Any new suggestion about qing on excavated bamboo texts? Attilio Andreini. Abstract: Ninety per cent of all ancient Chinese manuscripts so far discovered contain texts that have no transmitted counterpart. This is the reason why the palaeographic materials recently unearthed in tombs dating from the 4th to the 2nd century B.C. are changing our perception of early Chinese thought, adding very important pieces of information about the cultural debate in pre-imperial China. In this paper I will try to establish whether new excavated texts on bamboo slips unearthed in 1993 at Guodian, Hubei Province, and the around 1200 inscribed bamboo slips acquired in 1994 by the Shanghai Museum (Shangbo) from the antique market in Hong Kong really reveal something new about the meaning of qing. As to the dating of the archaeological relics, scholars agree on a period ranging from 350 to 270 B.C.; this means that the found manuscripts (at least most of them) are clearly copies of even earlier testimonies. Among the excavated palaeographic sources from the Warring States period, the significance of the Guodian find cannot be overstated. In addition to unearthing a series of manuscripts throwing new light on the genesis of the Laozi, the excavation also revealed a huge number of Ru texts, many without transmitted counterparts. One of them, known as Xing zi ming chu (XZMC, Human Natural Dispositions Arise from the Decree), is of fundamental importance to the present study, as it provides a thorough disquisition on the concept of qing. The Shangbo materials too are quite relevant in this discussion, because includes a different version of the same text found at Guodian, this time labelled Xingqinglun (Treatise on Human Natural Dispositions and qing) by the editors of the Shangbo material.

Sages, Dispositions, and the Creation of Order. Michael Puett. Abstract: Beginning in the Warring States period, a lengthy debate developed concerning the relationship between sages and qing. The debate would continue for numerous centuries, and would become a major topic of concern in the post-Han period. This paper will explore the beginnings of the debate in the Warring States and early Han. Using both paleographic materials and received texts, I will try to explore why this debate emerged and what was at stake. I will conclude by discussing how these early formulations were appropriated and utilized by later figures.

Daoist Emotions and Poetic Expression: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant-/Success in Circuit lies”. Lee Yearley. Abstract: The central role of poetry in our understanding of Daoist emotions; a theoretical analysis and examination of three examples from the Chinese poetic tradition.

Qing and the Sage. Alan Chan. Abstract: This paper explores the place of qing in conceptions of the nature and being of the sage, focusing on the Tang Daoist master Wu Yun (d. 778). What it seeks to show is that assumptions about the attainability of “sagehood” and the “nature” (xing) of human beings inform the interpretation of qing. In this context, the idea that the sage is quintessentially wuqing, marked by the absence of desire and emotions, will be examined. I will close with a comparative note on a Confucian account of the same period namely, the “Fuxing shu” by Li Ao (ca. 774?C836).

Is Daoism Cultural? A Study of Daoist Cultivation. Yen, Hsueh-cheng. Abstract: What is the basis of our understanding another culture? Could the understanding based on a logic that is incommensurable or even contradictory to the culture in question? By referring Daoist cultivation (xiu-lian) as cultural, anthropology is imposing a framework antithetical to Daoism. In Daoist cultivation, a practitioner returns from a constrained houtain of habitual thinking to an original and un-fixed xiantain. The Daoist concept of houtian and the anthropological concept of culture are similar in referring to acquired habits contingent to a particular time and space. However, if the goal of Daoist cultivation is cultural, difference between houtian and xiantian would be eliminated and the Daoist quest becomes a self-deception. Yet, Daoist is well aware of the power of habits. It is in discovering the mechanisms of cultural inculcation and shedding off cultural habits that one approaches Dao. Dao does not exist in metaphysical abstraction but could be concretely felt. This essay examines how Daoist practitioners of neidan convince themselves the reality of Dao and xiantian through bodily experience, and how Daoist understanding of the world differ from that of anthropology.

