CGC ListThe China/Greece Colloquium (CGC) is our medium for raising questions of comparative history, with special emphasis on contrasts between China and the Ancient Mediterranean world. This is the period during which China (and for that matter, also Greece) evolved into its standard traditional form, and the one on which the Project's own labors focus. It is thus the period for which the Project has the most to offer to a wider comparative discourse. Comparison beyond those borders (we have in mind such phenomena as the multi-state system of the European Renaissance) is also welcome. Philological technique is also of wide interest, and we recognize its applicability to all languages and text traditions.
The Colloquium hopes to provide a forum for contact between specialists. On the history side of the history and philology mix, we are especially interested in the less literary aspects of the several antiquities: legal, military, economic, and social. It is hoped that in the informal environment of CGC, elementary questions can be asked without embarrassment, ideas in progress can be tested, access to data and scholarly conclusions can be provided without requiring the questioner to qualify in a second specialty, and the validity of "standard reference book" information in the light of recent research can be queried by those in other fields. For our general view of the methodological issues, see the Comparative History page. The Colloquium also serves to make available the implications of our attempt, currently in progress, to more accurately date the Warring States texts, and then to read classical Chinese history anew from those redated sources. The general result is to revise, or challenge altogether, some popular textbook statements about ancient China.
In these ways, and any others that may develop in practice, we hope that the list will help to realize the great but undeveloped potential of the comparative study of the ancient world. In fact, the world.
The CGC message archive contains the entire conversation to date, for convenient consultation by current members. There is also a facility for uploading drafts or published papers to the archive site, for discussion and comment by list members.
The Colloquium is an invitational conversation among mutually known individuals. Normal expectations of scholarly civility and the scrupulous citation of posted material will apply; see the List Protocol page and other basic information in the Making Contact tour.
Like WSW and its other satellite conversations, CGC is sponsored by the Warring States Project of the University of Massachusetts, and is managed in the common interest by E Bruce Brooks.
29 May 2004 / Contact The Project / Exit to E-Mail Page
