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Classical Chinese Poetry in Korea
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The Studio in the Mind
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Conference: Poetics and Politics of Embodiment in Premodern China
Speaker: Dr. Baoyu Xu, Chonnam National University, South Korea
Date: February 20, 2026, 11:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.
In this workshop, Prof. Baoyu Xu and students from EAST 533: Classical Chinese will explore Sinitic writing in premodern East Asia, with a particular focus on the circulation of classical Chinese poetry in Korea and on hansi 漢詩 (Chinese poetry) composed by Korean scholars. Participants will also compare thematically similar Sinitic poems written in China, Japan, and Korea, and examine how their sounds and scripts differ. The workshop is open to the public.
Please RSVP to receive optional readings.
The studio, or shuzhai 書齋, was an enclosed site specifically used for reading, writing, and artistic creation. Although a few studios were recorded in pre-Song texts, it was during the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the studio had become a prominent cultural space for literati. It was both an object of scholarly representation and the medium through which the literatus’ everyday practices were affected. Even when Song literati had to be away from the physical studio for reasons such as official service or sightseeing, or when they could not afford a physical studio, they were still engaged in constructing a temporary studio or even a virtual studio in their minds.
This talk thus focuses on the strategies that Song literati employed to symbolically assert a separate space apart from the outside world and therefore ensure scholarly enjoyment and mental delight in privacy even under unstable conditions.
Speaker: Dr. Yunshuang Zhang, Assistant Professor of Chinese, Wayne State University
Date: March 27, 2025, 4:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M.
More information TBA