Living the Daoist Body. Livia Kohn. Abstract: Studies of the body in Daoism have so far tended to focus on its understanding and transformation by highly specialized practitioners. Above and beyond this dimension, there is also the Daoist body as a living, breathing, and interactive entity within the larger context of Chinese (and increasingly modern Western) society. This paper explores practices and visions of the Daoist body as embraced by lay followers and general practitioners, focusing on texts of the 4th to 7th centuries that appear in the Daoist canon but also form part of Chinese longevity or nourishing life (*yangsheng*), which began as the preventative branch of Chinese medicine. Specifically it looks at how to relate to the body psychologically, how to use it ethically among other beings, and how to treat it with care, dignity, and moderation in various lifestyle modes.

Transition and Articulation between Two Orientations: An Experimental Analysis of a New Interpretation of Ziran. LIU Xiaogan. Abstract: For this text reading and discussion, we may concentrate on chapters 64, 25, and 17 of the Laozi. The major arguments of this article are based on close reading of the three chapters, including their bamboo and silk versions.

The Structure and Significance of the Huainanzi’s “Root-Passages” . Harold D. Roth. Abstracts: The Huainanzi exhibits a metaphorical structure of "Root-Branches" in both the organization and order of its 21 chapters and within the logical argumentation with which each chapter is constructed. The first nine chapters are the "Roots" of the entire work, providing the key philosophical insights that underpin it. Within these first nine chapters, the first two chapters stand out as providing the foundational ideas of all the "Root" chapters and hence of the entire work. An analysis of these first two chapters indicates that they stand squarely within the tradition of classical Daoism that includes Guanzi's "Inward Training," the Zhuangzi, and the Laozi. It is the observation of this paper that the very first passage in most of the chapters (or "Root Passage") of the Huainanzi presents philosophical themes that are essential to the remainder of each chapter and that the most dominant ideas in these "Root Passages" are taken from the first two chapters of the work. Hence it is Daoist ideas - or at least ideas that are completely consistent with the above named Warring States works -that provide the foundation of the Huainanzi. This questions earlier theories that the Huainanzi cannot be categorized as a "Daoist" work and also calls into question some prior studies that conclude that "Daoism" was no more that a convenient bibliographical category invented by Han historians.

San De. Scott Cook. Abstract: For San de, I suggest we try to look at the following: a) strips 1, 2, and the first six graphs of strip 3, b) strip 7. I would not worry too much about trying to figure out exactly what’s going on in the abstruse second stanza of strip 1, lest we spend all our time on that alone. While I hope we can discuss some of the specifics in the reading of these passages, I also hope, time permitting, to engage in a more general discussion about the content of these strips as a whole. Photos and original transcription from: Shanghai Bowuguan cang Zhanguo Chu zhushu, v. 5. Ed. Ma Chengyuan et. al. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2005.12.

Cosmogony, Gender, and Canonization in “Guan” and “Cixiongjie”. Griet Vankeerberghen. Abstract: In my presentation, I will lead a close reading of several of the texts of the Shi da jing, found on the same Mawangdui silk manuscript that also contains Laozi B. In particular, I would like to focus on II.1 (“Li ming ”), II.2 (“Guan”), and II.7 (“Cixiong jie”). Rather than proposing a simple read-through, I would like to read these texts in conjunction with others. In the case of II.1, I would like to look for points of similarity and difference with the “Yao dian” in Shangshu; II.2 and II.7 I would like to juxtapose with Artistophanes’ account of the origins of love in Plato’s Symposium (189 a-193e; 205 d-e).

Li Tianxia. Carine Defoort. Abstract: In my presentation, I want to do a close reading of a dialogue in the "Liezi, Yang Zhu" in which the willingness to "li tianxia" is discussed between Mohist and Yangist masters. As an introduction, I will give an overview of, first, opposite interpretations by other scholars (Gu Jiegang versus Feng Youlan) of this expression as it occurs in Mencius, and then of interpretations of this particular fragment (Graham).

