Lectures & Other Activities

The Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute is committed to promoting intellectual exchange of Chinese Humanities in academia between East and West. The Institute is very glad to collaboate with the HKBU Institute of Creativity, with sponsorship from Hung Hin Shiu Charitable Foundation, to invite Professor Anna M. Shields from the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University to visit HKBU for two weeks during March and April 2025 and deliver a public lecture and a research seminar, to share her latest research findings and insight. 

Lecture by HKBU Institute of Creativity Distinguished Visitor: Transmission and Transformation: Shaping the Tang Literary Legacy in the Five Dynasties and Northern Song

Organizers: Institute of Creativity and Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute, HKBU
Date: 28 March 2025, Friday
Time: 10:00-11:30am
Venue: Dr. Wu Yee Sun Lecture Theatre (WLB 109), Lam Woo International Conference Centre, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
Speaker: Professor Anna M. Shields (Gordon Wu ’58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University; Institute of Creativity Distinguished Visitor, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Moderator: Professor Zhang Hongsheng (Director of Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Language: Mandarin

With speaker's authorization, video of the lecture can be viewed here: https://hkbutube.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/%E5%82%B3%E6%89%BF%E8%88%87%E8%AE%8A%E9%9D%A9%E5%94%90%E4%BB%A3%E6%96%87%E5%AD%B8%E9%81%BA%E7%94%A2%E5%9C%A8%E4%BA%94%E4%BB%A3%E5%8C%97%E5%AE%8B%E7%9A%84%E9%87%8D%E5%A1%91

Summary:

美國普林斯頓大學東亞學系的田安教授於2025年3月28日上午蒞臨我校，為校內外師友、同學展開了題為「傳承與變革：唐代文學遺產在五代北宋的重塑」的講座。是次講座，田安教授希望超越過往傳統的文學接受史的迷思，聚焦《文苑英華》、《新唐書》與《唐詩紀事》三個核心案例，從文化生產的角度探討十一世紀的宋代人如何繼承唐代文學遺產，將唐代文學納入自身的文化體系。

首先，田安教授介紹了知識轉移的時代背景。五代十國（907-978）至北宋（960-1127）是唐代文學傳承的關鍵時期。唐滅亡後，戰亂導致大量文獻散佚，但南方諸國（如南唐、吳越）的藏書事業為北宋初的大規模彙編奠定了基礎。歐陽修在《蘇氏文集序》中以「金玉」比喻唐代文學，強調其雖歷經埋沒，但終將被後世「收而寶之」。這種信念也反映宋人對自身文化使命的自信，即通過系統性整理、重建唐代文學的典範性。

田安教授介紹的第一個案例是《文苑英華》，它代表著北宋對於唐代文學多維度的想像。《文苑英華》由宋太宗下令編纂，最終成書於987年，收錄唐代詩文19,000餘篇，分38類體裁，共1000卷。南宋的周必大在1201-1204年間重新修訂並付印。這本著作展現出對唐代政治、空間和社會的想像（一個社會的價值結構設想）。政治想像層面，該書突出科舉文體（如省試詩、應制詩）與帝王作品（唐太宗《帝京篇》佔75篇）；空間想像層面，該書以賦體描繪長安、洛陽等象徵性空間（如劉允濟《明堂賦》）；社會想像層面，該書則強調文章作為公務和同質性精英社交的產物，淡化個人化創作。宇文所安曾批評《文苑英華》的收錄標準混亂，認為是抄書吏任性妄為的產物。田安教授則指出，《文苑英華》的文本選取與分類體現宋人對唐代社會的結構性理解，這些作品被系統特性所掩蓋，是價值觀的視覺化投射。

田安教授介紹的第二個案例是《新唐書》列傳（以李白列傳為中心），其背後蘊藏宋人對文學傳統的修正與道德典範的重構。宋祁（998-1061）在編撰《新唐書》時刻意縮短或刪減原始文獻中的引文，並刪減《舊唐書》中的矛盾記載，強化文人的道德形象。以李白傳為例，宋祁刪除了「醉酒失態」、「永王叛亂」等爭議，新增郭子儀救李白的軼事，並引用中唐以後其他作家對李白的追憶和致敬，將李白重塑為「才高脫俗」的典範詩人。而在韓愈列傳中，《新唐書》將韓愈比作孟子，強調其「反佛老、復儒道」的功績，弱化《舊唐書》對其性格缺陷的描寫，最終奠定其儒學復興者的地位。以上的修正與重塑，都是宋祁意圖通過史書編纂，將唐代文人納入宋代儒學復興的敘事，亦反映出北宋古文運動對「文以載道」的推崇。

田安教授介紹的第三個案例是《唐詩紀事》（以晚唐詩人溫庭筠為核心），它象徵著對詩人形象與文學觀念認知的多元化。《唐詩紀事》由南宋的計有功編纂，其中輯錄1,150位唐代詩人、81卷 2300+唐詩引文、上百個其他文獻的引文。在計有功的編撰中，讀者往往辨認不出有意義的結構體系，這是因為他通過運用不同形式的唐文學知識，揭示出原始材料之間存在的張力：有時通過傳記、逸事為詩歌脈絡化，有時有通過詩歌為理解詩人提供基礎。於此，有意義的張力替代了明晰的詮釋方式——政治實踐、逸事、詩歌的混合運用，最終也形成了唐代新知識，開啟時人多元的認知模式。計有功死後，他的兒子把手稿交給了一位眉山官員，經過多年修訂，最終於1224年付印。《唐詩紀事》在處理溫庭筠的案例時，做到了才華出眾與品行爭議並存，既載其「才思豔麗」，亦錄「德行有虧」之評。在收錄《陽春曲》《蘇武廟》等代表作的同時，也保留了「科場舞弊」「傲視帝王」的負面軼事，因而呈現出唐代詩人的複雜性，反映南宋對文學價值與道德標準的雙重關注。此外，溫庭筠的《蘇武廟》被重新解讀為歷史反思之作，超越其過往的「艷情」標籤。於此，該書突破了官方文獻的單一視角，體現出南宋時人對唐代文學的多元化認知。

最後，田安教授以普林斯頓大學藏黃庭堅《贈張大同古文題記》（約1100年）為例，強調物質文本（如石刻、文集）在文化傳承中的媒介作用，呼籲關注文獻載體與思想史的互動關係。

(Recorded by Chen Keyu, research postgraduate of the Institute)

Research Seminar: Approaches to Studying Emotions in Middle Period China

Organizers: Institute of Creativity and Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute, HKBU
Date: 1 April 2025, Tuesday
Time: 10:00-11:30am
Venue: Room RRS903, 9/F, Sir Run Run Shaw Building, Ho Sin Hang Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
Speaker: Professor Anna M. Shields (Gordon Wu ’58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University; Institute of Creativity Distinguished Visitor, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Moderator: Professor Zhang Hongsheng (Director of Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Language: English

Speaker biography:

Anna M. Shields, Gordon Wu ’58 Professor of Chinese Studies, received her A.M. from Harvard University and her Ph.D. from Indiana University. She specializes in classical Chinese literature of the Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song eras. Her particular interests include literary history and the emergence of new literary genres and styles in late medieval China; the sociology of literature; and the role of emotions in classical literature. Her first book, Crafting a Collection: The Cultural Contexts and Poetic Practice of the Collection from among the Flowers (Huajianji) (Harvard Asia Center, 2006) examined the emergence of the song lyric in this path-breaking anthology. Her second book, One Who Knows Me: Friendship and Literary Culture in Mid-Tang China (Harvard Asia Center, 2015) explores the literary performance of friendship in ninth-century China through a wide range of genres, including letters, prefaces, exchange poetry, and funerary texts. One Who Knows Me was awarded the Honorable Mention for the Joseph Levenson Book Prize (pre-1900 China) from the Association for Asian Studies in 2017. Her most recent publication is the 2023 co-edited volume (with Gil Raz, Dartmouth College), Religion and Poetry in Medieval China: The Way and the Words (Amsterdam University Press). She is also co-editing with Robert Hymes (Columbia University) a two-volume set of essays from the Tang-Song Transitions Workshops and Conference held from 2017-2022 at Princeton and Columbia. In 2024, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to complete her third monograph, currently titled Legacies of Gold and Jade: Transmissions of Tang Dynasty Literature in the Five Dynasties and Northern Song. As a member of the editorial board of the Library of Chinese Humanities, she is serving as the editor for Ronald Egan’s four-volume translation of the selected works of Su Shi. She chaired the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton from 2018-2019 and 2020-2024.