Chan, Neo-Confucianism and the Tradition of Chinese Literary Thought: Self-Cultivation and the Practice of Poetry

Date

18 February 2025

Time

09:45-11:30

Mode

Hybrid Mode

Venue: B2-LP-20

ZOOM: 956 4728 9570

Language

English

Speaker

Prof Richard John Lynn

Professor Emeritus of Chinese Thought and Literature

University of Toronto

Moderator

Prof Timothy W.K. Chan

Head, Department of Chinese Language Studies, EdUHK

Abstract

Professor Lynn’s presentation will explore the proposition that in the history of Chinese poetics the main stream view of the nature of poetry underwent a major shift from what in earlier times was the unmediated personal expression of emotion and character to one in which poetry became both the vehicle of formulaic self-cultivation and the expression of that cultivation. Although the impetus for such a shift occurred during the Tang-Song transition and came essentially from Chan Buddhism, it remained primarily a secular literati process concurrent with the general development of Neo-Confucian thought and practice. By the 13th century and the Southern Song era, this new view of poetry acquired mature form in Yan Yu’s 嚴羽 Canglang shihua 滄浪詩話 (Canglang’s Remarks on Poetry), whose subsequent influence was such that it enjoyed canonical status during the rest of the traditional era, thanks to such figures as Gao Bing 高棅 (1350-1423), the Former and Latter Seven Masters of the Ming 前後七子, and Wang Shizhen 王士禎 (1634-1711). The lecture will consist of a bi-lingual PowerPoint Presentation richly illustrated with pertinent passages from original literary critical texts and their English translations.

Registration