Events

The Exile and Diplomacy of the 13th Dalai Lama (1904-1912): Tibet’s Encounters with the US and Japan

Speaker: Prof. Kobayashi Ryosuke (Toyo Bunko; HYI Visiting Scholar) Chair/discussant: Prof. Leonard van der Kuijp (Harvard University) Harvard-Yenching Institute Lunch Talk This talk will show how Tibet attempted to participate in the international community around the demise of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 by focusing on its relationships with the US and Japan. The sojourns of […]

Beijing Faces its Periphery: Update on Hong Kong and Taiwan

Speaker: Dr. Richard Bush, Brookings Institution: Senior Fellow, the Richard H. Armacost Chair, the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies,  Director of  the Center for East Asia Policy Studies, and Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China Center;  former Chairman and Managing Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Critical Issues […]

What Next? Trump and Asia

CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium (S010) 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, United States

Join the Harvard University Asia-related Centers for the first in a new series on the Asia-Pacific during Trump's presidency.

The Buddha and the Dragon Princess in the Lotus Sutra — for deciphering the Devadatta frontispiece in the Heike Tokyo set

Speaker: Ryūichi Abé, Harvard University The Heike Nokyo is a sumptuously produced set of Buddhist scriptural handscrolls that was commissioned by the Heike military aristocratic clan and offered to the Goddess of Itsukushima, the clan’s tutelary divinity, in the mid-twelfth century.  The set is arguably the most sublime example of illustrated and decorated Buddhist scriptures in Japanese history.  The Heike […]

The East-Asian Peace: Can it Last?

CGIS South S020, Belfer Case Study Room 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: The Honorable Börje Ljunggren, Former Asia Center Fellow; former Swedish Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China and Vietnam Critical Issues Confronting China Seminar Series; co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Harvard University Asia Center  

Long-Term Trend and Spatial Pattern of PM2.5-Induced Premature Mortality in China

Pierce Hall 100F 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: WANG Haikun, Associate Professor, School of Environment, Nanjing University Sponsored by the China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. With rapid economic growth, China has witnessed increasingly frequent and severe haze and smog episodes over the past decade, posing serious health impacts to the Chinese population, especially those in densely populated […]

The Indian Yogācāra Scholar Sthiramati and the Works Attributed to Him

1 Bow St., Room 317 1 Bow St., Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: Jowita Kramer, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich This paper focuses on the scriptural corpus of Sthiramati, a pivotal scholar in the development of Indian Yogācāra thought in the 6th century. So far Sthiramati’s work has received far less attention from modern scholars than the treatises of other Yogācāra authors like Asaṅga or Vasubandhu—probably because of the perception of Sthiramati as […]

“Underworld Law and Leeway: Summoning the Earth God in Journey to the West” 鬼律與故縱:《西遊記》中的召喚土地

CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

***This event will be conducted in Chinese*** Speaker: Li Fengmao 李豐楙 , Chair Professor, National Chengchi University; Professor Emeritus, Academia Sinica, Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy 鬼律與故縱:《西遊記》中的召喚土地〉簡介 李豐楙 在西遊的奇傳敘述中,神魔鬥法前時常出現的,就是孫行者頻繁召喚土地,方能問明妖精、妖魔出處,其頻率雖高卻較少受到關注,原因應是被視為陪襯的小神。世德堂本敘述其出場方式,應該有其創作的用意,乃交互使用兩種聲音:顯聲音與潛聲音。前者借遊戲筆調表現滑稽的趣味,其實在掩飾其真實的潛聲音,主要即借此諷喻、影射明代、尤其世宗朝皇室。由於兩種聲音之間交織運用,若隱若現,亟待解讀。作者雖曾吸收先行材料,但其突破在其創意,乃化用了道、佛二教的文化資源。此處即從「召喚土地」情節切入,文本解讀配合文化解讀,其手法皆有宗教、尤其道教知識支持。在敘述層次上,顯聲音即召喚土地的方式,軟硬兼施,從喚出到拘得,形成表層聲音的滑稽趣味;唯關鍵的召喚動作簡繁俱有,即捻訣與念真言--從唵字到唵㘕淨法界,在此發現採用明代流行的准提信仰,因其盛行於文人中,作者即挪用密教的准提咒,並未襲用道教召土地神咒。而在召喚過程中,行者對待土地、山神的態度,即任意使喚;相對土地、山神則表現得異常惶恐。這種顯聲音背後隱藏的潛聲音,所運用的「故縱之嫌」筆法,乃化用道教法派的鬼律、黑律知識,用於規範城隍--土地:境內有精邪而未能通告者,即有故縱之嫌而會被杖或流放。作者所敍寫的當境土地,既知妖精、妖魔卻任令其行動,懼而未曾通報,此即「故縱之嫌」的敘寫手法。其目的則是諷喻,明代中葉以前實行里甲制,小說家影射當時事:其一明初洪武三年禮部官僚依禮定制里社壇制,即自然神;唯里甲居民仍崇拜人格神的土地,以致里社壇荒廢不用。其二里長、甲首負責里甲事務,即催稅、徴糧及徭役,但至中葉因稅役過重,導致里民逃脫,小說既有「逃門戶」、「大戶負擔元宵燈油」等,此種敘述即為潛聲音。其三敘述妖精、妖魔據洞稱王、差使土地,妖魔俱從天界私下凡間,此種顯聲音即試煉五聖、尤其唐僧的取經意志;並諷喻明代王府與地方豪族,在地方據土稱霸,使喚里長甲首。西遊交錯使用顯、潛兩種聲音,即可知荒唐、滑稽語底下,乃掩飾當世習知的社會怪現狀,當時人領會其諷喻手法的影射旨趣,今人則需重新解讀「故縱與鬼律」,方能深刻理解滑稽文學的嚴肅性,確定多層聲音所形成的交響,乃奇傳文體具有語言藝術的價值。 國立政治大學中國文學研究所國家文學博士,曾經擔任中央研究院中國文哲研究所研究員,其後轉任政治大學宗教研究所,擔任文學院講座教授,政治大學華人宗教研究中心主任;2015年退休後擔任中國文哲所兼任研究員、政治大學文學院榮譽講座教授。曾經訪問巴黎法蘭西學院、哈佛燕京學社;擔任中華民國「國科會」中國文學門召集人、「臺灣宗教學會」第二任理事長。

Traces: Dark Clouds – Special One-Day Photography Exhibition

CGIS South CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker/Photographer: Ian Teh Asia Centers Lounge • First Floor • CGIS South Building This event is part of the Environment in Asia series at the Fairbank Center. Ian Teh is an award-winning […]

Xie Lingyun and Imperial Performance: Deploying the Language of the Chuci

CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Speaker: Harrison Huang,  Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University The reception of the Chuci anthology has been largely framed around the representation of the attributed author Qu Yuan as […]