Program of East Asian Classics and Cultures

Description of the Program

Chun-chieh Huang
Distinguished Professor of History, National Taiwan University

        The Program of East Asian Classics and Cultures is one of the three programs initiated by the NTU Institute for Advanced Studies of the Humanities and Social Sciences inaugurated in 2006. The team for this project has shared a long experience of research. In 1998, with the support of then NTU President Chen Wei-Chao and Dean of Studies Li Si-chen, Professor Huang Chun-chieh embarked on planning and directing the project on “The Hermeneutic Traditions in Chinese Culture” (1998-2000). About 20 faculty members from the NTU Colleges of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences conducted joint research and achieved excellent results. Afterwards, Professor Huang went on to take charge of “Project on the Hermeneutic Traditions in East Asian Neo-Confucianism” (2000-2004), a project supported by a team of scholars within and without the NTU faculty, which was one of the “Program of Pursuit of Academic Excellence” sponsored by Ministry of Education (MOE) and the sole project in the humanities conducted under this MOE program. Starting from 2002, based on the foundation laid by the preceding two projects, the team carries on the research under the program titled “Center for East Asian Civilizations” (2002-2005), which belongs to another MOE sponsored “Integrated Center-Programs for Research Universities”.

        Having undertaken these three projects, our team has accumulated considerable research results, and they are being published in sequence by the NTU Publishing Center. For the moment, more than 60 volumes have been published under three series: a) “Studies in East Asian Civilizations;” b) “Research Materials on East Asian Civilizations;” and c) “Research Sources in East Asian Civilizations.”

        As mentioned, the Program of East Asian Classics and Cultures is well grounded on the successive projects since 1998. Taking East Asia as our research field, classics as our focused text and cultures the context, we also take a broad perspective of the cultural interaction between China and the West, as well as the interplays among the several East Asian cultures. Based on this scope, we hope to examine the transformations and prospects of the classics and ideas inner to them. The objective of this program is to excavate the core values of and initiate a new epoch for East Asian cultures, so as to engage in dialogue with other great civilizations in the 21st century.

Project 1:
“Korean Interpretations of the Analects in the East Asian Perspectives”

Chun-chieh Huang
Distinguished Professor of History, National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        The study on the Korean interpretations of the Analects is a whole new academic field, which finds no relevant monographs whether in Chinese, English, Japanese or Korean. This project aims to elucidate the specific content of the Korean interpretations of the Analects, and then place it within the broader context of East Asian Confucianisms for further assessing its contribution. Prevailing in the Korean works on the Analects is a group of interpretations based on the thought of the Great Learning, thus foregrounding the way of thinking demonstrated in Zhu Xi’s study on the Four Books, meanwhile, the different sources from Chinese tradition are also partly assimilated by Korean scholars.

        The prime objective of this project is to clarify the crucial mode of thinking underlying the Korean studies on the Analects during a six-hundred-year period, with a particular attention paid to the inheritance and innovation they undertake toward Zhu Xi’s thought. In this way the Korean studies on Zhu Xi can also be learnt more.

Project 2:
“Inquiry into Major Issues Concerning the Yili (Rites and Rituals)”

Kuo-liang Yeh
Distinguished Professor of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        The Yili in itself is a challenging text. Besides that, questions surround the time this text was edited, the identity of the author, the meaning of the contents, and how the rites and rituals named and described in the text were to be enacted. Additionally, there are the debates between the old and new classical scholars. Finally, the ancient views on the origination and formation of popular customs lacked the purview of a comprehensive anthropology and ethnology; consequently, today there remains the need to manage and interpret this text.

        Based on ten years of inquiry into this text, I will establish a new, modern research method and select the most important issues surrounding the Yili for examination and discussion. This effort will result in a specialized book about the Yili.

Project 3:
“The Cultural Exchange between the East and the West, centered on the introduction of the Roman Catholic Church”

Wei-Ying Ku
Professor, Department of History
National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        The contact and exchange between the East and West has been one of the most important phenomenon since the Sixteenth Century. Previous studies on these have been many but they were mainly focused on one country only. This proposal is to do research on the East-West relationship from an East Asian perspective with the introduction of the Roman Catholicism as its point of entry. Rather than on one country, this study will transcend the country boundary and take the East Asia as a whole to find out the interaction between the missionaries and the local natives among China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It is hoped that through this study we can better understand the process and consequence of the exchange between the East and West, and thus open up more intellectual resources for the future.

Project 4:
“Transmission and Influence of the Wujing Zhengyi in East Asia”

Pao-San Chang
Department of Chinese Literature
National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        Tang Emperor Gaozhong promulgated the Wujing Zhengyi (五經正義, Correct Meaning of the Five Classics) compiled by Kong Yingda throughout the empire in 653 CE. From that year until the Song dynasty, this collection was used as the standard interpretation for the imperial examinations testing proficiency in the classics. This fact led the Qing dynasty scholar Pi Xirui to refer to this period as “the age of unified classical studies” in his Jingxue lishi (經學歷史, History of Classical Studies). But, this collection was influential not only in China but, after being transmitted to Korea and Japan, exerted great influence on politics, education and culture in those two empires, as well.

