Chiang Ching-kuo International Sinological Centre at Charles University in Prague

Reading Chinese Poetry in Comparative Perspective Graduate Students and Young Researchers Summer School

September 26–30 2011, 9:30–12:45, Celetná 20, room 118

The main speaker will be Professor Cheng Yu-yu from National Taiwan University. Two talks will be given by teachers from Charles University in Prague (Sylva Fischerová and Olga Lomová).

Organized by the International Sinological Center at Charles University, Prague.

The summer school will introduce early Chinese poetry with a special focus on different modes of representation, including related basic critical terminology (1st millennium BC to the 6th century AD). At the same time it will follow the persistence of some of these approaches and modes into the 20th century. The discussion will be framed on one side by the concept of “Chinese lyricism” as formulated by Jaroslav Průšek as a distinct feature of the Chinese tradition, and on the other side by an introduction to ancient Greek poetry as representing Western tradition. The lectures and discussions will be held in English and in Chinese and it will include readings and interpretation of exemplary Chinese texts. (The texts will be provided to the participants in advance.) Given the specific features of Chinese tradition, attention will be also paid to representations of nature in Chinese and Western poetic traditions.

Outline of the topics

• Olga Lomová (CU): “The Lyrical Tradition” (the Ideas of Jaroslav Průšek in Historical Perspective)
• Cheng Yu-yu (NTU): The Songs of Chu — the Earliest Theory of Chinese Lyricism (中國最早的抒情說:以楚辭為例)
• Cheng Yu-yu (NTU): The Shijing — “Metaphor” (bi xing) Exemplified " ("比興":以詩經為例)
• Sylva Fisherová (CU): Nature Poetry in Ancient Greece: from Ilion to Arcadia.
• Cheng Yu-yu (NTU): “Response to Things” ("感物":以古詩十九首或魏晉詠懷詩為例)
• Cheng Yu-yu (NTU): “Truthful Depiction” — the Rise of Nature Poetry in China ("形似":以謝靈運山水詩為主)
• Cheng Yu-yu (NTU): The Concepts of Jingjie and Yijing (境界或意境:以中古詩為例)
• Cheng Yu-yu (NTU): Correlative Thinking: A Discussion of the Chinese-Style Poetry of Huang Zunxian and Mori Syunto
• Olga Lomová (CU): Poetry in the Classical Style as Composed by Mao Zedong
• Olga Lomová and Cheng Yu-yu: Reading Modern Chinese poetry — Continuity and Change