Jean François Billeter

Jean François Billeter , Chinese name Bì Láidé 毕 来 德 / 畢 來 德, (born June 7, 1939 in Basel ) is a Swiss professor emeritus from the University of Geneva , sinologist and essayist.

biography

education

Billeter's mother tongue is French, but he attended school in German until he graduated from high school. He then studied French literary history at the University of Basel , then in Geneva, where he received his degree in 1961. In 1962 he began to study Chinese at the Paris École des langues et civilizations orientales and continued his studies in Beijing from 1963 to 1966, the first year at the Preparatory School for Foreign Students , then at the Department of Classical Chinese Literature at the University of Beijing . In 1966 he married the doctor Ts'ui Wen 崔文. After a year-long stay in Switzerland, the couple could not return to Beijing as planned because the universities were closed as a result of the Cultural Revolution . After a year of study in Paris (1967/68) they decided to move to Japan, where Billeter worked as a doctoral student at the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies at Kyoto University under the direction of Shimada Kenji 岛 田 虔 次 on the heterodox thinker of the late Ming- Time Li Zhi李 贽 (1527–1602, pronounced Li Dj) researched. This two-year stay in Kyoto (1968–1970) was followed by a visit to the New Asia College in Hong Kong (1970–1971; this institute later became part of the Chinese University). This training path was made possible in the first year by a scholarship from the University of Geneva , and subsequently by multi-year support from the Swiss National Science Foundation. JFBilleter's PhD on Li Zhi was completed in Geneva in 1976 and published in 1979.

Teaching

In 1970 Billeter became an assistant at the East Asian Department of the University of Zurich , where he taught until 1978. In 1971 he was also given a teaching position for Chinese history at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Geneva. In 1973 he set up a Chinese language course there, which gradually developed into a full course of study on the language and culture of China. In 1987 he was appointed full professor. When he gave up teaching prematurely in 1999 to devote himself to his own work, he published a Mémoire sur les études chinoises à Genève et ailleurs in which he drew a critical assessment of his professional experience. Generous support from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation (Taipei) enabled him to dedicate himself entirely to research from 1992–1994. It was then that he began studying the philosopher Zhuangzi .

Since the framework in which the China Studies in Geneva initially developed was very narrow, they had to be based on a particularly well-thought-out introduction to the language. Billeter and his wife, Ts'ui Wen, who had become an indispensable collaborator, developed a way of teaching this language that proved its worth and that Ts'ui Wen developed over the years thanks to her pedagogical talent. This joint work resulted in a new understanding of the linguistic gesture in Chinese, which Billeter intends to capture in the form of a synthetic representation. This will be accompanied by an essay on the teaching method.

research

• The Chinese art of writing

Apart from his study of the philosopher Li Zhi, his dissertation, his L'art chinois de l'écriture ( The Chinese Art of Writing ) is the only book that JF Billeter published while he was teaching in Geneva. It was published in 1989 by the Geneva-based art publisher Skira, with black and white and color illustrations, and deals with the entirety of the subject: the properties of Chinese writing, the writing technique, structure and handling of the brush, the transition from ordinary writing to actual calligraphy, the history of the same , the statements made by calligraphers about their practice and the social, political and religious functions that calligraphy has fulfilled in the past. References are made to our practice of painting, drawing and, even more, making music. A revised version of the work was published by Allia in Paris in 2010, in a more manageable format and with black and white illustrations. The final chapter has been rewritten and sheds a clearer light on Chinese writing. JFBilleter emphasizes the close connection that has existed for centuries between this art, a certain cult of writing and a culture that was also a political order. In 1990 the book was awarded the Stanislas Julien Prize by the Paris Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

• Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi (also Chuang-tzu), who died about 280 BC, is the most notable philosopher of ancient China. The book that bears his name was given the form in which it was handed down to us around the year 300 CE. At that time, an interpretation emerged that by and large has remained decisive to this day and from which JF Billeter wanted to break away from the beginning because, in his opinion, it does not do justice to the conciseness and intellectual sharpness of the original. He has undertaken to take a fresh look at the text. Since for him, as for others before him, the work consists of parts from different origins and has no real unity, he has also taken the liberty of translating and interpreting individual pieces from it separately: those that, in his opinion, are more general illuminate human experience. He made these texts accessible to a broad readership beyond the circle of sinologists. He has also accurately analyzed the problems of interpretation and translation he encountered and how he solved them.

