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The Fortunes of a Scholar: When the Yijing Challenged Modern Astronomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2014

Stéphanie Homola
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Abstract

Liu Zihua arrived in France in 1919 as part of the Sino-French Work-Study Movement. In 1940, he completed a PhD thesis in which he combined modern astronomy and the Yijing through “analogical reasoning” to discover a planet. After Liu went back to China in 1945, his efforts to win recognition came up against nationalist and communist anti-traditionalism but were eventually integrated into the intellectual revival of the 1980s. This study relies on historical sources and anthropological fieldwork to show that Liu is an emblematic figure of the cultural upheaval caused by the introduction of modern Western categories of science, religion, and superstition at the beginning of the twentieth century. Liu's example reveals the changing status of the Yijing in Chinese society, the cross-cultural understanding of science and sacred literature as embodied in this classic, and the role of analogy in cultural assimilation. It also sheds light on the shaping of academic standards in China and on the connection between traditional literary scholars and contemporary “amateur scientists.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 73 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 733 - 752
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2014 

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