A nice meeting down at BU...

Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting with Professor John Berthrong over at Boston University; I had taken several classes with him, one on Confucianism, the other on Zhu Xi. He was also a member of my comps board (for classical Confucianism--I read Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi, plus plenty of secondary literature). I gave him an update on the dissertation (a rather short update), and then we got talking to other things, as I had a bunch of questions for him.

I asked him to recommend a good textbook for classical Chinese. He recommended something from Harvard University Press, but he couldn't remember the name. I wonder if it was An Introduction to Literary Chinese by Michael Fuller, or the revised edition. We also got around to discussing Chinese dictionaries. He recommended the dictionaries of Séraphin Couvreur (Sinologist and a French Jesuit), Lin Yu-tang, H.G. Creel, Herbert A. Giles (who collaborated with Sir Thomas Francis Wade to develop the romanization system that bears their names)

I wonder if any of the following would be useful...
Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar by Edward Pulleyblank (amazon)
A New Introduction to Classical Chinese by Raymond Dawson (amazon)
Classical Chinese : A Basic Reader in Three Volumes

Professor Berthrong recommended that in addition to the Journal of Chinese Philosophy (Blackwell site) and Philosophy East and West I should keep in mind the Dao and The Journal of Ecumenical Studies. The Journal of Asian Studies might be good too.

He sees the job market for people doing Chinese or Asian philosophy as being rather good. He cited Jesuit universities as examples; there may be an increase in programs doing comparative philosophy or theology. Though I do have an interest in Confucianism and would like to do something to keep the tradition alive, my suspicion is that it is largely futile, at least for mainstream Asian society. I don't know how much influence Confucians have in a country like South Korea, but in Hong Kong and China it seems mostly limited to academic circles. Are things better in Taiwan?

The conversion of the Taiwanese ambassador to the Vatican illustrates the finite nature of cultures and traditions that have outlived their usefulness as a preparation for the gospel. When the Jesuits first came to China perhaps the harmonization of Confucianism and Christianity could have been achieved with a great impact on the evangelization of Chinese society, but the rites controversy created an obstacle for many Chinese. It is not clear to me whether such an assimilation was accomplished more readily in Korea, since the first Christian converts were scholars who had taken the initiative to learn about Christianity. But even in Korea, with the suppression and persecution of the Catholic Church I suspect such an assimilation was hindered from flowering completely. Then again, evangelization of a whole nation is rarely (never?)accomplished through philosophy--both because the pursuit of human wisdom is limited to a few and also because what is more important in the majority of cases is a moral conversion, not an intellectual conversion. It can take that route for those who are more intellectually inclined, but the preparation for justification for most people is accomplished in other ways.

Tu Weiming is at the Harvard-Yenching Institute; he is keen on showing the relevance of Confucianism today. Before I return to California at the end of the month I'll try to contact Professors Tu and Philip J. Ivanhoe (at BU) to see if I can make an appointment for them to sign some books.

It was good to talk to someone in academics who would provide encouragement and support. Still, if I were to hazard a guess I would say it is likely that I will not end up in academics. But more on that if and when it happens.

The Boston Theological Institute.
(hrm, the Manyoshu)