ABSTRACT
YAJIMA Akiko (Keio University): A Comparative Study of the Image of a Bird Singing at Night in Chinese and Japanese Literature
How did early Chinese people describe birds singing at night in their literature? How has that image been transmitted? I examine this question through a comparison with Japanese literature, taking the owl as an example. In China, it was considered ominous to hear birds and beasts crying at night. The owl in particular was described as an evil and unfilial bird and served as a metaphor for an evil and unfilial person. While Japan has been strongly influenced by Chinese culture, and the same image of the owl appears frequently in Japanese literature as in Chinese, some later narratives regard the owl as a funny bird. The image of this bird as described in Chinese text has not changed throughout history, yet it changed in Japan. How did this difference arise? This could be due to the fact that authoritative texts remained authoritative, in addition to differences in natural environment and lifestyle. However, did the image that the Chinese actually have of this bird remain the same in real life? The few doubts about the traditional image that remains in the literature are key to resolving this question.
矢島明希子：〈夜鳴鳥的各種樣態：從文獻的角度考察文化傳承〉
現代學者是否能夠描繪出古人對周圍的鳥獸聲抱有如何的印象，而這些印象又如何被表達出來？鳥獸在許多典籍中都有所記述。這些典籍被視為權威繼承了下來，不僅中國，還滲透到日本等周邊的漢字文化圈。本報告以梟為例，報告者希望透過中日之間的比較來思考夜鳴鳥的叫聲在文獻資料中被如何表達，以及在文化傳播中被如何繼承，並且在研究過程中思考中國文獻資料的特性。中國文獻資料中的梟形象，強調其黑夜狩獵的夜行性猛禽的殘暴，用這種鳥類比喻惡人，或者表達政治或道德意味上的惡政。即使時代變遷，也幾乎沒有發生變化。另一方面，日本的梟的形象雖然吸收了中國的印象，但在通俗文學之類的日語表達中卻不強調其兇惡性，乃至描寫滑稽感的梟的形象，凡此皆與中國不同。為什麽會出現這些差異？除了自然環境和生活方式的差異外，這可能是由於權威性的文本仍然具有權威性。而在他們的現實生活中，中國人對這種鳥類的實際形象是否保持不變？文獻中殘留的關於傳統形象的少數疑點將是解決這個問題的關鍵。
Chiara Bocci (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany): A Chinese “Nemean Lion”? The jiqu 狤: A Curious Philological / Zoological case
In works of the Tang dynasty, a curious compound word appears for the first time in the history of Chinese literature: ji qu. These two characters form the name of an animal, which impresses for an overly cruel destiny, which contradicts the meaning of the phonetic elements (ji 吉 and qu 屈), literally “The one which bows at good luck”. Written sources tell us, in fact, a completely different story. The first sources that narrate its deeds are the Jin Dynasty’s Baopuzi 抱朴子by Ge Hong 葛洪 and the Hainei shizhou ji 海内十洲記 (“Records of the Ten Island-Continents Inside the Seas”, probably a Six-Dynasties product), where the quadruped has a different name: “beast revived by the wind” (fengsheng shou 風生獸). For its wondrous features, it seems to belong to that category of mythical creatures, which includes the fenghuang 鳳凰 or the qilin 麒麟. Its main characteristic is an iron-like skin, impenetrable to all sorts of weapons (spears or knives), which reminds of the Nemean lion of ancient Greek mythology.
