Join the Department of History as they celebrate the 2026 monograph Convict Politics: From Utopia to Serfdom in Early China (221 BCE–23 CE), written by Liu Faculty Fellow Liang Cai, Ruth and Paul Idzik Associate Professor in Digital Scholarship.
Edward Shaughnessy, Lorraine J. and Herrlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies at The University of Chicago, will provide remarks.
Free and open to the public.
Book description
In this innovative history, Liang Cai examines newly excavated manuscripts alongside traditional sources to explore convict politics in the early Chinese empires, proposing a new framework for understanding Confucian discussions of law and legal practice. While a substantial number of convict laborers helped operate the local bureaucratic apparatus in early China, the central court re-employed numerous previously convicted men as high officials. She argues that convict politics emerged, because, while the system often criminalized individuals, including the innocent, it was simultaneously juxtaposed with redemption policies and frequent amnesties in pursuit of a crime-free utopia. This dual system paralyzed the justice system, provoking intense Confucian criticism and resulting in a deep-seated skepticism toward law in the Chinese tradition, with a long-lasting political legacy.