고려대학교 정치외교학과와 평화와 민주주의 연구에서 진행하는 『수당해외학자 콜로키움』에 여러분을 초대합니다.
제목: The Written Word and the Development of the State in China and Europe
연사: Yuhua Wang (Harvard University)
Date: September 15, 2023 (Friday, 09:00)
Place: Zoom 강연
- Zoom Information
Topic: Soodang Distinguished Speaker Series
Meeting ID: 810 4318 7003
Passcode: KUpol1905!
Abstract
State formation depends not only on demand-side factors, such as military competition, but also, fundamentally, on the supply of ideas and techniques in a society. We argue that these ideas can sometimes come from unexpected quarters before then being adopted by those who rule. Using prefecture level data for China during the Tang and Song dynasties, we show how woodblock printing techniques first developed by Buddhists in competition with Taoists and Confucians provided for a technology that could give a broad number of people access to the written word. This was critical for the development and expansion of the Imperial Examination system, which aided in constructing a state bureaucracy. In Medieval Western Europe, by contrast, the religious monopoly held by the Catholic Church gave it little incentive to develop new techniques to broaden access to the written word. This then helped contribute to the political divergence between China and Western Europe, as European rulers seeking to construct a bureaucracy had a more limited pool of talent to draw upon. The broader lesson here is that in order to better understand state formation, we may need to consider the incentives for social actors outside the state itself to develop new techniques.
