Inquiries into the Excavated Bamboo Text "Hengxian" - Meaning and Importance

August 29, 8:00am - 5:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Sakamaki B-102

The excavated document "Hengxian" is extremely important for understanding the ontology and cosmology of both Yizhuan and Daodejing. In plain language, it raised the question as to whether there is always something or nothing before anything. It is a question which sounds Leibnizian and Heideggerian, but the Chinese answers could be all different. It shows how ancient Chinese thinking in 3-4 century BCE has somehow anticipated the most crucial question of cosmic existence and human existence in contemporary metaphysics and physics.

Because of the extreme importance of this question, we are gathering a number of 14 scholars from top universities in China who are experts on Chinese excavated materials 1973-2003 apart from their being scholars in Chinese philosophy. We can expect a variety of points of view and even some genuine disagreements which reflect richness of Chinese philosophical thinking. No doubt, they will add fuel to debates on contemporary ontology and cosmology from the Chinese philosophical perspective.

This conference of two days is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, with contributions from various individuals.


Event Sponsor
Philosophy, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(207) 577-9235, Symposium Flyer (PDF)

Share by email