Sinology Fortnightly 2016/17

To promote exchanges of classical Chinese studies and Sinology, the Academy has launched the Sinology Fortnightly series, by inviting experts in classical Chinese studies and Sinology to share their insights. Sinology Fortnightly is open to public.
Venue: The Gu'an Study, Hong Kong Baptist University Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology (Room SWT707C, Level 7, Shaw Tower, Shaw Campus, 34 Renfrew Road, Kowloon Tong)

For enquiries or registration, please contact us at 3411 6655 or email at hkbujas@hkbu.edu.hk.

Session 10

Date: 21 April 2017 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Prof. Cheung Wai Kwok [Professor, Department of History, Hong Kong Shue Yan University]
Language: Putonghua
Topic: The Romance and the Reality: the History of the Three Kingdoms Revisited

Session 9

Date: 9 March 2017 (Thursday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Ho Koon-wan [Visiting Associate Professor, Department of History, Hong Kong Shue Yan University]
Language: Putonghua
Topic: The Real Generals of the Yang Clan
Abstract:

The Yang clan headed by Commander Lord Yang Ye (?−986, aka Yang the Invincible), and his spouse She Saihua (934−1010) is perhaps the best-known military family of the Northern Song Dynasty. The valiant stories of the Yangs defending their homeland against barbarian invasions have long been celebrated, fictionalized and dramatized in numerous ways, ranging from novels, operas to modern-day films, and television programs. Beside the matriarch Dowager She, a list of female characters emerged as the narrative developed, including the Yang girls and the young widows, amongst which Mu Guiying is the most famous one. The female warriors began to take the center stage, outshining their male counterparts in terms of loyalty and gallantry. However, one question remains: how do general readers like us differentiate the truth from the fiction?

Dr. Ho Koon-wan, local scholar and Vice Chairperson of Chinese Society for Song Studies, has studied the fascinating history around the generals of the Yang clan, and published two papers on the key figures in its third and fourth generations, namely Yang Wenguang (?−1074) and Yang Tian (1007−1062). In this seminar, Dr. Ho will make use of reliable written sources and excavated artefacts, and reveal the true stories of the Yang clan warriors and how are they different from literary fictional narratives. He will also show us where the historic sites related to the Yangs are located.

Session 8

Date: 14 February 2017 (Tuesday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Chu Mingkin [Research Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology]
Language: Putonghua
Topic: Literati Networks and Communication during the Jin-Yuan Transition: A Study of the Letters to Lü Xun in Epistolary Writings of the Central Plain
Abstract:
On the basis of about thirty letters addressed to Lü Xun in the fourteenth-century letter collection Epistolary Writings of the Central Plain, this presentation reconstructs the movement of Lü Xun and his epistolary network in the northern territories during the Jin-Yuan transition. It reveals how Lü Xun served as a bridge between two core groups of Confucian scholars in the early Yuan. Through an analysis of the content and historical context of various letters to Lü Xun, we can see how literati in the north conveyed requests and encouragements and supported each other during difficult times.

Session 7

Date: 13 January 2017 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Ms Jin Fangting [Hong Kong Baptist University, Department of Chinese Language & Literature]
Language: Putonghua
Topic: Some Thoughts on the Matrimonial Parlance in Pre-Qin China

Session 6

Date: 9 December 2016 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Prof. Zhu Shoutong (Head of Department of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Macau)
Language: Putonghua
Topic: Detachment from thewenyan(classical Chinese) tradition and beyond: a Study on the language of the New Literature

Abstract:
The so-called New Literature (in contrast with classical Chinese literature) of the May-Fourth period was characterized by its promotion of written vernacular Chinese through breaking away from Classical Chinese. Being a natural continuation of the momentum-gaining vernacular prose written by Liang Qichao and his likes in the New Citizen(Xinmin Congbao) in the Late Qing and a renewed attempt to close the gap between the written and spoken Chinese, such a linguistic strategy can also be seen as a means to achieve the goals of the New Cultural and Literary Movement. This “anti-traditional” gesture was significant in terms of improving literacy among the population and developing a new type of literature that can serve modern needs. In retrospect, however, the abrupt disjunction in cultural and linguistic traditions has posed new obstacles to the maturation of the New Literature.

Session 5

Date: 25 November 2016 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Prof. Qian Zhixi (Professor of Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University, Chang Jiang Scholars, Visiting Professor of the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong)
Language: Putonghua
Topic: The Philosophical Insight of Tao Yuanming's Poems "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit" and Their Importance in Chinese Intellectual History

Session 4

Date: 10 November 2016 (Thursday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Wu Kejing (Research Associate, Center for Research on Chinese Excavated Classics and Paleography, Fudan University)
Language: Putonghua
Topic: Further Comments on the Comparison between Two Theories of “Aqua-cosmogony” as Seen in the “Shuidi” (Water and Earth) Chapter ofGuanziand the Guodian Manuscript “Taiyi shengshui” (Taiyi Begets Water)
Abstract:
In reviewing the comparison of two theories of “Aqua-cosmogony” made by scholar Bai Xi in his article “The ‘Water’ in ‘Taiyi shengshui’ and the Formation of Everything”, the speaker made some keen observations on the theories as well as Bai’s views through the perspectives of water’s philosophical significance and cosmogony.

Session 3

Date: 28 October 2016 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00noon
Speaker: Dr. Tan Ren (Research Assistant, Hong Kong Baptist University Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology)
Topic:The idea of “Living thing” in Ito Jinsai’s thought
Abstract:
Ito Jinsai is considered to be one of the most creative and influential Confucian scholars of the seventeenth century Japan, and even the “founder of Japanese Confucianism”. He rejected Neo-Confucianism and advocated the original teachings of Confucius and Mencius. In his later works he viewed the universe as a “living thing”. Although the characters “katsubutsu 活物” derived from China, the expression of “the universe as a living thing” is not common in Chinese academia. Instead it shows similarities with the tradition of Shinto religion shown in Kojiki 古事記. Thought it Jinsai refashioned the concept of Heaven in ways that made it more consistent with the Japanese tradition and social reality.

Session 2

Date: 30 September 2016 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Meng Fei (Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Hong Kong Baptist University Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology)
Topic: Inter-relation between Poetry and Poetics: Bai Juyi and his creation of the new Yuefu
Language: Putonghua

Session 1

Date: 9 September 2016 (Friday)
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Speaker: Dr. Adam Schwartz (Research Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology)
Topic: New Yijing 易經 Discoveries
Language: English and Putonghua
Abstract:
My talk first introduces and discusses how two new fascinating discoveries related to the Yijing or Book of Changes improves our understanding of the text’s composition and organization. By using a typological approach to examine a series of hexagrams all involving the Base Trigram Xun 巽 as the lower trigram, I then propose a theory on how a single trigram image led to the production of a series of hexagram names and their derived line statements.