MANUSCRIPT SOURCES AND THE TRANSMISSION OK KNOWLEDGE IN EARLY CHINA

The course aims to provide the tools for a preliminary study of Chinese manuscripts written on silk and bamboo from IV to I century B.C. and to investigate the ways through which early Chinese texts were compiled and transmitted.

1. Knowledge and understanding:
a) To apply the basic structures of classical Chinese language to the study of Chinese manuscripts.
b) To know the tools to analyze and translate texts of the classical Chinese corpus, both received and manuscript versions.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding:
a) to know how to identify the basic grammatical structures and being able to analyze texts in the light of their contexts.
b) to know how to identify the most appropriate tools to analyze and translate a given text.
3. Making judgements:
a) to be able to analyze, interpret and translate - using appropriate tools supported by basic notions of palaeography, codicology and hermeneutics - ancient Chinese manuscripts and to know how to use properly primary and secondary sources.

Competence of Classical Chinese thought and pre-Han Chinese literature and language; ability to read critical sources in modern Chinese.

The recent discovery of Chinese manuscripts from the pre-imperial period has open new interpretations on the development of philosophical and religious thought in ancient China. The course is focused on the reading and on the philological and philosophical analysis of the most representative excavated manuscripts from IV to I century B.C.

Allan, S. e Williams, C., (a cura di), The Guodian Laozi. Proceedings of the International Conference, Dartmouth College, May 1998, The Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2000.

Andreini, A., "Analisi preliminare del Laozi rinvenuto a Guodian", Cina, 28, 2000, pp. 9-26.

Id., "Nuove prospettive di studio del pensiero cinese antico alla luce dei codici manoscritti", Litterae Caelestes, I, 2005, pp. 131-157.

Id, "Cases of Diffraction in Early Chinese manuscripts", Asiatische Studien, LIX, 1, 2005, pp. 261-291.

Id.,. e Biondi, M. (a cura di), Sun tzu. L'arte della Guerra, Einaudi Torino, 2011.

Id., (a cura di), Trasmetto, non creo. Percorsi tra filologia e filosofia nella letteratura cinese classica, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2012.

Id., "La trasmissione del sapere. Forme e funzioni del testo" in Scarpari, M., (a cura di), La Cina 1.2. Dall'Età del Bronzo all'Impero Han, Torino, GIULIO EINAUDI EDITORE, vol. 1.2, pp. 845-899.

Id., (a cura di), Laozi, Il Canone della Via e della Virtù, Torino, Einaudi, 2018.

Cadonna, Alfredo, 'Quali parole vi aspettate che aggiunga?'. Il Commentario al Daodejing di Bai Yuchan, maestro taoista del XIII secolo, FIRENZE, Ed. Leo S. Olschki, 2001.

Guodian Chu mu zhujian, Beijing, Wenwu, 1998.

Lippiello, T.(a cura di), La Costante Pratica del Giusto Mezzo, Venezia, Marsilio, 2001.

Moeller, Hans-Georg, La filosofia del Daodejing, Einaudi Torino, 2007.

Scarpari, M., "Aspetti formali e tecniche di recupero dei codici manoscritti cinesi antichi", Litterae Caelestes, I, 2005, pp. 105-130.

Id, "Tra manoscritti e tradizione: la produzione del testo nella Cina antica", in M. Scarpari e G. Boccali, Scritture e codici nelle
culture dell'Asia: Giappone, Cina, Tibet, India. Prospettive di studio, Cafoscarina, Venezia, 2005, pp. 183-202.

Id., Confucianesimo. I fondamenti e i testi, Torino, Einaudi, 2010.

Shaughnessy, Edward L., Rewriting Early Chinese Texts, Albany, SUNY, 2006.

Altro materiale verrà indicato durante il corso.


Dizionari:

1) L’opzione migliore resta il Grand Ricci (disponibile in versione cartacea nella Nostra biblioteca). La consultazione del Grand Ricci Online è possibile per tutti gli studenti di Ca’ Foscari:

Link diretto: http://chinesereferenceshelf.brillonline.com/grand-ricci

Il dizionario è accessibile anche dal catalogo delle banche dati: http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=32451

Di seguito, alcune informazioni importanti per poter comunque acquisire questo dizionario a un prezzo ottimo:

“As of today, the Grand Ricci is available on iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android devices (smartphones and tablets) as a module of the well known (free) Pleco Dictionary that can be bought as an in-app add-on. This "Grand Ricci" module includes the entire content of the Dictionary, but it cannot display yet the very old glyphs (the jiaguwen) which will be added in an upcoming (free) upgrade.
To get the new mobile application:
iOS (iPhone/iPad): <http://itunes.com/apps/PlecoChineseDictionary> ;
(or search Pleco Chinese Dictionary in the App Store)
Android: <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pleco.chinesesystem> ;
(or search Pleco Chinese System in the Google Play Store)

2) Kroll, Paul W., A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, Leiden, Brill, 2014.
Disponibile anche su Pleco.

3） TLS - Thesaurus Linguae Sericae
http://tls.uni-hd.de/
（cominciate da “Basic Search”…）

4） http://www.zdic.net/
（sforzatevi di usarlo come un dizionario monolingua, non vi limitate alle traduzioni in inglese delle voci）

5) OLD CHINESE RECONSTRUCTIONS: W. Baxter e L. Sagart:
https://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/BaxterSagartOCbyMandarinMC2014-09-20.pdf

The exam will be oral and it will test the student's ability to analyze from a philological-philosophical point of view some of the texts examined during the course

Ex cathedra: during the course the teacher will guide the students through the grammatical analysis and through the comprehension of selected Early Chinese texts (both manuscripts and received versions) and their contexts.

English

oral