Only by beating it with a club and breaking its bones, can hunters kill it. Moreover, the animal is able to come back to life thanks to the revitalizing force of the wind. Around the Six-Dynasties period, the so-called fengmu 風母 (lit. “mother of wind”) appears too. The lost Jiaozhou ji 交州記 (“Records of Jiaozhou”) by Liu Xinqi 劉欣期 (4th — 5th cent.) describes it, echoing the Baopuzi and the Hainei shizhou ji: the animal can be killed only by hard beating and it resuscitates with the wind. The Yiwen leiju 藝文類聚 (624) quotes this passage. Some sources, such as the dictionary Yupian 玉篇 (first composed in the 6th cent.) write fengmu with the dog radical too. Later on, during the Tang dynasty, another animal related to the wind appears: the fengli 風狸/貍 or “wind-li / wind-wildcat”. The features of the fengli are much more realistic, it resembles a small ape, and its urine can cure diseases of the wind (such as epilepsy, madness or even leper). The pharmacologist Chen Cangqi 陳藏器 (8th cent.) describes the fengli as a small arboreal mammal from the region South of Yongzhou 邕州 (in Guangxi), which people keep in captivity to harvest its milky white urine. Whilst it can hardly be believed that a fengsheng shou was ever observed in real life, the fengli seems a plausible living being; maybe Chen Cangqi even observed it directly. A few decades later, with the Tongdian 通典 (“Comprehensive Institutions”, 801), the old description by Baopuzi reemerges, to be attributed to the jiqu: a monster devouring humans! Another fifty years later, the philologist Duan Chengshi 段成式 probably uses the Tongdian to compile parts of his Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎 (“Miscellaneous Records from Youyang”, ca. 850) but describes the jiqu as a frankincense (xunlu xiang 熏陸香)-eating animal. The same author dedicates a separate entry to the fengli in another chapter, with a description that reminds initially of Chen Cangqi’s words, to switch to the extraordinary, transforming the small arboreal mammal into a kind of wizard, which thrives by means of magic and hides away from humans. Later on, in encyclopedic works such as the Taiping yulan 太平御覽 (983), these different descriptions merge, to refer to the same animal. Li Shizhen 李時珍 (16th cent.) lists all different names (fengli, fengsheng shou, fengmu, pinghou 平猴 and jiqu) as synonyms. During my presentation, I will go through the main sources for fengsheng shou, fengli, and jiqu with a philological approach, trying to reconstruct the literary and linguistic “career” of a truly fascinating animal. Looking at this particular case, can also stimulate a discussion about the development of Chinese language in the so-called Chinese Middle Ages, and possible foreign contributions to the emergence of new words.
Federico Valenti (University of Sassari Ph.D.): “To Explain Beasts and Their Needs”: A Summary on Mammal Taxonomy in the Shi Shou 釋獸 Chapter of the Erya 爾雅
The early Chinese synonymicon Erya 爾雅 (Approaching Elegance; third century BCE) has been almost unanimously acknowledged as an influential model of what a lexicon should be in the Chinese literary tradition (South Coblin 2017, Bottéro 2017). Among its taxonomically organized chapters, Shi Shou 釋獸
(“Glosses on beasts”) is a terse compendium of some terms related to mammals that were considered part of the “official nomenclature” in a period where the unification of the Chinese language was fundamental to develop and organise a unified and cohesive Empire. By analysing the Shi Shou, it is possible not only to understand part of the richness of Classical Chinese zoological terminology, but also to discover some peculiar taxonomical strategies that were used to organise the vast compendium of animal nouns. A special focus will be put on the last mysterious line of the chapter, where the term xu 須 is introduced, a character that usually means ‘needs’ or ‘necessities’, but whose meaning in relation to animals in this text seems vague.
Mengzi 2A2 consists of Master Meng’s answers to questions put to him by a follower named Gongsun Chou. The first few of these replies relate to bu dong xin, “unmoved heart,”—i.e., mental quietude and equanimity in the face of humiliation or disappointment as well as excitement or promise—and to yang yong, “nurturing fortitude,” the first of several methods Mengzi identifies for achieving an “unmoved heart.” Mengzi attributes to his old rival, Gaozi, a sixteen-word “maxim” and adds to it a filigree of glosses and highly abbreviated explanations meant to justify why he labels the second part of Gaozi’s maxim an acceptable means for achieving an unmoved heart. In responding to subsequent questions, Mengzi introduces and explains yang haoran zhi qi, “nurturing the flood-like ethers,” and zhi yan, “recognizing (the defects in) words,” two pillars of his own self-cultivation method. Mengzi’s elaborations on how to cultivate the ethers show that he believed they would “fill the space between Heaven and Earth” because his passions dwelled together with propriety in a state of conjugal harmony.
I first presented a paper on Mengzi 2A2 at Harvard in the summer of 1976 and subsequently published it in 1980. The present paper is not simply a revision of that effort but rather a thorough reconsideration of its arguments and conclusions. The length of the passage, but even more so its obscure subject, technical vocabulary, rhetorical complexities, elliptical syntax, and resonances for those within the Ruist tradition account for Mengzi 2A2 having generated more discussion in the traditional exegeses and commentaries than other Mengzi passages. The earliest surviving commentary was composed by Zhao Qi (d. 201 ce). The most important of the lengthy treatments is the commentary of Zhu Xi (1130-1200), the Mengzi jizhu, first published in 1190, read together with the lessons on Mengzi 2A2 Zhu Xi provided his disciples and followers toward the end of his life that are preserved in the Zhuzi yulei.
