On Zoom: For registration (required), please use this Zoom link. Abstract: At the beginning of his book Origins of the Modern Chinese State, Kuhn asks, “What is Chinese about China’s modern state?” The answer, Kuhn explains, is not to be found by supposing that there are some distinctive cultural qualities that will ensure that “China […]

June 10, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link. The lecture will be held in Chinese. 近代中國保守思想家中至少可以區分成兩類，第一類是本能地反對任何改變現狀的思想，第二類是回到一個重要的思想基盤（如宋明理學、大乘佛學）上戰鬥。在這次演講中，我想討論第二類思想家，以宋育仁（1859-1931）、熊十力（1885-1968）、唐文治（1865-1954）、劉咸炘（1896-1932）、錢穆（1895-1990）等人為例，討論一個思想史上的問題：當晚清以來的新派一直在變的時候，反對或批評他們的人，其實也一直在變換他們的言論，同時也變換他們對傳統的解釋，以便對應挑戰。 此外，我在比較仔細地審視他們的思路之後，認為他們不只是「回到本來」的樣子，而是有一個微妙的新創過程。譬如他們有時候會用「提高一格法」，把儒家思想，尤其是宋明理學，作一種新的調整、詮釋。借用卡夫卡的話：「當你凝視深淵時，深淵也在凝視你」。 This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China. Organizers: Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University […]

June 17, 2022, 10:100 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link. Late Qing and early Republican China has been regarded as a “secularized” age that ended “the era of classical learning” and opened the door to an empirical, scientific search for knowledge. With the progress of secularization, […]

Location: KWZ 0.609 Abstract: The talk traces the genealogy of modern European modes of knowledge under the rubrics of ‘liberal arts’, as the origin and basis for modern China’s institutions and modes of knowledge, and then examines China’s ‘liberal arts’ as institution and modes of knowledge from the early years of the twentieth century to […]

June 24, 2022, 10:00 AM On Campus: KWZ 0.607 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen) On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link. This talk will address the problem of literary and historical narrative in China’s twentieth century. Revolutionary time is a particular kind of time, requiring different kinds of narrative. In an […]