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The AD interacts with external constituencies such as colleagues at the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassies and Fulbright commissions abroad, scholars, higher education institutions, professional associations, and, as needed, vendors and contractors, to professionally represent CIES; communicates across CIES and IIE to accomplish maximum efficiency and effectiveness in the four key areas of the program cycles: (1) scholar recruitment, (2) selection, (3) grant management and (4) program assessment. The AD assures that appropriate compliance with policies and procedures is maintained; considers and implements ongoing improvements in the delivery of programs in close conjunction with other managers; ensures the highest quality of customer service related to the exchange of U.S. and visiting scholars. As a leader, the AD works closely with colleagues at CIES and IIE to create and maintain a high performing, flexible, team based work environment that meets the evolving needs of the organization and aspires to expose staff to professional development opportunities and a wide range of responsibilities and projects across countries and programs.

Qualifications:
o Masters’ degree and seven years or more of substantial program management experience;
o Demonstrated effectiveness in supervising and training staff;
o Knowledge and understanding of higher education systems in the U.S. and abroad;
o Ability to work effectively to build effective teams;
o Excellent interpersonal, decision-making, implementation and follow through skills; ability to adapt to changing organizational needs and a fast-paced work environment;
o Excellent cross-cultural communication, presentation and representational skills;
o Excellent writing and analytical skills
o High level of job-focused multi-tasking skills and ability to perform under pressure of deadlines;
o Well developed organizational and time-management skills;
o Maturity and discretion exhibited in working with a wide range of constituencies, in interacting with high level scholars and professionals and with all levels of staff;
o Ability to maintain confidentiality when working with sensitive issues and to exercise sound judgment in consulting with and keeping others informed;
o Background in international higher education exchange; living experience and studies relevant to East Asia and the Pacific, particularly China, preferred.

We offer a competitive salary and a progressive benefits package. Please submit resume & salary requirements to: http://www.iie.org/en/Careers to apply online for this position. Or you may send your resume to cies-hr@iie.org

CIES, located at 3007 Tilden Street, Washington, DC 20008 is a division of The Institute of International Education (IIE). IIE is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong commitment to diversity.

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• Handling all aspects of exhibition catalog sale (online as well as offline), holiday sale, shipping, inventory control and report;
• Coordinating the details of Friends of the Gallery events, related correspondence and an annual Steering Committee meeting;
• Preparing biannual Gallery Appeal letters and Acknowledgement letters;
• Assisting in various PR efforts;
• Liaison with design team – coordinating design related issues on behalf of the Gallery for flyers and other promotional needs;
• Liaison with Technology Protocol team – coordinating technology issues on behalf of the Gallery;
• Updating and maintaining Gallery websites;
• Prepare and promote traveling exhibitions: writing the newsletter/announcement, fact sheets and summary, handling all aspects of traveling exhibition contracts;
• Handling all aspects of Gallery archives – preparing exhibition binders including promotional materials such as flyers, announcements, invitations etc. – overseeing Gallery’s photographic records and video records in terms of production, digitization and preservation; prepare exhibition attendance records
• Providing General administrative assistance.

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Envisioning an Abstraction Who Was Also a Man
By HOLLAND COTTER
Published: March 25, 2010

You be nice to me, and I’ll be nice to you. Doesn’t that sound like a smart way to run the world? The Chinese philosopher Confucius thought so some 2,500 years ago. He also believed that education, hard work and respect for the past were essential; that excessive anything — money, fun, religion — led to trouble; and that social harmony was best achieved when people interacted courteously, but basically minded their own business.

full review of Confucius: His Life and Legacy in Art

Curator of Collections and Connections
By: CAROL KINO
Published: March 17, 2010

IT was a quiet weekday afternoon last month on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but the ground floor of the brownstone that houses the China Institute was humming. Employees were bustling around with tape measures and installation plans as they readied the institute’s gallery for the show “Confucius: His Life and Legacy in Art.” Willow Weilan Hai Chang, the gallery director, stood in a corner of the tiny two-room exhibition space, talking about that philosopher and his influence on Chinese society.

