University of Heidelberg

Workshop on Encyclopaedic Knowledge Culture

Heidelberg, October 29th & 30th, 2008

Participants:

Barbara Mittler (bmittler@sino.uni-heidelberg.de)

Madeleine Herren (madeleine.herren@bluewin.ch)

Paul Michel (munsalvaesche@hotmail.com)

Jatindra Kumar Nayak (nayakjkn@rediffmail.co)

Ledderose, Lothar, Prof. Dr. phil.  Institut fur Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens (ledderose@sino.uni-heidelberg.d)

Martin Hoffmann (mhofmann@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de)

Venue of the workshop:

Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg (IWH) at Hauptstrasse 242, Heidelberg. The best way to get there is to take the train to Heidelberg Karlstor Bahnhof and from there to walk straight into town and you cannot miss the venue (see map below).

For more detailed directions of how to get there cf.
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/zentral/iwh/lage.html

Program:

Abstracts:

Natascha Gentz: Modern Chinese Encyclopedias and Cultural Practice

In contrast to grand European encyclopaedic projects, modern Chinese encyclopedias  have been produced in hundreds in a very short time span of several decades in Late Qing China in a transnational context. The will discussed the specific features of the cultural practice involved in this process and the consequences this had on the texts that were produced. Looking at the institutions, actors, dissemination practice and movements, such as routes of intra-Asian circulation of concepts, I argued that a major distinctive feature can be observed in the fact, that these encyclopedias did not emerge as mainly an intellectual project but simultaneously with and in conjunction with the process of building the new institutions of knowledge they aim at explaining. Further, that also the texts themselves became part of this institution building process, had a direct impact on the selection of texts, concepts and choices of translations. I specified this in a case study by looking at the field of drama, the emergence of a modern drama terminology and its connection to cultural practice and drama reform in Late Qing.

Paul Michel: Prolegomena to a Universal Grammar of Visualization of Knowledge

The topic of this paper was the graphic representation of 'known' things, in other words, the transmission of knowledge in the form of images / diagrams / charts etc. The aim was to establish a high-resolution, systematic, cross-cultural grid as a means of analysing images which depict elements of knowledge.
I believe that visualisation is ruled by a 'grammar' which is very similar in different cultures whilst also exhibiting culture-specific differences. I proceeded on the basis of Western examples (and restricted myself to the period since around 1920). I leave it to the specialist to decide whether or not there are parallels in Eastern cultural areas. I am working on a typology of visualisation. I am not yet in a position to offer intercultural comparisons. The examples draw on children's encyclopaedias, popular science encyclopaedias, multi-volume encyclopaedias and specialised encyclopaedias without differentiating between the different kinds or 'ranks' of encyclopaedias.

Jatin Nayak: The Encyclopaedist as Negotiator: A Study of Binode Kanungo’s Encyclopaedic Project

Soon after India won independence, Binode Kanungo(1912-1990), who had given up his school studies to fight British rule as a young follower of Mahatma Gandhi, set himself an apparently impossible task: compiling single-handedly a multi-volume encyclopaedia in his mother tongue, Oriya. The first volume of Jnanamandal (The Circle of Knowledge) came out in 1960 and more than thirty-five volumes of the encyclopaedia were published before Kanungo died. The manuscripts of another forty volumes or so await publication and updating. 

The fascinating story of writing a massive multi-volume encyclopaedia has been told by Kanungo himself in two autobiographical works: Patha Pachhe Pachhe Apathua (In Quest of Learning) and Runa Parisodha (Repaying My Debts). In these he reflects critically on the nature of the task he has imposed on himself, documents methodically the way he executes the encyclopaedic project, the obstacles he meets on the way and how he overcomes or skirts them. This sets him apart from all other encyclopaedists in Orissa, who rarely, if ever, pause to reflect upon their role and the nature of their chosen task. He also talks in these about the sources of his motivation, the choices available to him, the daunting western models he had to adapt taking into account the circumstances encompassing him, cultural responses to the encyclopaedic project he has undertaken, and the prejudices he has to battle against. Working in a world which  became aware of the need for encyclopaedic knowledge only a few decades before – the first Oriya encyclopaedia was published in 1923 -- Kanungo  defines his task with great care: he seeks to make western knowledge available in an indigenous language and add to the resources of this language by evolving an appropriate idiom; adopt useful principles for organising encyclopaedic knowledge, borrowing these from western encyclopaedias, where necessary, and, more often, adapting them to existing circumstances and local needs.

My paper focused on Kanungo’s role as a negotiator between western knowledge and the newly decolonised world in which he set out to compile his ambitious encyclopaedia. In this world, the west was no longer a symbol of imperial domination but a rich source of knowledge, which had to be democratised and brought within the reach of ordinary people through a supple, reshaped idiom. He had to establish encyclopaedic knowledge in a world which looked upon it as derivative and unoriginal. His strategies therefore need to be looked at carefully. I payed particular attention to the entries on science and biography in the published volumes of Jnanamandal and tried to show how these embody Kanungo’s complex negotiations with western models.

Martin Hofmann: “A Contribution to Our Contemporary World” – Zhu Qiqian’s Outline for a Reevaluation of Traditional Chinese Crafts

Zhu Qiqian (1872-1964) is one of the most intriguing personalities of the early 20th century for he was a central figure in the government of Yuan Shikai, but also promoted and engaged himself in studies on Chinese traditions of practical knowledge. Due to his good political connections, he was able to attract funds that allowed him to launch a large-scale research project on Chinese crafts and craftsmanship. As founder of the Zhongguo yingzao xueshe (Society for the Research in Chinese Architecture), he not only instigated Chinese research on the history of architecture but also attempted to reexamine Chinese traditional crafts as a whole and thus manifest the contribution of Chinese technical accomplishments to knowledge culture within world history. This paper focused on the scope of this project which aimed to new systematic approaches during a period that is characterized by China’s effort to cope with the Western dominance in such fields.
Engaging in the preservation of cultural relics and editing several pre-modern texts on weaving and stitching, architecture, gardening, and lacquer ware, Zhu developed an idiosyncratic view about practical knowledge. Structuralizing research, Zhu selected a set of crafts that fit his idea of technology correlating them to then-current standards of knowledge organization. By means of Western scientific methods and collaboration with Western experts, Zhu attempted to reform and revise backward views of the past and to arrive at a modern perception of the cultural tradition that put craftsmen and their crafts in perspective.
Zhu’s project gained international reputation but remained unfinished because his younger colleagues Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunzhen concentrated on architectural issues. Still, Zhu’s endeavor provided source materials and established approaches that essentially influenced later research in Chinese material culture.

Lothar Ledderose: The Chinese Encyclopedia (Gujin tushu jicheng)

The talk discussed four points:
1.    The unfortunate misconception about the classification system of a Chinese encyclopedia in Michel Foucault’s Les mots et les choses. (The order of things).
2.    The system of classification and the categories of knowledge in the 18th century Chinese Encyclopedia (Comprehensive Collection of old and new writings with illustrations, Gujin tushu jicheng).
3.    Comparative view on encyclopedias in Japan and Europe.
4.    The production of the Chinese Encyclopedia.

Marc Winter: "Hidden Grammars of Transculturality – Migrations of encyclopaedic knowledge and power" (Discussion of research project)

- no abstract available -