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Professor YUASA Kunihiro: Chinese Excavated Documents Research — The Legitimacy of Royal Authority and the Issue of Succession to the Throne (2025/11/13)
The sixth lecture in the “Encounters in the Old World, East and West: From a Transdisciplinary Perspective” series was successfully held on November 13 at the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology. The event, chaired by Professor Adam Schwartz, Associate Director of the Academy, drew an enthusiastic audience of nearly seventy participants from both within and outside the university, including students and academics. The keynote speaker, Professor YUASA Kunihiro (Professor Emeritus of The University of Osaka and Associate Director of the Shirakawa Shizuka Institute of East Asian Characters and Culture, Ritsumeikan University), who previously co-supervised the Japanese translation of Professor Chen Zhi’s book The Shaping of the Book of Songs: From Ritualization to Secularization, delivered a lecture on “Chinese Excavated Documents Research — The Legitimacy of Royal Authority and the Issue of Succession to the Throne.”
Professor YUASA Kunihiro began by reviewing his forty-year journey in pioneering studies of unearthed Chinese texts in Japan, emphasizing the value of interdisciplinary approaches and international academic cooperation. A key section highlights Professor Chen Zhi's research on the Book of Songs, which applies methods such as paleography and musical archaeology to break away from traditional interpretations like the Mao commentary. This reveals the process in which the Book of Songs transformed from ritualistic origins to secular popular songs, as well as the diversity of its text transmission, especially illuminated by the new findings from the Anhui University bamboo slips, which showcase the variability in oral traditions and chapter order during the Warring States period.
The lecture further examines newly published texts such as the “Wu Ji” (五紀) and “Can Buwei” (參不韋) in the Tsinghua bamboo slips collection and the “Zhou Xun” ( 周馴) from the Peking University bamboo manuscripts. These documents provide deep insights into ancient Chinese philosophical debates on the legitimacy of royal succession, particularly the transition from the doctrine of abdication to hereditary monarchy, reflecting complex theoretical defenses and arguments.
The Q&A session expands on themes such as the reliability of traditional historical records, the meanings of key terms like “Di” (帝) and “Junzi” (君子), and the importance of cross-referencing historical documents with archaeological finds. Emphasis is placed on scientific authentication and the necessity of critical research attitudes.
In conclusion, the lecture underscores that ongoing discoveries and studies of early Chinese materials are reshaping our understanding of China’s ancient political and intellectual history. The speaker encourages young scholars to engage actively and critically with both old and new sources, in order to deepen their appreciation for the plurality and complexity of historical narratives.
Lecture Review:
HKBUtube: https://hkbutube.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/inner.php?id=BTS-101258