full profile on Willow Weilan Hai Chang

Archaeology

Artifact
By: Willow Weilan Hai Chang
Published: March/April 2010

When I first saw this cane head at the Confucius Museum in Qufu, Shandong Province, its intricate design–two dragons holding birdlike figures, together forming another bird–immediately called to mind an ancient Chinese ritual dating back to the Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1050-771 B.C.).

full article

New York 1

New Exhibit Clears Up The Confusion About Confucius
By: STEPHANIE SIMON
Published: 02/12/2010

While many know the famous proverbs of Confucius, they don’t know much about the man himself.

“A lot of people, either in China or overseas, they can quote Confucius. It’s like very common people to say ‘Confucius says,’ however, how much people really know Confucius, that is really our purpose with this exhibition,” says Willow Hai Chang, director of the China Institute Gallery.

full video

Thirteen.org

SundayArts segment

Sinovision

full video

Xinhua

full video (please note, the video is accessible only through the IE browser)

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GO TO SITE: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/vis_menu.html

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GO TO SITE: http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/Exhibitions/5000years/indxs/mod/modwood.html

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GO TO SITE: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/graph/9polwood.htm

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http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/exhibits/00_01/chinesewoodblock/index.html

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Please send cover letter and CV to:

Email: hr@chinainstitute.org

Human Resources
China Institute
125 East 65th Street
New York, NY 10065

No phone calls please. Only those candidates considered for an interview will be contacted.n

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Friday, April 30~ 1:30-5:30PM
China Institute ~125 E 65th St. New York, NY 10065

$10 member/$15 non-member

Refreshments will be served.

Seating is LIMITED.

Please click here to REGISTER. OR,
RSVP by April 26 to Ho Young Hung at hhung@chinainstitute.org or call 212-744-8181 ext. 116.

Please click here for the introduction of the symposium topics.

This workshop is in collaboration with NYS Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC).

**********

ABOUT CHINA INSTITUTE:  Founded in 1926 by renowned educators John Dewey and Hu Shi, China Institute is the oldest bicultural organization in the United States focused on advancing a deeper understanding of China through programs in education, culture, business and art in the belief  that cross-cultural understanding strengthens our global community.

ABOUT ECNU:  ECNU is one of China’s premier universities, with a special focus on teachers’ education.  With a population of over 40,000 students, including 3,000 students from over 40 countries worldwide, ECNU is known for producing leading scholars and scholarship on international educational theory and practice in Chinese language teaching.  In December 2008, ECNU was designated as one of China’s key research and training centers for Chinese language teachers.

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Woodcuts are an important visual medium that was part of a dynamic vernacular movement in modern China, which promoted widespread literacy and reached mass audiences. As part of a folk art tradition, woodcuts can be used as an educational resource for teaching about China. In this workshop, teachers from various disciplines will present on their experiences using woodcuts in their classrooms. The workshop will also feature a classroom activity on how to guide students in interpreting folk art.

Jointly presented by Teach China and the Confucius Institute at China Institute (CI@CI), this workshop is part of a series designed to provide a platform for teachers to discuss multi-disciplinary approaches to integrating language and culture in the K-12 curriculum.

5:45-6:15pm    Teaching Modern Woodcuts in Their cultural and Historical Contexts
Kevin Lawrence,  Associate Director, Teach China

6:15-6:40pm    A Chinese Language Approach to Teaching Modern Woodcuts
Weiwei Yu, The Pingry School

6:40-6:50pm    Break

6:50-7:50pm    Modern Chinese Woodcuts
Renee Covalucci, University of Massachusetts Boston China Program Center

7:50-8:30pm    Group Activity: Reading Folk Art Across the Disciplines and Grades
Renee Covalucci, University of Massachusetts Boston China Program Center

Resources participants may be interested in:

Chinese Avant Garde
History of Modern Chinese Woodblock Print
Xu Bing’s Square Word Calligraphy

Chinese language lesson plan using woodcuts resources

Chinese characters sample

Art of the Masses Handout

Please join our on-line China360 forum discussion by clicking HERE – you can find out about other resources and share ideas about how to teach about modern Chinese woodcuts and folk art across the disciplines.

