Dr Michael Schimmelpfennig
Research interests
In a quite traditional way I regard myself as a sinologist that does hardly fit present-day categories of being a specialist in a single field of history or philosophy, language or literature. I began with Chinese archeaology, developed a deep interest in traditional Chinese literature and poetry with an emphasis on the history of reception and commentary. My more recent work concentrates on the history of conceptual ideas, in particular those concerning human relations in and beyond the family in China's past and present. Even more recently I became intrigued by certain aspects of Chinese social history as reflected in handbooks for government officials. Combined with this interest is the intention to explore the possibilities on how to meaningfully employ algorithms in the terminological examination of fulltext databases of these handbooks.
Biography
After finishing my dissertation at the University of Heidelberg on the early commentaries to the Lisao and the Songs of Chu, I moved to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg to coordinate a graduate school for Chinese and Japanese postgraduates with the research topic "Knowledge Transfer between Europe and China". Later I became "Akademischer Rat“, i. e. a lecturer, at the Chair of Chinese studies at Erlangen, teaching classical Chinese, introductions to research tools in Sinology, and graduate seminars on various topics in Chinese literature, history, and society. Before coming to ANU in 2013, I also had the chance to test my abilities as interim professor in Chinese studies at the University of Frankfurt.
Researcher's projects
1) “Delicate Ties: Notions of Loyalty in Traditional and Contemporary Chinese Sources“ Postdoc- project (Habilitation), monograph in English, near to completion.
2) Exegetical History of the Songs of Chu
Aims at understanding the later development of the parameters that – so the hypothesis – among certain other influences guide and restrict research on the Songs of Chu (Chuci) until the present day. Contrary to Laurence Schneider’s excellent but out-dated book on the subject, the study will concentrate on the hermeneutical techniques and aims of exegesis of certain Song dynasty and later commentators in opposition to their predecessors, with the aim of tracing their possible impact on current Chuci research, especially in the PRC.
3) Handbooks for Officials (Guanzhen shu).
With the help of a small research group of graduate students at Erlangen we are trying to find out, how digital fulltext analysis must be ideally designed to trace the development of administrative terminology in this particular genre of texts, and of course whether and how this terminology had to be adapted to a bureaucracy dealing with increasingly complex issues.
Current student projects
PhD candidates:
Eugenie Enquist ANU "Wushan in the Tang Dynasty" (co-supervisor)
Michael Broughton (University of Melbourne) "Exploring Sound Symbolism in Old Chinese" (co-supervisor)
Past student projects
PhD candidates:
Chen Jiandong (UTS) "Local Authority in the Han Dynasty with a Focus on the San Lao" (completed 2018) [external examiner & external advisor for resubmission]
Honours students:
Samuel Vancea Harrison
Topic: "Yang Xiong and the Politics of Sagehood: A Reading of Fayan Chapter Eight" (completed 2017) [co-supervisor with Mark Strange]
William (Shu Cheng) Zou
Topic: "Thinking Beyond Filiality and Unfiliality: The Son's Limited Agency in the Xunzi" (completed 2014)
Jose Timothy Voltaire S Salinas
Topic: "Moral Autonomy in Confucianism. With a focus on Xunzi" (completed 2015)
Publications
- Schimmelpfennig, M 2014, 'Book review: The Shaman and the Heresiarch: A New Interpretation of the Li sao. By GOPAL SUKHU', Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 73, no. 04, pp. 1122-1123.
- 'Chinese Style Divorce?' – Zum Wandel des Rollenbildes chinesischer Frauen in Scheidungen" in: Frauenbilder / Frauenkörper: Inszenierungen des Weiblichen in den Gesellschaften Süd- und Ostasiens, Heike Moser, Stephan Köhn (Hrsg.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013.
- 'Reconstructing the Basis of Wang Yi's Chuci Exegesis: The Lost Treatise on the Lisao by Liu An),' Zhongguo Chucixue (China Songs of Chu studies series) Vol. 12:1-39 (2012)
- 'On the Aims of Research of the Commentary Types Contained in the Section and Sentence Commentary to the Songs of Chu' Zhongguo Chuci xue (China Songs of Chu studies series) Vol.18: (2011).
- China, Japan und das Andere: Ostasiatische Identitäten im Zeitalter des Transkulturellen. Stephan Köhn und Michael Schimmelpfennig (eds.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011.
- 'Das Andere im Eigenen: China, das Land Chu und sein berühmtester Dichter' in China, Japan und das Andere: Ostasiatische Identitäten im Zeitalter des Transkulturellen, Stephan Köhn, Michael Schimmelpfennig (Hrsg.), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011.
- Kohn, S & Schimmelpfennig, M, eds, China, Japan und das Andere, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2011.
- 'The Skill of Reverting – the Skill of Renewal: Wang Yi and the supposedly lost Tradition of the Lisao by Liu An,' Zhongguo xueshu (China Scholarship) Vol. 7.1:133-157 (2009)
- 'Blunt or Hidden: The Problem of Defining Different Ways of Remonstrance in Traditional China,' Asian and African Studies Vol XI, 1-2:7-20 (2007)
- 'Different Commentaries, Different Editors? The Editorial History of the Chuci zhangju Examined Through the Various Commentaries Contained Therein', Zhongguo Chucixue (China Songs of Chu studies series) Vol. 9: 89-124 (2007).
- 'Poetische Anomalie oder schöpferischer Beitrag? Die Einschätzung der Lieder von Chu (Chuci) von der Han- bis zur Song-Zeit gemäß den “Vorworten” zur Anthologie,' Horin: Vergleichende Studien zur japanischen Kultur 12: 159-180 (2006)
- 'The Memoir of Fu [K'uan], Chin [Hsi] and the Marquis of Huai-yin: Annotated Translation of chapter 98 of the Shiji' in William Nienhauser (ed.) The Grand Scribe’s Records, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.
- 'Was können Fragmente von Abschnitt- und Zeilenkommentaren zhangju zur Kenntnis dieser scheinbar untergegangenen Han-zeitlichen Kommentartradition beitragen?' in Han-Zeit: Festschrift für Hans Stumpfeldt zum 65. Geburtstag, Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 2006.
- Qu Yuans Weg vom "wahren Menschen" zum wirklichen Dichter: Der Han-zeitliche Kommentar von Wang Yi zum "Lisao" und den Liedern von Chu. Extended English Summary and Results (pp.809-35). Ann Arbor: University Microfilms (UMI), 2005.
- 'The Quest for a Classic: Wang Yi and the Exegetical Prehistory of his Commentary to the Lisao', Early China 29: 109-160 (2004)
- 'Two Ages, one Agenda? Zhu Xi’s Rules of Interpretation Versus Wang Yi’s Exegesis of the Songs of Chu (Chuci)' in: Interpretation and Intellectual Change, Tu Ching-I (ed.) New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2004
- Häresien: Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zur Konstruktion von Norm und Abweichung. Pieper, Irene, Michael Schimmelpfennig und Joachim. v. Soosten (eds.). München: Fink Verlag, 2003.
- 'Tracing the Sections and Sentence Commentaries (zhangju) of the Han Dynasty - preliminary remarks,' CD record of the XIII EACS Conference papers, Torino, 2002.
