Presented by: Professor John Minford

Thursdays starting on 24 September until 29 October, 11:00am–1:00pm

As a brief sequel to last semester's readings, Professor Minford has selected six of his favourite topics from the forthcoming second volume of the Anthology, being edited by him and Christina Sanderson, and to be published by Columbia University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, subtitled somewhat prosaically ‘From the Song dynasty to the end of the Manchu dynasty’. Draft chapters will be circulated to those who register for the seminar. So do please email John an ‘expression of interest’ and he will add your name to the attendance-list: john.minford@anu.edu.au

John Minford was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1968 with a degree in Chinese Studies. Over the subsequent fifteen years, he worked closely with David Hawkes on the Penguin Classics version of the eighteenth-century novel The Story of the Stone. He came to Canberra in 1977 and studied for his PhD under the late Liu Ts’un-yan. He went on to translate for Viking/Penguin a selection from Pu Songling’s Strange Tales and Sunzi’s The Art of War. His most recent book is a new translation, with commentary, of The Book of Changes. Since 2006 he has been Professor of Chinese at the ANU.

Course Schedule - Semester 2

Week 1

24 September

The Song Dynasty Lyric 宋詞

An introduction to some of the finest practitioners in this new and almost untranslatable poetic genre, including Qin Guan 秦觀, Liu Yong 柳永 and the greatest Chinese woman-poet of any period Li Qingzhao 李清照.

Listen to the lecture here

Week 2

1 October

The Song Dynasty Lyric 宋詞

An introduction to some of the finest practitioners in this new and almost untranslatable poetic genre, including Qin Guan 秦觀, Liu Yong 柳永 and the greatest Chinese woman-poet of any period Li Qingzhao 李清照.

Listen to the lecture here

Week 3

8 October

The Classical Tale

Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio蒲松齡聊齋志異, the final culmination of the tradition established by the earlier zhiguai志怪 stories ‘of the strange’ and the Tang tales chuanqi 傳奇.

Listen to the lecture here

Week 4

15 October

The Story of the Stone石頭記/ 紅樓夢

China’s greatest novel. John will talk about the wonderful post-modern study of the novel, Re-reading The Stone, as a tribute to its author, the late Anthony Yu. He will also show an extract from the ‘In Conversations’ video they made together back in 2008.

No podcast available

Week 5

22 October

Six Chapters of a Floating Life 浮生六記

This and other personal memoirs of the Ming-Qing period, such as Quiet Dream Shadows 幽夢影 will be discussed. Little known, but of superb quality, these poignant works continue the grand tradition of biji 筆記 _belles lettres_literature.

Location: CIW Library

No podcast available

Week 6

29 October

Qing Dynasty Poetry of the 18th Century

Yuan Mei 袁枚 as translated by Arthur Waley, the lyric verse of the Manchu poet Nalan Xingde 納蘭性德.

No podcast available

Further information on John Minford's course can be found here, held in Semester 1 2015.