Please click HERE to sign up for the China Institute monthly e-newsletter.

This workshop is in collaboration with NYS Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC).

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Hanban (officially known as the “Office of Chinese Language Council International”), The Freeman Foundation, and other public and private grantors.

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This devotion to ideas and ceremonies from antiquity informs a Ming Dynasty illustrated biography of Confucius known as Pictures of the Sage’s Traces (Shengji zhitu 聖跡之圖); in the page titled “Imitating Rites by Displaying Sacrificial Utensils,” the illustrators imagine an early scene from Confucius’ life that demonstrates his reverence for the ritualistic practices handed down from the early Zhou Dynasty. The page depicts Confucius as a young child engaged in serious play with some mates mimicking ritualistic practices by wearing the proper ceremonial clothes and laying out the specified ceremonial vessels in preparation for studiously performing a liturgical ritual. While this scene is entirely fanciful since it does not appear in the historical record, it attests to the importance Confucius placed on the concept of li (禮), often translated as “ritual” or “propriety”. If you look closely at the Chinese character, it depicts a ritual vessel being placed upon a sacred alter and its original meaning in fact meant ‘to arrange ritual vessels’. For Confucius, ritualistic propriety ensured that society would be well-ordered and harmonious and he devoted much of his life studying and codifying ancient rituals. Ritualistic practices required a reverent and sincere attitude in making sacrificial offerings to ancestors as though they were truly present; these sacrifices had specified numbers and types of ceremonial vessels and included liturgical prayers, music, and dance meant to bring the participants into harmonious union with ancestral practices. This emphasis on the importance of ritual propriety is an important contribution to future Chinese dynasties and regulated state functions up until the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

This reverence for the political and moral efficacy of past rituals has had a profound effect on Chinese thought and social mores for millennia; but it is equally important to realize that such a deep respect for the past has never been universally appealing to all Chinese thinkers. Chinese literature and letters has many colorful voices critiquing this Confucian orientation to the past. Close to Confucius’ own time, the Warring States legalist man-of-letters Han Feizi savagely ridiculed a Ru-scholars’ worldview as one of his “five vermin”:

There was a farmer of Song who tilled the land, and in his field was a stump. One day a rabbit, racing across the field, bumped into the stump, broke its neck, and died. Thereupon the farmer laid aside his plow and took up watch beside the stump, hoping that he would get another rabbit in the same way. But he got no more rabbits, and instead became the laughingstock of Song. Those who think they can take the ways of the ancient kings and use them to govern the people of today all belong in the category of stump-watchers!

This satirical dismissal of the Confucian reverence for the past took on a very virulent strain in more recent Chinese history, particularly in the iconoclastic thought of the May Fourth ideals of a writer like Lu Xun, who denounced Confucianism as a cannibalistic tradition bent on “eating people” in such memorable short stories as “Diary of a Madman”:

…I seem to remember, though only vaguely, that people have been eating each other since ancient times. When I flick through the history books, I find no dates, only those fine Confucian principles ‘benevolence, righteousness, morality’ snaking their way across each page. As I studied them again, through one of my more implacably sleepless nights, I finally glimpsed what lay between every line, of each book: ‘Eat People!’

During the height of the Cultural Revolution, this wholesale condemnation of Confucian ideas and traditions was expressed in violent outbursts and destruction of many temples and artifacts related to Confucius, especially in his ancestral home of Qufu.

