Our fascination for China has a history; our own history. If we wish to better understand our present, we need to be attentive to this history. Blaise Pascal%E2%80%99s observations are precious. In a crossed-out fragment of the Pens%C3%A9es, he asks: %E2%80%9CWhich is the more credible of the two, Moses or China?%E2%80%9D On the one side the lawgiver and central figure of monotheism; on the other, China, vast space of thought where the imaginary of otherness is projected. Both are overwhelming: they challenge our understanding. Rather than diminishing this challenge, Pascal undertakes it frontally : %E2%80%9CIt is not a question of seeing this summarily. I tell you there is in it something to blind, and something to enlighten. By this one word I destroy all your reasoning. %E2%80%98But China obscures%E2%80%99, say you; and I answer, %E2%80%98China obscures, but there is clearness to be found; seek it.%E2%80%99 [%E2%80%A6] We must then see this in detail; we must put the papers on the table.%E2%80%9D We wish to follow Pascal%E2%80%99s injunction: we shall refuse to see China and its mirrors summarily, and examine the ways in which it blinds and enlightens. Clearness of China and of European Enlightenment? We must see this in detail; we must put the papers on the table.It is these papers that we will study, in order to instruct a case: what are the images of China that Europe coins during the 17th and 18th centuries? Of what brightness China shines, and what shimmers are reflected on the European Enlightenment? What part of this light-game remains in the shadow? What was the reception of European Enlightenment by China? How did the patterns of clarification got woven and set apart?We thus wish to observe the ways in which we have tried to think, to understand and to interpret China. We will first draw the history of a space of exchanges, that is a workshop of knowledge as well. Its roots are well known: they belong to the Jesuit Missions in China: Father Parrenin, Father Kircher, Father Schall, Father Foucquet and Father du Halde especially, who took more than thirty years to write his General History of China Containing a Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political and Physical Description of the Empire of China, Chinese-Tartary. (The third volume contains translations of literary texts, poetry and Chinese theatre that Voltaire greatly appreciated). The age and immensity of China, the strength of its institutions, are such that the otherness is no longer the same as with the savages or the barbarians; it is the otherness of civilisation itself. The missionaries that disembark in China will obey to the rites and requirements of the political world and culture they find. They will wear Chinese clothes, learn the Chinese language, read the Chinese Classics. The world they discover is a world of high culture. We will have to enquire about the dreams and fantasies on China, for they are not only the imaginary opposites of the nightmares of European monotheism (Voltaire). We will also need to analyse how China became a model for both philosophy (Leibniz), politics (Montesquieu), and measure the effects of this model on the arts.It has been a long time since China has awaken. The wakening of Europe took its time. We shall examine these delaying forces that explains in some ways the astonishment of the contemporary occidental world.

Course leader
Professor Martin RueffDr. Fabrice Brandi

Target group
The course welcomes applications from advanced graduate or post-graduate students (currently enrolled in master degree or above) in chinese studies, french and comparative studies, philosophy, history, musicology. Upper-year undergraduate students may also apply, and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please note that this is a master-level course.



Fee info
CHF 1500: Fee does not include travel, accommodation, or food.

Scholarships
Limited number of competitive Excellence Scholarships are available.http://genevasummerschools.ch/practical/financial-aid

University of Geneva
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Postal code: CH-1211 Geneva 4
City: Geneva
Country: Switzerland
Website: http://genevasummerschools.ch/
E-mail: gss@unige.ch
Phone: +41 22 379 80 90