International Summer School “The Wei Jin Nanbei Period and the Importance of Transition” in Ljubljana

Ljubljana, Slovenia
2 – 9th Sep 2015
Deadline: 1st Jul 2015

Department of Asian and African Studies at the University of Ljubljana is delighted to
announce the International summer school entitled “The Wei Jin Nanbei Period and the
Importance of Transition”. The summer school is organized by the Department of Asian and African studies at the University of Ljubljana and sponsored by Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation in Taiwan.

Date: September 2 – 9, 2015

Venue: Hostel Stara Šola in Korte, located in a beautiful surrounding close to the Slovenian coast (External link…)

Registration deadline: July 1, 2015

Tuition fee: free of charge

Accommodation (full board with 3 meals per day): covered by Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
Travel expenses to Ljubljana: covered by students
Travel expenses from Ljubljana to Korte: covered by the hosts
Language: English

Further information and contact: natasavampelj@yahoo.com

University of Ljubljana in Slovenia welcomes all students of Chinese studies to participate in a one week long international summer school. Although Wei Jin Nanbei period (220 – 589 AD) is generally regarded as one of the most fascinating phases in Chinese history, the importance of this era has still been widely neglected by European Sinology. Hence, this week long summer school aims to raise new awareness about the unique cultural and theoretical achievements of this era to European students of Chinese studies. The central approach of the summer school will be rooted in the critical evaluation of problems, linked to the interaction of ideas, especially in the field of literature, art and philosophy. The school offers 24 lectures delivered by world famous scholars on the Wei Jin Nanbei period (see below), followed by intensive and stimulating discussions. International school program also includes one-day visit of the Chinese art collections in Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana and half day excursion trip to the coastal region (all expenses will be covered by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation). Registration information: Please provide us with a short motivation letter (including your full information) with the purpose of your participation. It may happen that the number of applicants will be higher than the capacity. All provided information will be helpful for us during the selection process.

Notification of approval: July 15, 2015

 

LECTURERS:

Paul J. D’Ambrosio (East China Normal University)

Paul J. D’Ambrosio is Assistant Professor of Chinese Philosophy and Comparative Philosophy in East China Normal University’s Masters Programs. He also teaches Wei-Jin Xuanxue at the English-language Masters Program at Fudan University, and Western Philosophy at Merrimack College in the USA. He received a PhD in Philosophy from the National University of Ireland at Cork in 2012. His research and teaching includes early Wei-Jin Xuanxue, especially Wang Bi and Guo Xiang. Later this year his book Lunli Shiyu Zhong de Shuohuang, Qipian yu Jiazhuang: yi Xianqin Zhexue wei Zhongxin (Lying, Deception and Hypocrisy in Early Chinese Ethics) will be published. He is also the author of over 20 articles published in English and Chinese, and has translated several books on contemporary Chinese philosophy into English.

His lectures will look at the pre-Qin concern over hypocrisy as the binding thread that Wei-Jin period thinkers use to weave together texts such as the Lunyu, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi. Beginning with selections from these texts, his classes will show how late Han dynasty thinkers shared even more pronounced concerns, criticizing the use of Confucianism as a decoration for a functionally Legalist system. Wang Bi, Ji Kang, Ruan Ji, and Guo Xiang will then be presented as  introducing their own respective solutions the problem of political and ethical hypocrisy through unique philosophical systems (i.e. they will not read as mere
commentators).

Prof. Albert E. Dien (Stanford University)

Albert E. Dien is Professor Emeritus at the Stanford University. He is a world renowned scholar and a specialist of Six dynasties history. He received many awards, including Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in Teaching (Stanford University, 2009) and Distinguished Alumnus Award (National Taiwan Normal University, 2010). He is the author of great number of articles, edited volumes and monographs. His publication also include Six Dynasties Civilization (Yale University Press, 2007), which was also translated into Chinese and published by Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe in 2013.

His lectures will include the following topics: overall review of the history of the Wei Jin Nanbei period, the Northern peoples and their legacy, Jiankang (Nanjing) – the bastion of tradition, the Silk Road and the Sogdian presence, and the emperor and his officialdom–how the state was constructed.

Lect. Annette Kieser (Münster University)
Annette Kieser is a Lecturer on Chinese Art and Archaeology at the Institute for Chinese Studies, Westfälische Wilhems Universität, Münster. She received her Ph.D. in 2000 from the Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München, Germany. She has been working as a research fellow at the Institute for East Asian Studies, Ludwig Maximilians Universität of München and at the China-Project of the Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz in cooperation with the Archaeological Institute of Shaanxi Province, PR China. Her main research focus is the Art and Archaeology of China, covering the period between Han and Tang dynasties mainly. She is the author of several monographs and various articles on the archaeology of this period.

