Nathanael Vincent and Confucius's ‘great learning’ in restoration England

2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Jenkinson
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
English Language ◽  
Great Learning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Restoration England ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
First Time

This paper outlines the sinological activities of Nathanael Vincent (d. 1722), an obscure and elusive fellow of the Royal Society (1683–7; readmitted 1694) who was also fellow of Clare Hall in Cambridge and chaplain in ordinary to Charles II. An amateur scientist operating in the shadow of the great fellows of the early Royal Society, Vincent's involvement ranged from investigating the work of Denis Papin to presenting a manuscript of Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica . However, his greatest contribution to the intellectual history of the Restoration is located in his 1685 translation of Confucius's ‘Great Learning’, which seems to be the first time that a Confucian book began to be printed in the English language. Hitherto unnoticed, hidden away in an appendix to a court sermon, it nonetheless represented part of the interest in Chinese culture in the circles of the early Royal Society. This paper places Vincent in the context of the activities of the early Royal Society and offers an overview of this interest in sinology. It then considers how Vincent gained access to Confucian texts, how he was able to ‘translate’ from them, and what ramifications the philosophy had for an Anglican divine in Restoration England.

TANG JIANPING'S OPERA "THE DAWNS HERE ARE QUIET": HISTORY OF CREATION AND SPECIFICS OF MUSICAL DRAMATURGY

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-167
Author(s):  
Wang Kaidi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Gender Disparity ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Chinese Opera ◽  
Traditional Chinese Culture ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time ◽  
Russian Identity

The article is devoted to the Opera "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" by the Chinese composer Tang Jianping based on the same-named novel by Boris Vasilyev. The theme of the Great Patriotic War, which for the first time became the plot of the Chinese Opera, was in tune with the theme of the Chinese Resistance to the Japanese Invasion. The composition synthesizes the characteristics of the European opera type in its Russified version, which was reflected in the heroic and epic dramaturgy and multi-part musical text. Russian folklore allusions, quasi- quotes from Russian operas, military-patriotic and Soviet mass songs reflect the author's method. The integrity of musical dramaturgy was given by the leitmotif, which became the main marker of Russian identity in the Opera. The Opera lacks a naturalistic embodiment of the War, and depicts the enemy in a conventional, symbolic way, in the form of unnamed but recognizable figures. The creators of the play sought to reveal the barbaric essence of the War, its anti-human character, to present the psychological state of the heroes and the manifestation of their human nature. The theme of the death of young girls gave a special perspective to the Opera, which is particularly acute in China due to gender disparity. The concept of the composer, director and screenwriter reflects the ideological constants of traditional Chinese culture, which gave the Opera an internal subtext.

Tale and Parable: Theorizing Fictions in the Old English Boethius

PMLA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-355
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Lorden
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Language ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Classical Myth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Consolation Of Philosophy ◽  
First Time ◽  
Fictional Story

AbstractScholarship has often considered the concept of fiction a modern phenomenon. But the Old English Boethius teaches us that medieval people could certainly tell that a fictional story was a lie, although it was hard for them to explain why it was all right that it was a lie—this is the problem the Old English Boethius addresses for the first time in the history of the English language. In translating Boethius's sixth-century Consolation of Philosophy, the ninth-century Old English Boethius offers explanatory comments on its source's narrative exempla drawn from classical myth. While some of these comments explain stories unfamiliar to early medieval English audiences, others consider how such “false stories” may be read and experienced by those properly prepared to encounter them. In so doing, the Old English Boethius must adopt and adapt a terminology for fiction that is unique in the extant corpus of Old English writing.

Tensions and Challenges of Intellectual History in Contemporary Latin America

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-115
Author(s):  
Roberto Breña
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
English Language ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

This article provides an overview of some prominent aspects of intellectual history as practiced today in Latin America, especially regarding conceptual history. It delves into the way this methodology arrived to the region not long ago and discusses the way some of its practitioners combine it with the history of political languages, often ignoring the profound differences between both approaches. Therefore, the text stresses some of the most significant contrasts between them. In its last part, the article is critical of the purported “globality” of global intellectual history, an issue that is inextricably linked with the pervasive use of the English language in the field. Throughout, the text poses several of the challenges that lie ahead for intellectual history in Latin America.

