Dirk Meyer

Position:

Professor of Chinese Philosophy; Fellow of The Queen's College.

Director of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC).

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

 

Faculty / College Address:

China Centre / The Queen's College

Email:

dirk.meyer@ames.ox.ac.uk

 

Reserach Interests:

I work on Chinese Philosophy with special focus on close philological analysis. My research explores argumentative strategies in early Chinese thought production and the interplay of material conditions and ideas. By studying the impact media change has on the systematisation of thinking, I engage with genre and argument construction in philosophical discourse, manuscript and text cultures, and transition periods in philosophy. As a historian of Chinese thought my goal is to conceptualise Chinese thinking on its own terms.

 

Current Projects:

I currently work on the following projects:

Silent argumentation: Philosophy as performance in Early China. This book will expand understanding of the analytical power of early Chinese thought to recast the boundaries of philosophy by studying silent argumentation as a vital, but unrecognised, genre of systematic thought production during the formative period of written thinking in China: The second half of the first millennium BC. The genre of silent argumentation employs extra-semantic means which operate formal structures and textual patterns to produce textually embedded modes of performance philosophy across traditions. This book challenges current methodology by analysing the form-content symbiosis of text and by widening the canon of what constitutes an argument, thus recasting how communities have philosophised across millennia. (In progress.) 

Songs of the States: The Anhui Warring States Manuscripts. This multi-volume project is in collaboration with Adam Schwartz, HKBU. It provides complete reading of Songs of the Anhui Manuscripts which, methodologically, we take as not related to the Máo recension. As a thought experiment, we aim to establish an emic reading of this Warring States instantiation of the Songs and contextualise it in the larger framework of studies of the “Shi” (Songs) and meaning production during the Warring States period more broadly. Volume 1 (ALAC 2) discusses the Royal Songs "Zhōu Nán" and "Shào Nán". Volume 2 discusses the songs of the 'peripheral' states.

The Production of Knowledge in China, Past and Present acknowledges that knowledge is shaped, sustained, and framed by material conditions. This is a wider project that takes China, past and present, as a case study for conceptualising the ways material factors enable society to generate information, facts, argumentation and meaning. By focusing on breakthrough moments of systematic philosophical reasoning from the Classical period to contemporary China, it enables comparative analysis of the shaping of ideas in a society throughout time and space. The project was national contender for the Leverhulme Prize in Philosophy.

My planned monograph, Written Thinking in China, will synthesise close textual analysis with macro observations about the interrelation of material change and new forms of philosophical enquiry. Building on my research on meaning construction in Chinese discourse, it constructs a comparative account of the material forces behind thought production across millennia, thus casting light on reduplicative patterns in philosophical endeavour from the ancient to the contemporary.

Literary Forms of Argument in Manuscript Cultures: A Cross-cultural Perspective and A History of Written Thinking in China are long-term projects that will address trends in Chinese written philosophical discourse.

 

The Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC)

I am Founding Director of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures at Oxford. The Centre examines material aspects of writing and text production, as well as transmission and the interface between the oral and the written, across pre-modern literate societies. Central to the Centre's activities are the termly lectures, termly colloquia, and yearly conferences. 

The Journal of Manuscript and Text Cultures (MTC)

CMTC publishes the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures (MTC), for which I serve as Editor in Chief. The journal appears twice-yearly digitally and in print. MTC is double-blind peer-reviewed. MTC is a diamond-level Open-Access journal.

Articles are at once specialised and interdisciplinary, and led by the common goal of enabling long-term research on how knowledge and meaning are shaped and sustained by material conditions, past and present. As a platform for international researchers to engage in close dialogue across their areas of expertise and inform each other about approaches and theories developed in their various subject areas, the goal of MTC is to generate discussions that cross subject boundaries and contribute to the theoretical understanding of material text cultures and their impact on knowledge production in global literate societies. With our multidisciplinary approach, crossing traditional academic divisions, we hope to cast light on the deep structures of human behaviours in material knowledge production, past and present.The following issues are currently in the making: 

If you interested in submitting your article to the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures, please review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors must register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

 

Manuscript and Text Cultures (print): ISSN 2752-3462

Manuscript and Text Cultures (online): ISSN 2752-3470

 

MTC is available for purchase in the University of Oxford Online Store. Registered subscribers become Associate Members of The Center for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC). Associate Members are entitled to propose workshops and conferences related to pre-modern manuscript and epigraphic studies that will be hosted at CMTC. In addition, Associate Members can propose new themes for upcoming issues of MTC and nominate themselves as issue editors. Institutional subscription entitles the members of the subscribing institution to benefit from the academic opportunities offered by CMTC.

Manuscript and Text Cultures is published with the support of The Queen’s College, Oxford, the JJC Foundation, New York, and the Faculty of AMES, University of Oxford.