Her lectures will give an overview on the art and archaeology of the South. In her lecture she will focus on the different natural conditions in the South (landscape, climate) that were crucial in shaping the material culture. Furthermore, she will explore the different ways of building eternal homes for the dead in the South.

Prof. David Knechtges (Washington University)

David R. Knechtges is Professor Emeritus of Chinese Literature at the University of Washington. He also has taught at Yale, the University of Wisconsin, and Harvard. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, and wOas award the Eighth Book of Award of China 第八屆中華圖書特殊貢獻獎 by the Chinese government in August 2015. Peking University granted him the Hanxue fanyi Daya jiang 漢學翻譯大雅獎 in November 2015. He is the author of over 100 articles and ten books including Two Studies of the Han Fu (1968), The Han Rhapsody (1976), Wen-xuan or Selections of Refined Literature (three volumes, 1982–1996), and Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide (2010) co-authored with Chang Taiping 張泰平 (four volumes, Brill, 2010–2014). He is the editor of the English version of the four-volume Peking University The History of Chinese Civilization published by Cambridge University Press in 2012.

His lectures will focus on the literary legacy of the Wei Jin Nanbei period. He will discuss the major
literary developments in this period. These include the emergence of the anthology arranged by genre, the increased variety of literary forms and themes, including poems about women, and a new focus on mundane, ordinary subjects such as food and drink.

Furthermore, he shall discuss the various ways in which mountain viewing is portrayed in medieval Chinese writing and the emergence of the anthology arranged by genre from the third through sixth centuries C.E.

Assoc. Prof. Lin Ming Chao (National Taiwan University)

Lin Ming Chao is Associate Professor at the National Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. from the National Taiwan University (Department of philosophy). He was visiting scholar at the Hong Kong Chinese University, Peking University and Hawaii University. He published a great number of articles and one book, entitled 《先秦道家的禮樂觀》, published by Wunan tushu chuban gongsi (五南圖書出版公司) in 2007. His lectures will focus on the following three aspects: the historical and academic background of the philosophy of the Wei Jin Period; the different stages, the predominant philosophical issues, and the argumentative ways of the philosophy; to realize the life style and the existential feeling of the literati in the Wei Jin Period.

Lecturer Shing Müller (Univeristy of München)

Shing Mueller is Lecturer of art and archaeology at the University of München. She has earned her PhD with the doctoral dissertation The Tombs of the Northern Wei (386-534) (in German) at the Institute for Sinology, University of Munich in Germany in 2000, and is since then lecturer („wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin“) of the same Institute. Her special field of research is Art and Archaeology of Northern China during the Chinese Medieval Period. She has published numerous scientific articles and one monograph in this as well as other fields, and is author of the chapter “material culture of the North” (working title) in the forthcoming Cambridge History of China II, The Six Dynasties Period. In her lecture she will focus on the history of art of the Northern Dynasties with special focus on development of paintings with evidences from tomb murals, sculptures of the Northern Dynasties, the western elements of the art expressions, ways of living as perceived from tomb findings. The lecturers from the hosting university:

Prof. Jana Rošker (University of Ljubljana)

Jana Rošker is Professor of Chinese philosophy and Methodology of intercultural research at the Department of Asian and African Studies at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). She is co-founder of the Department of Asian and African studies and has greatly contributed to the development of new sinological discipline in  Slovenian academic world. She is also founder and the first president of the European Association for Chinese philosophy (EACP), chief of the national research  program “Asian languages and cultures” and chief editor of the academic journal Asian studies. She is the author of great numbers of articles and eight    monographs, including the book on theory of knowledge, entitled Searching for the way : theory of knowledge in pre-modern and modern China (Hong Kong, Chinese University Press,2008).

Assoc. Prof. Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik (University of Ljubljana)

Natasa Vampelj Suhadolnik is Associate Professor of Chinese Art History at the Department of Asian and African Studies of University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). She studied Art history, History and Sinology at the University of Ljubljana. In her Ph. D. thesis, she focused on Han tombs with murals. Her research fields include Chinese traditional and modern art, traditional Chinese cosmology reflection in art, Buddhist art and material culture. She currently works on the identification, categorization and digitization of Chinese art objects in Slovenia. She is one of the founding members of the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology (established in 2012) and its first president. She is also a board member of the European Association for Chinese Studies.

 

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