The interpretations and other aspects of the approach to and reception of Mengzi 2A2 by Zhao Qi and Zhu Xi are major subjects of analysis treated in the present study. They are supplemented by consideration of the writings of late Ming and early Qing dynasty authorities, many of whom refute or criticize various points in Zhu Xi’s interpretations. Also important are the detailed lexical notes and other research materials compiled by Jiao Xun (1763-1820) in his Mengzi zhengyi, in a sense a capstone of the Qing dynasty philological approach to the text. Interwoven with the explanations of these earlier commentators are my own attempts to engage with Mengzi’s thought and the often-unique difficulties of understanding the terminology he used in formulating his answers to Gongsun Chou’s questions. While this involves applying the philological tools necessary to any reading of early Chinese literature, my purpose here is not so much to provide a close reading of Mengzi 2A2 but rather to create an interpretation of the text that will encourage readers to explore more deeply its difficulties and complexities. The last word on the text will never be written.
Lydia Lee (Fudan University)
The Hellenistic Jewish Memory of the Persian King in the Alpha-Text of Esther 1–3
CHEN Zhan (BNU-HKBU United International College)
The Peshitta of Isa 25:6-8: A Syriac Wordplay, or a Systematic Citation of 1 Cor 15?
Chair and discussant: Timothy Lim (Edinburgh University)
Introduction by Yegor Grebnev (UIC)
New Perspectives on the Records of the Grand Historian
Organized by Oriental Institute (OI), Czech Academy of Sciences
Date: July 3-4, 2023 (CET)
Location: The Czech Academy of Sciences, Národní 3, Room N. 108
Schedule:
Session 1 (9:00 – 10:15, July 3)
JEFFREY RIEGEL (University of California, Berkeley): “A Journal of My Misgivings:Liang Yusheng, Sima Qian, and the History of Qin—An Introduction” (Keynote)
Session 2 (10:30 – 12:00, July 3)
HANS VAN ESS (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München): “On the Structure of the Shiji”
KUAN-YUN HUANG (OI, Research Center of Taiwan): “Confucius in Two Compromising Situations”
Session 3 (2:00 – 3:30, July 3)
YU I-FEI 游逸飛 (National Chung Hsing University): 關裏關外——從張家山漢簡看《史記．荊燕世家》的 「之國」與「出關」
CHEN KANLI 陳侃理 (Peking University):《史記》與出土簡帛中的秦二世
Session 4 (3:30 – 4:00)
General Discussion
Session 5 (9:30 – 12:00, July 4)
KAKINUMA YOHEI 柿沼阳平 (Waseda University): “Taishi 太史 and Shiji 史記”
JAN VIHAN (OI): “The Contradictions in Sima Qian’s Character Construction from Confucius to Jing Ke”
WANG SHIH-HAN 王詩涵 (Columbia University): “Leave the People, Take the Kings:How Huaxia Writers Recorded and Interpreted the ‘Barbarian’ Wu and Yue Kings in Political Narratives”
Session 6 (2:00 – 3:30, July 4)
KATERINA GAJDOŠOVÁ (Charles University): “The Logic behind the Daoist-Legalist Blend of Huang-Lao Thought”
PHAM LEE-MOI 范麗梅 (Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica): 從先秦兩漢宇宙觀探討《史記．天官書》書寫的意義
CONCLUDING REMARKS (3:30 – 4:00)
For more information, please visit: https://orient.cas.cz/en/events/New-Perspectives-on-the-Records-of-the-Grand-Historian/?fbclid=IwAR3pdfl1BBT6Loq4AmYd-H9WDS6mlNLxX_af0B0YWttx3Qt6D-uMLILf2WA
Abstracts:
Nathan Vedal “Cosmology and Phonology in Late Imperial China”
Ming linguistic texts tell us a great deal about the period’s intellectual culture. This talk examines the role of cosmology, in particular, in seventeenth-century studies of phonology, providing a basis for comparison with the well-documented approach to historical phonology practiced by Evidential Learning thinkers in the eighteenth century.
Daniel Stumm “Measuring Change: Intellectual Genealogies in Qing Philology “
Qing philologists constructed intellectual genealogies for many important pre-imperial thinkers, which they used to order and evaluate the corresponding texts. In some cases, a text was in need of an author; in others, an important figure was in need a text. In this talk, I will discuss two attempts from the early-to-mid 19th-century to establish the works of Zengzi, a direct disciple of Confucius, as part of the canon. The paratexts and commentary make clear that the research still appealed to the ideals inherent formulated at the heyday of evidential studies, such as the centrality of intellectual genealogies and a recognition of historical change over time. In sum, they show that history was at the core of Qing philology and informed every aspect of scholarly research.
