The International Symposium on the Integration of Chinese palaeography and old Chinese phonology, celebrating the 75th birthday of Prof. William H. Baxter, was held on March 9-10 at Westlake University in Hangzhou. Dr. Jianing Chen participated it and presented a paper titled “Scientific and Historical Limitations of the Qing Scholars’ Research on Old Chinese Phonology”.

The paper reviewed the scientific aspects and historical limitations of Qing scholarship, including Gu Yanwu, Duan Yucai, Qian Daxin, etc. It examined the research methods and theoretical innovations related to the studies of the phonological system of the Old Chinese language. It provided a historical perspective on the development of academic research on this topic, including the emergence and turnover of research paradigms used by Qing scholars. Dr. Chen suggested that the new paradigm represented by Baxter-Sagart hypothesis breaks away from the tradition of Qing and other modern scholars, such as Bernhard Karlgren. This extends the perspective of research to the morphology of Old Chinese.

Prof. Baxter is a well-known linguist and sinologist from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. He is renowned for the work that he co-authored with French scholar L. Sagard Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. The “Baxter-Sagart” system is one of the three essential reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology in the world today. To celebrate Prof. Baxter’s 75th birthday this month, Prof. Guolong Lai of Westlake University has organized a conference with several dozen distinguished scholars from around the world to discuss cutting-edge topics in the field of old Chinese phonology and palaeography. Prof. Baxter will also be giving lectures in Xiamen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. From March 17-18, he will be giving lectures at UIC, invited by Dr. Jianing Chen.