The Institute for Chinese Studies presents the Re-Imagining China's Past and Present Lecture Series:
Xinda Lian
Professor of Chinese & East Asian Studies
Department of Modern Languages & East Asian Studies Program
Denison University
"The Beauty of Being Aberrantly Different: A Peep into the World of Shishuo xinyu 世說新語"
Flyer: Xinda Lian Flyer.pdf
Abstract: The 1130 “tales of the world” in the Shishuo xinyu 世說新語 (A New Account of Tales of the World) are organized in 36 chapters, each focuses on one category of human character or behavior. Judging from the great interest and intense relish with which the Shishuo compilers enjoy the full array of human traits—both the praise-worthy and the detestable—in the raw, one can hardly shake off the impression that they care more about descriptive presentation than about prescriptive value judgement. As the criteria for a tale to be included in the text is not the consideration of ethics and morality, merely being very good or very bad does not guarantee one a spot in the Shishuo taxonomy of human nature; one just has to be good or bad “in style.” To live in the world of the Shishuo, a character has to be unusual, extraordinary, and, better yet, idiosyncratically different from the norm.
Bio: Xinda Lian received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and is currently professor of Chinese at Denison University. His research interests include Song dynasty poetry, Song dynasty literati culture, and the stylistic analysis of the Zhuangzi text. He is the author of The Wild and Arrogant: Expression of Self in Xin Qiji’s Song Lyrics (Peter Lang, 1999), as well as a variety of book chapters and articles on Song dynasty literature and the study of the Zhuangzi.
Free and Open to the Public
This event is sponsored by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
