Author:
Yunwoo Song
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Date of Award:
2018
Abstract:
The question I address in my dissertation relates to the conundrum of the prediction of fate in early China. How did the early Chinese people predict the future, and to what degree did they believe that the predicted future is inevitable? I examine the history of divination from the Shang to the Han dynasties to show that the belief in the power of anthropomorphic spirits weakened, and the universe was gradually conceived of as working in regular cycles. The decreasing reliance on the power of spirits during the Shang period is reflected in changes in bone divination. And divination texts from the Warring States period come to describe the movements of spirits as being completely regulated by cosmic cycles. This changed conception of the universe contributed to the formation of the idea of a predetermined fate. My analysis of various philosophical literature of the Warring States period shows how the meaning of the term ming 命 changed from unpredictable events caused by superior powers to a predictable yet unalterable course of life. As a consequence of this changed meaning, Han dynasty scholars needed to address the problem of personal freedom. I show that while philosophers like Wang Chong argued for what is probably the most extreme case of fatalism in early China, many other thinkers of the time chose to believe that while there is a predetermined course of life for everyone, the course is always subject to change depending on circumstances.
The conclusion I draw from these analyses is that the idea of a completely predetermined fate did not gain wide acceptance in early China because strong fatalism conflicted with popular divination practices. Even though many acknowledged that people are born with a predetermined fate, they opted to believe that their fates could still change. Thus, various divination techniques available at the time could help them evade predicted misfortune.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Diminishing Power of Spirits in Divination – From Oracle Bone to Yarrow
Prognostications Based on Cycles
The Emergence of the Notion of Predetermined Fate
Fate and Freedom in Han Thought
Conclusion
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Early Medieval China Volume 24 (2018)
Table of Contents:
ARTICLES
Robert Joe Cutter: Gastropoetics in the Jian’an Period: Food and Memory in Early Medieval China
Robert Ford Campany: Miracle Tales as Scripture Reception: A Case Study Involving The Lotus Sutra in China, 370–750 CE
Zornica Kirkova: Sacred Mountains, Abandoned Women and Upright Officials – Facets of the Incense Burner in Early Chinese Poetry
Ignacio Villagran: “Sturdy Boulders That Protect the Realm”: Early Medieval Chinese Thinkers On Decentralized Governance.
Wicky W.K. Tse: Fabricating Legitimacy in a Peripheral Regime: Regionalism and Loyalism in the Northwestern Borderlands under the Rule of the Zhang Dynasty (301-376)
*Link:
https://www.earlymedievalchinagroup.org/journal/latest-articles/
Monday, October 22, 2018
Geopolitics in Late Antiquity: The Fate of Superpowers from China to Rome
Author:
Hyun Jin Kim
Publisher:
Routledge
Publication date:
October, 2018
Abstract:
Geopolitics in Late Antiquity explores the geopolitical revolution which shook the foundations of the ancient world, the dawning of the millennium of Inner Asian dominance and virtual monopoly of world power (with interludes) that began with the rise of the Huns and then continued under the hegemony of various other steppe peoples. Kim examines first the geopolitical situation created by the rise of Inner Asian powers, and then the reactions of the great empires of Eurasia to this geopolitical challenge.
A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of the geostrategies (some successful, others misguided) adopted by China, Rome and Persia to cope with the growing Inner Asian threat. The conclusions and insights drawn from this analysis are then used to inform modern geopolitics, mainly the contest for hegemonic power between the United States and China.
Geopolitics in Late Antiquity is a crucial resource for both academic and learned general readership, who have an interest in the fate of antiquity’s superpowers and also for those engaged in current international relations policy-making, who wish to learn from historical precedents.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
1.1 The great geopolitical dilemma, theoretical approaches
1.2 Territorial disputes and retrenchment, the re-emergence of policymaking
1.3 Summary
2 The Geopolitical Situation: The Superpowers and the Huns
2.1 Han China and the Huns
2.2. Rome and the Huns
2.3 Sassanian Persia and the Huns
3 The Superpower Reaction
3.1 China strikes back
3.2 Rome falters
3.3 Persian Collapse
4 Conclusion: The Geostrategic Choices for the Future
China as the geopolitical equivalent of the great Turco-Mongol Empires of Eurasia
The geostrategic options for the US
Select Bibliography
Hyun Jin Kim
Publisher:
Routledge
Publication date:
October, 2018
Abstract:
Geopolitics in Late Antiquity explores the geopolitical revolution which shook the foundations of the ancient world, the dawning of the millennium of Inner Asian dominance and virtual monopoly of world power (with interludes) that began with the rise of the Huns and then continued under the hegemony of various other steppe peoples. Kim examines first the geopolitical situation created by the rise of Inner Asian powers, and then the reactions of the great empires of Eurasia to this geopolitical challenge.
A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of the geostrategies (some successful, others misguided) adopted by China, Rome and Persia to cope with the growing Inner Asian threat. The conclusions and insights drawn from this analysis are then used to inform modern geopolitics, mainly the contest for hegemonic power between the United States and China.
