Master Questions, Student Questions, and Genuine Questions: A Performative Analysis of Questions in Chan Encounter Dialogues

I want to know whether Chan masters and students depicted in classical Chan transmission literature can be interpreted as asking open (or what I will call “genuine”) questions. My task is significant because asking genuine questions appears to be a decisive factor in ascertaining whether these figures represent models for dialogue—the kind of dialogue championed in democratic society and valued by promoters of interreligious exchange. My study also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of early Chan not only by detailing contrasts between contemporary interests and classical Chan, but more importantly by paying greater attention to the role language and rhetoric play in classical Chan. What roles do questions play in Chan encounter dialogues, and are any of the questions genuine? Is there anything about the conventions of the genre that keeps readers from interpreting some questions in this way? To address these topics, I will proceed as follows. First, on a global level and for critical-historical context, I survey Chan transmission literature of the Song dynasty in which encounter dialogues appear, and their role in developments of Chan/Zen traditions. Second, I zoom in on structural elements of encounter dialogues in particular as a genre. Third, aligning with the trajectory of performative analyses of Chan literature called for by Sharf and Faure, I turn to develop and criticize a performative model of questions from resources in recent analytic and continental philosophy of language and I apply that model to some questions in encounter dialogue literature

Aveline Chan, Piano

Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846 / Johann Sebastian Bach; Sonata No. 24, Op. 78 / Ludwig van Beethoven; Van der Jaargetijden / Henri Zagwijn; Estampes / Claude Debussy; Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31 / Frédéric Chopi

Joseph, Jehoiachin, and Cyrus: On Book Endings, Exoduses and Exiles, and Yehudite/Judean Social Remembering

In a recent ZAW article, Michael Chan argues that II Reg 25,27-30 alludes to Gen 40-41, and that this allusion provides a hermeneutical key for understanding the purpose of II Reg 25,27-30 in an Enneateuchal context: it points to an imminent exodus, a return from exile and a gathering of diaspora in the promised land. This article picks up where Chan left off, in order to flesh out some of the implications of his contribution. It argues that remembering exodus at the end of II Reg included hope, as Chan says, but also struggles and failure, punishment and death. Exodus is multivocal. Likewise, the end of II Reg contributes to a multivocal discourse concerning Davidic kingship, which included the end of Chronicles and prophetic literature. The diminution of Davidic kingship in II Reg 25,27-30 is balanced by other perspectives. The article concludes with an observation on the import of this multivocality for Yehudite social memory

The number of cubic partitions modulo powers of 5

The notion of cubic partitions is introduced by Hei-Chi Chan and named by Byungchan Kim in connection with Ramanujan's cubic continued fractions. Chan proved that cubic partition function has Ramanujan Type congruences modulo powers of $3$. In a recent paper, William Y.C. Chen and Bernard L.S. Lin studied the congruent property of the cubic partition function modulo $5$. In this note, we give Ramanujan type congruences for cubic partition function modulo powers of $5$.Comment: 17 pages,Submitte

Comment on 'Surface reconstruction on Si(100) studied by the CNDO method'

In a recent paper Ong and Chan (see ibid., vol.1, p.3931 (1989)) examined seven different asymmetric dimer reconstructions for a Si(100) surface using the CNDO (complete neglect of differential overlap) method. The p(4*1) and c(4*2) reconstructions were found to be energetically more favourable, followed by p(2*2) and (2*1). Zandvliet comments only on the results of the four members of the (2*1) family, since experimentally the other asymmetric dimer reconstructions are not observed on the Si(100) and the Ge(100) surfaces

Black hole solutions in 2+1 dimensions

We give circularly symmetric solutions for null fluid collapse in 2+1-dimensional Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant. The fluid pressure $P$ and energy density $\rho$ are related by $P=k\rho$ $(k\le 1)$. The long time limit of the solutions are black holes whose horizon structures depend on the value of $k$. The $k=1$ solution is the Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black hole metric in the long time static limit, while the $k<1$ solutions give other, `hairy' black hole metrics in this limit.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX (to appear in Phys. Rev. D) References to Mann and Ross, and Mann, Chan and Chan adde

Asteroseismic constraints on the OPAL opacity interpolation

The frequency difference between a model used only two-point interpolation of opacity and a model used piecewise linear interpolation of opacity is of the order of several microHertz at a certain stage, which is almost 10 times worse than the observational precision of p-modes of solar-like stars. Therefore, the two-point interpolation of opacity is unsuitable in modelling of solar-like stars with element diffusion.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure; to appear in the Proceedings of IAU Symp. 252 "The Art of Modelling Stars in the 21st Century", Sanya, China, 6th-11th April 2008, (L. Deng, K.L. Chan & C. Chiosi, eds.