Dirk Meyer

Position:

Professor of Chinese Philosophy; Fellow of The Queen's College.

Director of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC).

Director of the Centre for Study of Excavated Manuscripts (出土文獻研究中心), Nanjing University.

 

Faculty / College Address:

China Centre / The Queen's College

Email:

dirk.meyer@ames.ox.ac.uk

dirk.meyer@queens.ox.ac.uk

 

Reserach Interests:

I work on Chinese Philosophy with special focus on close philological analysis. My research explores argumentative strategies in early Chinese thought production and the interplay of material conditions and ideas. By studying the impact media change has on the systematisation of thinking, I engage with genre and argument construction in philosophical discourse, manuscript and text cultures, and transition periods in philosophy. As a historian of Chinese thought my goal is to conceptualise Chinese thinking on its own terms.

 

Current Projects:

I currently work on the following projects:

Silent argumentation: Philosophy as performance in Early China. This book will expand understanding of the analytical power of early Chinese thought to recast the boundaries of philosophy by studying silent argumentation as a vital, but unrecognised, genre of thought production during the formative period of written thinking in China: The second half of the first millennium BC. The genre of silent argumentation employs extra-discursive means that produce textually embedded modes of performance philosophy across traditions. The book, which I'm about to submit, challenges current methodology by analysing the form-content symbiosis of text and by widening the canon of what constitutes argumentation, thus recasting how communities have philosophised across millennia. (In progress.) 

Songs of the States: The Anhui Warring States Manuscripts. This two-volume project is in collaboration with Adam Schwartz, HKBU. It provides complete reading of Songs of the Anhui Manuscripts which, methodologically, we take as not related to the Máo recension. As a thought experiment, we aim to establish an emic reading of this Warring States instantiation of the Songs and contextualise it in the larger framework of studies of the “Shi” (Songs) and meaning production during the Warring States period more broadly. Volume 1 (ALAC 2) discusses the Royal Songs "Zhōu Nán" and "Shào Nán". Volume 2 discusses the songs of the 'peripheral' states. Vol. 2 is currently in progress.

 

The Centres for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC)

I am Founding Director of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures at Oxford. The Centre examines material aspects of writing and text production, as well as transmission and the interface between the oral and the written, across pre-modern literate societies. Central to the Centre's activities are the termly lectures, termly colloquia, and yearly conferences. Follow CMTC on Bluesky.

Together with Cheng Shaoxuan 程少轩 from Nanjing University (NJU), I am directing the NJU Centre for Study of Excavated Manuscripts (出土文獻研究中心).

The Journal of Manuscript and Text Cultures (MTC)

I serve as Editor in Chief for the CMTC journal Manuscript and Text Cultures (MTC) of CMTC. The journal appears twice-yearly digitally and in print. MTC is double-blind peer-reviewed. MTC is a diamond-level Open-Access journal.

Articles are at once specialised and interdisciplinary, and led by the common goal of enabling long-term research on how knowledge and meaning are shaped and sustained by material conditions, past and present. As a platform for international researchers to engage in close dialogue across their areas of expertise and inform each other about approaches and theories developed in their various subject areas, the goal of MTC is to generate discussions that cross subject boundaries and contribute to the theoretical understanding of material text cultures and their impact on knowledge production in global literate societies. With our multidisciplinary approach, crossing traditional academic divisions, we hope to cast light on the deep structures of human behaviours in material knowledge production, past and present.The following issues are currently in the making: 

If you interested in submitting your article to the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures, please review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors must register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

 

Manuscript and Text Cultures (print): ISSN 2752-3462

Manuscript and Text Cultures (online): ISSN 2752-3470

 

Manuscript and Text Cultures is published with the support of The Queen’s College, Oxford, the JJC Foundation, New York, the Faculty of AMES, University of Oxford, and Nanjing University.

 

Courses Taught:

  • Lectures: contributions to East Asian surveys for Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses.
  • Tutorials: Writing and Philosophy; East Asian survey (Philosophy, History, Literature).
  • Classes: Mengzi; Xunzi; Zhuangzi; Readings in Classical Chinese.
  • Special Subject (classes, lectures, tutorials): Text and Manuscript Cultures in Early China; The Myth of the Confucian Classics in the Warring States Period; “Shu” (Documents) in Early China; Argumentation in Early Chinese Philosophy.
  • Graduate Seminars: Early Chinese Textuality; contributions to Chinese Studies Research Methods Seminar; Classical Chinese Texts Seminar; Old Chinese Phonology; Archaeology; Theory Readings; contributions to the MPhil Traditional East Asia.

 

Recent Publications:

 

Authored books:

 

Edited books:

Articles:

Forthcoming/In progress:

Books:.