As China moves into the 21st century, the rehabilitation of Confucius and the resurgence of his legacy can best be appreciated only once one balances it against a tradition that critiqued Confucius’ orientation to the past as a debilitating obsession that cannot adequately address contemporary issues and challenges unknown to the great sages of yesteryear including Confucius himself. At the same time, Confucius’ vision of a harmonious society built upon veneration for China’s past achievements resonates strongly with a populace that has a newfound nationalistic and cultural pride as they boldly enter into the 21st century as a strong and powerful nation.

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This painting Learning Rites from Lao Dan is valuable on two levels – as a product of the material culture of Confucianism and as a study of the material culture of Confucianism at a specific point in time. Painted in polychrome on silk, this painting is one in a folio of thirty-six leafs collectively known as Pictures of the Sage’s Traces, produced in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE).
According to the colophon, the painting depicts a meeting between Confucius and Laozi:

In the 24th year of the reign of Duke Zhao of Lu state (518 BCE), Confucius brought his disciple Nangong Jingshu from Qufu to Luoyi. They traveled a great distance so that they could learn about the rites of Zhou from Lao Dan (Laozi), who was a keeper of archives at the royal court of Zhou.

During the Ming dynasty, the dominant intellectual trend was a syncretistic form of Confucianism known as Neo-Confucianism (developed several hundred years earlier during the Song dynasty), which encompassed basic elements of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. A material culture consequently developed from the Neo-Confucian practice of worshipping the respective founders of these three teachings as a hagiographic triad – Confucius, Laozi, and the historical Buddha, Sakamuni. Artifacts from the material culture of Neo-Confucianism were made to propagate this syncretistic hagiography, for which Pictures of the Sage’s Traces is an excellent example.

On the latent level, however, this painting is more than an objet d’art and inspires further academic inquiry. The painting represents an interpretation of the contemporary attitude toward Confucian teachings; in this mode, the painting is a graphic study of how the collective producer of the object, the Ming literati, perceived Confucianism and their role in the context of this tradition. It is at the latent level that this painting is most valuable to modern researchers of the material culture of Confucianism. The painting is in essence, a 17th century graphic interpretation of a 6th century BCE story. The most ostensible feature is the artist’s rendering of Confucius and Laozi in the traditional attire of the literati, a class of scholar-officials that was a product of Confucianism and postdates Confucius by a few hundred years. The artistic choice signifies that the Ming literati perceived Confucius and Laozi as the progenitors of their kind. Further, it can be argued that the painting is an allegory of Neo-Confucian syncretism – the theme of seeking, inquiring, keeping and transmitting knowledge – Confucius representing the seeking and inquiring, and Laozi personifying the keeping and transmitting.

Buddhism, another element in the Neo-Confucian intellectual triad, is manifested in the form of a ruyi, a talismanic scepter intrinsic to the foreign religion, shown as being held in the hands of a figure in a white robe in the foreground of the painting. The ruyi is also an anachronism, as Buddhism was not introduced to China until several hundred years after Confucius’s time. There is an additional anachronistic element in the painting – a stack of bound books printed on paper. During Confucius’s time, writings were recorded on bronze ritual vessels, bamboo strips, wood planks, and silk scrolls. Paper was not invented until the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-9CE), and the earliest dated evidence of printing is a fragment of the Diamond Sutra, also an artifact of Buddhism, from the late Tang dynasty (618-907 CE).

The discussion so far has focused on the painting as a product and a study of the Neo-Confucian material culture in the Ming dynasty. What then, constitutes the material culture of Confucianism during Confucius’s time? The Analects provides an apt description:

子贡问曰：赐也何如？子曰：女，器也。曰：何器也？曰：瑚琏也。

Zĭgōng wèn yuē: sì yě hé rú? Zĭ yuē: nŭ, qì yě. Yuē: hé qì yě? Yuē: húliăn yě.

