PAIXUE: Classicising Learning in Medieval Imperial Systems: Cross-cultural Approaches to Byzantine Paideia and Tang/Song Xue
PAIXUE:Classicising Learning in Medieval Imperial Systems: Cross-cultural Approaches to Byzantine Paideiaand Tang/SongXue
n the
medieval Eurasian geopolitical space, Byzantium and China stand out as
two centralised imperial orders that drew on seemingly unbroken, in fact
purposely constructed, traditions of classicising learning. With
generous support from the European Research Council (ERC), the PAIXUE project
examines in tandem, with equal focus on structural parallels and
divergences, the conscious revival and subsequent dialectics of
classicising learning in middle and later Byzantium (c.800–1350)
and Tang/Song China (618–1279). Initially tied into aristocratic
culture, it became a tool by which the imperial state sought to
monopolise prestige and access to power so as to effectively channel the
activities of newly emerging burgeoning ‘middling’ strata into the
service of empire. As time progressed, it was also the basis upon which
these new elites constructed novel forms of subjectivity that claimed
authority and agency increasingly independent of the imperial state.
Seal of Mi Fu (1051–1107), poet, painter and collector of books,
MET 1977.78 PAIXUE
traces this evolution of classicising learning in Byzantine and
Tang/Song literati culture from two angles. The first examines the
galvanising function of social performances that involved classicising
learning in the imperial systems. The second places the individual
literatus centre-stage and explores the transformations of
self-awareness, ethos, and self-cultivation. Given PAIXUE’s concern with
examining phenomena cross-culturally in the longue-durée,
rather than merely juxtaposing ‘spotlight’ impressions, a comparison of
these two imperial systems does not only allow for deeper insights into
the historical development of both China and Byzantium: it opens the
possibility of studying cultural mechanisms behind the formation of
institutions, practices and values. The project explores novel forms of
collaboration in the humanities, including the co-authoring of research
output between Byzantinists and Sinologists. Byzantium, frequently
perceived as the ‘Other’ within western culture to the present day,
serves here to build meaningful bridges to (pre-modern) China.
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