Script and Sound in Old Chinese
Nov, 03/2018
This was an exciting international event Dr. Adam D. Smith and I co-organized! We were particularly interested in discussing reconstructions of “Old Chinese,” the earliest recoverable stage of the Chinese language, a task that has been made more challenging, more exciting, and more urgent by the huge quantities of early texts that have been excavated and published in China in recent decades. These include literary, philosophical, technical and administrative writings. The biggest challenge that the new material presents was the great diversity of syllabic spellings that have not previously been encountered in the orthography of received literature.
The symposium took place over two days. The first session aimed to position Old Chinese within a larger context of early writing systems, with presentations concerning Sumerian and Mayan writing, whose research questions about connections between sound and script are similar to Chinese. Interdisciplinary dialogue was furthered by the presence of a cognitive scientist, who discussed research about how the brain mediates representation of phonology by means of writing. Historic writing systems, for which no exact contemporary analogs remain in use, provide the “fossil record” of the human capacity for literacy, to complement the behavioral evidence observed in the laboratory.
Subsequent sessions gave room to scholars of Early China to discuss new orthographic evidence, and how to produce a richer and more accurate linguistic reconstruction of Old Chinese. The symposium closed with a close reading of the Qiong da yi shi 窮達以時 (Frustration or Achievement depends on a Timely Opportunity), a manuscript found in a tomb nearby Guodian 郭店 in 1993. It tells the story of several persons who could have not become successful ministers had they not encountered the right person at the right time: in other words, success depends on a timely encounter with the right person.
This close reading was led by William Baxter, one of the specialists who dedicated his work to reconstructions of Old Chinese, and Dr. Smith, during which several difficult readings were resolved through the collaboration of participants. Check out the list of presentations here.
We could not have done this without the support of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Center for Ancient Studies, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the Penn Museum, and the Penn Price Lab.
The symposium took place over two days. The first session aimed to position Old Chinese within a larger context of early writing systems, with presentations concerning Sumerian and Mayan writing, whose research questions about connections between sound and script are similar to Chinese. Interdisciplinary dialogue was furthered by the presence of a cognitive scientist, who discussed research about how the brain mediates representation of phonology by means of writing. Historic writing systems, for which no exact contemporary analogs remain in use, provide the “fossil record” of the human capacity for literacy, to complement the behavioral evidence observed in the laboratory.
Subsequent sessions gave room to scholars of Early China to discuss new orthographic evidence, and how to produce a richer and more accurate linguistic reconstruction of Old Chinese. The symposium closed with a close reading of the Qiong da yi shi 窮達以時 (Frustration or Achievement depends on a Timely Opportunity), a manuscript found in a tomb nearby Guodian 郭店 in 1993. It tells the story of several persons who could have not become successful ministers had they not encountered the right person at the right time: in other words, success depends on a timely encounter with the right person.
This close reading was led by William Baxter, one of the specialists who dedicated his work to reconstructions of Old Chinese, and Dr. Smith, during which several difficult readings were resolved through the collaboration of participants. Check out the list of presentations here.
We could not have done this without the support of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Center for Ancient Studies, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the Penn Museum, and the Penn Price Lab.