Zigong asked, “What do you think of me?”
The Master said, “You are a vessel.”
“What kind of vessel?”
“A sacrificial vessel.” (The Analects, V.2)

Adherence to rituals or sacrifices, li (禮), is an essential principle of Confucianism, particularly during the time of Confucius, when bronze and jade vessels were still widely used in rituals. The Chinese character itself is a graphic study of this material culture – as explained in another section, 禮 is a partial pictogram showing a man carrying a ritual vessel. Three vessels are shown in this painting; the artist uses different colors to suggest that that they are a porcelain cup, a bronze brassier, and a copper-bronze lidded pitcher. It is important, however, to distinguish that the vessels shown in the painting all serve a practical function in daily life, whereas the artifacts from Confucius’s time, shown in this exhibition, were made and used exclusively in rituals associated with ancestral worship. It is in this context that Confucius’s enigmatic response to his disciple Zigong can be deciphered. The key to interpreting this passage lays in the type of the sacrificial vessel that Confucius invokes as a comparison to Zigong, arguably his most inquisitive and capable disciple. The 瑚琏 (pronunciation: hu2lian3) is one of the oldest vessel types associated with ancestral worship for the exclusive use of royalty in pre-imperial times. It was made of jade (as indicated by the commonality of the graphs’ jade radical) and used to contain grains during the rites of Harvest, one of the most important events in agrarian ancient China. By comparing Zigong to one of the most important sacrificial vessels in ancestral worship, it is inferred that Confucius regards Zigong to be capable of serving in a high position at court.

Material culture signifies human response to changing cultural and historical trends. As demonstrated in this brief introduction, material culture in the time of Confucius was widely dissimilar to the material culture of the Neo-Confucians in the Ming dynasty. This exercise helps us, the modern audience, to contextualize the longevity of Confucianism and the legacy of Confucius as the most venerated philosopher in Chinese history.

For a detailed study of some of the objects depicted in this picture, please see the Exhibition Related Materials homepage.

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The original meaning and literal translation of junzi is “the son of nobility.” For Confucius, such a person would not necessarily need to be of noble birth, but would have to be of the highest moral character, and put into practice the philosophy transmitted by Confucius. Such a person would have to uphold proper observance of the rites (禮, li), assume the duties and responsibilities of his role in the family and clan structure by exhibiting filial piety (孝, xiao), be loyal to the sovereign (忠, zhong), and inspire others through his exemplary force of virtue (德, de). Though humble in nature, a junzi achieves a superior sense of self and his duties and obligations to family and society at large. The image above, taken from a Ming (明) Dynasty pictorial biography of Confucius’ life, depicts Confucius teaching the Book of Rites (禮記, liji) to his disciples at the apricot pavilion in his hometown of Qufu (曲阜).

The Confucian principal that guides a junzi‘s proper interaction with those not directly related to him is that of ren (仁), sometimes translated as “benevolence,” or “compassion.” It is the concept of ren that ensures that those striving to reach the level of the junzi do not become consumed by self-righteousness. Cultivating ren requires “unbending strength, resoluteness, simplicity and reticence” (The Analects, XIII.27). For the junzi, ren is the highest ideal and he not only strives to incorporate it into all his actions, but he should also be willing to give up his life for it, “For gentlemen of purpose and men of benevolence while it is inconceivable that they should seek to stay alive at the expense of benevolence, it may happen that they have to accept death in order to have benevolence accomplished” (The Analects, XV.9). The humility that ren requires is expressed above all in the golden rule, “do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire” (The Analects, XII.2). This concept applies to familial relationships, as well as informs the general mode of proper interaction between an individual and society.

A true understanding of ren is predicated on forming a complete understanding of oneself. Without understanding and transforming himself, a man cannot begin to understand how that self fits into society. However, it is not through solitary self-introspection that one develops a deeper sense of self, but, as illustrated in the image above, through interaction with family and community. The image above takes place in Qufu, where Confucius returned after years of travel, and where he continued instructing his disciples, encouraging discovery through scholarly debate and interpersonal interactions.

