Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium: Andrew Schonebaum
Friday, March 8, 2024 3:30pm to 5:30pm
About this Event
Central Campus
Animating Forces by Andrew Schonebaum.
The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium (CCCC) 古文品讀 is a reading group for scholars interested in premodern Sinographic text (古文). We are pleased to welcome Andrew Schonebaum, East Asian Studies, Maryland University to lead this month's text-reading.
Liaozhai zhiyi, like other anomalous account collections, is a curious text. It not only records curiosities of the natural world – enormous bugs, tiny animals, and suchlike, it is curious about particular topics, investigating (in brief, but repeatedly), things that seem inexplicable – that dragons could die, or that foxes could evade the punishment of thunder. Liaozhai examines the stuff of life - the animating force, souls, human forms, and zombies (jiangshi 僵屍 / 殭屍). It asks, what is the difference between a body that is alive and one that is dead? What transformation takes place in the moment of death? Life itself – what animates a body is the ultimate object of inquiry into the unseen, and one that still fascinates. We are of course, always gathering first-hand information about our bodies, and yet, as a natural object what makes it go, is elusive. We will read “Woman from Changzhi” 長治女子 about a Daoist who steals the life anima of a woman to bring alive a wooden doll. We will also consider other records that detail the legal and moral menace of "plucking life" (caisheng 採生).
The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.
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At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.
- No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.
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