In autumn 2000 he summarized the first results of his work in four lectures at the Collège de France, which he published in 2002 under the title Leçons sur Tchouang-tseu . They have been translated into various languages ​​and published in German under the title Das Wirken in den Dingen . In 2006, Études sur Tchouang-tseu appeared , a collection of studies that he had previously published in sinological journals. A Chinese translation of the Leçons was published in Beijing in 2009 and was the occasion of a colloquium at the Academia Sinica in Taipei that same year. In 2010, JF Billeter published a critical review of the conversations at that time: Notes sur Tchouang-tseu et la philosophie . Since then he has devoted himself to new topics, but plans to resume Zhuangzi’s studies later.

• philosophy

Billeter asked himself from what perspective it would be possible to perceive European and Chinese intellectual history both in their common ground and in their otherness. This led him to the question of whether one could arrive at a conception of the human subject that would not be shaped either by the inherited modes of thought of one tradition or by those of the other and would therefore allow the two traditions to be in a clearly understandable relationship to one another bring. He formulated such a view, first to make certain forms of Chinese thought understandable from within, then for their own sake. He presented a first draft in a philosophical essay, Un paradigme , in 2012 ; German A paradigm . In 2017 he developed it further and formulated it more stringently in a second essay, Esquisses ; it also sets out the political implications of this view. A final version of these Esquisses will appear in summer 2017 and will appear in German translation ( sketches ) in 2018 . Billeter suggests that in this essay he develops a way of thinking that solves several central problems in modern Western philosophy.

For a long time Billeter had the feeling that he had devoted himself to work that was not related to one another, but one day he discovered that there was an inner connection. In all of his writings he endeavored to make understandable what at first seemed incomprehensible, and to achieve this by referring to the common ground of general human experience that was accessible to everyone. He partially understood this consequence in an article in 2013, “Cheminement d'un sinologue” (career of a sinologist).

• translation

Because Lichtenberg is one of those thinkers he has always valued and who has been very poorly translated in France, Billeter translated excerpts from his Sudel books into French in 2014 and published them with an introduction, a biographical summary and a note about the work. In the same year Trois essais sur la traduction appeared . The first essay appeared in a magazine in 1986, the other two are taken from the Études sur Tchouang-tseu . JF Billeter examines problems of translation from classical Chinese into French, especially classical poetry, but sheds light on questions of translation in general. An expanded edition will appear at the end of 2017.

• Critique of Relativism

Billeter has always fought against cultural relativism, according to which a society can only be understood on the basis of its own ideas and its own values ​​- a point of view that is reflected in western China studies as well as in the Chinese public and the propaganda of the Beijing regime has spread. In 2006, in Contre François Jullien (German against François Jullien ), he criticized the very successful publications of this French sinologist, who brilliantly represented such relativism, and defined some rules that must be followed when dealing with the wrong turns and pitfalls wants to avoid, to which this view leads.

• History of china

One of these rules is: “If one sets otherness a priori , then one loses sight of what is common. If you start from the common ground, the differences will show themselves ”. Billeter followed this principle in all of his work. So also in his analysis of Chinese history. What sets this story apart more than anything else from ours is, in his view, a particular conception of power and the exercise of power. This fundamental difference, which makes it so difficult for us to understand many specifically Chinese phenomena in the past and also in the present, becomes understandable if we start from what is common to all historical societies: 1. all need one form of power, 2. all forms power have been invented at a certain point in time, 3. they can exist for a very long time and despite profound social changes, 4. but they can also be replaced by the invention of new forms. In his Essai sur l'histoire chinoise, d'après Spinoza , Billeter tried to define the Chinese conception of power and the exercise of power, to show how it came about, what role it has played in the course of history and how it continues to operate today. In an older study, Le système des statuts de classe en République populaire de Chine (1986), he had already shown how traditional structures of rule emerged again in the People's Republic in Marxist dress.