Discussants:
Kai-wing CHOW (University of Illinosis)
Frederic Clark (University of Southern California)
1. Rina Camus (Hong Kong Polytechnic University): “Archery: Context, Function, Significance”
2. James Behuniak (Colby College): “Archery as Metaphor for Moral Agency”
3. Susanne Adamski (Independent Scholar): “Archery as Reflected on Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions”
Discussant: Sarah Allan (Dartmouth College)
Abstract:
The Interpretive Principles of Qing Scholars– Bernhard Karlgren’s Critique
Magnus Ribbing Gren (Princeton, Ph.D.)
Philological, linguistic, and literary techniques can support a wide range of readings – conservative or iconoclastic – of any given text. Therefore, scholars rely on interpretive principles to guide their choices. These principles, spoken or unspoken, reflect a certain understanding of history, social context, and the nature of texts. In his work on the Shijing and the Shangshu, Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren (1889–1978) established a set of principles that forced him to reject many of the readings suggested by Qing philologists. By identifying where Karlgren’s interpretive principles clashed with those of his predecessors, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the worldview that guided Qing dynasty classicism – and how it differs from our own.
Abstracts:
Exploring Disability and Bodily Impairments in Early Chinese History: Methods, Topics, and Questions
早期中國史中的殘疾與肢體損傷：方法、議題、與問題
Avital Rom 艾葦婷
University of Cambridge 劍橋大學
The upcoming edited volume Other Bodies: Disability and Bodily Impairment in Early China (Routledge) sets out to engage comprehensively with questions relating to the topic of disability in Chinese antiquity. From the Analects to the Zhuangzi, from political accounts transmitted throughout millennia of textual history to newly excavated legal documents — early Chinese sources reveal a multi-layered, complex picture of what can be interpreted as notions of ‘disability’ in early Chinese history. Susan Burch and Michael Rembis have referred to the study of disability history as a field that enables scholars “to re-member (or reconstitute) the past.” Aiming to re-think the Chinese past through the prism of impairment and disability, the volume deals with a wide array of questions ranging from definitional queries to legal, political, and social ones. Juxtaposing discussions from Disability Studies with case studies and textual examples from early Chinese sources (particularly examples drawn from some of the works collated in the volume), this paper will discuss some of the methodological, terminological, intellectual, and even moral challenges facing us in our attempt to provide, for the first time, a lengthy discussion on the history of disability in early China.
Physiognomy and the Reduplication of the Imperial Body in Han Historical Texts
相術與漢代歷史文本中的帝王身體複製
Jianjun He 何建軍
University of Kentucky 肯塔基大學
A form of divination, physiognomy was closely linked to politics in early texts such as Zuozhuan and Guoyu. By reading the body and interpreting bodily features as political signs, physiognomy transformed the physical body into a political reference and provided predictions and advice for a broad range of political concerns. This current paper examines how the politicization of the body by means of physiognomy was systematized and intensified in Han era. By focusing on the reduplication of the imperial body, I argue that in Han historical texts the bodies of Han rulers were mystified and reduplicated in order to demonstrate the Han imperial legitimacy. In Han historical narratives, symbolic meanings of the ruler’s body were highlighted, and the body of the ruler was integrated with the body of the state. Physiognomy was manipulated to create political myths that read the physical sings of Han imperial bodies as evidence of their heavenly authority. At the same time, Han historical texts pointed to the physical resemblances between Han emperors and legendary kings in high antiquity as genetic evidence for the unquestionable power of the Han emperors. The reduplication of the Han imperial body was thus presented as a visual manifestation of the Han rule.
特備工作坊：盛世之後
時間：7月22日星期五臺北時間下午4:00（歐洲中部時間上午10:00）
發表人：
賴佩暄（國立中山大學）：小說中國，危言盛世
陳煒舜（香港中文大學）：風月繁華記盛時，欲將寶鑑警頑癡――吳世昌《紅樓》題詠論略
呂家慧（香港城市大學）：符瑞與唐玄宗時代的盛世敍事
討論人：楊治宜（法蘭克福大學）
主持人：林凌瀚（加州大學柏克萊校區.