 

Courses Taught:

  • Lectures: contributions to East Asian surveys for Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses.
  • Tutorials: Writing and Philosophy; East Asian survey (Philosophy, History, Literature).
  • Classes: Mengzi; Xunzi; Zhuangzi; Readings in Classical Chinese.
  • Special Subject (classes, lectures, tutorials): Text and Manuscript Cultures in Early China; The Myth of the Confucian Classics in the Warring States Period; “Shu” (Documents) in Early China; Argumentation in Early Chinese Philosophy.
  • Graduate Seminars: Early Chinese Textuality; contributions to Chinese Studies Research Methods Seminar; Classical Chinese Texts Seminar; Old Chinese Phonology; Archaeology; Theory Readings; contributions to the MPhil Traditional East Asia.

 

Recent Publications:

 

Authored books:

 

Edited books:

Articles:

Forthcoming/In progress:

Books:.

  • Flowers aplenty: Unseen Sayings of Confucius. (Together with Adam Schwartz, HKBU). Under review.
  • Silent argumentation: Philosophy as performance in Early China. In progress.
  • Songs of the Peripheral States: Shī of the Ānhuī University Manuscripts. (Together with Adam Schwartz, HKBU). In progress.
  • Confucius superstar: Information dissemination and the making of a shèngrén in early China. In progress.
  • A Panorama of Silence: Chinese Philosophy reconsidered. (Together with Ai Yuan, Tsinghua, and Avital Rom, Cambridge). 

Articles:

  • "Religion and thought". In Lisa Indraccolo ed. A Cultural History of Chinese Literature: Vol. 1 Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury. 
  • "Antiquity resurfaced: Critical reflections on the ethics of manuscript-acquisition for the study of early China". MTC 3/1: 2024.
  • "Aural Fixity and Semantic Flexibility in the Early Chinese Songs: The Case of 'White Boat' (白舟) / 'Cedar Boat' (柏舟) in the Ānhuī University Manuscripts" (co-authored with Adam Schwartz). MTC 3/2: 2024.
  • "The Dialectics of Rule in in the Political Philosophy of *Mìng xùn (Taking Chinese Philosophy on its own Terms)". In Lisa Indraccolo and Wolfgang Behr, eds, Warp, Woof, Wen / Phoneme, Pattern, Pun. Leiden: Brill, 2023.
  • Moving old cultural capital into new problem space: “Hòu Fù” and the materiality of meaning networks in “Shū” (Writings) genre. In preparation.
  • "'Shu' lei de chuantong yu wenben chonggou: 'Jinteng' yu 'Zhou Wuwang you ji' zhi chonggu" “书”類的传统与文本重构：“金縢”与“周武王有疾”之重估.

 

Book Series:

Library of Sinology [LoS]: I am senior co-editor of Library of Sinology, a book series published by De Gruyter. Library of Sinology responds to new material evidence of meaning production in Chinese cultures as made manifest through oracle bones, bronzes, as well as manuscript texts on bamboo and silk. Library of Sinology covers fields as diverse as classical philology and anthropology, philosophy and art history, linguistics and religious studies, literature and archaeology. By promoting interdisciplinary research in classical Chinese Studies and international academic exchange, the book series sets out to spearhead a transnational reconceptualisation of traditional Chinese ideas and their relevance for modern times. If you wish to submit a manuscript to us, please email sinology@degruyter.com.

 

Recent Conference and Workshop Organisation (2008-present):

  • The Life Cycle of Manuscripts: The Ethics and Practice of Acquiring, Preserving, and Accessing Global Heritage 写本的生命周期：获取、保护与接触世界遗产的伦理与实践”国际会议. Bilingual conference, together with Rens Krijgsman. Tsinghua University, Beijing, 21-22 September 2024.
  • Music in Manuscript Cultures: Hybrid conference to be held by the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC), The Queen's College and The China Centre, 8-9 September 2022.
  • Poetic Traditions in Manuscript Cultures: Online conference held by CMTC, The Queen's College, 16-17 September 2021.
  • The Materiality of Knowledge in Chinese Thought, Past and Present: The conference was held at Yuelu Academy, Hunan University, 3-5 September 2019.
  • The Classic of Documents and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy: Oxford-Princeton Research Partnership. Conference organised at The Queen's College, University of Oxford, funded by the John Fell OUP Research Fund and the Davis Fund, with support from The Queen's College, Oxford. 21-22 March 2014.
  • Literary Forms of Argument in Pre-modern China. Conference organised at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, funded by the Chiang-Ching-Kuo (CCK) Foundation, the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS), the British Inter-university China Centre (BICC) and The Queen’s College. 16-18 September 2009.
  • Research Training Old Chinese, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This workshop series consisted of six workshops held across the UK
    (i) Philosophy & Religion: 29 Jan-2 Feb 2009, Edinburgh (in collaboration with Joachim Gentz)
    (ii) Old Chinese Phonology & Palaeography:25 Aug-3 Sept 2009, Oxford
    (iii) History & Historiography:24-28 March 2010, Cambridge (in collaboration with Mark Strange and Roel Sterckx)
    (iv) Text & Textuality:24-28 June 2010 Oxford
    (v) Art & Archaeololgy:21-24 Sept 2010, London, SOAS (in collaboration with Lukas Nickel)
    (vi) Old Chinese Grammar and Syntax: 9-13 July 2011, Oxford

