About

Welcome! The format of our workshop is as follows:

The person leading the next session distributes the reading materials and their notes to participants a week before the workshop. The pre-circulated materials include:

  1. photocopies of the bamboo or wooden slips (if participants have shared PDF versions, just refer to the page numbers);
  2. modern scholars’ transcriptions of the text in Chinese;
  3. the speaker’s English translation of the text;
  4. the speaker’s notes on certain characters, terms, relevant statutes and institutions, and other issues worthy of discussion; and
  5. a collection of modern scholars’ research on the material, with summary and bibliography.

All the notes are written in English except the Chinese transcriptions of the original text and some Chinese characters necessary for interpretation. Citations follow Chicago in-text citation style, for example, Chen et al., 2018, 100.

The reading content of each workshop depends on the speaker’s choice, but it is generally legal cases and relevant materials from unearthed Qin and Han manuscripts. The reading material for each workshop should be around 20–50 pages.

Participants are expected to read the materials in advance of the meeting and bring their own opinions and questions to the group. During the workshop, the speaker leads the group to go over the pre-circulated materials, and participants contribute their comments throughout the discussion. Participants are encouraged to speak any time, especially when they have doubts about the speaker’s interpretation.

Discussions are bilingual, in English and Mandarin.

After the workshop, the speaker revises the notes based on the group discussion and saves them until the end of the workshop series, when all the notes are ready to be publicized together.