The Jesuit mission to China more than four hundred years ago has been the subject of sustained scholarly investigation for centuries. Focusing on the concepts of friendship and hospitality as they were both theorized and practiced by the Jesuit missionaries and their Confucian hosts, this book offers a new, comparative, and deconstructive reading of the interaction between these two vastly different cultures. Dongfeng Xu analyzes how the Jesuits presented their concept of friendship to achieve their evangelical goals and how the Confucians reacted in turn by either displaying or denying hospitality. Challenging the hierarchical view in traditional discourse on friendship and hospitality by revealing the irreducible otherness as the condition of possibility of the two concepts, Xu argues that one legacy of the Jesuit-Confucian encounter has been the shared recognition that cultural differences are what both motivated and conditioned cross-cultural exchanges and understandings.
Cui bono? Ancient Chinese Manuscripts and the Notion of “Performance supports”
予欲何為？古代中國寫本與「表演支持」概念
Maddalena Poli 梅林
PhD 博士
East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania 賓夕法尼亞大學東亞語言與文明學系
The field of early China has been transformed dramatically by the study of hundreds of bamboo manuscripts produced during the earliest intellectually influential period in Chinese history, the Warring States (475–221 BCE). These manuscripts injected into the field new evidence for the study of manuscript production, Old Chinese language, intellectual histories, and the history of textual transmission. My research strikes a balance between points of detail and broad research questions. Focusing on manuscripts concerning historical narratives and philosophical debates, I look at specific textual structures, linguistic features, and intertextual parallels, to then ask the big questions: What would make someone write and consume texts with these properties? In what context, and for what purpose, would these texts be relevant? In this paper, I answer these questions with examples from Warring States manuscripts. I present the notion of “performance supports” to describe these manuscripts as texts that served as aide-mémoires, written canvas for oral debates, and tools to learn skills required for literary composition. Through this prism, ancient manuscripts take on a new life as witnesses of multifaceted cultural practices of which only the written medium has survived.
戰國時期（公元前475-221）是中國歷史首個在思想層面上具影響力的時期，而早期中國文獻這個領域亦因為學者們對上百篇產生於這段時期的竹簡寫本而發生了顯著的改變。這些寫本為有關寫本生成、古漢語、思想史、和文獻流傳史的研究提供了新的證據。我的研究平衡了微觀與宏觀的研究問題。我將焦點放在與歷史敘述和哲學辯論有關的寫本之上，並藉此考察當中具體的文本結構、語言特點、和文本之間的相似性。隨後，我提出了以下宏觀性的問題：是什麼原因驅使人們書寫和使用具有這些特性的文本？這些文本在何種語境和為著何種原因而變得重要？我在本文中將以戰國時期的寫本來回答這些問題。我將提出「表演支持」這個概念來把這些寫本描述成一些幫助人們記憶的文本、口頭辯論的書寫記錄、和學習文本寫作所備技巧的工具。古代寫本因此而被賦予新的生命，成為包羅萬象、且只有書寫材料得以保存的文化實踐的證據。
The Symbolism of the Zuozhong Game board
左冢棋局的寓意
Huang Ru-Xuan 黃儒宣
Assistant Research Fellow 助研究員
Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 中央研究院歷史語言研究所
The shape and the characteristics of the zuozhong 左冢 game board are consistent with the liubo 六博 game boards unearthed at tombs from the state of Chu in the Warring States period. Furthermore, the pattern of the zuozhong game board is the same as that of the sai 塞 game called “gewu” 格五 in the received literature and represented in stone reliefs of the Han dynasty. These findings suggest that the zuozhong game board is in fact a sai game board. The composition of the concentric square of the zuozhong game board may reflect the concept of the jifu 畿服 (territorial division) system: the inner and outer frames represent the “internal” and “external” systems, respectively; the central circle denotes “the center of the earth,” “the center of the realm,” and “the center of all under heaven,” which was chosen by the Son of Heaven as the site for the royal city; the perpendicular roads which form a cross at the center connote “Zhouhang” 周行 and “Zhoudao” 周道, the highest-level roads connecting the Zhou royal court to the outside. Furthermore, the words found in the innermost square represent the laws of the Son of Heaven, those of the fourth square indicate the feudal system of vassal states, and those of the fifth portray the barbarians. In this way, the pattern and words jointly show the political geography of the Warring States period.
