On November 25th, the Eighth Session of Phoenix Lecture Series and the Third Session of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Chinese Characters and Civilization Lecture Series were successfully held at Nanxi Garden of Phoenix Language Village, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai (BNU Zhuhai). The lectures were themed around, “Talking Through Pictures– Recalling the Instructions of My Teachers at the Age of 60” and “Two-Way Argumentation with Dual Attestation,” respectively. The lectures were given by Chen Weiwu, Professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, and Deputy Director of the School of Humanities at SYSU and Zhu Qixiang, retired professor of the Department of Chinese Literature of Tunghai University in Taiwan and Chair Professor of the Research Center for Folklore, Classics and Chinese Characters, Beijing Normal University (BNU). The lectures were hosted by Prof. Chen Xi, Director of International Education Affairs of BNU Zhuhai and Dean of Phoenix School.
In his lecture, “Talking Through Pictures– Recalling the Instructions of My Teachers at the Age of 60,” Prof. Chen Weiwu used a group of precious old photos to elaborate his learning and academic trajectory, and fondly recalled his teachers and mentors. Prof. Chen treasured his favorite photos or put them in his own books, which revealed his trajectory of study and the enlightenment and grace of his teachers and mentors.
Professor Chen began his lecture with an old photo from the day he enrolled in university and shared with the students his experience of studying and traveling with his teacher, Mr. Huang Guangwu, when he was young. Having a caring heart for his students, Mr. Huang Guangwu provided Prof. Chen with a list of introductory books on philology and guided him to the study of philology, to which Prof. Chen has devoted himself for the rest of his life. Mr. Chen shared an interesting story about the interaction between Mr. Pan Yunzhong and his students: Mr. Pan often wrote down his own feelings and thoughts on the title page of the books after he read them, which were then given to his student friends as gifts. Mr. Pan Yunzhong was a calligraphy lover, which influenced him greatly. Prof. Chen wrote a small poem for Mr. Zeng Xiantong's son, as well as elegiac couplets for Mr. Pan Yunzhong and Mr. Cai Hongsheng. He believes that those who aspire to study philology should work on characters and refine their writing and calligraphy skills.
When talking about his respectful mentor, Mr. Zeng Xiantong, Professor Chen showed many photos of books, couplets and poems that he and Mr. Zeng Xiantong had given and written for each other. For instance, when receiving a piece of precious stone carving topography from Mr. Zeng Xiantong, Prof. Chen would write inscriptions and postscripts for it, which is quite in the style of ancient literati. He mentioned the name of his study (room) — “Healing Foolishness Room,” which, he modestly explained, means “to read books in order to cure one's own stupidity.” Prof. Chen recalled that when he was young, he always thought that it was beneficial to read as many books as possible, until he learned from his teacher, Prof. Chen Yongzheng that reading useless books will make one more stupid. Therefore, reading books that are useful to oneself is to cure one's stupidity, as well as to learn.
Prof. Chen Weiwu explained, in the medium of photographs, the instructions he had received from his mentors over the decades, and demonstrated how he had been engaged in the study of Chinese language and characters with his mentors and friends over the past 60 years, enabling the attendees to have a better understanding of the learning journey of this master of Chinese character research. In the Q&A session, Prof. Chen Weiwu gave his answers to questions about how to stay focused on research and how to read the introductory books on Chinese characters.
Prof. Zhu Qixiang argued that the advanced “Dual Attestation” should be a two-way method through the comparison of excavated and handed-down documents in his lecture themed around “Two-Way Argumentation with Dual Attestation.” The underground archaeological materials, such as Bronze Inscriptions, can be utilized to review the archived documents; meanwhile, the archaeological materials or reliable archived documents can also be used to evaluate the value or authenticity of the newly found "underground materials."
First of all, Prof. Zhu Qixiang introduced to the students the meaning of the “Dual Attestation” proposed by Mr. Wang Guowei in his book, New Evidence for Ancient History : namely, “to corroborate the ‘new underground materials’ (excavated documents) and ‘materials on pages’ (handed-down documents) with each other for the purpose of verifying ancient history and proving the authenticity of a historical figure and the related historical events.” Professor Zhu Qixiang pointed out that the proposal by Mr. Wang Guowei was a profound inspiration to the academic world in terms of methodology of ancient history research, which rendered Mr. Wang the precursor of the combination of ancient history research and archaeology in China.
Then, Prof. Zhu vividly showed the students how "Dual Attestation" can be applied to actual academic research by means of blackboard demonstration. First, he showed a piece of text of the lineage of the Kings of Shang recorded in Records of the Historian-the Yin Dynasty and the oracle bone inscriptions. Through the interpretation of the oracle bone inscriptions, he found that the order of the ancestors of Shang should be Bao II, Bao III and Bao IV. After comparing with the contents of Records of the Grand Historian , he confirmed the error of the order of Bao IV, Bao II and Bao III recorded in Records of the Historian-the Yin Dynasty . Later, Prof. Zhu analyzed, in the same way, the controversy regarding the time period when “King Wu's conquest of Zhou” happened in Records of the Grand Historian , the way in which “Yu the Great Combating Flood” in Book of Documents , and the problem of the interpretation of the text of "the people will benefit a hundred times more if they turn a deaf ear to the wisdom of the sages," in Chapter 19 of Wisdom of Laotse . By analyzing the character structures of the oracle bone inscriptions preserved and comparing them with the contents of the handed-down documents, Prof. Zhu showed the students the application of the "Dual Attestation" in academic research.
However, Prof. Zhu Qixiang argued that "Dual Attestation" is only a one-way argumentation, and we could adopt a two-way perspective to look at “Dual Attestation” as a methodology. First of all, he took an oracle bone fragment received from a friend as an example and compared its content with Tunnan 2345 Oracle Bone. It was found that the content of the two was very similar, but there were mistakes and omissions in the writing of certain contents of this particular oracle bone fragment, and thus, it was suspected of forgery. Next, Prof. Zhu Qixiang showed a part of Tsinghua University Bamboo Scripts and Anda Bamboo Scripts, and by analyzing their glyphs and comparing them with the contents of “Book of Documents, Jinteng” and “The Book of Songs, Yongfeng, The Wall Has Cis,” he illustrated that documents of higher credibility and the glyphs of oracle bones inscriptions can also help us evaluate the credibility of the excavated materials.
In the Q&A session, Prof. Zhu Qixiang answered students' questions on how to start the learning of philology. He suggested that students should take studying and researching Chinese characters as the priority, start from reading credible documentary materials such as the radicals of Chinese characters in “Origin of Chinese Characters” , and practice writing Chinese calligraphy often, so as to master the method of structural analysis in the practice.
As an integral part of the Symposium on Chinese Characters and the Inheritance and Development of Chinese Civilization and the Ninth Annual Conference of Macao Chinese Character Society, the lectures on Seeking Truth in Chinese Characters lasted for nearly three hours and was successfully concluded with an interactive Q&A session. Prof. Chen Weiwu and Prof. Zhu Qixiang demonstrated to teachers and students the solid academic foundation and pragmatic academic attitude of philologists through their witty and vivid narratives. Phoenix Lecture Series are committed to providing students with a diversified and international knowledge platform in the hope of cultivating globally competent talents with an international perspective.
Translator: Yan Li
Proofreading: Martin Wittenberg
