Professor Zekun Zhang will lead a primary source discussion for graduate students from 3:30pm to 5pm in the same room. Interested students should get in touch with Prof. Meng Zhang at mzhang@history.ucla.edu.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Bunche Hall 5288
Slavery in Tang dynasty China (618–907) was not inherently based on race or ethnicity, as both Han Chinese and non-Han peoples could be enslaved by their own group or others. Non-Han peoples, however, often were more vulnerable to enslavement due to factors such as their perceived “barbarian customs.” For example, a prevailing understanding of the Yue indigenes as peoples lacking family affection underlaid the rampant slave trade in the Lingnan region of South China. The situation in Lingnan started to change after the 750s, when some elite Confucian scholar-officials tried to limit slavery by arguing that the assimilated Yue indigenes were full-fledged imperial subjects no different from the Han Chinese and thus deserving of state protection from enslavement.
Zekun Zhang is an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (2024–2025, 2026–2027). She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2024. Her research focuses on the moral views of slavery and the lived experiences of enslaved people in the Tang Empire (618–907) and its neighboring states. Her article, “The Enslavement of Indigenous Peoples and Its Limits in South China, 750–850,” is forthcoming in Past & Present in November 2027.
Event sponsored by CMRS Center for Early Global Studies.