Chinese philosophy meets Korean Wave: Professor Wiebke Denecke Featured in a Korean TV Series on Ancient China’s Greatest Thinkers
The crew from the Korean TV channel EBS (Educational Broadcasting System) had set themselves an ambitious goal: they wanted to explore how China’s greatest thinkers, like Confucius and Mencius, Mozi, the “Daoists” Laozi and Zhuangzi or the “Legalist” Han Fei, lived up to the worst challenges of their time: constant infighting between China’s various states during the notorious “Warring States Period” (481- 221 BCE), greedy acts of usurpation and conquest, suffering of the common people under ruthless and incompetent rulers. They gave their 6-episode series the bold title: “Philosophy conquers Desperation: China’s Philosophical Masters” (절망을 이기는 철학: 제자백가). For more than a year the crew traveled around the world on a frantic schedule, interviewing more than 50 scholars in seven countries. But they did not want to confine their exploration of early Chinese thought to discussions in dusty university offices. The bulk of the series consists of scenes from the text corpus that bears the name of or was produced by China’s early philosophers: “Masters Literature.” Fans can see Confucius and Zhuangzi in action and experience their world in the fashion of the epic historical Korean TV dramas that have greatly contributed to the recent global enthusiasm over the “Korean Wave.” The caprices of the rainy season in China made the filming of large war scenes and court processions challenging and threw off their filming schedule.
But the crew prevailed in their efforts and in early January 2017 the series was broadcast in Korea. Professor Denecke was interviewed this past summer in Seoul as the author of The Dynamics of Masters Literature: Early Chinese Thought from Confucius to Han Feizi (Harvard University Press, Asia Center, 2011), in which she argues that the desire for a Chinese equivalent for Western philosophy has warped our understanding of early Chinese thought and shows how texts like the Confucian Analects or the Laozi can be read as part of a distinctive Chinese textual genre of “Masters Literature.” The crew interviewed her in particular on Han Fei, the “legalist” thinker, and brilliant rhetorician and analyst of the dark sides of human nature, who, though scorned by posterity, laid the ideological foundations for China’s first empire and Chinese bureaucratic institutions for centuries to come.
Dive into the world of Confucius and China’s great philosophical masters HERE:
EPISODES (subtitled version in preparation)
EPISODE 5 (ON HANFEI)
5.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPTmdFOyxC4
5.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo24QRqhlfA
5.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9_Cp7t_sUk
ALL EPISODES:
1.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEl7r6pOL9A
1.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_r-t-qIv30
1.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb1TRR3QPFg
2.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHCWIv954IY
2.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmqVMURjLyc
2.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqPQdd-eQU
3.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHkwujwIvsU
3.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh5bt_jfUvg
3.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iluidfHl4gE
4.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpQ3pPF1sJA
4.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObvzJOdfDfA
4.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7980IY80crY
5.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPTmdFOyxC4
5.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo24QRqhlfA
5.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9_Cp7t_sUk
6.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-TPqW71_W4
6.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QRFzsfNO2Y
6.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcK2DjXk0a0