Category Archives: Chinese Texts

Summer School in Classical Chinese and Classical Japanese in Venice

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has been collaborating with Princeton University for their Summer School in Classical Chinese and Classical Japanese/Kanbun. It offers two tracks of comprehensive, grammar-focused instruction taught by faculty members from both Ca’ Foscari and Princeton. The program is designed especially for students who wish to develop their linguistic expertise for graduate study in any discipline of premodern China or Japan. Students can choose between two tracks: each track offers language classes in addition to a lecture series on topics in premodern Chinese or Japanese culture (history, literature, thought). Both tracks welcome students who are beginners in Classical Chinese or Japanese, as well as those who already have some background foundation. Please visit the website or access this attachment for further information on the program and application process.

De Gruyter’s Works of Philosophy and Their Reception

De Gruyter has launched an ambitious new project called “Works of Philosophy and Their Reception” (see here). It emphasizes both translation and commentary on a wide range of philosophical works. From the website:

The innovative part of the project consists in its systematic analysis of the reception of philosophical works and ideas – not only from a philosophical perspective but also in relation to other disciplines. This makes this resource interesting for students and scholars of all the fields of Humanities. Furthermore, Works of Philosophy and Their Reception focuses not only on canonical works of both Western philosophy and other philosophical traditions (Islamic philosophy, Chinese philosophy etc.), but also on less (or even not yet) explored works from different traditions (e.g., works of women philosophers). The objective of Works of Philosophy and Their Reception is to establish itself as a research platform that opens new fields of investigation and to cross bridges between different cultures and disciplines.

The site also lists planned and published works; those from the Chinese tradition include:

  • The Lunheng (Evaluating Discourse) (ed. Alexus McLeod)
  • The Wenzi (ed. Andrej Fech)
  • The Xunzi (ed. Winnie Sung)

Three “Collaborative Learning” (四海為學) Seminars in March/April

Reading Sunzi Bingfa

In the history of Chinese thought the Sunzi Bingfa plays many different roles. It has influenced ways of thinking about politics and warfare, but also efficacy in many arenas, and even environmental issues. The Sunzi Bingfa is also written in a way that provides a great introduction to reading classical Chinese, making it a useful text for students to read for many different reasons. In this course we will do a close reading of the Sunzi Bingfa.

Led by: Dimitra Amarantidou, University of Macau, and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, East China Normal University

This course meets from 6:00-8:30pm Beijing time, March 5, 12, 19, 26, April 2, 30, May 7, 14, 21.
Skype link: https://join.skype.com/IvuqyZhnUKjC

Concrete Humanism: Major Confucian Texts and Thinkers

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Funded Graduate Study Opportunity

The Traditional China Chair at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich is soliciting applications for a Ph.D. position in Classical Sinology (80 % FTE). Work towards the Ph.D. will be carried out under the auspices of the SNSF project “Literary Forms and Epistemic Goals in Early Chinese Texts” (Principal Investigator: Dr. R. Suter). The doctoral thesis will be jointly supervised by Prof. W. Behr and Dr. Suter. See here for more information.

Call for submissions: Reading Primary Sources in Asian Philosophies

From Malcolm Keating:

Do you have a favorite Asian philosophical text to teach, one that you’re excited about and want to see taught in other classrooms? Bloomsbury Academic is soliciting contributions to a collection of entries for an electronic resource, Reading Primary Sources in Asian Philosophies. Each entry will be a succinct, lively introduction and guide to an important Asian philosophical text. The collection will include Asian texts from any time period or geographical region: for instance, China, India, Japan, Korea, or Southeast Asia, texts which may be ancient, classical, or modern (colonial, post-colonial, etc.). Entries may be relevant to any philosophical subdiscipline, so long as they are grounded in a specific text.

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New Book: Galvany, ed., The Craft of Oblivion

SUNY Press has just released a new volume entitled “The Craft of Oblivion: Forgetting and Memory in Ancient China” edited by Albert Galvany. It is an innovative volume that aims to study, for the first time, the intersections between forgetting and remembering in classical Chinese civilization. Drawing on perspectives from history, philosophy, literature, and religion, and examining both transmitted texts and excavated materials, the contributors to this volume analyze various ways of understanding oblivion and its fertile relations with memory in ancient China. Please click here (https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Craft-of-Oblivion) to read more about the book or to purchase it.

New series of bilingual editions of source texts in Chinese philosophy (Chinese & German)

Meiner, a renowned philosophy publisher from Hamburg, has established a new series of bilingual editions of source texts in Chinese philosophy in both Chinese and German. For the series see: https://meiner.de/monographien-reihen/sino-philosophica.html

The first volume of the series is a translation by Iso Kern of a selection of the correspondence between Wang Yangming, Ouyang De and Luo Qinshun on the basis of ethical action. For this new publication see:
https://meiner.de/monographien-reihen/sino-philosophica/kontroversen-uber-die-grundlagen-ethischen-handelns.html

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