In the history of Chinese thought the Sunzi Bingfa plays many different roles. It has influenced ways of thinking about politics and warfare, but also efficacy in many arenas, and even environmental issues. The Sunzi Bingfa is also written in a way that provides a great introduction to reading classical Chinese, making it a useful text for students to read for many different reasons. In this course we will do a close reading of the Sunzi Bingfa.

Led by: Dimitra Amarantidou, University of Macau, and Paul J. D’Ambrosio, East China Normal University

This course meets from 6:00-8:30pm Beijing time, March 5, 12, 19, 26, April 2, 30, May 7, 14, 21. (Skype link: https://join.skype.com/IvuqyZhnUKjC)

In this seminar we will read major works of the concrete humanist strand of Confucian tradition, with a focus on the post-Ming development of that tradition. The main figures we look at are Dai Zhen, Liang Shuming, Xu Fuguan, and Li Zehou. Each of these, in their own way, argues against interpretations of Confucian ethics that posit a transcendent, metaphysical, or otherwise non-empirical basis for right and wrong. Each also offers a unique set of arguments for an alternative vision of Confucian ethics that understands right and wrong as constituted and shaped by the situated, lived and felt relations among particular humans in society. For each thinker we will seek to compassionately interpret their views and then to evaluate them. Throughout we will maintain a consistent eye to questions such as: Does morality need a metaphysical foundation? How can we reliably make judgements about right and wrong? What are the roles of culture and emotion in ethics?

Led by: Robert A. Carleo III, East China Normal University
This course meets from 8:45-10:15 am, March 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27. (Skype link: https://join.skype.com/eQNeQX0omuAV)

This seminar provides a critical look at the category of Legalism and some of its representative thinkers. Session 1 provides an Overview of classical descriptions of Legalism (fa jia 法家) and critically appraises the traditional placement of thinkers in the category. Session 2 is an examination of the ethical considerations implicit in the Hanfeizi 韩非子, such as concern for the well-being of the people and social harmony. Session 3 is a close reading and discussion of “Da ti 大體,” Chapter 29 of the Hanfeizi, which describes the rule of the ancients, the principles that guided them, and a Legalist utopia. Session 4 uses the work of Maurice Blanchot’s Unavowable Community as a comparison to shows how the “Baixin 白心” chapter of the Guanzi 管子is paradoxically critical of politics while offering a positive political project. Session 5 shows how the Shenzi 慎子treats administrative methods (fa 法) as a means to establish “publicness” (gong 公) and eradicate “private” (si 私) interests. The sixth and final session is a Q&A and Open Discussion.

Led by: Rory O’Neill (East China Normal University); Bobby McCullough (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Ruel Mannette (University of Hawai’i at Manoa); Krischan Reese (East China Normal University)

Times: Tuesday and Thursdays, 15:00 (Beijing time), April, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25. (Skype link: https://join.skype.com/vcLaru0hjRuM)

We would not easily turn to Confucianism and its leading figure Kongzi (or Confucius) for a defense of feminist positions. Viewed by many as the codifier of male superiority and injustice against women, Confucianism has taken the brunt of much of feminist critique, and Kongzi’s rare references to women have been read as outright negative or at best neutral. In recent years though, scholars have questioned the idea that Kongzi’s moral project is inherently sexist, offering refreshing perspectives on his teachings and shedding new light on the image of the Master himself. In this seminar we will closely read passages from the Lunyu 论语 (or Analects of Confucius) and traditional commentaries that are open to such readings. We aim to explore the possibility of taking the “feminist” Kongzi seriously.

Led by: Dimitra Amarantidou, Shanghai Normal University (Finished)

The Huainanzi’s writers not only present a fascinating reconstruction of their received intellectual heritage—comparing different schools of thought to specialists in need of jobs from generalists—they also concretize the political ideas of the Laozi and Zhuangzi traditions, yielding a plain and systematic Daoist approach to social and governmental problems. In this seminar we’ll read and discuss as much as we can of the Huainanzi’s opening chapter, which uses close analysis and visionary poetry to help us understand what “the infinite source of things” could possibly mean. Dao, as these writers tend to call it, admits less of description and conceptualization than of demonstration in the flexible, intuitive responses of the people we admire.

Led by: Stephen Walker, University of Chicago (Finished)

The aim of this seminar is to guide participants in reading classical Chinese, with a focus on the Warring States period Legalist text, the Hanfeizi 韩非子. The lucid prose of the Hanfeizi makes it a relatively approachable early Chinese text. This seminar aims to bring participants from the daunting experience of facing blocks of classical Chinese to the satisfaction of grasping entire passages and chapters. In contrast to focusing on accurate translations of individual sentences (also important), this seminar looks at patterns that occur at a macro level, which in turn help to inform understanding of small chunks. Such patterns include parallel sentences, repeated or related terms, patterns in punctuation inserted by editors, etc. An interactive, cooperative mode of learning and teaching is employed, so all levels of Chinese ability are welcome from total beginner to native speaker!

