The China Story
at your Fingertips
OPEN
The first World Conference of Classics was held in Beijing this week. Scholars from around the globe attended the event and shed some valuable insights into the rich connotation of classics. They said that Chinese and Western classics should have more contacts with each other to promote a deeper understanding of humanity.
To make a serious comparison between Confucianism and ancient Greek philosophy, one must look further back, to the many centuries — or even millennia — that preceded the rise of these influential schools of thought, according to Athina Kavoulaki, an associate professor at the University of Crete in Greece.
The fact that Confucianism, named after Confucius, and ancient Greek philosophy had developed concurrently, had partly given rise to the term "the Axial Age".
More than 400 scholars from China and around the world gathered in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday for the first World Conference of Classics. The conference provided a platform to discuss the intellectual legacy of ancient civilizations and their relevance in today's world.
Panagiotis C. Laskaridis, chairman of The Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, presented two Aristotelian classics, Nicomachean Ethic sand Politics, both printed in the 17th century, to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences during a book donation ceremony held at the institution on Nov 7. The gift of the two ancient works to the academy?is a gesture of support for the first World Conference of Classics.