While Confucius sought to inspire others through his teachings and example, he denied having achieved the status of a junzi himself, “There are three things constantly on the lips of the gentleman none of which I have succeeded in following: ‘A man of benevolence never worries; a man of wisdom is never in two minds; a man of courage is never afraid” (The Analects, XIV.28). Embodying the principals of the junzi is an ideal one must constantly strive for, but which few ever obtain.

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An idealized portrait of Confucius even appears on the façade of the U.S. Supreme Court building, known in American history as the Temple of Justice.

Confucius on Supreme Court Frieze

A marble frieze on the temple’s south wall depicts an imaginary procession of nine historical lawmakers from different civilizations Before the Common Era; they are arranged in chronological sequence and grouped by four allegorical figures representing fame, authority, light of wisdom, and history. Confucius (551-497 BCE) is juxtaposed between Draco (Greek, 7th century BCE) and Augustus (Roman, 1st century BCE) in the final group; together the triad exemplifies the humanistic developments of philosophy and history in the ancient world.

According to historical records, Confucius was active in the final years of the tumultuous period known as chunqiu 春秋. The term chunqiu literally means Spring and Autumn and derives from the title of a contemporary historical text. The text is organized as an annalistic compilation documenting important affairs, both internal and external, of the state of Lu (鲁) from 722 to 481 BCE. The Spring and Autumn period was a hegemonic world – a political system of decentralization in which powerful feudal lords, known as hegemons ba (霸) – acted as de facto rulers while maintaining nominal and ritualistic loyalty to the ancient royal house of Zhou. For this reason the Spring and Autumn period is often referred to as the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.

The ancient Lu state roughly corresponds to the modern province Shandong on China’s northeastern coast and they share the same capital, Qufu (曲阜). Qufu was also the birthplace of Confucius and has been a traditional epicenter of intellectual activities of the Confucian school of thought since his lifetime. The life of Confucius in many ways reflects the history of his native state of Lu. Born into an extinguished noble family in a state on the wane, Confucius was an inevitable product of his time, a transitional phase when ritualized warfare and political intrigues among the hegemonic states would eventually degenerate into complete anarchy, known as the Warring States period zhanguo (戰 國). While the history of the Warring States is characterized by unsanctioned violence at massive scales – genocides of peoples and cultures were commonplace – it was also an unprecedented time of robust intellectual activities and technological advancements. Because of his posthumous fame, Confucius is commonly viewed as the seminal prototype to later thinkers of the so-called “Hundred Schools,” who flourished during the Warring States period.

In life, Confucius was one among many talented men in a rapidly expanding diplomatic corps searching to serve a worthy master – for Confucius the ideal ruler was characterized by an unchallenged moral character and he who governs by benevolence. What distinguishes Confucius from his contemporaries is his legacy as the teacher par excellence to a large school of worthy disciples, who recorded, compiled, and transmitted his teachings in The Analects. Despite a lofty reputation as one of the greatest lawmakers in world history, the highlight of Confucius’s career in public service was as the police commissioner of the state of Lu. It is in this post that Confucius first achieved fame as a deft advisor at the Summit at Jiagu, a historical event illustrated in this painting. According to the colophon:

In the tenth year of the reign of Duke Ding of Lu state (r. 509 -494 BCE), the lords of the Qi and Lu states conferred at Jiagu to negotiate a potential alliance. Confucius was in charge of the ceremonial proceedings on behalf of the embassy from Lu. During the summit, the embassy of the Qi state played music native to the uncivilized tribes. Confucius admonished: “Why play the music of the barbarians when the lords of two civilized states are conferring to build everlasting friendship? It is requested that elegant music appropriate for court be played!” The Qi embassy continued to play barbarian music. Confucius again admonished: “Those who humiliate Duke Ding of Lu on this solemn occasion must be executed! It is requested that proper punishment be carried out!” His call for adherence to decorum shamed the lord of the Qi state. Driven to regret the impropriety demonstrated by his embassy, the lord of the Qi state returned lands that were once seized from the state of Lu and offered an apology.”

