Reception of the Zhuangzi 莊子in the West: the early years

Par Richard John Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Chinese Thought and Literature, University of Toronto

Thursday, April 11 at 12:30 pm, Amphi 5, Inalco

The reception of the Daoist classic Zhuangzi in the West has a long history prior to the appearance of the first integral translations in the 1880s and should be studied as part of the 17th and 18th centuries European general encounter with South and East Asian religious traditions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and, of course, Daoism—a religiocultural experience that profoundly shaped the development of modern Orientalism before imperialist ambitions and commercial greed during the early 19th century compromised what had originally been essentially a search to expand Western religious perspectives—by discovering in Asia’s non-Abrahamic religions parallels and precedents for basic Judeo-Christian beliefs about God, creation, and the individual soul.

Contact : vincent.duranddastes@inalco.fr , valerie.lavoix@inalco.fr

Whose Zhuangzi 莊子? Master Zhuang’s, Guo Xiang’s 郭象, or ChengXuanying’s 成玄英?

Who Says What in the Commentary Tradition

Par Richard John Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Chinese Thought and Literature, University of Toronto

Friday, April 12th from 5 pm at the Paris-Diderot University. Site Grands Moulins, Bâtiment C, 4e étage 10, rue Françoise Dolto, 75013 Paris

Please see here for details.