  • Flowers aplenty: Unseen Sayings of Confucius. (Together with Adam Schwartz, HKBU). Under review.
  • Silent argumentation: Philosophy as performance in Early China. To be submitted.
  • Songs of the Peripheral States: Shī of the Ānhuī University Manuscripts. (Together with Adam Schwartz, HKBU). In progress.

Articles:

  • "Religion and thought". In Lisa Indraccolo ed. A Cultural History of Chinese Literature: Vol. 1 Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury. 
  • "Aural Fixity and Semantic Flexibility in the Early Chinese Songs: The Case of 'White Boat' (白舟) / 'Cedar Boat' (柏舟) in the Ānhuī University Manuscripts" (co-authored with Adam Schwartz). MTC 3/2: 2024.
  • "'Shu' lei de chuantong yu wenben chonggou: 'Jinteng' yu 'Zhou Wuwang you ji' zhi chonggu" “书”類的传统与文本重构：“金縢”与“周武王有疾”之重估.
  • "Guji chongguang: cunyi xieben yu zaoqi Zhongguo yanjiu zhi fangfalun yu lunli fansi 古簡重光:存疑寫本於早期中國研究之方法論與倫理省思. Jianbo.

 

Book Series:

Library of Sinology [LoS]: I am senior co-editor of Library of Sinology, a book series published by De Gruyter. Library of Sinology responds to new material evidence of meaning production in Chinese cultures as made manifest through oracle bones, bronzes, as well as manuscript texts on bamboo and silk. Library of Sinology covers fields as diverse as classical philology and anthropology, philosophy and art history, linguistics and religious studies, literature and archaeology. By promoting interdisciplinary research in classical Chinese Studies and international academic exchange, the book series sets out to spearhead a transnational reconceptualisation of traditional Chinese ideas and their relevance for modern times. If you wish to submit a manuscript to us, please email sinology@degruyter.com.

Text Cultures (文本文化) is a new book series published with Fenghuang Press in China, for which I serve as Senior Editor. The new book series will publish Chinese translations of key western (and Japanese) books on manuscript and text cultures to further the international and interdisciplinary pollination of ideas.  

 

Recent Conference and Workshop Organisation (2008-present):

  • The Life Cycle of Manuscripts: The Ethics and Practice of Acquiring, Preserving, and Accessing Global Heritage 写本的生命周期：获取、保护与接触世界遗产的伦理与实践”国际会议. Tsinghua University, Beijing, 21-22 September 2024. Bilingual conference, together with Rens Krijgsman.
  • Articulations of Silence and Gender. 26-28 September 2023. The conference gathered a diverse group of speakers with the goal of fostering a lively debate on the articulation of silence in text and manuscript cultures across different premodern traditions, including Greece, Medieval Europe, China, Japan, Korea, India, ancient Egypt and the Middle East, to interrogate questions of gender and globally discernible patterns. 
  • Celebrating 30 Years of Guodian Manuscripts. Tsinghua University, Beijing, 20 October 2023. Chinese conference, together with Yuan Ai.
  • Music in Manuscript Cultures. 8-9 September 2022. Hybrid conference held by the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC), The Queen's College and The China Centre.
  • Poetic Traditions in Manuscript Cultures. 16-17 September 2021. Online conference held by CMTC and The Queen's College.
  • The Materiality of Knowledge in Chinese Thought, Past and Present. 3-5 September 2019. The conference was held at Yuelu Academy, Hunan University.
  • The Classic of Documents and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy. 21-22 March 2014. Oxford-Princeton Research Partnership. Conference at The Queen's College, Oxford, was funded by the John Fell OUP Research Fund and the Davis Fund, with support from The Queen's College, Oxford.
  • Literary Forms of Argument in Pre-modern China. 16-18 September 2009. The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, funded by the Chiang-Ching-Kuo (CCK) Foundation, the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS), the British Inter-university China Centre (BICC) and The Queen’s College.
  • Research Training Old Chinese, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This workshop series consisted of six workshops held across the UK
    (i) Philosophy & Religion: 29 Jan-2 Feb 2009, Edinburgh (in collaboration with Joachim Gentz)
    (ii) Old Chinese Phonology & Palaeography:25 Aug-3 Sept 2009, Oxford
    (iii) History & Historiography:24-28 March 2010, Cambridge (in collaboration with Mark Strange and Roel Sterckx)
    (iv) Text & Textuality:24-28 June 2010 Oxford
    (v) Art & Archaeololgy:21-24 Sept 2010, London, SOAS (in collaboration with Lukas Nickel)
    (vi) Old Chinese Grammar and Syntax: 9-13 July 2011, Oxford

 

Further Info:

  • For my role of bringing Chinese antiquities into global perspective, I was awarded the honorary title of 'Mei-an University Chair Professor’ of Nanjing University (NJU). ‘Mei-an’ is the pen name of the Founder of the Faculty of Arts at NJU. The title is awarded to academics as an award of merit for exceptional contribution to Chinese humanities.
  • I am Distinguished Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of the Hong Kong based journal Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology 饒宗頤國學院院刊 (BJAS)
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy. ISSN: 1540-3009 (print); 1569-7274 (electronic)
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia. ISSN: 2667-0755.
  • I am serving on the Editorial Board of Dialogoi: Ancient Philosophy Today. ISSN: 2516-1164
  • I am Senior Research Fellow of Jao Tsung-I Academy (JAS), Hong Kong Baptist University 
  • I am Senior Research Fellows of United International College (UIC), Zhuhai
  • I am Adjunct Professor at Yuelu Academy, University of Hunan 
  • Bernhard Karlgren Fellow of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study for the academic year 2014-2015
  • Collaborative Research Training in Old Chinese:
In 2008, I have secured a £60,000 AHRC Collaborative Research Grant for Research Training in Old Chinese for a two-year series of postgraduate workshops. The idea of this programme was to connect the various UK centres for the study of Old Chinese into a nationwide network to facilitate specialised research-training in Old Chinese phonology, palaeography, grammar and syntax, literature, philosophy, and religion, and strengthen the international visibility of traditional Sinology in the UK at large. Details of the series can be found here
  • International Workshop-series on Old Chinese Phonology:
 In 2005, I initiated the two-week European League for Non-Western Studies international intensive graduate seminar on Old Chinese phonology. The seminar was hosted by the Research School for Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS) and the Office for International Relations of Leiden University, Faculty of Arts. Further two-week workshops were held in 2006 and 2007. While the first meeting was a general introduction to Old Chinese phonology in general, the focus of the follow-up meetings was put on more sinological issues to accommodate the particular needs of students working with early Chinese excavated texts. Accordingly, the 2006 and 2007 meetings combinedOld Chinese phonology with Old Chinese palaeography.

 

Current DPhil Students

  • Paul Napier: Utopian Classicism: Kang Youwei’s Confucian Vision of Modernity and the Limits of Teleology.
  • Julius Geissler: Ethics and Cosmic Participation in Early Chinese Philosophy.
  • Sun Tik Wong: Discourses on fa in Early Chinese philosophy.
  • Alec Schellinx: Reading the Hanfeizi as a concrete poetic site.
  • Andreas Kerschbaum (Humboldt University, Berlin): Wuwei Revisited: Ancient and Modern Perspectives.
  • Fang Ziyang: The concept of li 利 in Yantie lun: a philosophical analysis.
  • Peter Smith: An Exploration into the Shift of Analysis and Interpretation in Oral Explanations of the Zhuangzi.
  • Ye Ziwei: Written Culture and Knowledge Production in Medieval China and East Asia.

 

Previous DPhil Students

  • Parker Chan (DPhil). 2025. Filiations of Poetry Interpretations in the Western Han. Now: Lecturer, CUHK.
  • Oliver Hargrave (DPhil). 2024. Ecology in the Spiritual Landscape of Anecdote Collections in Pre-Tang. Now: Departmental Lecturer of Chinese, AMES, University of Oxford.
  • Chew Sihao (DPhil). 2023. Literature and Philosophy Modes of Explanations for Oneness. Now: Assistant Professor of Chinese Philosophy at Nanyang Technology University, Singapore.
  • Lea Cantor (DPhil). 2023. Parmenides and Zhuangzi on Formulating what Can (and Cannot) Be Known. Now: Research Fellow in Philosophy at Peterhouse, Cambridge. From September 2025: Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Philosophy at King's College, London (KCL).
  • Flaminia Pischedda (DPhil). 2023. Philosophical implications of the ancient Chinese divination methods. Now: Research Fellow at University of Vienna.
  • Chun-man (Kevin) Kwong (DPhil). 2023. The Performed Dao: Understanding Zhuangzi with the Literary Form Approach. Now: Lecturer, Department of Social Science, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
  • Stefano Gandolfo (DPhil). 2020. Division of Knowledge in the Siku Catalogue. (Chinese Philosophy) Now: Director of Columbia Global Center, Athens.
  • Corina Smith (DPhil). 2020. Time and Memory in Early Chinese Texts.
  • Yuan Ai (DPhil). 2018. Situations Beyong Human Control in the Zhuangzi. Now: Assistant Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
  • Yegor Grebnev (DPhil). 2016. The Textual History of the Yi Zhou shu. Now: Associate Professor of Chinese Culture, UIC, Zhuhai. 
  • Rens Krijgsman (DPhil). 2016. The Rise of a Manuscript Culture and the Textualization of Discourse in Early China. Now: Associate Professor of Chinese Manuscripts, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
Photograph of Dr Dirk Meyer