Rhetorical Expressions and the Reconstruction of the Bamboo Text Hengxian. Xing Wen. Abstract: /Hengxian/ is of critical importance in understanding early Chinese cosmology from the perspective of Daoism. It is short but complete, without missing any bamboo slips, thus is a very rare excavated bamboo slip text. However, the reconstruction and reading of /Hengxian/ has been controversial since it was published half a decade ago. From the perspective of its internal rhetorical structure, this paper proposes a new reading and transcription of the text, which is simple in structure and profound in meaning.

The "He Lü," Yin-Yang Theory, and Its Relations to HuangLao Thought". Robin Yates. Abstract: The long-lost military text "He Lü" was discovered in the 1980's in Han tomb #247, Zhangjiashan, Jiangling, Hubei Province, and published only in 2001. Consisting of over 2000 graphs, it takes the form of a conversation between King He Lu and the well-known statesman Wu Zixu. One of only two early Yin-Yang military texts to have been recovered to date (the other being the fragmentary "Di Dian" from Yinqueshan, Lin'yi, Shandong), I will discuss some of the relations of this text with HuangLao materials discovered at Mawangdui, and compare them to the ideas expressed in the "Yue yu, xia" chapter of the "Guo yu."

Some Reflections on a Shangqing Text about Practices. Rob Campany. Abstract: My paper presents a close reading of a single exemplary Shangqing scripture. My reading focuses on a set of questions about the complex and to some extent mutually constituting relationships between texts, practices, and communities. For example: How did such scriptures invest readers/users (apart from whatever their extra-textual practices may have been) with certain kinds of authority or status? How did they attempt to create their own authority? How did they work to generate communities and to draw boundaries around them? Are the relations between texts and the practices they prescribed as straightforward as is often assumed?

Li Qingan's Peerless Dao of Orthodox Reality: Daoism or "Three Teachings". Paul Crowe. Abstract: Yingchan zi (fl. 1280-1290) or Master "Lustrous Moon," also known as Li Daochun wove together his own story of spiritual liberation based on his familiarity with prajñ?p?ramit? literature in combination with Linji (Rinzai) Chan teachings and those of the Ru literati traditions; the latter included frequent references to both Warring States classics and to the newly flourishing Daoxue ??teachings that grew out of Zhu Xi's (1130-1200) synthesis and exposition of those same texts. Master Li drew on this body of texts and combined their insights in a remarkably refined and consistent way with those he took from inner alchemy texts produced from the tenth-century up to his own time. It is clear that he contributed much to the ongoing process of rendering inner alchemy in terms more consonant with those of the Buddhists and literati of his own time. Here, two basic ideas supportive of those aims are considered in a rather schematic way: Xing translated, now somewhat controversially, as "Inner Nature" and the related ideas of motion and stillness. Both of these related concerns are understood as basic shared concepts among those who advocate what Li and his followers refer to as the "Three Teachings." Outside of any specific institutional framework in which individuals actually identify themselves with the Sanjiao the term is notoriously nebulous in its range of signification. The Three Teachings only take shape when a particular social group that claims them as their emblem sets to work fashioning their content. Li and his disciples appear to have been just such a group. Hence this paper briefly describes two elements of Li's efforts in this direction. Necessarily the discussion is not wide-ranging but it is hoped it will be sufficient to inform and to raise some questions.

Spirit Mediumship and Religious Authority in Contemporary Southeastern China. Erin M. Cline. Abstract: Although studies of Chinese spirit mediums in Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan abound, there has been little work done on spirit mediums in mainland China today. Yet spirit mediums play an important role in religious life in southeastern China, and in some areas, spirit mediums are predominantly women. This phenomenon is significant not only because it allows women who are of relatively low status to hold positions of religious authority, but also because female spirit mediums sometimes address community needs that are not addressed by other religious authorities such as Zhengyi daoshi. This paper describes the work of two female spirit mediums in Fujian province, including the reasons clients visit them and the nature of their religious authority as spirit mediums, especially compared with Zhengyi daoshi in the area.

