Conference News | International Academic Conference “Contemplating the Figures of Ideas: Imageries, Metaphors, and Rhetoric in Premodern China”

From May 24 to 25, 2025, Lingnan University in Hong Kong successfully held an international academic conference entitled “Contemplating the Figures of Ideas: Imageries, Metaphors, and Rhetoric in Premodern China” 觀念之形：古代中國的象喻和修辭. The conference was co-hosted by the Department of Chinese and the Advanced Institute for Global Chinese Studies (AIGCS) at Lingnan University. It was also in part supported by the “Early Career Scheme” Research Project by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong.

A total of 17 frontier scholars from universities or academic institutions worldwide, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, North America, and Europe, gathered in Lingnan to participate in the event. Focusing on the central theme of the conference, participating scholars offered profound insights into the theoretical and practical issues of premodern Chinese imagery, metaphors, and various rhetorical forms, sharing and exchanging old and new knowledge in the fields of classical literature, philosophy, religion, rhetoric, intellectual history, material history, and other disciplines.

The conference opened on the morning of May 24th, with an opening speech by Prof. Zong-qi Cai, Chair Professor of the Department of Chinese and Director of the AIGCS. Prof. Cai welcomed all participants on behalf of the Department and the Institute, discussed the significance of the theme from different perspectives, and elaborated on the principle of the organizing institution, “Scholarly traditions of all nations belong to one family” 天下學問一家. Prof. Gu Yixin (Lingnan University), the convener of the conference, expressed his gratitude to all participating scholars and introduced the theoretical interests of the conference’s theme.

During the two-day academic exchanges, and from multiple disciplinary dimensions and research fields, the participating scholars explored the possibility and potential of the following consensus: Decoding a coded system of language and ideas implies a need to enhance our understanding of its embedded figurative nature, which constitutes a significant aesthetic source associated with the production and communication of various values and meanings. This figurative nature complicates the historical and multi-dimensional interpenetration between languages, ideas, symbols, and a variety of embodied and cultured experiences. Oriented by such common interests, the conference was divided into six thematically interrelated topics, respectively “Cosmos, Culture, Correlativity” 天文、人文與關聯性, “Taken from Bodies Herein” 近取諸身, “Interpretation and Re-interpretation” 闡釋與再闡釋, “Arts, Aesthetics, Artificiality” 技藝、美學與人爲性, “Taken from Things Thereof” 遠取諸物, and “Textuality and Meta-textuality” 文本與元文本.

The conference concluded successfully on the afternoon of May 25. The convener once again expressed his gratitude to all scholars with a summary of the conference’s theoretical approach and methodological stance. The Department of Chinese and the AIGCS are committed to the values of promoting subsequent knowledge exchanges and cooperation toward further inquiries into the multi-dimensional landscape of classical thoughts, language, and culture.