The Silk Road expert Prof. Peter Zieme lectured at SYSU International Masters Frontier Forum

Source: Department of Philosophy
Written by: Wang Ding
Translated by: Cao Jian, Wang Youping
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On November 3rd, 2014, the 4th session of “International Masters Frontier Forum” was held in Xichang Hall on South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU). The event was jointly hosted by Department of Philosophy and Office of International Cooperation & Exchange. The keynote speaker invited in this session was Professor Peter Zieme from Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Free University of Berlin. The forum was chaired by Prof. Wang Ding (Department of Philosophy, SYSU) and commented by Prof. Cai Hongsheng (Department of History, SYSU) and Prof. Wang Xianhua (Department of History, Sichuan University). Attending the session were around one hundred SYSU faculty members and students from the departments of philosophy, history, anthropology, Chinese language and literature as well as Liberal Arts College. Experts from Jinan University and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts also participated in this academic exchange.

In his lecture entitled “Multiscriptality and Multilingualism on the Silk Routes — From Anonymous to Anzang”, Prof. Zieme demonstrated exhausted and solid documentary studies as well as presentations of rare manuscripts. While presenting his understanding of the multilingual and multiscriptal phenomena in general along the ancient Silk Road, he took as an example of the old Turkic-Uighur language, illustrating the connection between linguistic diversity and religious pluralism on the Eurasian traffic roads. As a philologist with rich experience and outstanding achievements accumulated in nearly half a century, he also gave sincere opinions on the possibilities and restrictions of interdisciplinary team work in philological researches on the one side and the importance of individual work on the other.

After the presentation, Prof. Cai Hongsheng and Prof. Wang Xianhua made comments respectively. Prof. Cai pointed out that scholars in China should adopt the research method of the school of comparative studies on ancient languages represented by Prof. Zieme and fill the gap in relevant linguistic studies and carry out the mission and responsibility of China as a country with a long tradition of rich documentary recording. Prof. Cai made a special point that besides the continental Silk Road, we should also pay due attention to the Maritime Silk Road in respect to the multilingualism and multiscriptalism. Meanwhile, Prof. Wang Xianhua remarked that Prof. Zieme’s speech is stimulating in a methodological point of view, and especially the concept of multiscriptality extracted from philological case studies opens wider perspectives for our study of history. At the end, Prof. Zieme answered the questions raised by the audience.   

Professor Zieme is an internationally celebrated expert in the field of the Silk Road studies who is best known for his scholarly authority in Old Turkic and religious history in Medieval Central Asia. With outstanding linguistic and philological competence he has been successful in deciphering difficult texts written in lost and forgotten languages and scripts. He was elected to memberships of the academic institutions in Germany, Hungary, Turkey, China and Japan. In April 2013, invited by Prof. Wang Ding, Prof. Zieme visited SYSU and gave a presentation on "The Manichaean Hymnscroll in Old Turkic version (s)” in the second session of the SYSU Lectures on Religious History.

Professor Zieme has published numerous books, including Manichäisch-türkische Texte (Berlin, 1975); Religion und Gesellschaft im Uigurischen Königreich von Qočo (Opladen, 1992); Magische Texte des uigurischen Buddhismus (Turnhout, 2005); Fragmenta Buddhica Uigurica: ausgewählte Schriftenvon Peter Zieme (Berlin, 2009), as well as articles including “Sur quelques titres et noms des bouddhistes turcs” (1990); “Alexander According to an Old Turkish Legend” (1996); "Remarks on Old Turkish Topography” (1997); “Hybrid Names as a Special Device of Central Asian Naming” (2006); “Youguan monijiao kaijiao Huihu de yijian xin shiliao 有关摩尼教开教回鹘的一件新史料” (2009); “Chinese Classical Works in Uighur Tradition” (2010).

The Chinese version of this lecture will be soon published in a Chinese academic journal.