左冢棋局的形制特點與戰國楚墓出土的六博棋局相符，圖案與傳世典籍稱為「格五」的塞戲，及漢代畫像石相同，推測是塞戲棋局。左冢棋局同心方的構圖反映畿服制度的概念，內框與外框分別代表「內服」與「外服」；中央圓圈代表「地中」、「土中」、「天下之中」，天子擇此建立王國；中央垂直交叉的十字道代表「周行」、「周道」，是周王室向外聯絡最高等級的道路。最內一欄方框的文字代表天子的灋典，第四欄代表分封諸侯，第五欄代表蠻夷戎狄。圖案和文字共同呈現戰國時代理想的政治地理格局。
Laughter and Lamentation: Eastern Han (25 – 220 C.E.) Entertainers from Southwest China
喜與悲：中國西南部的東漢（25 – 220）表演者
Hajni Elias 薛好佩
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow 研究員和附屬講師
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge 劍橋大學亞洲和中東研究學院和藝術史學院
Figures of entertainers, referred to in modern scholarship as ‘story tellers (shuochang yong 說唱俑)’ are well known from Eastern Han (25 -220 C.E.) tombs from the Southwest, present day Sichuan province. Depicted with comical facial expressions, either with a joyous smile or with a lugubrious countenance and often in exaggerated poses, they convey humour and arouse curiosity. This talk seeks to understand this group of mingqi figures which were often placed in the company of musicians, dancers and acrobats as part of the baixi 百戲 performers in the tomb. While they may be familiar to us, the art form they practiced, their contribution to China’s early entertainment culture and their significance to the Southwest’s mortuary practices remain little explored. Through the examination of their physical characteristics, combined with references found in early textual sources, this talk also addresses some of the misconceptions associated with Sichuan’s early entertainers.
今天中國西南四川省的東漢（25 -220）墓穴出土了一些著名，且被當代學者稱為「說唱俑」的表演者人像。這些人像有著諸如高興地笑或哀傷的面容等滑稽的表情，而且時常擺出誇張的姿勢。它們具有幽默感，且讓人感到好奇。在這次演講中，我將試圖理解這些在墓穴中經常和音樂家、舞蹈員、和雜技演員作為百戲表演者一員而被放置在一起的明器人像。儘管我們對它們或有一定的認識，但它們所表演出來的藝術形式、它們對中國早期娛樂文化的貢獻、以及它們對中國西南部喪葬儀式的重要性只引起很少的討論。通過考察它們在形態上的特徵、並結合早期文獻中相關的描述，這次演講將同時處理人們一些與四川早期表演者有關的誤解。
Abstracts:
The Lever Schema: Technical Knowledge and Social Thought in Warring States China
槓桿圖示：戰國時代的技術知識與社會思想
ZHOU Boqun 周博群博士
Assistant Professor 助理教授
The University of Hong Kong 香港大學
In this talk, I explore the impact of mechanics on Warring States thought by examining how schematized knowledge of the lever (quan 權) provides structures for (re)organizing social experience in a rapidly changing world. The lever’s dual function of weighing and weight-lifting, analyzed in the Mohist Canon, become metaphors for ethical weighing in moral dilemmas and strategic leverage in political and military competitions. As a result, philosophical uses of quan divide into a value-rational conception of practical wisdom and an instrumental-rational conception of cunning intelligence. To illustrate the second category of meaning, I will discuss how Shen Dao uses lever metaphors to conceptualize political control in his philosophy.
Language and Gender in Chan Buddhism: Toward a Tropology of Chinese Religion
Kevin Buckelew
Assistant Professor
Northwestern University
How do particular turns of figurative language shape the rhetorical force of religious literature in China? The question is especially pertinent for the study of Chinese Buddhist literature in particular. On the one hand, Mahayana Buddhism idealizes total mastery over language and its effect on listeners or readers through the concept of a buddha’s or bodhisattva’s “skillful means.” On the other hand, Buddhist texts routinely warn that language, if misused, can be dangerous. Perhaps no Chinese Buddhist tradition has been more attentive to the danger of language than the Chan 禪school. A great deal of classical Chan literature revolves around the question of how to communicate a form of truth that is understood to be ultimately ineffable. In this literature, to be an authentic Chan master is to exercise buddha-like command over language, and that ideal is routinely contrasted with the ordinary person’s hopeless subjection to language’s capricious movements. In this paper, I closely read several key passages from Chan literature outlining ideals of Chan mastery in terms of control over language. I show how these passages rely on a pattern of metaphorical tropes that serve to characterize control of language as masculine, decisive, and truly alive. In turn, the danger of being controlled by language is cast as feminine, indecisive, and ghostly. I propose, first, that the metaphors invoked in these passages are essential and not incidental to their rhetorical force, which means that we cannot think about Chan attitudes toward language without also considering how those attitudes are bound up with particular ideas about gender (among other things). Second, I suggest that these examples also point toward the potential usefulness of what we might call a tropological approach to Chinese religious literature.
