Upcoming Events

Distinguished Scholar in Residence: Professor DONG Shan (2026/10)

The Academy has established the "Distinguished Scholars in Residence" scheme since 2015, inviting internationally renowned scholars in Chinese Studies and Sinology from around the world to reside on our campus. The scheme offers HKBU faculty and students, together with the local academic community, the opportunity to engage with and learn from world-class masters, enabling students to experience scholarly excellence and research insight at first hand. In 2026, JAS has invited Professor DONG Shan from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University to be the Visiting Fellow from 20 to 24 October. Professor Dong will offer two lectures during his stay. Details are as follows:

2026/10/21 | 10:30–12:00

Lecture 1: A New Arrangement and Interpretation of Ai Song and the Worship of Emperor Shun in the Xiang-Chu Region

The recently published Warring States bamboo slips of Ai Song (22 slips) housed at Anhui University belong to the genre of Chu Ci (Songs of Chu) literature. This lecture offers a revised transcription and interpretation of the text based on Chen Qi’s reconstruction of the slip sequence and attempts a comprehensive discussion. The Ai Song can be divided into three major parts:  the “Prelude,” the “Ai Song,” and the “Epilogue.” Its content centers on the Chu people’s worship of Emperor Shun in the middle to late Warring States period in the Hunan region. Music and musical instruments serve as the unifying themes and function as multiple metaphors throughout the text. Drawing on historical legends and local Xiang-Chu history, the lecture explores the nature of the worship of Emperor Shun, the context and purpose behind the composition of Ai Song in the Chu slips, and its stylistic relationship with Xiang Jun and Xiang Furen. It also briefly reviews textual and archaeological evidence regarding Emperor Shun’s cult from the Qin and Han periods onward. Only by considering these multiple contexts: ancient legends, historical realities, transmitted texts, and archaeological discoveries, can one better understand the significance of the Warring States Chu slip text Ai Song.

2026/10/23 | 16:30–18:00

Lecture 2: Reexamining the “Feng Yu Poem” Based on Newly Discovered Han Dynasty Wooden Slips

This paper compares two versions of the Feng Yu (“Wind and Rain”) poem preserved on Han dynasty wooden slips, proposing new interpretations of its characters, lexical meanings, syntax, overall meaning, and thematic purport. It argues that the poem is related to the Qin-Han fengshan (imperial sacrifices to Heaven and Earth) rituals and reflects views on fengshan held among the lower and middle strata of Han society. The paper advocates a philological approach that reconstructs meaning based on syntactic structures and emphasizes that variations among different manuscript copies reflect textual transmission layers, thus avoiding forced uniformity or divergence.

Venue: SWT 702, Level 7, Shaw Tower, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University

Language: Putonghua

Registration: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/7PRj0q0iXr

Speaker Bio:

Professor Dong Shan graduated from the Jilin University School of Law (1990–1992), earned his Master’s degree in History (specializing in palaeography) from Jilin University Institute of Ancient Books (1994–1997), and received his PhD in Chinese Literature (specializing in ancient bibliography) from Peking University Department of Chinese Language and Literature (1999–2002). He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology (2002–2004). Currently, he is a Professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University.

He served as a faculty member at Peking University’s School of Archaeology and Museology (2004–2022; promoted to Professor in 2016) and was a visiting professor at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Sep 2006 – Jun 2007).

His main research fields are ancient Chinese philology and excavated texts, as well as bronze artifacts, and the history and archaeology of the Pre-Qin and Han dynasties. His research scope includes Oracle Bone Script and Bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou periods, inscriptions on Eastern Zhou to Qin-Han artefacts, excavated bamboo and silk texts from the Pre-Qin and Han periods, and transmitted classical texts.

————————————————————————————————————

HKBU students: For CCL attendance, please register your student ID onsite, and complete Co‐curricular Learning Evaluation Form online.

Note: A CCL-recognised event must be at least 1 hour long. Please observe the requirements if students wish to update the attendance record.