An international academic workshop on `Old Chinese philosophy and religion` drawing speakers from Harvard, Leuven, Lampeter, Oxford and Cambridge, will be held at the Confucius Institute from 29 Jan-02 Feb 2009.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Social Council, and as a cooperation project between Oxford`s British Inter-University China Centre and Edinburgh Chinese Studies, the workshop is the first of a series of four to be held at different universities and is designed to help graduate students from the UK researching Classical Chinese topics to develop research techniques and a wider knowledge base through reading and discussing innovative `works in progress` from the expert scholars leading the workshop sessions.
The leading idea is to connect the various UK centres for the study of Old Chinese into a nationwide network to facilitate specialised research-training in Old Chinese phonology, palaeography, grammar, literature, philosophy, and religion for graduate students, and strengthen the international visibility of traditional Sinology in the UK at large.
The Edinburgh Workshop Programme is outlined below:
Friday January 30th 2009
9.00 – 10.00 Introductions
10.00 – 11.15 Michael Puett (Harvard)
Texts: Liji passages on ritual theory
11.30 – 12.45 Roel Sterckx (Cambridge)
Talk: Religion in practice in Warring States and Early Imperial China: methods, themes and issues
13.45 – 14.45 Roel Sterckx (Cambridge)
Texts: texts on early Chinese religion in practice: ritual, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer in excavated texts, Liji, Chunqiu fanlu
15.00 – 16.00 Carine Defoort (Leuven)
Talk: The use and absence of‘persuasive definitions’ in ancient Chinese texts
16.15 – 17.30 Carine Defoort (Leuven)
Texts: classical passages on regicide and benefit: Chunqiu, Shangshu, Mengzi, Xunzi, Guanzi, Lüshi Chunqiu etc.
Saturday January 31st 2009
9.30 – 10.30 Hilde De Weerdt (Oxford)
Talk: philosophy and genre: the (Neo-)Confucian tradition
10.45 – 12.30 Hilde De Weerdt
Texts: letters as major sources for intellectual exchange in imperial
China
Methodology: experiment with text markup and digital analysis on a
small sample of set texts.
Sunday February 1st 2009
9.00 – 10.00 Thomas Jansen (Lampeter)
Talk: Reading the `Longhua baojuan` (Precious Scroll of the Dragon Flower`)
10.15 – 11.30 Thomas Jansen
Texts: chap. 1: `Hundun chufen pin di yi 混沌初分品第一`
11.45 – 12. 45 Adam Yuet Chau (Cambridge)
Talk: The Kangxi Emperor Sponsors and Hosts an Offering Ritual for a Minister’s Deceased Mother
14.30 – 15.45 Adam Yuet Chau
Texts: texts on offering rituals
(Rulin waishi and posts to two late 17th cent. painting scrolls)
16.00 – 17.00 Elisabeth Hsu (Oxford)
Talk: Medicine during the last three centuries BC
17.15 – 18.30 Elisabeth Hsu
Texts: Pulse diagnostic texts from the 2nd century BC