A public talk by Professor WANG Zhengxu of Fudan University’s Department of Politics.

How the Chinese state originated and why the traditional Chinese political order lasted as long as two millenniums remain topics of great academic and public interest.

This talk examines the formation of the bureaucratic imperial political system in China around the Qin and Han periods (221BC-220AD), and explains how its various characteristics helped define patterns of ancient history in China and East Asia. In the process, the intra-continental linkages and exchanges between the Sinosphere –the East Asia cultural/civilizational area – and the Eurasia heartland will also be reviewed, and the talk will conclude with an overview of how this Chinese past is impacting social and political life in China and the rest of Asia today.