Event

Early Chinese philosophical prose contains numerous passages of poetic diction. These do not serve as mere embellishment but contribute to the particular ways in which arguments are developed. Unlike its ancient Greek counterpart, philosophy in early China did not reject poetry as falsehood but embraced it for its aesthetic force as well as for the truth claims it embodied. The lecture examines two prominent examples that are particularly rich in poetic diction: the first chapter "Exhortation to Learning" in Xunzi and the concluding chapter "Summary of the Essentials" in Huainanzi. While the two chapters serve very different purposes, they illustrate how philosophical argument was at once developed and displayed.

* EALC Rickett Lecture