This story provides an apt description of the political environment of the Spring and Autumn period, when feudal lords maintained ducal titles so as not to violate their nominal loyalty to the Zhou royalty and engaged not in overt warfare, but convert political intrigues of shifting alliances. This painting depicts a hegemonic world when rulers of states still engaged each other in a ritualistic manner and tolerated expectations of propriety to maintain a semblance of order. This historical context helps us better understand the inceptive rationale of Confucian philosophy, for Confucius was witness to a regressing humanity at a historical precipice. Confucianism was, in its primordial form, a sage’s attempt to save his fellow men from their inevitable demise.

Spring and Autumn Period – title popularly ascribed to the years 722 to 481 BCE, 
a period covered by the extant historical records of the state of Lu which bear the title Spring and Autumn Annals, 
one of the Five Classics of Confucianism.  This period is remarkable for a decline in Zhou authority, 
increased loyalty to states rather than the Zhou feudal suzerain, and a flourishing of 
philosophical discourse giving rise to the “Hundred Schools of Thought”.

Hegemons (霸 ba) – powerful leaders of feudal states in the Spring and Autumn period 
who nominally acknowledged Zhou suzerainty but are historically denounced 
by Confucian commentators as self-centered, power-hungry autocrats 
who were the antithesis of an ideal Confucian ruler.

Warring States (戰國) (475 - 221 BCE), name given to the period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty 
from the end of the Spring and Autumn to the triumph of 
the Qin reunification; this time period is marked by intense, large-scale warfare.

Colophons are inscriptions—postscripts, poems, or comments—appended to a work of art or its mounting. 
Often, colophons provide important information about the history of the artwork 
and how it and the artist were regarded. These writings could be by the artist, 
the recipient, or later admirers of the work.

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This workshop was webcast live online at 5:00pm (EST), Feb. 5, 2010.

To access more resources and exciting events, please register to become a member of China360 online community!

On Feb 5, 2010, the Confucius Institute at China Institute (CI@CI) will partner with NYU’s Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers (DCLT) and The Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (ALBETAC) to host a workshop on Language Immersion: Sharing Teaching Skills and Classroom Experience. This workshop will focus on how to teach a foreign language class using the target language to maximize student learning. Victoria Gilbert, a highly experienced Spanish teacher and current Chair of Foreign & Classical Languages at the Saint David’s School, will present a 20-minute demo Spanish immersion class, during which workshop participants will be able to role play as students. The demo will be followed by a panel discussion of teachers sharing experiences on teaching and using the target language in a foreign language classroom.

Friday, February 5, 2010 ~ 4:30-7:30 PM

China Institute Library (located on the 2nd floor), 125 E 65th St. New York, NY 10065

Free

Dinner will be served

Seating is limited. Please RSVP by February 1, 2010 to Shenzhan Liao at sliao@chinainstitute.org or call 212.744.8181 x 118.

China Institute advances a deeper understanding of China through programs in education, culture, business and art in the belief that cross-cultural understanding strengthens our global community.

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Spring and Autumn map

In his home state of Lu (魯), located in modern Shandong province, Confucius witnessed first-hand the devolution of authority from the Zhou king to the regional dukes. This political environment, marked by increased military competition between states for hegemony, provided the historical context for Confucius’ campaign for greater social and political morality that could reunite the region into a single sociopolitical unit reminiscent of the halcyon early days of the Zhou dynasty. According to Confucius, the solution lay in a benevolent ruler, an exemplary gentleman who would inspire benevolence in his people. In 497 BCE, at the age of fifty-four, the great philosopher embarked on a fourteen year sojourn through the neighboring states of Wei (衛), Song (宋), Cai (蔡), Chu (楚), and Cao (曹) – collectively located in the present day regions of Henan, Hubei and Anhui provinces – in search of such a ruler. He never found one. Instead, hardship and danger often awaited him among the bellicose people living in these parts.

