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This lecture will unveil the historical prototype of the "Imperial Consort's Home Visit" episode in the classic Chinese novel 'Dream of the Red Chamber'. The talk will reveal that the primary source material originates from Imperial Concubine Wang, the most favored Han Chinese consort during the Kangxi Emperor's reign. It will also explore the possible channels through which the author, Cao Xueqin, accessed these relatively obscure historical events and how he used the novel to voice the grievances of women behind palace walls. Finally, the speaker will report on his use of satellite maps to uncover secrets related to the burial of Concubine Wang, whose tomb in the Jingling Imperial Concubine Garden was unfortunately looted the previous year.
Professor Huang Yilong is a renowned historian and an Academician of the Academia Sinica in Taipei. He previously worked as a professional astronomer at top-tier universities in the United States before switching careers in 1987 to join the Institute of History at Taiwan's Tsing Hua University, despite having no prior formal training in literature or history. His research spans a wide range of fields, including the history of science, Sino-Western cultural exchange history, late Ming and early Qing history, history of numerology, military history, maritime exploration history, and Redology (the study of 'Dream of the Red Chamber'). In 2006, he was elected as an Academician of the Humanities Division of Academia Sinica based on his self-taught achievements. His honors include being the inaugural "Hu Shih Visiting Chair Professor of Chinese Studies" at Leiden University in the Netherlands, Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
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