Led by: Rory O’Neill, East China Normal University (Finished)

This seminar is a collaborative effort to read the classical Chinese text the Xunzi 荀子. Ideas found in the Xunzi bear relevance to a wide range of early Chinese philosophy. It is a key text in the transmission of the Confucian tradition, and expands on the philosophical and political significance of notions like “ritual propriety” (li 礼). Its advocacy of “stillness” (jing 静) and “emptiness” (xu 虚) point also towards a Daoist influence. And the historical Xunzi was thought to be a teacher of the Legalist thinker Han Fei 韩非. The focus of this seminar is on reading passages of the classical Chinese together. All language levels are welcome. Even if some participants are playing more the role of teacher, and others more the role of learner, we aim to give equal attention to how each participant interprets the text. The ensuing enriching discussions of philosophical ideas in the text are well earned by working through the nuts and bolts of the classical Chinese together.

Led by: Rory O’Neill, East China Normal University (Finished)

One of the ideas central to Han Dynasty cosmological discussions was the belief that human actions could move the heavens themselves. The actions of a well-cultivated monarch could bring about cosmic harmony and auspicious signs, while immoral governance could lead to disaster both in the social and natural worlds. This belief in the resonance between humans and heaven (天人感應) was central to cosmological and political explorations of Han Dynasty thinkers.
How did thinkers argue for the existence of such a worldview? This seminar will focus on kinds of arguments used as evidence for or against the philosophical belief that humans were able to influence the heavens through their actions. The discussion will focus on particular passages, hoping to lead readers to reflect on how we understand the arguments of Han thinkers. What descriptions, analogies, and arguments did thinkers from these periods use, and how did such arguments relate to other philosophical problems of the time? What did they wish to prove through their arguments? How do these problems intersect with modern literature on early Chinese cosmology? How can placing specific arguments in a particular historical and intellectual milieu aid us in gaining new perspectives on how we approach early Chinese philosophy?
The seminar will draw from several texts, including Lu Jia’s XInyu 新語 the Chunqiu Fanlu 春秋繁露 and Wang Chong’s Lunheng 論衡. In addition, the seminar will attempt to draw attention to and discuss lesser-read passages from these texts while trying to understand better how the arguments of different figures fit into a larger philosophical milieu.

Led by: Jordan Davis, East China Normal University (Finished)

Kongzi 孔子is a complex figure, inviting competing readings since antiquity. We can distinguish between the dominant figure of the Master as the immaculate sage and the unsuccessful, limited, and dubious Kongzi. In this seminar, we focus on the latter Kongzi. We will look at passages from the Lunyu 论语 and commentaries where the Master is viewed as incapable of living up to his own teachings. In other words, instances where he is “bad.” There are at least four areas where Kongzi’s conduct is seemingly incorrect or bad: lying and pretense, sarcasm, lack of restraint, and self-importance. We will take these behaviors in the broader context of Confucian morality, which is highly context-sensitive, tolerant of contradiction, appreciative of complexity and spontaneity, and on the whole unconcerned with the attainment of absolute moral perfection. In this way we can see Kongzi’s misbehaviors not as deviations from an otherwise immaculate behavior, but as expressions of moral behavior in and of themselves. The bad Kongzi is not the negative counterpart of the utmost sage of the Confucian tradition—being “bad” is part of the Confucian path.

Led by: Dimitra Amarantidou, University of Macau (Finished)

Wei-Jin Xuanxue or “Neo-Daoism” is one of the most exciting and somehow also most understudied periods of Chinese philosophical thought. The philosophy of Guo Xiang in particular helps us to understand how some of the earliest thinkers understood major themes in the pre-Qin period—but it does much more than that. Not simply a mere “commentator” (or a “commentator” of a specific type) Guo Xiang’s work on the Zhuangzi does at times elaborate on the text, but also on Guo Xiang’s own philosophical theory. In this seminar we will read Richard John Lynn’s recently published translation of Guo Xiang’s commentary, highlighting the Xuanxue thinker’s unique philosophical insights. We will pay special attention to the follow concepts: natural determinacies (性), allotment (分), lone-transformation (獨 化), and traces (跡).

Led by: Paul D’Ambrosio, East China Normal University (Finished)

Applied Confucian theorizing—the application of Confucian philosophy to social and ethical questions underlying institutions, policies, and codes of practice—has flourished in recent decades. As this has occurred across distinct contexts in addressing disparate sets of societal concerns, the interpretations of Confucianism deployed have accordingly proven quite diverse. This seminar investigates how these various Confucian outlooks and frameworks can be fruitfully applied to more universal issues emerging from technological developments today.
The three weeks will cover three topics. First, we review the state of Confucian discourse today, how it got here, and where is may be heading—that is, Confucianism past, present and future. At the heart of this survey we find diverse conceptions of the relations between individual and community, that is, between the person and its persons. This survey of contemporary Confucianisms will serve as the framework for the following two weeks, when we consider diverse potential Confucian views on the ethics of specific emergent technologies. We will focus on two sets of questions: what it means to be human (new human possibilities in the medical and life sciences) and what human meaning is (non-human possibilities in culture and knowledge creation).

Led by: Robert A. Carleo III, East China Normal University (Finished)