Geopolitics in Late Antiquity is a crucial resource for both academic and learned general readership, who have an interest in the fate of antiquity’s superpowers and also for those engaged in current international relations policy-making, who wish to learn from historical precedents.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
1.1 The great geopolitical dilemma, theoretical approaches
1.2 Territorial disputes and retrenchment, the re-emergence of policymaking
1.3 Summary
2 The Geopolitical Situation: The Superpowers and the Huns
2.1 Han China and the Huns
2.2. Rome and the Huns
2.3 Sassanian Persia and the Huns
3 The Superpower Reaction
3.1 China strikes back
3.2 Rome falters
3.3 Persian Collapse
4 Conclusion: The Geostrategic Choices for the Future
China as the geopolitical equivalent of the great Turco-Mongol Empires of Eurasia
The geostrategic options for the US
Select Bibliography
Friday, October 19, 2018
The Philosophical Thought of Wang Chong
Author:
McLeod, Alexus
Publication date:
September 2018
Publisher:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
This book is a study of the methodological, metaphysical, and epistemological work of the Eastern Han Dynasty period scholar Wang Chong. It presents Wang’s philosophical thought as a unique and syncretic culmination of a number of ideas developed in earlier Han and Warring States philosophy. Wang’s philosophical methodology and his theories of truth, knowledge, and will and determinism offer solutions to a number of problems in the early Chinese tradition. His views also have much to offer contemporary philosophy, suggesting new ways of thinking about familiar problems. While Wang is best known as a critic and skeptic, Alexus McLeod argues that these aspects of his thought form only a part of a larger positive project, aimed at discerning truth in a variety of senses.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Wang Chong and Philosophy in Early China
Background, Writings, and Influence
Philosophical and Critical Method
Truth: Properties and Pluralism
Naturalism:
Free Will, Allotment, and Inborn Characteristics
Conclusion: The Significance of Wang Chong’s Philosophical Thought
McLeod, Alexus
Publication date:
September 2018
Publisher:
Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
This book is a study of the methodological, metaphysical, and epistemological work of the Eastern Han Dynasty period scholar Wang Chong. It presents Wang’s philosophical thought as a unique and syncretic culmination of a number of ideas developed in earlier Han and Warring States philosophy. Wang’s philosophical methodology and his theories of truth, knowledge, and will and determinism offer solutions to a number of problems in the early Chinese tradition. His views also have much to offer contemporary philosophy, suggesting new ways of thinking about familiar problems. While Wang is best known as a critic and skeptic, Alexus McLeod argues that these aspects of his thought form only a part of a larger positive project, aimed at discerning truth in a variety of senses.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Wang Chong and Philosophy in Early China
Background, Writings, and Influence
Philosophical and Critical Method
Truth: Properties and Pluralism
Naturalism:
Free Will, Allotment, and Inborn Characteristics
Conclusion: The Significance of Wang Chong’s Philosophical Thought
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
[Dissertation] Cultural Encounters: Ethnic Complexity and Material Expression in Fifth-Century Pingcheng, China
Author:
ZHANG, Fan 張帆
School:
New York University
Defended:
2018
Abstract:
My dissertation focuses on art and material culture produced in the city of Pingcheng, the capital of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE) during the fifth century. A city of immigrants from diverse social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, Pingcheng was an unusually fertile land for vigorous cultural exchanges. Through investigation into material remains, from both funerary and religious contexts, and textual sources, both transmitted and excavated, my research delineate multiple ethnicity, artistic innovation, and cross-cultural interactions of Pingcheng. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines art history, archaeology, and history to examine how individuals articulate their identities in a multiethnic society via various visual and material forms. Built on top of a set comprehensive archaeological data, this project highlights three tombs for in-depth case studies, including funerary portraits that display identities of the deceased, innovative burial furniture that crosses ethnic boundaries and showcases Pingcheng’s syncretism, and exotic silverwares that exemplify the intensive cultural exchange between East and Central Asia.
My dissertation challenges the Sino-centric perspective and Han/non-Han binary division. By investigating artistic productions associated with individuals, I explore the mediating role art plays in the social network and the process of identity articulation. My research situates Northern Wei art in a trans-cultural context of Eurasia by tracking movements of objects and migration of people. My emphasis on material culture also expands the scope of art historical study by including less-studied genres and experimenting with a trans-medium approach to conceptualize funerary art.
ZHANG, Fan 張帆
School:
New York University
Defended:
2018
Abstract:
My dissertation focuses on art and material culture produced in the city of Pingcheng, the capital of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE) during the fifth century. A city of immigrants from diverse social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, Pingcheng was an unusually fertile land for vigorous cultural exchanges. Through investigation into material remains, from both funerary and religious contexts, and textual sources, both transmitted and excavated, my research delineate multiple ethnicity, artistic innovation, and cross-cultural interactions of Pingcheng. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines art history, archaeology, and history to examine how individuals articulate their identities in a multiethnic society via various visual and material forms. Built on top of a set comprehensive archaeological data, this project highlights three tombs for in-depth case studies, including funerary portraits that display identities of the deceased, innovative burial furniture that crosses ethnic boundaries and showcases Pingcheng’s syncretism, and exotic silverwares that exemplify the intensive cultural exchange between East and Central Asia.
My dissertation challenges the Sino-centric perspective and Han/non-Han binary division. By investigating artistic productions associated with individuals, I explore the mediating role art plays in the social network and the process of identity articulation. My research situates Northern Wei art in a trans-cultural context of Eurasia by tracking movements of objects and migration of people. My emphasis on material culture also expands the scope of art historical study by including less-studied genres and experimenting with a trans-medium approach to conceptualize funerary art.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Paradigm Shifts in Early and Modern Chinese Religion: A History
Author:
John Lagerwey
Publisher:
Brill
Publication date:
October 2018
Abstract:
From the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Preliminaries
Intellectual Change in the Warring States and Han (481 BC–220 AD)
Religious Transformation in the Period of Division (220–589 AD)
Religion and Thought in the Song, Jin, and Yuan (960–1368)
Structuring Values 1850–2015
By Way of Conclusion
John Lagerwey
Publisher:
Brill
Publication date:
October 2018
Abstract:
From the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Preliminaries
Intellectual Change in the Warring States and Han (481 BC–220 AD)
Religious Transformation in the Period of Division (220–589 AD)
Religion and Thought in the Song, Jin, and Yuan (960–1368)
Structuring Values 1850–2015
By Way of Conclusion
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