In the painting K’uang People Raising the Siege from the Ming dynasty illustrated biography of Confucius, Pictures of the Sage’s Traces, Confucius and his disciples are attacked by a horde of such people. The painting captures the moment of Confucius’ response to the onslaught, a well-known episode corroborated by a passage in The Analects:

子畏於匡，曰：“文王既沒，文不在茲乎。天之將喪斯文也，後死者不得與於斯文也；天之未喪斯文也，匡人其如予何！”

zǐ wèi yú kuāng, yuē: “Wén Wáng jì méi, wén bù zài cí hū. tiān zhī jiāng sàng sī wén yě, hòu sǐ zhě bù dé yǔ yú sī wén yě; tiān zhī wèi sàng sī wén yě, kuāng rén qí rú yú hé!”

When under siege in K’uang, the Master said, ‘With King Wen dead is not culture (wen) invested here in me? If Heaven intends culture to be destroyed, those who come after me will not be able to have any part of it. If Heaven does not intend this culture to be destroyed, then what can the men of K’uang do to me?’ (The Analects, IX.5)

At the same time that the scene in K’uang People Raising the Siege is a visual reminder of the difficult political geography of Confucius’ time, the excerpt from The Analects presents us with a cosmological relationship between the will of Heaven and humankind, introducing yet another meaning to the geographical order of Confucius’ world. To appreciate fully Confucius’ response to the men of Kuang, we must keep in mind the Chinese ideas of the interconnections between Heaven (tian 天), Earth (di 地), and Man or Person (ren 人). This crucial order, an expansion of the familial and political relationships central to Confucian doctrine, is maintained through the correct observance of the sacred rites, the culture to which Confucius was referring.

While the will of Heaven, it seems, intended Confucius to survive the siege of Kuang, the great sage ultimately died in 484 BCE, as the Spring and Autumn Period was transitioning into an era of intensified military competition. The subsequent era, known as the Warring States Period, lasted over two hundred years until the king of Qin (秦) crowned himself Emperor of a newly unified China, taking the name The First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huangdi 秦始皇帝), now famous around the world for the terracotta funerary army that guards his necropolis outside Xi’an. While Shi Huangdi condemned the Confucian school of thought, imperial decree of the Han (漢) emperors (206 BCE – 220 CE) began promulgating Confucian thought, spreading Confucianism much further than Confucius could have imagined during those treacherous, difficult years searching the timeless land of China.

Zhou (ca. 1050-256 BCE) early Chinese dynasty whose early days 
were considered to be a golden age by Confucius since it was ruled by wise righteous kings.

Lu small state at the base of the Shandon peninsula in the capital of which, Qufu, Confucius was born.

Hegemons (霸 ba) – powerful leaders of feudal states in the Spring and Autumn period who nominally 
acknowledged Zhou suzerainty but are historically denounced by Confucian commentators as self-centered, power-hungry autocrats 
who were the antithesis of an ideal Confucian ruler.

founder of the Zhou Dynasty who provided the moral authority to usurp 
the Mandate of Heaven from the previous Shang dynasty.

state that in 221 BCE unified the warring states into one empire, 
the Qin, which lasted until 209 BCE.

Han (206 BCE - 221 CE) was the first great imperial dynasty 
of Chinese history that is divided into two time periods -- Former or Western Han (206 BCE - 9 CE), 
and Later or Eastern Han (23 - 220 CE).

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The position will include teaching middle as well as high school students and it will also involve curriculum work to inaugurate a Mandarin language and Chinese culture program.  Please send resumes and a cover letter to:

Ms. Elaine Cuglietto
Director of Human Resources
Rye City School District
411 Theodore Fremd
Rye, NY   10580

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