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

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 literacy” of literati proper, demonstrated through exegesis of classics now anchored in the authority of Confucius.

Bio: Christopher J. Foster is a librarian in the Library of Congress, China Section. He received a Ph.D. in Chinese history from Harvard University and has held postdoctoral positions at both University of Oxford and SOAS University of London. Chris’s research focuses on the intersection of manuscript culture, literacy, canonization, archaeology and intellectual history in premodern China.

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium Spring 2025