Based on Dr. Tristan Brown’s recently published book, Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China, this talk will explore fengshui’s invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty. During this period, China faced a growing population, dwindling natural resources and an overburdened rural government. Judicial administrators across China grappled with disputes and petitions about fengshui in their efforts to sustain forestry, farming, mining and city planning. Laws of the Land offers a radically new interpretation of these legal arrangements: they worked.

Dr. Brown proposes that an intelligent, considered and sustained engagement with fengshui on the ground helped the imperial state keep the peace and maintain its legitimacy, especially during the increasingly turbulent decades of the 19th century. As the century came to an end, contentious debates over industrialization swept across the bureaucracy, with fengshui invoked by officials and scholars opposed to the establishment of railways, telegraphs and foreign-owned mines. Demonstrating that the only way to understand those debates and their profound stakes is to grasp fengshui’s longstanding roles in Chinese public life, Laws of the Land rethinks key issues in the history of Chinese law, politics, science, religion and economics.

This talk is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided starting at 4 p.m.

About Tristan Brown
Dr. Tristan Brown is a historian of early modern China at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests include the history of science, law and religion, as well as environmental and economic history. His current project examines the social and cultural history of Muslim communities along the Grand Canal during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Special Thanks
Many thanks to Pomona College Professor Yanshuo Zhang of the Asian Languages and Literature Department for co-organizing this special guest talk with the Asian Library of The Claremont Colleges Library. We also thank our co-sponsors at Pomona College, which include: the Wig Fund for Teaching Innovation, the Asian Languages and Literatures Department, Asian Studies Program, and Oldenborg Center.