Seminar: Gilles Boileau
28 MARCH 14
EFEO Taipei & CEFC Taipei Seminar
Speaker:
Mr. Gilles Boileau
(Professor, Tamkang University)
Title:
Playing with ritual: ceremonial images in the Daodejing
Discussant:
Mr. Huang Kuan-min
(Associate Research Fellow, ICLP, Academia Sinica)
Date:
Friday, March 28, 2014, at 2:30 p.m.
Venue:
Conference Room 2B, RCHSS, Academia Sinica
No. 128, Sec. 2, Academia Road, Nankang, Taipei City
Abstract:
This communication will present passages of the different versions of the Daodejing according to their ritual content. It begins by asserting that the term li 禮, usually translated as “ritual”, encompasses two different domains: the Ru 儒 conception of a ritually ordained society and the detailed execution of ceremonies. The Daodejing rejects the first aspect but draws from ritual details in order to construct a series of philosophical interpretations. Two examples in particular show the soundness of the ritual knowledge of the redactors of the text and its versions: the first one linked to military and funeral ritual, the second one with gift-giving ritual. This study analyzes those interpretations through three themes: simplicity and the question of origins; generosity of the Sage and royal magnanimity; the Sage and the king, body, self-sacrifice and the dialectic between the masculine and the feminine.
(The seminar will be held in English and co-chaired by Paola Calanca, Director of the EFEO Taipei Centre, and Stéphane Corcuff, Director of the CEFC Taipei Office.)
* Registration is not required.
efeo-cefc lecture
Speaker:
Mr. Gilles Boileau
(Professor, Tamkang University)
Title:
Playing with ritual: ceremonial images in the Daodejing
Discussant:
Mr. Huang Kuan-min
(Associate Research Fellow, ICLP, Academia Sinica)
Date:
Friday, March 28, 2014, at 2:30 p.m.
Venue:
Conference Room 2B, RCHSS, Academia Sinica
No. 128, Sec. 2, Academia Road, Nankang, Taipei City
Abstract:
This communication will present passages of the different versions of the Daodejing according to their ritual content. It begins by asserting that the term li 禮, usually translated as “ritual”, encompasses two different domains: the Ru 儒 conception of a ritually ordained society and the detailed execution of ceremonies. The Daodejing rejects the first aspect but draws from ritual details in order to construct a series of philosophical interpretations. Two examples in particular show the soundness of the ritual knowledge of the redactors of the text and its versions: the first one linked to military and funeral ritual, the second one with gift-giving ritual. This study analyzes those interpretations through three themes: simplicity and the question of origins; generosity of the Sage and royal magnanimity; the Sage and the king, body, self-sacrifice and the dialectic between the masculine and the feminine.
(The seminar will be held in English and co-chaired by Paola Calanca, Director of the EFEO Taipei Centre, and Stéphane Corcuff, Director of the CEFC Taipei Office.)
* Registration is not required.
efeo-cefc lecture