        This project intends to investigate the transmission and influence of the Wujing Zhengyi within the horizon of East Asia in order to discuss important issues, such as the transmission and influence of the Chinese classics in East Asia, as well as the role of classical hermeneutics in a particular environment.

Project 5:
“The Siduan-Qiqing (Four Beginnings-Seven Emotions) Dispute in Late Imperial Korea”

Ming-huei Lee
Graduate Institute of National Development
National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        The “Four Beginnings -- Seven Emotions Dispute” is the most important debate in the history of Korean Confucianism. This debate initially broke out between Yi T'oegye (1501-1571) and Ki Kobong (1527-1572), on one side, and Yi Yulgok (1536-1584) and Song Ugye (1535-1598), on the other side. From this time onwards, this debate persisted in Korea without cease.

        The present research project will examine this “Four Beginnings -- Seven Emotions Dispute” in late Imperial Korea. I have chosen three most representative figures for study: Chong Udam (1625-1707), Chong Hagok (1649-1737) and Chong Tasan (1762-1836).

Project 6:
“Zhi-yin : Understanding and Morality in Confucian Aesthetics”

Chao-ying Chen
Department of Chinese Literature
National Taiwan University

Abstract

        This project attempts to investigate the Confucian concerns about the relationship between understanding and morality in art. The concept of Zhi-yin in Chinese culture is profound and productive. It refers to an unique understanding of an artistic work and to a special interaction between the author and the audience. The relationship between Zhi-yin and Confucian Aesthetics is the focus of the project.

Project 7:
“Imperial Power and Confucianism in East Asia: Principle of State Rites and Sacrifices in Confucian Classical Hermeneutics”

Huai-Chen Kan
History Department
National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        This research plan is to study the Confucian state in East Asian history, focusing on the intimate relationship between East Asian imperial power and the knowledge of Confucian learning. The expression “East Asian imperial power” refers to the Chinese imperial system and to the Japanese Mikado system. But, the relevant knowledge of Confucian learning is concentrated in the theory of state rites and sacrifices in Confucian classical hermeneutics.

        During the first year, I will examine the establishment of the Confucian classics and the process of classical hermeneutics from the Warring States period to the end of the Later Han dynasty -- how the formation of the rites and sacrifices to Heaven and Earth and the imperial ancestral temple became the central Confucian theory of rites and sacrifices.

        The second year, I will examine the Japanese process of modernizing Confucian classical learning during the 19th and early 20th centuries in constructing the modern Mikado system out of the old Confucian theory of state rites and sacrifices.

Project 8:
“A Study of the “Unity of the Three Teachings” Thought in Yaodi Pao Zhuang by Fang Yizhi”

Zhen-Feng Tsai
Department of Chinese Literature
National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

        This plan focuses on the book Yaodi Pao Zhuang by Fang Yizhi (1611-1671). The Siku tiyao states that he, “interprets Zhuangzi mainly according to Buddhist principles.” And, “If one is not Zhuangzi, one would definitely interpret like this.” However, Fang Yizhi himself said, “The most subtle extinguished mind, neither controls nor schemes.” He also said, “Although the Three Teachings are different, their Dao is basically one.” This research intends to examine and discuss Fang Yizhi's interpretation of Zhuangzi in order to make clear how the Three Teachings “flow from different origins into the same stream,” to see how he exhibits the "Unity of the Three Teachings" thought.

Project 9:
“The Interactions and Exchanges between Chinese and Japanese Cultures in The East-Asian Viewpoint”

Shing-Ching Shyu
Department of Japanese Language and Literature
National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT

Viewing the development of East Asian civilization, both Chinese and Japanese have each own subjective stands on the interactions and exchanges between Chinese and Japanese cultures. Many debates grow from the subjectivity on the difference and sameness of the two. While the key personages of each epoch spread their culture, different geographical characters naturally cause different cultural elements. Thus, surely it is academically important to explore and analyze the differences derived from the interflows of both Chinese and Japanese persons and culture in the East-Asian point of view. This plan uses culture as the thread of study to discuss the interactions between some particular personages in different epoches from the viewpoints of interactions and exchanges. It is aimed to find the similarities and dissimilarities of the forming of these cross-border cultural relationships. It also intends to discuss the questions of national identification. These questions provoke us to think about how the interaction and exchanges between Chinese and Japanese cultures influence the East Asian civilization, and thus to deepen the study content, bringing out new arguments.

Project 10:
“The Characteristics of Confucian Political Philosophy in the Pre-Qing Era: An Interpretation based upon the Analects, Mencius, and Hsun-tzu”

Yi-Huah Jiang
Distinguished Professor of Political Science, National Taiwan University

Abstract

There are many unique ways of discourse and crystal of wisdom imbedded in the Chinese political thought. Unfortunately they are often ignored in the context of the traditional method of textual exegesis. The project aims to illuminate the spirit and character of Chinese political philosophy by way of “understanding contextual exegesis” and “comparing the view of the West.” In the first year, my focus will be on the Analects and Mencius. The second year, on Hsun-tzu. The purpose is to analyze the argument structure and basic principle of ancient Confucian political thought. If the project gets continuous support from the university, I will move on to the writings of Han-Fei, Shang-Yang, Chuang-tzu, and Lao-tzu, to finish my study of ancient Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism.