Pre-Qin
Tuesday
2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Room 5
- ·Chaired by Geir Sigurðsson
- Javier Carames Sanchez, “Are qing 情 the Same Thing as Pathos (πάθος) in the Pre-Qin Period?”
- Geir Sigurðsson, “Aging in Classical Chinese Philosophy”
- Ai Yuan, “Functions of and Attitudes toward Silence in the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋”
Javier Caramés Sánchez, “Are qing 情 the Same Thing as Pathos (πάθος) in the Pre-Qin Period?”
There is a discussion about the meaning of qing 情. Some scholars as Angus Graham and Chad Hansen argue that qing did not refer to emotions in the Pre-Qin period. Others as Michael Puett said it alludes to emotions. This dissertation will focus on the Xingzimingchu 性自命出 and it will discuss that qing and dao 道 are two characters with a complementary meaning that are very similar to the one that the terms logos (λόγος) and pathos (πάθος) have in the Rhetoric of Aristotle.
The methodology I will use is to analyse the metaphors behind the terms qing and dao. I will argue that the meaning of qing in the Xingzimingchu is a metaphor that identifies what is hidden inside the individual with the state secrets. I will also argue that behind dao there is a metaphor that identifies a path with the correct way through which human behaviour must move. Since qing is an inner entity that needs external guidance, I consider it a term similar to the pathos. In the same way as dao, logos is an external object that can be used to guide human behaviour.
Geir Sigurðsson, “Aging in Classical Chinese Philosophy”
In the history of Western philosophy, scarce attention has been given to the notion of ageing. Certainly, death has always been a popular topic, both as a mystical/religious and more recently an existential issue, but, with some notable exceptions, the chronological process leading to natural death has been for the most part neglected. However, in classical Chinese philosophical writings, ageing has always featured rather prominently as a natural aspect of life to be pondered and discussed no less than others. In this lecture, I want to outline mainly two seminal approaches to ageing by classical Chinese philosophers, which rather neatly portrays the main focal distinction between the Confucian and the Daoist schools. I will argue, first, that the underlying importance of temporality in Chinese philosophy necessarily brings about a keen awareness of ageing as a part of life, and, secondly, that the scope and different foci of the Confucian/Daoist views offer together an alluring alternative to the current notion of ‘successful ageing.’
Ai Yuan, “Functions of and Attitudes toward Silence in the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋”
This paper looks beyond the dichotomy of silence (mo 默) and speech (yan 言), and discusses the functions of and attitudes toward silence in the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 as a representative case for the idea of silence in early China. In the West, silence has been widely explored in fields such as religion and theology, linguistic studies, and communication and literary studies, where the consensus has moved away from viewing silence as abstaining from speech and utterance—and therefore absent of meaning and intention, toward seeing it as a culturally dependent and significant aspect of communication. However, beyond a number of studies discussing unspoken teachings in relation to early Daoism and Buddhism, silence has received little attention in early China studies. This paper approaches the functions of silence by pursuing questions regarding its rhetorical, emotive, political, and ethical aspects. Through a survey of dialogues, stories and arguments in Yanzi chunqiu, I show that silence is explicitly marked and explained within the text and used actively, purposefully, and meaningfully, to persuade, inform, and motivate audiences. In other words, silence is anything but natural and spontaneous. Rather, it is intentionally adopted, carefully crafted, and publicly performed to communicate, remonstrate, criticise, reveal, and target certain ideas. That is to say, silence is as argumentative as speech and it is as arbitrary as language.
Event Timeslots (1)
Room 5
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Pre-Qin