Early China Series: Convict Politics
From The Observatory
Date
January 30, 2026
Location
Kent Hall, Columbia University
Area
Add to a calendar
“Convict Politics: From Utopia to Serfdom in Early China (221 BCE—23 CE)”
This talk, based on newly mined data from newly unearthed manuscripts and traditional sources, explores convict politics in the early Chinese empires. Whereas a substantial number of bureaucratic personnel were convict laborers, assisting local officials, the central court reemployed numerous previously convicted individuals as high officials. The talk argues that convict politics emerged because the mutual responsibility system and high-performance-oriented law extensively criminalized people, including the innocent. Via a framework of legal regulations, structured institutional mechanisms, and systematic administrative processes, convict laborers were integrated as essential aides to officials in the realm of local governance.
While being used as objects and instruments to sustain the political economy, convicts at the same time occupied crucial positions in operating the local governmental apparatus, regularly assisting technical bureaucrats in administering the populace. Former convicts were entrusted with power, serving as important officials or even chancellors. At the same time, officials easily fell into the law and became convicts themselves. Severe tension emerged between the nature of the law and the status of convicts, between the lawful and the guilty, and between the philosophical elaboration on the treatment of criminals and the actual practice.Key Speaker: Liang Cai
Participants
Tang Canter for Early China
Organizer, Host | Homepage
The Tang Center for Early China is dedicated to the advancement of the understanding of the richness and importance of early Chinese civilization as a part of a broader common human heritage. It is committed to doing so through both solid scholarship and broad public outreach.
