On the occasion of the publication of a new translation of the Zuo Tradition/Zuozhuan: Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, in the Classics of Chinese Thought series of the University of Washington Press, UCLA is hosting a conference with leading scholars to consider the work in relation to other texts thought to have been composed or compiled during the Warring States period. Even as recent archaeological discoveries have shed new light on the origins of the Zuozhuan, ongoing scholarship in the several historical and philological fields of Early China studies has continued to underline the central importance of this definitive text. Conference participants will reflect on Zuozhuan’s origins, on its links with other texts of the time (e.g., philosophical, historical, legal, ritual), or more generally on its status as a product of and reflection of its era.
This schedule is tentative and subject to change.
Zuozhuan in the Context of Warring States Texts
Friday, May 12
9:30-9:40 Welcome by David Schaberg, UCLA
9:40-10:00 Introduction to the Translation
David Schaberg, Stephen Durrant, Wai-yee Li
10:00-12:30 Panel I: Zuozhuan as Text
Chair: Min Li, UCLA
Kuan-yun (Kevin) Huang, Tsing Hua University
Zizhan Recites the "Grasshopper" (Caochong)
Lee-moi Pham, Academia Sinica
Words are an Embellishment of the Person: Thinking from Xi 24
Stephen Durrant, University of Oregon
Etiology and the chu 初 Formula in Zuozhuan
David Schaberg, UCLA
Patterns of Naming in Zuozhuan and Related Texts
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:30 Panel II: Zuozhuan and Warring States Culture
Chair: Lothar Von Falkenhausen, UCLA
Martin Kern, Princeton University
Immanent Hermeneutics: How Zuozhuan Makes Commentators
Mick Hunter, Yale University
Role of Confucius in the Zuozhuan
Kam-siu Cheung, Chinese University of Hong Kong/Harvard
Rereading Chapter 16 of the Tsinghua Bamboo-strip Manuscript Xinian in comparison with Zuozhuan
3:30-3:45 Break
3:45-5:45 Panel III: Zuozhuan in the Context of Other Warring States Texts
Chair: Yinghui Wu, UCLA
Mark Csikszentmihalyi, UC Berkeley
The Zuozhuan as a Source of Knowledge about Pre-Imperial Religious Practices
Wai-yee Li, Harvard University
Cultural Identity and Cultural Difference in Zuozhuan
Yiqun Zhou, Stanford University
Heroic Suicide in Zuozhuan and Other Warring States Texts
5:45 Reception
6:30 Conclusion
Saturday, May 13
9:30-12:00 Teaching the Zuozhuan to Students and Colleagues
Those who RSVP for Saturday will be sent readings and/or discussion questions in advance.
The UCLA Taiwan Studies Lectureship is a joint program of the UCLA Asia Pacific Center and the Dean of Humanities and is made possible with funding from the Department of International and Cross-Strait Education, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, represented by the Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.
The organizers wish to acknowledge the generous support of Agnes Lin.