Invisible Bodies

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 33-68
Author(s):  
Lan A. Li
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Material Characteristics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Close Study ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis essay explores the ways in which Lu Gwei-djen (1904–91) served as a gatekeeper for interpreting medicine in China in the second half of the twentieth century. After retiring from science in 1956, Lu set out to write one of the first comprehensive English-language histories of medicine in China. Through a close study of Lu’s work notes and marginalia from later in her life, this essay examines how she carefully articulated the material characteristics of a “Chinese” medicine that gave rise to jingluo, or therapeutic paths often known as “meridians.” I argue that at the heart of this uneasy comparison was the difficult process of translating across multiple expressions of physiology. By placing Lu Gwei-djen at the center of a feminist intellectual history of medicine, this essay further shows how Lu’s translations were influenced by the social hierarchies in which she was embedded, including cultural, gender, and temporal dualities.

Tensions and Challenges of Intellectual History in Contemporary Latin America

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-115
Author(s):  
Roberto Breña
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
English Language ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article provides an overview of some prominent aspects of intellectual history as practiced today in Latin America, especially regarding conceptual history. It delves into the way this methodology arrived to the region not long ago and discusses the way some of its practitioners combine it with the history of political languages, often ignoring the profound differences between both approaches. Therefore, the text stresses some of the most significant contrasts between them. In its last part, the article is critical of the purported “globality” of global intellectual history, an issue that is inextricably linked with the pervasive use of the English language in the field. Throughout, the text poses several of the challenges that lie ahead for intellectual history in Latin America.

Francis Vernon, the Early Royal Society and the First English Encounter with Ancient Greek Architecture

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 29-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Walker
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
English Language ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Initial Exposure ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Architecture ◽  
European Publication ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

Francis Vernon (c. 1637-77) is not a particularly well-known figure in the history of British architecture, but perhaps he should be. In 1675 he became one of the first English people to have set foot in Athens and, the following year, published what was undisputedly the first account in the English language of the city and its architecture. Vernon was a member of the recently founded Royal Society and one of a group of English and French travellers who journeyed through central Greece and Turkey in the 1670s. He was murdered in Isfahan in early 1677. Vernon's account of the time he spent in Athens was published in the Society's journal, thePhilosophical Transactions, in 1676, and it included brief but illuminating descriptions of the Erechtheion, the Temple of Hephaestus and the Parthenon, the latter written over ten years before the bombing of the temple by a Venetian army in 1687. TheTransactionsoften contained both travel writing and antiquarian material and, in this respect, Vernon's account was typical of the journal's somewhat eclectic content in its early years. Significantly, Vernon's publication predated more famous accounts of Greece from the period, such as those written by his travelling companions Jacob Spon (who released hisVoyage d'ltalie, de Dalamatie, de Grèce et du Levantin France in 1678) and George Wheler, whoseA journey into Greecewas published in 1682. Unlike Vernon, both Spon and Wheler survived their journeys. The only European publication on Athens that preceded Vernon's was a French text of 1675 that would prove to be a fabrication. As this article will demonstrate, Vernon's initial exposure of this fabrication was one of the reasons why his account of the city became so important in English intellectual culture at the time.

Introductory remarks

1973 ◽  
Vol 267 (882) ◽  
pp. 3-4
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Agricultural Practice ◽  
Special Committee ◽  
Keen Interest ◽  
National Importance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Royal Charter ◽  
First Time

On behalf of the organizers I should like to add our welcome to that of the President, and to say how gratified we are that this meeting has attracted such a large and distinguished gathering, representative of so many agricultural interests. I think it is not generally known that the Royal Society has a long history of direct interest in agricultural matters, for in 1662, when the Society received its Royal Charter, it appointed a special committee - the Committee for Agriculture, or the Georgicall Committee - which met for the first time in that year on 20 March. This is 311 years ago almost to the day. It is particularly interesting and significant to us meeting here today that the Society and its Committee showed a proper concern for agricultural practice and its national importance, as well, of course, as a keen interest in scientific matters. Furthermore, special measures were initiated to implement the Committee’s ideas and decisions through the members of the Society, and these measures embraced horticultural and forestry topics as well as those of agricultural pertinence.

