Speaker: Michael Nylan
Time: 5 pm CET, 21 and 30 November
Having studied history and East Asian studies in Berkeley, Buffalo and Princeton, Professor Michael Nylan has held a chair at the University of California Berkeley since 2001. Over the years, she has conducted research pertaining to the history, philosophy, art and archaeology of China. She is one of the most renowned experts on the early Chinese empires worldwide, having prolifically published both foundational work such as her The Five ‘Confucian’ Classics (2001) as well as translations such as Exemplary Figures. A Complete Translation of Yang Xiong’s Fayan (2013), all the way to targeted studies such as “Chang’an 26 BCE: An Augustan Age in China?” (2015). Professor Nylan is currently working on the complete translation of the Shangshu 尚書 classic.
Lecture 1. Sinological Methods: first principles for historians, philosophers, and political scientists
This lecture addresses the basics needed for conducting research, including how to frame the topic to the time and length you’ve been given; what to avoid when using earlier secondary sources (especially earlier translations); how to establish the meaning of basic vocabulary and concept clusters; and how to use databases wisely. It will also consider the provocative claim recently advanced by a well-known art critic: that the twentieth-century, despite technological advances, may be the least creative century of all in human history, possibly because we moderns strive too hard to be new. This prompts the questions, Is newness a worthy or helpful aim in scholarship? And how are we to judge?
Suggested readings:
- Anderson Greg. The Realness of Things Past: Ancient Greece and Ontological History. New York NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- Bynum, Caroline W. “Avoiding the Tyranny of Morphology; or, Why Compare?” History of Religions 53, no. 4: 341–68, 2014.
- Fischer David Hackett. Historians’ Fallacies; Toward a Logic of Historical Thought [1St ed.] ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
- Jason Farago. “Why Culture Has Come to a Standstill”. New York Times (October 15, 2023). Link
- Tan Sor-hoon. The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy Methodologies. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
- Williams Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
- Pee, Christian de. “Cycles of Cathay: Sinology, Philology, and Histories of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) in the United States”. Fragments, 2012.
- Dawson Raymond. The Chinese Chameleon: An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civilization. London: Oxford U.P, 1967.
- Lincoln Bruce. Apples and Oranges: Explorations in on and with Comparison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.
- Lipscomb Benjamin J. Bruxvoort. The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe Philippa Foot Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics. New York NY: Oxford University Press, 2021.
- Li Zehou 李泽厚. Lunyu jindu 論語今讀 [Reading the Analects Today]. Hefei Shi: Anhui wen yi chu ban she, 1998.
- Pelikan Jaroslav. Jesus through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New Haven Conn: Yale University Press, 1985.
Lecture 2. Sinological Methods: examples and experiences
In my experience, good researchers continually confront a range of problems whenever they seek to make sense of their materials, problems such as (1) which commentary or set of commentaries should be consulted? (2) how can one responsibly correlate artifactual evidence with textual evidence? (3) what sorts of inquiries made outside a text will most likely improve understanding of it, rather than deepening our own confusion? (4) how can we be sure, at this remove, which texts relate to one another, and why is it so hard to establish the relations among them? (5) How to balance keeping an overview with providing detailed evidence? And (6) what type of comparisons tend to foster deeper insights? Using examples from my own work (examples where I may not have always exercised the best judgment), the lecture will take up select passages drawn from difficult texts (e.g., the Fayan, the Documents classic, the Xunzi, and technical treatises) to illustrate some of my own tactics when approaching a new problem, while happily conceding that sometimes the very hardest texts to parse employ the very simplest grammar and vocabulary.
Suggested readings:
- Ames, Roger T. & David L. Hall. Focusing the Familiar. A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, 2001.
- Plaks, Andrew. Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung: The Highest Order of Cultivation and On the Practice of the Mean. London: Penguin, 2003.
- L’Haridon, Beatrice. Yang Xiong. Maîtres Mots. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2010.
- Nylan, Michael. Exemplary Figures. Fa Yan. Seattle: University of Washington, 2013.
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History. A Manual. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1998.
- Loewe, Michael. Early Chinese Texts. A Bibliographical Guide. Cambridge: Society for the Study of Early China, 1993.
- Teng Ssu-yü & Knight Biggerstaff. An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese Reference Works. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1971.
- Loewe, Michael. A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han, & Xin Periods. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
- Crespigny, Rafe de. A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD). Leiden: Brill, 2007.
- Balasz, Etienne & Yves Hervouet. A Sung Bibliography (Bibliographie des Sung). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1978.
- Franke, Herbert. Sung Biographies. Munich: Franz Steiner, 1976.
- Shu Xincheng 舒新城 & Shen Yi 沈颐 et al. Cihai 辭海. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1938.
- Morahashi Tetsuji 諸橋轍次 et al. Dai Kan-Wa Jiten 大漢和辞典. Tokyo: Taishukan, 1955–1960.
- Xu Zhongshu 徐中舒 et al. Zhongwen da cidian 中文大辭典. Beijing: Zhongguo wenhua yanjiu suo, 1962.
- Instituts Ricci: Le Grand Dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2001
- Liang Shiqiu 梁實秋. New Practical Chinese-English Dictionary. Taipei: Far East Book Company, 1971.
- Couvreur, S.J. Dictionnaire classique de la langue chinoise. Taipei: Kuangchi Press, 1966.
- Dobson, W.A.C.H. A Dictionary of the Chinese Particles: With a Prolegomenon in Which the Problems of the Particles Are Considered and They Are Classified by Their Grammatical Functions. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1974.
- Karlgren, Bernhard. Grammata Serica Recensa. Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri, 1964.
- Hucker, Charles O. A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. Stanford: Standfort University, 1985.
- Yan Lingfeng 嚴靈峯. Zhou Qin Han Wei zhuzi zhijian shumu 周秦漢魏諸子知見書目. Taipei: Cheng Chung Book Company, 1975.
- Ershiwu shi kanxing weiyuanhui 二十五史刊行委員會: Ershiwu shi bubian 二十五史補編. Shanghai: Kaiming, 1936.
- Zhang Qicheng 張其成 & Xiong Yiliang 熊益亮. Xian Qin Liang Han jianbo yifang yanjiu 先秦兩漢簡帛醫方研究. Guangzhou: Guangdong keji, 2021.
- Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Girouxux, 2011.