Conference Schedule

Thursday, 8 June      

Arrival at Seminaris Hotel and self-organized dinner

Friday, 9 June

8:30 – 9:00    Registration

9:00 – 9:15     Welcome address

9:15 – 10:00     Introduction (General Approach of the Conference)

- Christian Meyer (FU Berlin): “Global Genealogies of ‘religion’ – Western and Chinese histories of ‘faith’ and ‘xin’. A Preliminary Overview”

10:00 – 12:30     Session I. Traditional Uses in Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Other Contexts / Chair and discussant: Prof. Philip Clart (Leipzig)

- Joachim Gentz (Univ. of Edinburgh): “A Trustworthy Companion: Xin 信 as complementary term in early Chinese texts”

            (Short) coffee break 10.45 – 11:00

- Barbara Meisterernst (Humboldt Universität Berlin) “A linguistic analysis of the different functions of XIN and their historical development from Late Archaic to Middle Chinese”

- Friederike Assandri (Universität Leipzig): "The concept of xin in medieval Daoism"

12:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.     Lunch break    (lunch buffet for active participants provided)

1:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.               Session I (cont.): Traditional Uses in Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Other Contexts / Chair and discussant: Prof. Philip Clart (Leipzig)

- Tam Wai Lun (The Chinese University of Hong Kong): “The concept of xin in Pre-modern Chinese Buddhism”

- Esther-MariaGuggenmos (Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg): „Convinced by Amazement - Creating Buddhist ‘xin 信’  (Belief/Trust) in the Biographies of Thaumaturge Monks (T. 2064)“

- Christoph Kleine (Universität Leipzig): „Japanese Buddhist Concepts of Faith (shin 信): The Postmodern Narrative of the Conceptual Hegemony of Western Modernity Reconsidered“

Coffee break 3:45 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.

4:15 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.               Session II: Early Channels of Transfer: From Traditional to Early Monotheistic Uses of the Term from 7^th to 19 th cent. / Chair and discussant: Prof. Klaus Mühlhahn (FU Berlin)

- Max Deeg (University of Cardiff, Wales): “From Trust in the Buddha to Belief in the One God – ‘xin’ as a Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian Concept in Early Medieval China”

- Henning Klöter (Humboldt Universität Berlin): “Translating belief for non-believers? Dominican missionaries and Chinese migrants in Manila (17th century)”

- Dror Weil (Princeton University): “The concept of xin in Chinese Islam” (via Skype)

6:30 p.m.                    Conference Dinner

Saturday, 10 June

9:00 – 12:20    Session III: From the Traditional and Christian Milieus to the Entry into the Ge­neral Lexicon of Modern Chinese / Chair and discussant: Dr. Brooks Jessup and Prof. Albert Wu

- Vincent Goossaert (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris): "The notion of xin in morality books, 12th-20th centuries" (via Skype)

- Thomas Jansen (University of Wales, Lampeter): Negotiating between Chinese religious beliefs and Christian faith: An exploration of Timothy Richard’s (1845-1919) theology and translation work”

(Short) Coffee break 10:30 – 10:50

- Stefania Travagnin (University of Groningen): “The (New) Buddhist Semantics of xin in Republican China (1910-1940): Assessing Local Discourses, Global Influences and Glocal Resolutions"

- Christian Meyer (FU Berlin): “Xin(yang) in Introductory Works of History of Religions / Comparative Religions in Late Qing and Republican periods”

12:20 a.m. – 1:50 p.m.     Lunch break (lunch buffet for active participants provided)

1:50 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.               Session III (continued) / Chair and discussant: Prof. Thomas Fröhlich

- Thoralf Klein: (University of Loughborough) “’Our believing in the Three People's Principles requires a religious spirit’: Xin(yang) and the political religion of the Guomindang, 1925–1949”

- Lauren Pfister (Baptist University of Hong Kong): "When Philosophy and Xin / Belief Meet: Three Phases of Feng Youlan's Thoughts and Experiences of Xin"

- Chloe Starr (Yale Divinity School): ”Clarifying Xin in the Nascent Chinese Protestant Church"

Coffee break 4:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

4:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.               Session IV: Contemporary uses in special and everyday language discourses and fieldwork cases in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong (and overseas) (1): / Chair and discussants: Esther-Maria Guggenmos

- Adam Yuet Chau (Univ. of Cambridge): „ Modalities of 'believing' in contemporary Chinese religious practices (with illustrative cases from popular religion and Buddhism)“

- Nikolas Broy (Leipzig): „ Belief in the Dao, or Knowledge of the Truth? Contested Interpretations of 'Believing' in Yiguandao Discourses“

6:30 p.m.       Conferene Dinner

Sunday, 11 June

9:00 – 11:30    Session IV (cont.).: Contemporary uses in special and everyday language discourses and fieldwork cases in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong (and overseas) (2): / Chairs and discussants: Fabian Heubel and Esther Maria Guggenmos

- Johanna Lüdde (Freie Universität Berlin): “The role of xin in the Buddhist discourse of nuns in contemporary China”

- Huang Weishan: "Learning to Believe: Xinfo on Buddhist Monks"

- Gerda Wielander (University of Westminster): “The Concept of xin in current political discourse under Xi Jinping”

(Short) Coffee break: 11:30 – 11:45

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.     Concluding discussion

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.               Lunch (lunch buffet for active participants provided)

2:00 p.m.        End of conference/departure

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Organizers: Freie Universität Berlin, Department of East Asian Studies, Sinology

- Prof. Dr. Christian Meyer, ch.meyer@fu-berlin.de

- Dr. Johanna Lüdde, johanna.luedde@fu-berlin.de

- Richard Ellguth, M.A. richard.ellguth@fu-berlin.de

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Gäste sind in beschränkter Zahl und nach Anmeldung  (ch.meyer@fu-berlin.de) willkommen.