The Radium Committee of the Royal Society and the fate of the substances purchased by it

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Todd
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Research Fund ◽  
World War ◽  
Ernest Rutherford ◽  
History Of ◽  
Government Laboratory ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Time

In this article, documents relating to the history of the Radium Committee of the Royal Society are collated for the first time. Founded in 1903, the committee had its status enhanced in 1904, when the Goldsmiths' Company donated £1000 for the establishment of a Radium Research Fund. Two years later the fund was used to purchase 500 kg of pitchblende residues from the Austrian government. The French chemist Armet de Lisle was contracted to perform the first stage of extraction, and the process of purification was performed at the Government Laboratory during 1907 by the Government Analyst, T. E. Thorpe, yielding an estimated 70 mg of radium chloride. In 1914 the unexpended balance of about £500 was awarded to Ernest Rutherford, but the bulk was not used until 1921, when Rutherford had moved to Cambridge. The fund was then used to purchase radium that had been on loan to him from Austria before World War I. After Rutherford's death in 1937 the Committee was wound up, and the Society's radium was controlled on a more ad hoc basis. After Thorpe's work in 1907, the radium was lent out successively to several leading scientists until its existence was last recorded in 1953.

PREFACE

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHRUTI KAPILA
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Social History ◽  
South Asian ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Major Site ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

In a recent appraisal of the nature of the enterprise of intellectual history, it was remarked, not for the first time, that the “the only history of ideas to be written are histories of their uses in argument”. Though perhaps not in such a self-conscious manner, the essays in this issue consider the transformative capacity of ideas. Modern intellectual history in the European and American context grew out of a critique of the dominance of social history; by contrast, it has received little or no attention in the field of colonial and modern South Asia. Despite the vibrancy of the field in general, the two major works in Indian intellectual history were written almost half a century ago. Eric Stokes's English Utilitarians and India and Ranajit Guha's A Rule of Property for Bengal were both concerned with the making of the regime of colonial political economy. These two important books took the major site of the generation of ideas to be the colonial state and the major actors to be its official intellectuals. Interestingly, both these historians later moved away from intellectual history to social history and the experience of the peasantry. It is an ironic tribute to their books that the subsequent focus of much South Asian historical scholarship has been on the nature of the colonial state and its relation to politics, economy and society. However, the emphasis on the power and the work of ideas, in Stokes's and Guha's initial formulations, slowly but surely gave way to “ethnographies of the state”. A related historiographical move emphasized the politics and culture of resistance, as indeed did Stokes and Guha in their later work.

Inventing Leonardo

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Margaret Dalivalle ◽  
Martin Kemp ◽  
Robert B. Simon
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Restoration England ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Cultural Entity

From the evidence of contemporary literary sources, manuscript inventories, correspondence, and eyewitness accounts, Chapter 8 considers the penetration of literary concepts of Leonardo as an artist and thinker (pictor doctus), how the early reception relates to the wider ‘invention’ of Leonardo as a cultural entity, and whether a distinctly ‘British version’ of Leonardo can be detected. It focuses on the introduction into England of sixteenth-century Italian receptions of Leonardo via Richard Haydocke’s 1598 translation of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo’s Trattato dell’arte della pittura, and from contact with Giorgio Vasari’s Lives. It proposes that, due to the scarcity of Vasari’s text in early modern England, it was Lomazzo’s account of Leonardo that influenced the earliest understanding of the artist in Britain. The chapter tracks the absorption of Vasari’s text in seventeenth-century England through the interventions of key individuals at the Stuart courts, before and after the Interregnum. A particular focus is the prominent role of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who collected Leonardo’s writings and drawings from the Jacobean period until the mid 1640s. The dispersal of his collection throughout the seventeenth century, and the acquisition in the 1670s of the Windsor Volume by Charles II, and the Codex Arundel by the Royal Society, signal key staging posts in the reception of Leonardo in Restoration England.

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