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Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology Hosts Distinguished Scholar in Residence Professor Dong Shan 2026/10
The Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology at Hong Kong Baptist University invited Professor Dong Shan of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University to visit the University as a Distinguished Scholar in October. Professor Dong’s research focuses on Chinese paleography and excavated texts, and also covers bronze artifacts and the history and archaeology of the Pre-Qin, Qin and Han dynasties, with outstanding achievements in these fields.
Following his participation in the “Young Scholars Forum in Honour of Jao Tsung-I” in 2014, Professor Dong returned to the Academy to deliver two special lectures to local academics and to HKBU faculty and students. Drawing on newly discovered excavated texts, the lectures integrated multiple research perspectives, including paleographic interpretation, textual structure, historical archaeology and sacrificial traditions, to offer new interpretations of Pre-Qin and Han texts.
A New Arrangement and Interpretation of Ai Song and the Worship of Emperor Shun in the Xiang-Chu Region
2026/10/21
Taking “context” as his starting point, Professor Dong noted that the meaning of a text must be understood within multiple contexts, including language and writing, textual structure, archaeological background and historical background. On this basis, he offered a paragraph-by-paragraph and sentence-by-sentence interpretation of the Ai Song in the Anhui University bamboo slips, and, combining historical legends with local Xiang-Chu history, discussed the nature of the worship of Emperor Shun as well as the creative intent and background of Ai Song.
Professor Dong divided Ai Song into three parts, “Prelude,” “Ai Song” and “Epilogue,” and clarified its narrative sequence and sacrificial process. He pointed out that music and musical instruments run throughout the text, integrating sacrificial rituals, the southern hunting legend of Emperor Shun and his two consorts, and the emotion of separation into a unified whole.
Professor Dong then combined ancient historical legends, local Xiang-Chu history and related transmitted texts to show that the worship of Emperor Shun in the Xiang-Chu region during the Warring States period possessed distinct local characteristics. The imagery of sacrifice and “separation” in Ai Song not only reflects the sacrificial culture of the Xiang-Chu region but also embodies reflections on regional division and central-local relations. The lecture further analysed the vehicle and tenor in Ai Song, as well as its stylistic relationship with Chu Ci pieces such as Xiang Jun and Xiang Furen. In addition, Professor Dong drew on excavated materials such as the Topographic Map from Mawangdui Tomb No. 3 to examine the development of the cult of Emperor Shun across different historical periods and its geographical background.
Reexamining the “Feng Yu Poem” Based on Newly Discovered Han Dynasty Wooden Slips
2026/10/23
From a linguistic perspective, Professor Dong employed philological methods to analyse the semantics, poetic purport and textual transmission issues of the “Feng Yu Poem” found on Han dynasty wooden slips. He pointed out that poetry is a highly structured literary form, and that analysing its language and structure can help uncover the poem’s original meaning.
The lecture first introduced the differences between the two versions of the “Feng Yu Poem” recorded on the Dunhuang Han slips and newly discovered Han dynasty wooden slips , in terms of the physical features of the manuscripts, writing conditions and other aspects, and then examined the variants in glyph forms, character usage, lexical meanings, syntax and rhyme across the two versions. Through glyph comparison, Professor Dong examined the misidentification of graphically similar characters in the Han slips, such as xi 徙and cong 從, and analysed the lexical meanings of variants such as potuo 被佗 (陂陀) and pangtuo 彭沱 (滂沱), and examined the rhyme scheme of the entire poem. Professor Dong argued that the poem’s description of the hardships of encountering wind and rain while climbing Mount Meng is in fact a metaphor for the emperor’s fengshan sacrifices at Mount Tai, containing an exhortation to “be cautious in climbing mountains” and even “not to climb mountains.” He pointed out that fengshan activities carried different meanings for different social strata. The poem may have come from the hand of a poet who accompanied the emperor on his travels and suffered greatly from wind and rain, using the scene of wind and rain at Mount Meng to subtly express dissatisfaction with fengshan activities, reflecting the attitudes of the lower and middle strata of Qin-Han society toward fengshan.
Finally, Professor Dong discussed the relationships among different manuscript copies from the perspective of text formation and transmission. He pointed out that the original creator of a literary work is unique, but the subsequent copyists, revisers, supplementers and re-creators are not. With regard to differences among different manuscript copies, there is no need to deliberately seek uniformity or establish divergence; rather, one should use philological analysis to identify traces of copying, revision and supplementation, and thereby explore the processes of text formation and transmission.
Both lectures were warmly received by scholars, faculty and students, and enthusiasts of ancient culture. Attendees took the opportunity to engage in in-depth exchanges with Professor Dong on topics such as the study of excavated texts, the interpretation of ancient texts, and the history of the Pre-Qin and Han dynasties.
