he would be harmed, his family detained him in the house.  After the killing was over, Kung carried the missionaries’ last letters to Beijing sewn between layers of the soles of his cloth shoes.

Back in Taigu, Kung helped collect the remains of the dead, distribute famine relief funds, restore mission property and work out the local details of the Boxer indemnity.  He arranged to acquire an extensive piece of property belonging to a wealthy family that had supported the Uprising.  “The Flower Garden” served as a cemetery for the foreign and Chinese Christian dead.  It would become the site of the Ming Hsien schools as well.

In the summer of 1901, Luella Miner OC 1884, a missionary educator in Tungchow, arranged for Kung and a teacher from Fenchow, Ch’i-hao Fei, to travel to Oberlin for further study.  The first glimpse the two would have of America would be an immigration department lock-up on the end of a San Fran