World Book Day: How to Read Academic Guru Lao Sze-kwang’s New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy?

World Book Day: How to Read Academic Guru Lao Sze-kwang’s New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy?──“You can criticize his academic achievement, but you cannot bypass it.”

The University Library of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

6:30-8:00 p.m. April 23, 2020.

Speaker: Dr. Kuan-yen Liu. Lecturer. The School of Humanities and Social Science. CUHK(SZ)

World Book Day, celebrated on Apr. 23rd, is an annual event organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) starting from 1995. This year, on this special day, Library invites Dr. Kuan-yen Liu to introduce New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy by Lao Sze-kwang (Lao Siguang), an academic guru in the study of Chinese philosophy.

Event Platform:

Event Description:

On the World Book Day (April 23), the University Library of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen will invite Dr. Kuan-yen Liu to introduce New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy by Lao Sze-kwang (Lao Siguang), an academic guru in the study of Chinese philosophy.

Born into an academic family, the late Professor Lao specialized in both Western and Chinese philosophy and served as the “Head of the Division of Philosophy” and “Tang Chun-I Visiting Professor” at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Professor Lao also taught at Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Normal University, Chengchi University and Huafan University in Taiwan, and became the academician of Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. Professor Lao’s academic insight, along with his deep immersion in classical Chinese culture since childhood and his solid training in the epistemology of Kant, enabled him to author New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy (in four volumes), the reading material for the course on “History of Chinese Philosophy” at CUHK as well as other universities. The statue of Professor Lao has been erected on the campus of CUHK to commemorate his outstanding achievements in research and teaching. 

Dr. Kuan-yen Liu used calligraphy to write Professor Lao's couplet

Dr. Liu will explain how Professor Lao’s methodology of “investigating the fundamental question” aims to analyze the philosophical system and central concepts of a philosophical thought, identify the fundamental question around which the process of ratiocination and argumentation in the philosophical thought revolves, and compare and contrast the fundamental questions in various philosophical thoughts with an eye to delineating the major developments of Chinese philosophy. This reading event on the World Book Day will pay particular attention to how Professor Lao compares the Confucian thoughts of Confucius, Mencius and Xun Zi and examines the relations between Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi and Hanfei Zi through the above-mentioned methodology as well as the evaluation criteria of “the foundation of the value” and “moral/cognitive/aesthetic self.”

Reading the magnum opus of an academic master, students “can criticize his academic achievement, but cannot bypass it.” Thus, Dr. Liu invites Tian Zhiyu and Wu Linman, students in his course on “History of Chinese Philosophy” in the Philosophy Minor Program, to share their reading experiences and rethink Professor Lao’s scholarly approach from a critical perspective.  

Speaker’s Biography:

A Lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Dr. Kuan-yen Liu teaches courses on “History of Chinese Philosophy” and “History and Philosophy of Biology” in the Philosophy Minor Program. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, he previously designed and taught courses on Long-Nineteenth-Century European Thought and Literature, Buddhist and Daoist Thought and Literature, and Major Works of Classical Chinese Literature in the Comparative Literature Program.

Dr. Liu’s research deals with the questions concerning epistemology, philosophy of science and political philosophy in Late-Qing (1840-1911) Chinese thought and translation with an emphasis on the interactions of the traditions of Pre-Qin Philosophy (pre-221 BC), Song-Ming Confucianism (Neo-Confucianism in 960-1279 and 1368-1644) and Qing Thought (1644-1911) with Western biology, science and socio-political theory. His study of Late-Qing thought and Chinese philosophy has resulted in three peer-reviewed book chapters forthcoming in the edited volumes to be published by Springer and Routledge in mid-2020 as well as several conference presentations at first-rate universities in China, Hong Kong, Europe and America. Besides, the outcome of his research on the science and philosophy of Victorian evolutionism was presented at the conferences held by the University of Toronto, UC Berkeley, and the North American Victorian Studies Association. 

Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he specialized in Victorian Thought and Literature, Late-Qing Chinese Thought and Literature, and Philosophy of Biology. During his doctoral study, his research projects concerning Yan Fu’s Chinese philosophical transformation of British Darwinism won the prestigious research grants of “Taiwanese Ministry of Education Fellowship for Studying Abroad” and “Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange’s Fellowship for Dissertation Writing” (declined). Prior to his doctoral study, he earned his B.A. with a double major in English Literature and Philosophy as well as minors in History and Chinese Literature from Chengchi University (Taiwan), where he received solid multi-disciplinary training in classical Chinese philosophy and thought across departments.

Besides, having been immersed in traditional Chinese culture since childhood, Dr. Liu excels in the calligraphy styles of Northern-Wei Stele (386-534) and Zhao Zhiqian (1829-1884) and serves as the faculty advisor of the Nan-lu (South-Dew) student club for Chinese calligraphy at CUHK(SZ). He has also published his creative works of classical Chinese poetry and prose in Chien-Kun Poetry Quarterly, a journal of classical and modern Chinese poetry in Taiwan.

Professor Lao's Book and Signature

Student Presenters:

Tian Zhiyu. Freshman at the School of Science and Engineering & Harmonia College, CUHK(SZ)

Wu Linman. Senior at the School of Management and Economics & Shaw College, CUHK(SZ)

Download the Reading Materials: