Drama and Philosophy: Nine Classics from the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties
Reading Chinese Classics, Season 12
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Audio in Chinese
Speaker
Yang Zhao
About this program
Introduction to Reading Chinese Classics
Ideas and art in an age of cultural rupture
Across the transitions from Song to Yuan and Yuan to Ming, scholars moved from court to marketplace and stage. Chan Buddhists, playwrights, and Confucian thinkers pushed language, emotion, and moral consciousness beyond inherited boundaries.
Yang Zhao leads close readings of nine classics, including the Platform Sutra, Blue Cliff Record, the two versions of The Western Chamber, The Injustice to Dou E, Wang Yangming’s Instructions for Practical Living, and Huang Zongxi’s survey of Ming Confucian thought.
The season asks whether language can reach truth, whether feeling can break through ritual convention, and whether conscience can transform the world.