February 11, 2022

Early China Seminar Lecture Series

Title: “Early Chinese Thought via Shijing 詩經”
Speaker: Mick Hunter, Yale University
Time: February 11, 2022 (4:30-6:30 PM EST)
The event will be held via Zoom. Please click on “Request Pre-circulated Paper” to register for the event.

In The Poetics of Early Chinese Thought: How The Shijing Shaped the Chinese Philosophical Tradition (Columbia UP, 2021), I have argued that scholars and students of early Chinese thought should pay a lot more attention to Shi 詩 poetry. Not only were the Shi the most widely known texts from the Warring States into the early empire, but they also espouse a more-or-less coherent ideology that had a profound influence on early authors. In this talk, I will summarize that argument before venturing a Shi-centric reading of the Zhuangzi 莊子, starting with the leviathan-turned-bird at the opening of chapter one, “Free-and-easy Wandering.”