2025: Literary Forms and Epistemic Goals in Early Chinese Philosophical Texts (October 2–5, 2025)
Date
October 2–5, 2025
Venues
University of Zurich
- Thursday, October 2: KO2-D-54, Karl-Schmid-Strasse 4
- Friday, October 3: RAI-J-031, Rämistrasse 74/76
- Saturday, 4 October: RAA-E-30, Rämistrasse 59
- Sunday, 5 October: RAA-E-30, Rämistrasse 59
Organization
Rafael Suter, Chunxiao Liu, Anders Sydskjør, Ran Tai, Wolfgang Behr (University of Zurich)
Contact
Support
This workshop is organized with the support of
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange
Abstract
This workshop looks at how early Chinese philosophical texts use various literary devices such as repetition and variation, symmetry and parallelism, rhyme and paronomasia, and narrative techniques etc. for didactic, persuasive, and epistemic purposes. These devices are heterogeneous, some of them relating to the organization of contents and presentation of topics, some to sound, and others to modes of discourse. As a consequence, they are often discussed separately. But they all and often jointly contribute to how texts express the intentions of those who composed them. Hence the workshop aims at a more comprehensive picture of how they influence the way early Chinese thinkers convey ideas based on the interplay of these formal devices. While their argumentative function has been recognized, the precise role(s) of their deployment is in need of further clarification. Participants will examine the relationship between literary form and argumentative function in a selection of texts through an interdisciplinary lens, focusing on textual patterns and information structure, the application of sound and its relation to argument, as well as the role of narration in support of philosophical and rhetorical aims.
.jpg)