Local Religion in North China in the Twentieth Century: The Structure and Organization of Community Rituals and Beliefs. Dan Overmyer. Abstract: For many hundreds of years, community festivals for the gods in rural north China have had their own forms of organization and institutionalization in temples and villages, with their own forms of leaders, deities and beliefs. Despite much local variation, one everywhere finds similar temples, images, offerings and temple festivals, all supported by practical concerns for divine aid to deal with the problems of everyday life. These local traditions are a structure in the history of Chinese religions; they have a clear sense of their own integrity and rules, handed down by their ancestors. There are Daoist, Buddhist and government influences on these traditions, but they must be adapted to the needs of local communities. It is the villagers who build temples and organized festivals; Daoists and Buddhists and other specialists may be invited to participate if they are available, but only to provide what the people need and want. In the past, and even now in many places, all members of the community have been expected to participate and contribute, regardless of their class or economic status; local leaders and merchants have a special obligation to do so, to support the honor of the community and its gods. In sum, Chinese local religion is a structure in its own right, not a diffuse or residual category, and needs to be understood as such. This paper is based on the Introduction to a book manuscript of the same title that has been accepted for publication by Brill in Leiden. It includes chapters on the organization and leaders of community festivals, the process of such festivals, their history, the deities venerated in them and related topics.

Tracking the Changes: The Evolution of the Zhouyi in China and Beyond. Richard J. Smith. Abstract: As is well-known, for most of the imperial era--from the early Han period onward--the Zhouyi/Yijing came to viewed as "the first of the [Chinese] Classics," the most important single book in China's entire philosophical tradition. In part because of its great prestige in China, the historical and cultural influence of the Changes extended well beyond the ever-shifting borders of the Middle Kingdom. Indeed, during the past thousand years or so, the work has gradually become a global property. By stages, the Yijing spread from China to other areas of East Asia--notably Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Tibet--and then to Europe and the Americas. Clearly this "globalization" of the Changes was in part the product of its exalted reputation in China and its many alluring "special features" (tezhi): (1) its challenging and ambiguous basic text, which encouraged all kinds of interpretive ingenuity; (2) its elaborate numerology and other forms of symbolic representation; (3) its utility as a tool of divination; (4) its sophisticated commentaries and remarkable philosophical flexibility; (5) its psychological potential (as a means of attaining self-knowledge); and (6) its reputation for a kind of encyclopedic comprehensiveness. But the global spread of the Yijing was also facilitated by the selfconscious hermeneutical strategies employed by those who sought to use it for their own political, social, intellectual or evangelical purposes. In this respect, the globalization of the Changes mirrored quite closely the process by which it evolved in China--by means of creative commentaries reflecting a wide range of philosophical viewpoints.

Divination and Meiji Politics: A Reading of Takashima Kaemon’s Takashima Ekidan (My Judgment on the Yijing). Benjamin Wai-Ming NG. Abstract: The use of Yijing oracle in politics and the military had a long tradition in Japanese history and this practice survived in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Meiji leaders consulted the oracle of the Yijing frequently in making major political and military decisions. Takashima Kaemon (1832-1914), a famous entrepreneur and Yijing scholar, served as a semiofficial diviner for Meiji government, consulted by the prime minister, cabinet members, military generals, highranking officials, diplomats, intelligence officers, and judges. Hundreds of political and military oracles have been preserved in the Takashima Ekidan (My Judgment on the Yijing, 1882 first edition, 1901 expanded edition). Through a textual analysis and critical reading of the Takashima Ekidan, this study aims to investigate the role of Yijing divination in Meiji politics, in particular how the Meiji leaders made use of Yijing divination for political purposes and how was it incorporated into late Meiji state ideology. It sheds light on the nature of Meiji modernity and the formation of the socalled “emperorstate” (tennosei) ideology in modern Japan.