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Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium 古文品讀

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium (CCCC) 古文品讀 is a reading group for scholars interested in premodern Sinographic text (古文). The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars.

photo of colloquium session people with slide of incense burner in the background
CCCC session with Professor Bruce Rusk.

Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.

A stone engraved in classical Chinese
  • At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.

  • No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.

Contact eap-guwen@cornell.edu(link sends email) for more information and
subscribe to CCCC news(link sends email) for updates about events. Please make sure to send your subscription request from the email address at which you wish to receive CCCC updates.

Spring 2025

All text-reading sessions take place in Rockefeller Hall, Room 374 (Asian Studies Lounge) at 3:30-5:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise.

1/31 “Biographies of Exemplary Women” in 19th century Vietnam(link is external)

 Kathlene Baldanza, Asian Studies, Penn State University


2/28 “Accidental Status: Reassessing Protection Privilege in Northern Song (960-1127)”(link is external)

Eric S. Lee, History, Cornell University


3/21 "Sacred Performances and Epigraphic Echoes: Temple Festivals in North China during Late Medieval China"(link is external)

Yumeng Zhang, Asian Literature, Religion & Culture, Cornell University


4/18 Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium(link is external)

Thomas P. Kelly, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University


Previous Text Readings

Fall 2024

9/27 Bingta menghen lu 病榻夢痕 [Traces of Dreams on a Sick Man’s Bed](link is external)

Patricia Buckley Ebrey, History, University of Washington


10/25 Burning Wood to Fire Ceramics in Jingdezhen(link is external)

Chen Kaijun, East Asian Studies, Brown University


11/2 Blood and the injured body in literate Chinese medicine: Two cases from the formulary of Xu Shuwei(link is external)

Yi-Li Wu, Women’s and Gender Studies and History, University of Michigan


11/15 Classical Chinese in Mexico, in 1923, on Mesmerism: Two Examples(link is external)

Xiangjun Feng, East Asian Studies, University of Toronto


Spring 2024

2/2 The Emergence of the Yuan non-Han Ancestry in Late Qing North China(link is external)

Tomoyasu Liyama, Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Waseda University


3/8 Animating Forces(link is external)

Andrew Schonebaum, East Asian Studies, University of Maryland


3/22 Epitaphs Made Widely Available(link is external)

Man Xu, History, Tufts University


4/12 Naming and Knowledge in the East Asian Sea.(link is external)

Su-yeon Seo, Asian Studies, Cornell University


Fall 2023

9/22 Cosmic Correlations in Dali-Kingdom Buddhism(link is external) 

Megan Bryson, Religious Studies, University of Tennessee


10/20 Old Ghosts in Tang Chang'an: Two Stories(link is external) 

Xin Wen, East Asian Studies, Princeton University


11/10 Kang Youwei's Roman Diaries (1904)(link is external) 

Haun Saussy, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago


Spring 2023

2/17 Content and Form: Dunhuang Anthologies of Tang Poetry(link is external)

Casey Stevens, Asian Studies, Cornell University


3/31 Xunzi's (荀子) "On Rituals" (禮論)(link is external)

Michael Nylan, History, UC Berkeley


4/14 How does Language Work?: Vasubandhu(世親)’s Discussions from the Abhidharmakośa(bhāṣya) (阿毘達磨倶舍論)”(link is external)

Liyu Hua, Asian Studies, Cornell University


4/21 Xingke tiben: A Murder Case from 1762(link is external)

Matthew Sommer, History, Stanford University


Fall 2022

10/14 Reading Artisanal Knowledge from 16th century Korea(link is external)

Kang Hyeok Hweon, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Washington University at St. Louis


10/28 "The Record of the Relocation of the Stone Classics to the Prefectural School of Jingzhao Prefecture."(link is external)

Jeffrey Moser, History of Art and Architecture, Brown University


11/11 A Taiping General’s Poem in the Anti-Qing Revolution(link is external)

Yue (Mara) Du, History, Cornell University


12/2 "What Troubles the World is Inequality": Politics Before Metaphysics in Guo Xiang's 郭象 (252-312) Zhuangzi 莊子 Commentary(link is external)

Lucas Bender, East Asian Languages, Yale University


Spring 2022

2/11 "Gong Xin, Xin ke zeng bu gu jin yi jian 新刻增補古今醫鑑" (1576)(link is external)

