Attempting an account of the Ming imperial family leads to a number of reflections on the nature of the evidence we have for such a history. How do the enormous textual record and the relatively scant pictorial material complement and/or contradict each other? This lecture will reflect on some of the issues encountered in writing Sons of Heaven: Family and Dynasty in Ming China (Reaktion Books, 2026), and introduce some of the ways a critical approach to texts and pictures around the Ming imperial family might feed into thinking about the Ming as a dynastic enterprise.

This is a book launch event. A very limited number of copies of Craig Clunas’s new book, Sons of Heaven: Family and Dynasty in Ming China, will be available. 

This event is generously supported by June and Simon Li, valued friends and supporters of art history.