May 11, 2023, 6:30 PM – 8 PM

Talk: Brook Ziporyn on Of Mythic Worlds

**Mel Chin,** *Study for Mercury: The Principle of Polarity—The Orbital Rebus*, 1987. Ink and graphite on vellum, 23 3/4 x 35 5/8 in (60.3 x 90.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist

Join ancient and medieval Chinese religion and philosophy scholar and author Brook A. Ziporyn in our galleries for a wide-ranging conversation to celebrate the last week of the exhibition Of Mythic Worlds: Works from the Distant Past through the Present.

The exhibition brings together fifty-three works by more than thirty artists including Jordan Belson, Lee Bontecou, Cameron, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Walter De Maria, Steffani Jemison, Duane Linklater, Yutaka Matsuzawa, Georgia O’Keeffe, Betye Saar, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, and Jack Whitten, among others. Spanning a wide range of historical periods and cultural traditions, "Of Mythic Worlds" highlights the esoteric and often elusive pursuit of understanding phenomena that are outside of our objective, worldly experience.

To learn more about Prof. Ziporyn's work, visit his website, "Moretoitivities."

Brook A. Ziporyn

Brook A. Ziporyn is a scholar of ancient and medieval Chinese religion and philosophy. Professor Ziporyn received his BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, and his PhD from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the Divinity School faculty, he has taught Chinese philosophy and religion at the University of Michigan (Department of East Asian Literature and Cultures), Northwestern University (Department of Religion and Department of Philosophy), Harvard University (Department of East Asian Literature and Civilization) and the National University of Singapore (Department of Philosophy).

Ziporyn is the author of Evil And/Or/As the Good: Omnicentric Holism, Intersubjectivity and Value Paradox in Tiantai Buddhist Thought (Brill, 2000), The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang (SUNY Press, 2003), Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments With Tiantai Buddhism (Open Court, 2004); Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings with Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett, 2009); Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought; Prolegomena to the Study of Li (SUNY Press, 2012); and Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and its Antecedents (SUNY Press, 2013). His seventh book, Emptiness and Omnipresence: An Essential Introduction to Tiantai Buddhism, was published by Indiana University Press in 2016. He is currently working on a cross-cultural inquiry into the themes of death, time and perception, tentatively entitled Against Being Here Now, as well as a book-length exposition of atheism as a form of religious and mystical experience in the intellectual histories of Europe, India and China. Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings, translated and with introduction and notes by Brook Ziporyn was published by Hackett in 2020, and his translation of the Daodejing will be published by Liveright Books and the Norton Library in 2022.

To learn more about Prof. Ziporyn's work, visit his website, "Moretoitivities."