Conference:

Writing and Literacy in Early China

February 7-8, 2009

Kent Hall 403, Columbia University

Sponsored by

The University Seminars, Columbia University

The CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinology, USA

Program:

Saturday, February 7:

8:45-9:00 am: Coffee and breakfast

9:00-9:15: Welcoming remarks by David Branner/ Project report by Li Feng

9:15-10:00: “Literacy and the Emergence of Writing in China,” William G. Boltz, University of

Washington

10:00-11:45: “Heavenly Pattern Reading (tianwen) and the Origins of Writing,” David W.

Pankenier, Lehigh University

11:45-12:00: Coffee break

12:00-12:45: “Phonology in the Chinese Script and its Relationship to Early Chinese Literacy,”

David Prager Branner, American Oriental Society

12:45-2:00 pm: Lunch

2:00-2:45: “Literacy to the South and the East of Anyang in Shang China: Zhengzhou and

Daxinzhuang,” Ken-ichi Takashima, University of British Columbia

2:45-3:30: “The evidence for scribal training at Anyang,” Adam Smith, Stanford University

3:30-3:45: Coffee break

3:45-4:30: “The Royal Audience and Its Reflections in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions,”

Lothar von Falkenhausen, UCLA

4:30-5:15: “Literacy and the Social Contexts of Writing in the Western Zhou,” Li Feng,

Columbia University

6:30-8:30 Dinner at Wuliangye

Sunday, February 8:

8:45-9:00 am: Coffee and breakfast

9:00-9:45: “Education and the Way of the Former Kings,” Constance A. Cook, Lehigh

University

9:45-10:30: “Soldiers, Scribes and Women: Literacy among the Lower Orders in Early China,”

Robin D.S. Yates, McGill University

10:30-10:45: Coffee break

10:45-11:30: “Craftsman’s Literacy: Uses of Writing among Male and Female Artisans in Qin

and Han China” (Illustrations), Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, UCSB

11:30-12:15: “Textual Identity and the Role of Writing in the Transmission of Early Chinese

Literature” (Illustrations), Matthias L. Richter, University of Colorado, Boulder

12:45 pm: Conference closes.

(All presentation slots include 15 minutes for question and discussion)

Information and questions to:

Li Feng ([email protected])

David Branner ([email protected])

Nick Vogt ([email protected])