 

Further Info:

  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of the Hong Kong based journal Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology 饒宗頤國學院院刊 (BJAS)
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy. ISSN: 1540-3009 (print); 1569-7274 (electronic)
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia. ISSN: 2667-0755.
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of Dialogoi: Ancient Philosophy Today. ISSN: 2516-1164
  • I am Senior Research Fellow of Jao Tsung-I Academy (JAS), Hong Kong Baptist University 
  • I am Senior Research Fellows of United International College (UIC), Zhuhai
  • I am Adjunct Professor at Yuelu Academy, University of Hunan 
  • Bernhard Karlgren Fellow of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study for the academic year 2014-2015
  • Collaborative Research Training in Old Chinese:
In 2008, I have secured a £60,000 AHRC Collaborative Research Grant for Research Training in Old Chinese for a two-year series of postgraduate workshops. The idea of this programme was to connect the various UK centres for the study of Old Chinese into a nationwide network to facilitate specialised research-training in Old Chinese phonology, palaeography, grammar and syntax, literature, philosophy, and religion, and strengthen the international visibility of traditional Sinology in the UK at large. Details of the series can be found here
  • International Workshop-series on Old Chinese Phonology:
 In 2005, I initiated the two-week European League for Non-Western Studies international intensive graduate seminar on Old Chinese phonology. The seminar was hosted by the Research School for Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS) and the Office for International Relations of Leiden University, Faculty of Arts. Further two-week workshops were held in 2006 and 2007. While the first meeting was a general introduction to Old Chinese phonology in general, the focus of the follow-up meetings was put on more sinological issues to accommodate the particular needs of students working with early Chinese excavated texts. Accordingly, the 2006 and 2007 meetings combinedOld Chinese phonology with Old Chinese palaeography.

 

Current DPhil Students

  • Sun Tik Wong: Discourses on fa in Early Chinese philosophy.
  • Alec Schellinx: Reading the Hanfeizi as a concrete poetic site.
  • Andreas Kerschbaum (Humboldt University, Berlin): Wuwei Revisited: Ancient and Modern Perspectives.
  • Fang Ziyang: The concept of li 利 in Yantie lun: a philosophical analysis.
  • Peter Smith: An Exploration into the Shift of Analysis and Interpretation in Oral Explanations of the Zhuangzi.
  • Ye Ziwei: Written Culture and Knowledge Production in Medieval China and East Asia.

  • Parker Chan: Filiations of Poetry Interpretations in the Western Han.

 

Previous DPhil Students

  • Oliver Hargrave (DPhil). 2024. Ecology in the Spiritual Landscape of Anecdote Collections in Pre-Tang. Now: Departmental Lecturer of Chinese, AMES, University of Oxford.
  • Chew Sihao (DPhil). 2023. Literature and Philosophy Modes of Explanations for Oneness. Now: Assistant Professor of Chinese Philosophy at Nanyang Technology University, Singapore.
  • Lea Cantor (DPhil). 2023. Parmenides and Zhuangzi on Formulating what Can (and Cannot) Be Known. Now: Research Fellow in Philosophy at Peterhouse, Cambridge. From September 2025: Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the History of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield.
  • Flaminia Pischedda (DPhil). 2023. Philosophical implications of the ancient Chinese divination methods. Now: Research Fellow at University of Vienna.
  • Chun-man (Kevin) Kwong (DPhil). 2023. The Performed Dao: Understanding Zhuangzi with the Literary Form Approach.
  • Stefano Gandolfo (DPhil). 2020. Division of Knowledge in the Siku Catalogue. (Chinese Philosophy) Now: Director of Columbia Global Center, Athens.
  • Corina Smith (DPhil). 2020. Time and Memory in Early Chinese Texts.
  • Yuan Ai (DPhil). 2018. Situations Beyong Human Control in the Zhuangzi. Now: Assistant Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
  • Yegor Grebnev (DPhil). 2016. The Textual History of the Yi Zhou shu. Now: Assistant Professor of Chinese Culture, UIC, Zhuhai. 
  • Rens Krijgsman (DPhil). 2016. The Rise of a Manuscript Culture and the Textualization of Discourse in Early China. Now: Associate Professor of Chinese Manuscripts, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
Photograph of Dr Dirk Meyer