Ancient China: Texts, Traditions, and Transformations

A Symposium in Honor of Stephen W. Durrant

This symposium brings together colleagues, research associates, and former graduate students to present research on early Chinese literature and culture in honor of Dr. Stephen W. Durrant’s long career. The Symposium will begin on Friday, February 13th with a public lecture by Dr. Wendy Larson, (Professor Emeritus, East Asian Languages and Literatures), followed on Saturday, February 14th with nine research presentations by scholars in the field of Chinese Studies on topics including paleography, textual study and criticism, historiography, Manchu studies, narrative, and cultural studies.

 

Friday, February 13

Keynote Lecture
Knight Library Browsing Room
5:00 pm (Reception to Follow)

“Every Day in Every Way: Optimism in 1950s China and America”
Wendy Larson, University of Oregon

Saturday, February 14

Symposium Papers
Gerlinger Lounge
9:00 am – 5:00 pm

9:00 am
Welcome Remarks

9:15 am
“A Publicly Posted Document from the Xin Period”
Charles Sanft, University of Tennessee

10:00 am
“Harmonizing with the Unseen: The Tradition of Lord Pei, Perfected of Pure Numen”
Matthew Wells, University of Kentucky

10:45 am
“Materialized Filial Piety: The Body and Filial Piety in Early Texts”
Jianjun He, University of Kentucky

11:30 am
“The Uses of Barbarians in Early China”
Li Waiyee, Harvard University

12:15 pm
Lunch Break

1:30 pm
“New Thoughts on Pleasure in Zhuangzi”
Michael Nylan, University of California Berkeley

2:15 pm
“Nurhaci in the Yargiyan kooli”
Stephen Wadley, Portland State University

3:00 pm
“Narratives of Ritual Adjudication”
David Schaberg, University of California Los Angeles

3:45 pm
“Further Thoughts on Liu Zhiji and Sima Qian”
Esther Klein, University of Sydney

4:15 pm
“Warming up the Past: Paul Serruys, Stephen Durrant, and the Voices of Ancient China”
Anthony Clark, Whitworth University

This event is presented by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and is cosponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the College of Arts and Sciences. Additional funding provided by the Jeremiah Lecture Series Fund and the National Resource Center for East Asian Studies. For more info, please call 541-346-1521.