Jingya Guo, History, Cornell University


4/15 The 1265 Dual Steles: Narrating, Visualizing, and Gendering a Quanzhen Daoist Lineage on Stone(link is external)

Wang Jin Ping, History, National University of Singapore


5/6 "Fengshui in Texts from Qing China."(link is external)

Tristan Brown, History, MIT


5/20 Chinese Buddhist liturgical texts (zhaiwen 齋文) composed largely in parallel prose (pianliwen 駢儷文 or siliuwen 四六文)(link is external)

Stephen Teiser, Religion, Princeton University


Fall 2021

10/1 Songs to Encourage the Cessation of Litigation (Xisong ge 息訟歌) in Ming and Qing.(link is external)

Joseph Dennis, History, University of Wisconsin


10/29 Qiu Jun's "Daxue yanyi bu"(link is external)

Tim Brook, History, University of British Columbia


11/12 “Yuan-Ming Nourishing Life (yangsheng) Texts: the Discourse of Men.”(link is external)

He Bian, History and East Asian Studies, Princeton University


12/3 Fan Zongshi's "Jiang shouju yuanchi ji" and the Reception of an Impossible Text(link is external)

Nathan Vedal, East Asian Studies, University of Toronto


Spring 2021

2/12 Writing and Printing for Praying: Colophons of Dali Buddhist Scriptures(link is external)

Yuanyuan Duan, Asian Studies, Cornell University


3/5 The Dao of soliciting a patron:  Zheng Xia   (1041-1119)'s "Letter presented to [the] Transport Intendant"  上漕車書 (Anon, Guo chao er bai jia ming xian wen cui  國朝二百家名賢文粹)(link is external)

Beverly Bossler, History, Brown University


4/2 Qianlong Emperor’s Poem, “On the Mirror”(link is external) 

Sophie Volpp, East Asian Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature, UC Berkely


5/8 Phonology and Human Difference in the Late Ming: Chen Di's "Mao shi guyin kao zixu (Author's Preface to Investigation of the Ancient Pronunciations in the Mao Odes)" (1606)(link is external)

Leigh Jenco, Government, London School of Economics and Political Science


Fall 2020

9/11 “Rhetorical and Receptional Politics of Cheng Xuanying’s (ca. 605-690) Commentary on Zhuangzi”(link is external)

Shuheng “Diana” Zhang, East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania


10/17 Diary of a temple association from Shanxi and a ritual text that likely originated in Guizhou province. (link is external)

Meir Shahar, East Asian Affairs, Tel Aviv University


11/13 Bones, Brains, and Meridians: Animated Anatomy and Image-Text Analysis(link is external)

Lan Li, Humanities, Rice University


12/4 Reading Adultery in the Criminal Records of Late Chosŏn Korea(link is external)

Jisoo Kim, History, George Washington University


Spring 2020

1/31 Sengyou on Translating Scripture: China’s First Attempt to Conceptualize a Literary Other(link is external)

Dan Boucher, Buddhist Studies, Cornell University


5/1 [CANCELED] Advertising Commercial publications in Early Modern China: Paratexts and Targeted Readerships(link is external)

Cynthia Brokaw, History, Brown University


Fall 2019

10/4 The Material Power of Stone in Writing(link is external)

Dorothy Ko, History, Barnard College


10/18 What You Can Buy and What You Can’t: Two Essays From Xianqing Ouji(link is external)

Tina Lu, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University


11/15 Humans as Drugs (renyao 人藥) in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Selected Texts from Chinese Materia Medica (bencao 本草)(link is external)

Chung Erqi, Philosophy, Syracuse University


12/6 Literary Prowess and Politics among the Vietnamese in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries(link is external)

Keith Taylor, History, Cornell University


Spring 2019

2/22 A Unique Eunuch Document of the late Qianlong Reign(link is external)

Norman Kutcher, History, Syracuse University


3/8 The Shinsen jikyō (898-901) preface and the move from glossae collectae to dictionary(link is external)

John Whitman, Linguistics, Cornell University


4/19 Digital humanities workshop on Methods of Digital Prosopography: Data Mining and Data Visualization(link is external)

Song Chen, Chinese History, Bucknell University


5/3 Carved in Stone: The Use of Engraved Stele in Song Local Governance, 960-1279(link is external)

