Reading Texts on Their Own Terms: Two Talks on Early Medieval China

The Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley presents a talk with Antje Richter on the generic differences between specialized prose writings about literature and personal correspondences about the same topic from early medieval China.

These two talks will focus on Chinese texts.

Antje Richter will speak on "Writing in Genres in Early Medieval China, or: What Makes a Letter a Letter?"
Chinese literary thought has always been expressed in different literary genres, from essay to rhapsody to poem to letter. This talk will address the generic differences between specialized prose writings about literature and personal correspondences about the same topic from early medieval China, the period of nascent explicit reflection about genres in China. The talk will focus on authors of whom we have both letters and non-epistolary texts about literary issues, in particular Cao Pi ("Lun wen" and various letters). To add to this comparative perspective, literary letters by a few other authors will be included as well, in particular texts by Cao Zhi, Shen Yue, John Keats, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Exploring how individual authors dealt with the specific potential of a genre, not only helps to illuminate genre features, but also reveals that writers differed considerably in their ability or inclination to exploit these features for their communicative ends.

Matthias L. Richter will speak on "Before Laozi became a Daoist"
Laozi has been much discussed as an exemplary composite text, compiled from heterogeneous short texts. It has also been noted that some of these short textual units in the Warring States Guodian counterparts are not yet quite as “Daoist” as the transmitted Laozi. Focusing on the early Han “Laozi” versions from Mawangdui, this talk will demonstrate two points: Firstly, the ideological homogenization of the originally independent short texts did not only take place during the accretion of the eighty-one chapters. The process of making Laozi more “Daoist” continued even after the text had already reached its full length. And secondly, close attention to the materiality of manuscripts is crucial for reading their text as it was meant in the past, instead of as we see it through the lens of later textual and philosophical history.