“Sheng 聖: From Sage Kings to Christian Saints and the Modern
Concept of Holiness in China”

Free University of Berlin, Department of East Asian Studies, Sinology, 19-21 July 2024
Conference venue: Fabeckstr. 23-25 “Holzlaube” Room: 2.2051 (2nd floor)

Conference Schedule

Thursday, 18 July

Arrival at Seminaris CampusHotel, Berlin-Dahlem
20:00 Welcome Dinner

Friday, 19 July
8:30-9:00 Registration
9:00-9:15 Welcome address
9:15-10:30 Introductory Session: Sheng, Holiness and Sacredness in Chinese
and Western Contexts
- Christian Meyer: “Introduction”
- Johann Ev. Hafner (University of Potsdam): “Profanum – Sacrum – Sanctissimum. Analogous and Binary Distinctions of Holiness in the West”
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-14:45 Session 1: Ancient Uses of Sheng (Chair: Ines Eben von Racknitz, Free University of Berlin)
- Nick Vogt (Indiana University): “Attending to Ancestral Sounds: Following Sheng through the Bronze Inscriptions”
- Fabian Heubel (Academia Sinica): “Breath and Ritual: Straw-Dogs, Bellows and the Askesis of the Holy Human in the Lǎozǐ”
12:30-14:00 Lunch Break
- Fu Yang 傅揚 (National Taiwan University, Taipei): “The Religio-Political Characteristics of Shengren (Sage) in Early Imperial China”
14:45-15:00 Coffee Break
15:00-17:30 Session 2: Uses of Sheng in Daoism, Buddhism and Craft
Production (Chair: Philip Clart, Leipzig University)
- Friederike Assandri (Leipzig University): “The Daoist Sage as Compassionate Savior – Early Tang Integration of the Buddhist Bodhisattva Ideal into the Figure of the Daoist Sage in the Daode jing”
- Hans-Rudolf Kantor (Huafan University, Taipei): “Sheng in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Texts”
16:30-16:45 Coffee Break
- Dagmar Schäfer (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin): “Crafting Wisdom: Sage (Sheng) Artisans from the 12th to 14th Century”
18:00 Conference Dinner 

Saturday, 20 July
9:15-12:00 Session 3: Sheng / sei as a Critical Term in Early Modern East Asia
(Chair: Urs Matthias Zachmann, Free University of Berlin)
- Chu Pingyi (Academia Sinica, Taipei): “Sheng as a Contested Christian Symbol in China, 1600-1842”
- Katja Triplett (Leipzig University / Marburg University): “Sheng in Japanese Translations and Materials of the Early Jesuit Mission”
10:45-11:15 Coffee Break
- James Frankel (Chinese University of Hong Kong): “Sheng: Linking Confucius and Muhammad in the Han Kitāb”
12:00-13:30 Lunch Break
13:30-16:00 Session 4: Legitimating Rulership throughout Chinese History
(Chair: Richard Ellguth, Free University of Berlin)
- Ines Eben von Racknitz (Free University of Berlin): “The End of Empire: "Sheng" and "Sacred" in the Imperial Realm in Transitional Times”
- Adam Yuet Chau (University of Cambridge): “Revolutionary Holy Lands (geming shengdi 革命聖地) as Ritual Terroirs”
15:00-15:15 Coffee Break
- Gerda Wielander (University of Westminster): “His Holiness Xi Jinping? The Long March towards Sanctifying the Party”
16:00-18:30 Session 5: Christian Adaptations of Sheng in the 20th Century
(Chair: Richard Ellguth, Free University of Berlin)
- George Mak (Hong Kong Baptist University): “Sheng as a Translated Term in the Mandarin Union Version of the Chinese Protestant Bible”
16:45-17:00 Coffee Break
- Albert Wu (Academia Sinica, Taipei): “Translating Sheng as Perfection: Wang Changzhi and Catholic Virtue in Republican China”
- Christian Meyer (Free University of Berlin): “’Holiness (Sheng/Shensheng) in Chinese Religious Studies from Republican Period to the Present”
19:00 Conference Dinner

Sunday, 21 July
9:15-10:45 Session 6: Contemporary Chinese Buddhism and Theology (Chair: Anton Terhechte, Free University of Berlin)
- Carsten Krause (University of Hamburg): “On Buddhist Connotations and their Relationship to Academic and Political Spheres in the Use of Sheng in Contemporary Mainland China”
- Li Quan (Free University of Berlin): “The Idea of the Divine and the Formation of Chinese Public Theology”
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:00 p.m. Concluding discussion
12:00-13:30 p.m. Lunch
13:30 p.m. End of conference/departure