The 2000 published Chine trois fois muette (about: China's triple-mutism ) contains the aforementioned sur l'histoire chinoise Essai and Essai sur l'histoire contemporaine et la Chine , represents in the Billeter the idea that the contemporary history of China can not be understood when viewed in isolation. It must be seen as part of a “chain reaction” that was triggered by the emergence of capitalism in Europe and that has spread across the world.

In his work on the philosopher Li Zhi, Billeter had encountered a different issue of the interpretation of modern Chinese history. The fate of this outsider suggests that at the end of the Ming period, in the 16th century, the principle of individual autonomy began to prevail, as it did in Europe from the time of the Reformation up to the Enlightenment. The question is whether this beginning development was not interrupted for more than two centuries from 1644 by the authoritarian regime of Manchus. Billeter encountered another basic question in his study of Zhuangzi and the interpretation of his writings in China: how can we explain that they remained largely misunderstood in China during the imperial era and yet exercised such a great influence over such a long period?

• Personal writings

In autumn 2017, two small writings of a personal nature will be published. In Une rencontre à Pékin , Billeter reports how he met his wife in Beijing in the 1960s and what obstacles she had to overcome in order to be able to get married. He describes conditions that are hard to imagine today. Une autre Aurélia is a collection of notes from the time after Ts'ui Wen's passing in 2012. Billeter observes very closely what happens inside him and how these processes illuminate our relationship with ourselves and with others.

Works

Publications

• Li Zhi, philosophe maudit (1527-1602), Contribution à une sociologie du mandarinat de la fin des Ming , Droz, Genève, 1979. (298 p.)
• Le système des statuts de classe en République populaire de Chine , Institut universitaire des Hautes études internationales, Genève, 1986. (100 p.)
• L'Art chinois de l'écriture , Skira, Genève, 1989. (320 p.)
• Mémoire sur les études chinoises à Genève et ailleurs , Genève, 1999. (94 p.)
• Chine trois fois muette: Essai sur l'histoire contemporaine et la Chine, suivi de: Bref essai sur l'histoire de Chine, d'après Spinoza, Allia, Paris, 2000. (148 p.) 4 ^e éd. revue et corrigée, 2010. 5 ^e éd. 2016.
• Leçons sur Tchouang-tseu, Allia, Paris, 2002. (152 p.) 12 ^e éd. revue et corrigée, 2014. 14 ^e éd., 2016. German: The work in things , Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2015.
• Études sur Tchouang-tseu, Allia, Paris, 2006. (294 p.) 3 ^e éd. revue et corrigée, 2008. 4 ^e éd. 2016.
• Contre François Jullien, Allia, Paris, 2006. (122 p.) 3 ^e éd., 2014. 4 ^e éd. augmentée, 2017. German: Against François Jullien , Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2015.
• Notes sur Tchouang-tseu et la philosophie, Allia, Paris, 2010. (112 p.)
• Essai sur l'art chinois de l'écriture et ses fondements, Allia, Paris, 2010 (revised edition of the 1989 version). (414 p.)
• Un paradigme , Allia, Paris, 2012. (126 p.) 3 ^e éd., 2014. German: Ein Paradigma , Matthes Seitz, Berlin, 2017.
• Trois essais sur la traduction , Allia, Paris, 2014. (120 p.) 2 ^e éd. augmentée, 2017.
• Lichtenberg , Allia, Paris, 2014. (168 p.) 2 ^e éd. revue et corrigée, 2014.
• Esquisses , Allia, Paris, 2016. (128 p.) 2 ^e éd. 2016. Édition remaniée, 2017. German  : Sketches , Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2018.
• Une rencontre à Pékin, Allia, Paris, 2017.
• Une autre Aurélia, Allia, Paris, 2017.
• Demain l'Europe . Allia, Paris, 2019. German: Europe's Future , Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2019.

