Maddalena Poli

"Speaking the Past" is the first study in English of six Warring States manuscripts recovered in the last decade. After being buried around 330 BCE, these manuscripts laid undisturbed for two millennia until their recovery a little over a decade ago. Like time-capsules, they are an extraordinary source for the understanding of classical China, as well as for interdisciplinary investigations in the study of the ancient world. In "Speaking the Past," the study focuses on manuscripts that appear to be records of political acts but, it argues, were acts of imagination of what ancient courtly exchanges would look like. As the project demonstrates, these were an exercise in reproducing well-attested templates in the political discourse.

My research addresses transmitted sources and excavated manuscripts elaborating the concept of
human nature (xing 性) from the 5th c. BCE to the 2nd c. CE. I have been identifying the most
influential theories on human nature, detailing the scope of their influence, paying particular
attention to those sources that represent the emergence of a technical vocabulary dedicated to the
topic. Philosophical stances were not purely theoretical: how human nature was defined is
reflected in applied contexts of interpersonal relationships; the relationship between the
individual and the state; practices of education and government. It was also echoed in laws
addressing intentionality and responsibility. Recent recoveries of excavated material from the 3rd
c. BCE makes this project a timely intervention to discuss conceptions of human nature and hot
these impinge on other philosophical issues.