​

The Tomb of the Marquis of Haihun belonged to Liu He 劉賀 (92-59 B.C.), a grandson of Emperor Wu of Han and the ninth emperor of the Western Han. Far from living a life of imperial glory, Liu He was deposed only 27 days after his enthronement for committing 1127 immoral misconducts and was exiled to the Haihun Kingdom in present day Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. Throughout his tumultuous life, Liu He went from being a prince to a king, then from an emperor to a commoner, and eventually died as the Marquis of the Haihun Kingdom. 

 

Excavated in 2015, the Tomb of the Marquis of Haihun was immediately chosen as one of China’s Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in 2015 for its extraordinary degree of preservation and the extent of its contents. The tomb yielded more than 10,000 pieces of well-preserved burial goods including bronze, lacquer wares, jade, gold, and bamboo slips with written texts, etc. Many of the excavated artifacts have never been seen before, including a lacquered dressing mirror with the earliest known portrait of Confucius and the Qi version of the Analects, which had been lost for more than 1,800 years.

 

The present forum, Haihunhou: The Tomb of the Emperor Who Reigned Only 27 Days, aims to bring together specialists for a conversation on these groundbreaking discoveries. The forum consists of two lectures by the leading archaeologists of the tomb, Jun Yang 楊軍 and Zhongli Zhang 張仲立, and a talk by Eugene Wang, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art Chinese, followed by a specialist discussion panel on issues of archaeology, art history, and intellectual history that the Tomb of the Marquis of Haihun has brought to the fore. 

​

​

​

Schedule:

​

9AM - 9:15AM              Opening Remark by Professor Eugene Wang

​

9:15AM - 12PM            Key Note Lectures

​

                                     Yang Jun 楊軍: Discovering Haihunhou: Underground Splendor of the Western Han Marquis

                                   Zhang Zhongli 張仲立: Archaeology of the Tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of Haihun: Some Thoughts on the Burial System

​

                                     Commentator: Nanfeng Jiao 焦南峰, Sha'anxi Academy of Archaeology

​

12PM - 1PM                 Lunch Break

​

1PM - 1:30PM              Moderator's Speech

​

                                     Eugene Wang: What Was Confucius Doing in Someone Else's Tombs? 

​

1:30PM - 3:45PM         Panel Discussion

                                                                             

                                        Miranda Brown, University of Michigan

                                        Constance Cook, Lehigh University

                                        Guolong Lai 來國龍, University of Florida

                                        Michael Puett, Harvard University

                                        James Robson, Harvard University

                                        Wu Hung 巫鴻, University of Chicago

​

3:45 - 4PM                     Closing Remarks