Download Literary constructions of truth in Buddhist texts

BuddhistStudiesResearchSeminars
Convenors:
PyiPhyoKyaw,[email protected]
AndrewSkilton,[email protected]
Abstract
The problem of any embodiment of truth (in sound, visual form, human
bodiesortexts)isthatwedonotknowwhethertruthliesinthefeaturesof
thebodythatneedtobefullyidentifiedorwhetherthebodyisaderivative
expression of truth that can never fully express its full meaning and
thereforecanonlypointbeyonditself.
Startingfromabasicdistinctionbetweendivinatoryandintuitivetextsthis
paper explores early Chinese concepts of text bodies that start from the
first assumption, namely that the body of truth is patterned in certain
recognisableways(ortheotherwayaround:thatcertainpatternsaretrue)
andthatthereareparticularlystructuredformsofhowtruthlookslike.Any
textthatclaimstobeatextualbodyoftruththereforehastocarrysomeof
the truth’s physiognomic features that take the shape of certain literary
forms.
In a last part the paper will then ask how these literary traditions are
reflected in ChineseBuddhist texts, which philosophical implications they
carryandwhichimpacttheyhaveontheBuddhistdiscourse.Thepaperwill
mainly discuss Buddhist discursive and exegetical approaches that are
associated with the strategy of dividing texts into several units and
subunits called kepan 科判. This strategy that is commonly held to have
originatedwithDaoan道安(312–385)regardsthetextasacompositionof
distinct units while focusing in their interpretation on the relationships
betweentheseunits.Finallythepaperwillposethequestionwhetherthis
perspective on texts that can be shown to have developed out of a
divinatorytraditionofreadingtextsinChinahasaconceptualbasisinIndia
aswell.
LiteraryconstructionsoftruthinBuddhisttexts
JoachimGentz(UniversityofEdinburgh)
Joachim Gentz is Chair of Chinese Philosophy and Religion at the
UniversityofEdinburgh,hismainresearchfocusisonChinesehistoryof
thought.HehaspublishedonearlyConfucianismanditscommentarial
traditions,Chinesereligionsandinterreligiousdiscourses,earlyChinese
forms of argumentation, Chinese ritual and divination, Chinese visual
traditions,modernChinesereligiouspolicyandCulturalStudiestheory.
In2004he initiatedtheresearchgroup“Artisticprose(Kunstprosa) in
Chinesetexts”.ThegroupworkedonrecurrentformalstructuresofpremodernChinesetexts,which cannotbedescribedin termsofclassical
Westernapproachesofgrammar,rhetoricorstyle.Themainfocuswas
directed towards syntactic, logic, morphological, and prosodic
techniques of text constructions, which refer to layers of meanings
beyond the limits of phrases or sentences. As additional means of
complex and precise expression these constructions were typical
features of early Chinese philosophical or narrative artistic prose.
Several master and PhD dissertations have been supervised by him in
thatresearchareaandconferencesandpanelshavebeenorganisedby
himinthatfield.Thetalkon"LiteraryconstructionsoftruthinBuddhist
texts”belongstothisresearchfield.
Friday17February2017(5.00pm)
RoomVWB3.01,3rdFloorVirginiaWoolfBuilding
22Kingsway,London,WC2B6LE
ALLWELCOME.Teaat4:30pm.