Light and Darkness in Early Daoism
Roy Porat
Visiting Scholar, Brown University
Visiting Assistant Professor, Wesleyan University
An interesting feature of the language of many Daoist texts is their atypical idealization of Darkness and Obscurity, which contrasts with the positive connotations of Light and Clarity in virtually all great philosophical traditions. In my talk I will discuss the ways by which this counterintuitive sympathy towards the “dark side” could have reflected several of the philosophical principles that characterized early Daoism, and address an interesting finding which suggests that this unique terminology might have played an even more important role in the earlier stages of the Daoist tradition: comparing the use of the Light/Darkness symbolism in the different versions of the Laozi reveals that while the received text uses both metaphorical schemes to roughly the same extent, the presumably earlier Guodian version lacks almost all of the “bright” references that appear in later recensions, thus constituting a much “darker” version of the text. As I suggest, this terminological shift – from dark to brightness – might have reflected a more general process of philosophical deradicalization Daoism had undergone in the earliest stages of its formation, traces of which can be found in other texts as well. As time allows, I will discuss some of the implications of this suggestion on our understanding of the Laozi itself, as well as on the second chapter of the Zhuangzi, the Qiwulun.
Abstracts:
Liang Cai (University of Notre Dame)
Innocent Convicts and the Unlawful Commoners: The Conception of Justice in Early Imperial China (221 BCE -9 CE)
Early Imperial China formed the foundation of the legal system for two millennia of Chinese dynastic history. This paper aims to explore the philosophical conception of justice in lieu of the mutual responsibility system and imperial amnesty in early China. The mutual responsibility system was a major principle applied in legal practice throughout the Qin-Han dynasties until the 20th century. From excavated legal statutes to legal cases in traditional sources, we find that the mutual responsibility system produced a large number of innocent convicts. It openly punished the lawful, including family members, neighbors, and friends of the offenders. Whereas the mutual responsibility principle produced innocent convicts, the imperial amnesty created unlawful commoners. The emperor frequently issued empire wide amnesties, extensively freeing those who were condemned, including men who received the death penalty. Taking those prominent legal practices as a background, this paper will explore how thinkers, officials, and emperors perceived justice in general and legal justice in particular in early China. In what social and historical contexts, did men talk about gong公 (fair/public) and gongping 公平 (fair and balanced), gongzheng 公正 (fair and upright, just) and zhengyi 正義 (upright and righteous; justice)? Was the discussion of justice totally absent in major schools of Chinese thought, including Confucianism, Daoism, or legalist teachings? If not, how would those thinkers comment on, negotiate with, and compromise on the routine legal practices that were not ‘just’ by nature?
Trenton Wilson (Yale University)
Empire over Luck: Law, Luck, and the Limits of Favor
In this paper, I show how, in a diverse number of early Chinese texts, political order, in general, and legal order, in particular, were conceived as means to eliminate luck and favor (xing 幸). Showing favor (also xing 幸), however, was at the same time an important part of the ethical vocabulary of empire and the rhetorical presentation of imperial rule. By focusing on the problem of luck/favor, I will show the tensions and contours of thinking about order in the imperial period, with some reference to pre-imperial ideas as well.
Discussant:
Hafner Arnd Helmut (Meiji University)
Abstract:
David B. Honey 韓大偉 (Brigham Young University 楊百翰大學)
This talk presents the results of the last 15 years of my research on the history of Chinese classical Scholarship. To date, three volumes in English have been published by Academica Press: Vol. 1 Zhou Dynasty: Confucius, The Six Classics, and Scholastic Transmission; Vol. 2: Qin, Han, Wei, Jin: Canon and Commentary; Vol 3: Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sui, and Early Tang: The Decline of Factual Philology and the Rise of Speculative Hermeneutics. Vols. 4 and 5 will treat the Qing dynasty. I shall explain the motivations behind this series, sketch the contents of each volume, introduce the philological disciplines developed during each era, and focus on introducing the scholarly approaches and interpretive paradigms I adopted from modern histories of classical scholarship in the West. Comparative glances between traditional Chinese and Western classicists pervade the presentation.
