When: 18:30, March 30 (Thursday)
Where: J3-105
Theme: Zeng Guofan, famous minister of the laer Qing Dynasty – introspecting and running the country
Speaker: Chen Zhongdan (Professor of history, doctoral supervisor at Nanjing University)
About the speaker:
Mr Chen Zhongdan is a famous historian of China. He is now professor of history and doctoral supervisor at Nanjing University, and was once invited to Duke University of the USA, and Coventry University of the UK. Mr Chen was born in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province in 1956. He once studied in Yangzhou Middle School and transferred to Sheyang Commune Middle School of Baoying, Jiangsu Province in 1969. After graduating in 1972, he worked in the agricultural station of the commune and served as a teacher in Sheyang Middle School. He was admitted to the History Department of Nanjing University in 1978 and was enrolled in its graduate school in 1982 and received a master degree in 1985. He has been working at the Department of History of Nanjing Normal University from 1985 to 1988. He was then admitted to the doctoral program of the Department of History of Nanjing University in 1988, under the supervising of Professor Wang Juefei, member of The Royal Historical Society, and received a doctorate in history in 1991. He served as a teacher in Nanjing University after the graduation. His main academic works and translations include China: Tradition and Reform, Chinese Popular Religion, The Chinese Society in the 18th Century, The Gui Military Group in China’s Politics, Saints Talk, Disease Changes History, Politics in Poster, History in Paintings, and so on.
Recommend Reason:
Professor Chen Zhongdan is a professor of cultural history, studying both Chinese and Western culture. He set scholars of Hui Tong like Qian Zhongshu and Wu Mi as his role model and he sincerely hoped that he could digest, and integrate Chinese and Western culture and made some contribution in this field. Professor Chen Zhongdan’s line is the history of Western culture, but he also did desultory reading and studied the traditional Chinese culture and its modern evolution, where he has published many works and translation. He especially made outstanding achievements in the translation of Sinology. Professor Chen did in-depth study on those celebrities on the late Qing Dynasty and has read through their voluminous works systematically, such as the Complete Works of Zeng Guofan with the length of nearly 20 million words. He has delivered speeches on the theme of Zeng Guofan in many universities and colleges, which received very good response. In this week’s lecture, Professor Chen Zhongdan will tell the life course of Zeng Guofan, embedding the profound thoughts in vivid history, in order to encourage students and inspire their thinking. Welcome to attend the lecture!
