Handout for Robert Wardy's Workshop

Authenticities East and West
March 30 - April 1, 2001

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INAUTHENTICITY: some examples

first example: false pretences

(i) "to lead a discussion on a comparative topic of your choice"

(ii) "exotic" encounters

(iii) (chung kuo): disorientation and comparison as practice, not product

second example: getting names right

(i) "a strategy of comparative reading which, though historically informed, does not depend on an historical connection or influence for comparison"

(ii) to compare and contrast Plato's Cratylus on "the correctness of names" (ho orthotês tôn onomatôn, ) with Xunzi's "name rectification" (, cheng ming): a parody?

third example: wily Jesuits

(i) friends by any name: (p'eng-you) and amicus

(ii) the associations of (i), "one"

(iii) represented dialogue and (tao cheng ch'uan), "orthodox transmission of the Way"

(iv) "comparison" as a hermeneutic universal?

fourth example: glossing the text

(i) again, the precedence of practice over product

(ii) Question: "what constitutes an authentic text, genre, or author in disparate traditions?" Chinese answer: commentary; Western answer: commentary

(iii) the circle of authority

(iv) inauthentic pretensions?

fifth example: tact(lessness) and tyrants

(i) (tyrannos) and (pa, "hegemon")

(ii) no Chinese "rhetoric"

(iii) Greek horizontal transactions

(iv) Isocrates: against the barbarian and for efficacy

(v) Mencius: Chinese vertical transactions and (i wei), "to depose"

(vi) Alexander and Augustus

(vii) against sociopolitical determinism

sixth example: communication?

(i) Chuang Tzu: is there speech without (pien)?

(ii) Gorgias: is this (logos) nothing but a (paignion), an "amusement"?

texts

Chuang Tzu, "The sorting which evens things out", in Chuang-Tzu, The Inner Chapters, trans., A. C. Graham: pp.48-61, especially p.52

Gorgias, Encomium of Helen, ed. and trans., D. MacDowell

Isocrates, "To Philip", in Isocrates vol. 1, ed., G. Norlin, especially pp.252-5

Mencius, 1B:6; 5B:9

Plato, Cratylus

Proclus, Commentarium in Platonis Parmenidem: to be sampled

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, trans., G. Morrow and J. Dillon: to be sampled

M. Ricci, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (T'ien-chu Shih-i), trans., D. Lancashire and P. H. Kuo-chen, ed., E. Malatesta: pp.56-61; 100-101; 408-11

The Elder Seneca, Suasoria I, in The Elder Seneca vol.2, ed., M. Winterbottom

Xunzi, On the Correct Use of Names, in J. Knoblock, Xunzi, a translation and study of the complete works, vol. III: pp.127-38

commentary

J. Dillon, "A Case-Study in Commentary: the Neoplatonic Exegesis of the Proomia of Plato's Dialogues", in G. Most (ed.), Commentaries - Kommentare, pp.206-22

J. Henderson, Scripture, Canon, and Commentary, A Comparison of Confucian and Western Exegesis

R. Wagner, "Exploring the Common Ground: Buddhist Commentaries on the Taoist Classic Laozi", in G. Most (ed.), Commentaries - Kommentare, pp.95-120

R. Wardy, The Birth of Rhetoric, pp.25-51

R. Wardy, Aristotle in China, pp.69-111

texts available on the internet

The reliability of internet-provided texts has no guarantee. Your mileage may vary.

Plato's Cratylus in English and in Greek from the Perseus Project.

The Chinese texts in Big5 encoding for Xunzi, Mencius, as well as the text of the other Confucian texts are available from the Wesleyan Neo-Confucian E-text Project. English translation for Mencius also available.

Chuang-tzu in Chinese (Big5 encoding) or in Lin Yutang's English translation.

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