我在這次演講中將會講述我在過去15年來有關中國經學史的研究。直至目前為止，英文版已有三卷由Academica Press出版：《卷一：周代：孔子、《六經》、與師承問題》、《卷二：秦、漢、魏、晉：經與傳》、和《卷三：南北朝、隋、與初唐：文獻學的衰落與詮釋學的崛興》。卷四與卷五將會討論清代。我將會解釋這套叢書背後的動機、概述每卷的內容、介紹每個時期文獻學的發展、並集中介紹那些我所採用，現代西方學者就經學所撰的歷史中所使用到的方法與詮釋範式。這次演講將會不時簡單地比較傳統中西方的經學家。
Abstract:
Yegor Grebnev 葛覺智 (Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 北京師範大學珠海校區)
Revisiting the History of Daoism through Early Chinese Scriptures (shu 書)
“書”類文獻與早期道教歷史
This talk focuses on the previously ignored connection between the Warring States scriptures (shu 書) and Daoism, particularly the esoteric textual traditions commonly identified with “religious Daoism”. Although Daoism is still commonly described as a tradition of detached philosophical speculation (as a philosophy) and innocent otherworldly fantasies (as a religion), the groundbreaking works of Anna Seidel have highlighted its political dimension reflected in the continuing preoccupation with royal legitimacy. However, Seidel shared the conventional opinion that the history of Daoism as a religious tradition only begins in the Eastern Han, and the sources examined by her belong to the medieval period. In this talk, I shall demonstrate that Seidel’s observations can be extended to the Western Han and the Warring States periods, and the precursors of Daoist esoteric textual traditions can be identified in the scriptural (shu) texts, preserved today in such collections as the Shang shu 尚書 and the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書.
Abstracts:
FENG Shengli 馮勝利
(Beijing Language and Culture University 北京語言大學 / Chinese University of Hong Kong 香港中文大學)
On Philology as Science——A case study of Qian-Jia Libi 理必 (Logical Certainty)
作为科學的語文學——乾嘉“理必”之個案研究
In the 16th century, Western science made a great leap. Meanwhile, in China, the scholars of textual criticism including Gu Yanwu (1613-1682), Dai Zhen (1724-1777), Duan Yucai (1735-1815), Wang Niansun (1744-1832) also facilitated the development of scientific reasoning (Hu Shi 1967). However, what are science and scientific reasoning? In this paper, it is argued that science is a deductive system that can be verified, falsified and experimentalized, thus the notion of Libi 理必 (logical certainty) initiated by Dai Zhen represents a new era of scientific reasoning in their philological studies. Like the linguistic science created by N. Chomsky today, the philological science was created by Dai Zhen in the Qian-Jia period. The former has changed the academic paradigm from a structuralist view to a generative enterprise; the latter established a new paradigm of the libi reasoning through out Qing Dynasty but was barely kept by the Zhang-Huang school today (同源孳乳词、声韵相挟、文献语言学、韵律形态学句法学) . The argument made here claims that although the scientific principle of logic certainty is a newly developed indigenous rationalism in Chinese intellectual history created and practiced by the Qian-Jia scholars, it has almost been lost: neither recognized in Ying-shih Yu 余英时’s work on Chinese intellectual history nor practiced and entertained by scholars of contemporary Chinese exegesis, philology, linguistics as well as other social studies.
HUANG Kuan-yun 黃冠雲 (National Sun Yat-sen University 國立中山大學)
The Qianlong Emperor and the Birth of Philology
乾隆與考證學的誕生
This presentation is an analysis of three essays by the Qing emperor Qianlong (r. 1735 – 1796). For this “Son of Heaven, Man of the World,” the Neo-Confucian thinkers Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi espoused a radical position that poses a direct challenge to the authority of the ruler. The Qianlong Emperor took notice of this, rejected it, and proceeded to denounce more generally the style of learning associated with those philosophers, which ultimately promoted and gave rise to a contrasting, more evidential approach. Herein lies the birth of Philology, the modern academic discipline as it has come into its own in the context of China. There is a dark underside to it. Understanding that dark underside allows us to rediscover some options in philological research that we have never been able to consider.
Ori Sela 石敖睿 (Tel Aviv University 特拉維夫大學)
Between Imperial and Private Science: Scholars, Philology, and Ritual in the 18th Century
在皇室與私家的科學之間：十八世紀的學者、考證學與禮儀
(To be shared upon request.)
For an observer’s report 工作坊述評 by He Yingtian 何映天 (Princeton University 普林斯頓大學), please click here.
Our sincere thanks to Maddalena Poli for her kind help with poster design.