Some selected articles

• "Deux études sur Wang Fuzhi", T'oung-Pao , Leiden, 1970, LVI, pp. 147-171.
• "Essai d'interprétation du chapitre XV du Laozi  ", Études asiatiques , Berne, 1985, 39 / 1-2, pp.7-44.
• "Florilège des Notes du Ruisseau des rêves (Mengqi bitan)  ", traduit et annoté par JF Billeter et trente et un étudiants de l'Université de Genève, Études asiatiques , Berne, 1993, 47/3, p.389-451.
• "Fu Shan (1607–1684): Les Saints font le mal  ", in En suivant la Voie Royale. Mélanges en hommages à Léon Vandermeersch , École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1997, pp.169-177.
• «François Jullien, sur le fond», Monde chinois, Paris, n ° 11, automne 2007, pp.67-74.
• “Cheminement d'un sinologue”, Retour d'y voir , Mamco, Genève, 2013, nos.6 / 7/8, p.116-130.
• «Poésie chinoise: que faire? », La revue de belles-lettres, Lausanne, 2015/1, pp.145-152.

Web links

The Éditions Allia website contains reviews and other documents relating to Billeter's publications. Input: Éditions Allia / Recherche: Billeter / Titre de l'ouvrage / au-dessus du titre: About and around. A number of the lectures given at the University of Geneva between 1985 and 1999 are available on the Net. They were intended for the students who were unable to attend the lectures and were not originally intended for further distribution. She never listened to Billeter himself again. It is possible that he no longer shares some of the views expressed therein. This included lecture notes with lists of Chinese characters, quotations in Chinese and French, and bibliographical information. These documents no longer exist. Entry: Mediaserver.unige.ch/cours, Billeter Jean-François.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The articles were published in two extensive issues of the 中國 文哲所 研究 通訊Newsletter of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy of the Academia Sinica (2012, Nos. 22/3 and 22/4, in Chinese). An older issue (2008, No. 18/4) already contained three contributions to the Leçons sur Tchouang-tseu .
2. ↑ The answer is in Leçons sur Tchouang-tseu. Pp. 130-138, in brief; compare Working in Things. Pp. 127-135. A thorough investigation and evidence would be a major undertaking.
3. ↑ The title is an allusion to Gérard de Nervals Aurélia .
4. ↑ Dissertation from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Geneva. The dissertation was subtitled: I. La genèse et le développement de sa pensée jusqu'à la publication du Livre à brûler (1590). A second volume was supposed to cover the period 1590-1602 and the history of the impact of his writings, but it was never published.
5. ^ Also reprinted in Revue européenne des sciences sociales , Genève, 1987, pp.141-197. English version in Stuart R. Schram, ed., The Scope of State Power in China , SOAS, University of London, 1985, p.127-169.
6. ↑ Was reissued in 2001 and 2005 by the publishing house Skira, Milano. English: The Chinese Art of Writing , Rizzoli, New York, 1990. Should this translation be reprinted, it would have to be seriously revised and correspond to the new version of the text (2010).
7. ^ Self-published, available from the Librairie du Boulevard in Geneva.
8. ↑ Appeared in the small series of the Éditions Allia like all the following except Leçons sur Tchouang-tseu and Essai sur l'art chinois de l'écriture . Chinese: 沉默 的 中國, Wuching wenhua, Taipei, 2015.
9. ↑ Spanish: Cuatro lecturas sobre Zhuangzi , Siruela, Madrid, 2000. Italian: Lezioni sul Zhuangzi , Nottetempo, Rome, 2009. Chinese: 庄子 四 讲, Zhonghua shuju, Beijing, 2009 and 莊子 四 講, Linking, Taipei, 2011. Japanese : Sôshi ni manabu , Misuzu, Tokyo, 2011. Billeter has doubts about the quality of this Japanese translation.
10. ↑ Chinese: 駁 于 連, in International Sinology 国际汉学, Beijing, 2010, n ° 19, p.216-249, et 駁 于 連, 目睹 中國 研究 之 怪 現狀, Wuching wenhua, Taipei, 2011.
11. ↑ Chinese: 莊子 九 扎, in Newsletter , Academia Sinica, Taipei, 2012, 22/3, pp. 5–39.
12. ↑ To supplement the previous information. Articles whose substance has found their way into the books are not mentioned. A large number of reviews, articles in sinological and other journals as well as compilations are also not mentioned.