Zoe Shan Lin, History, Ithaca College


Fall 2018

10/26 One of the earliest miracle tales about Guanshiyin (Avalokiteśvara)(link is external)

Victor Mair, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania


11/2 “Expressions of the heart from the exuberances of wind, clouds, moon, and dew”: encounters with a poetess in the Record of Lingering Fragrance (1814)(link is external)

Hoai Khai Tran, Asian Studies, Cornell University


11/21 Digital humanities - new ways to mine online databases for Chinese Studies(link is external)

Michael Stanley-Baker, History and Medical Humanities, Nanyang Technological University


Spring 2018

2/23 Thinking Through Parallels: The Classic of Odes and its Echoes in Early Sources(link is external)

Micheal Hunter, East Asian Languages & Literatures, Yale University


3/16 Religious Boilerplate vs. Snapshot of the Once Lived: A Middle-Distanced Reading of the Entombed ‘Letters to the Underworld’ 告地書(link is external)

Dewei Shen, East Asian Studies, Stanford University


4/20 Many Ming Temple Inscriptions from Henan(link is external)

Bruce Rusk, Asian Studies, University of British Columbia


5/4 The Re-Theorization of Ritual Healing in Song Huizong’s Comprehensive Record of Sagely Beneficence 聖濟總錄(link is external)

TJ Hinrich, History, Cornell University


Fall 2017

9/8 Excessive Cult or Proper Ritual? Religious Boundaries and Imperial Politics as Seen from a Shanghai Manuscript”〈柬大王泊旱〉(link is external)

Guolong Lai, Art History, University of Florida


9/29 The Bells of Liang Qi 梁其鐘 : A Musical Reading of a 9th-century BCE Chinese Bronze Inscription(link is external)

Jeffrey Tharsen, Humanities, University of Chicago


10/20 Cantonese Migrant Networks: Two Stone Inscriptions from the West River Basin(link is external)

Steven B. Miles, History, University of Washington in St. Louis


11/17 A Ming Dynasty Inscription on the Sublime Relationship between Humans and Spirits at the Lingqiu Temple at Fajiu Mountain, Zhangzi county, Changzhi, Shanxi (明嘉靖九年(1530)重修靈湫廟記神神人人之事:山西長治長子縣發鳩山的靈湫廟碑文)(link is external)

Robin McNeal, Asian Studies, Cornell University


Spring 2017

3/3 What Was Writing for? Transmission Scenes in Warring States Excavated Manuscripts(link is external)

Du Heng, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Harvard University


4/14 The Charms of Mandarin in the Qīng and the Key to Northern and Southern Guānhuà(link is external)

Richard Vanness Simmons, Languages, Rutgers University


4/21 Of Turnips and Apricots: Livelihood and Lifestyle in the Northern Wei as Seen through the Agricultural Treatise Qímín Yàoshù 齊民要術(link is external)

Francesca Bray, Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh


5/5 Reading Sinitic Medical Texts in Mid Edo period Japan: Kagawa Shūtoku (1683-1755)(link is external)

Clarence Lee, Business, Cornell University


Fall 2016

Vietnamese Regulated Verse in Two Poets: Nguyễn Trãi (1380-1442) and Hồ Xuân Hương (1772-1822)

John Phan, Asian Studies, Rutgers University


Chan Buddhist Interpretations of the Investigation of Things (gewu): Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163) and Hanshan Deqing (1546-1623)

Ari Borrell, International Bibliography, Modern Language Association


Preface, Guiyi fang

Xiao Rong, History, Shenzhen University


Negotiated Past: Zeng Bu’s (1036-1107) Diary and Court Politics in Twelfth-Century China

Yung-chang Tung, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University


Spring 2016

2/19 Cho Soang's 赵素昂 (1887-1958) Preface to Hanguo wenyuan 韓國文苑 (1932)(link is external)

Han Songyeol, East Asian Studies, Princeton University


Ming Tongue-Biting Cases

Chen Shiau-Yun, History, Cornell University


Wang Jianxun ⺩王建勳, “Chongxiu hetaosidagu miao bei ji” 重修河套四⼤大股廟碑記, 1898

Wang Yi, History, Binghamton University


How to Read Editorial Principles: Yu Chu xinzhi 虞初新志 and Installment Publication

Son Suyoung, Asian Studies, Cornell University