Shuhong Zheng

Sun Yat-sen University Web-Site

Curriculum Vitae

Shuhong Zheng (M.A. Sun Yat-sen University, China; M.A. Wales, UK; PhD King’s College London, UK) is Associate Professor for Comparative philosophy and Chinese philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University, China. Her research interests focus on comparative studies between Neo-Confucianism and medieval philosophy which involves a series of subject matters such as inter-religious and cross-cultural dialogue, intellectual history of medieval China and the West, philosophical interpretation of scriptural texts, the exchange of ideas between various schools of thought and the tension between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, etc.

Zheng has published papers and books in both Chinese and English. Her recent publication includes: Zhu Xi and Meister Eckhart: Two Intellectual Profiles. Eckhart: Texts and Studies 3. Leuven: Peeters. 2016; “Intellect and Will in Zhu Xi and Meister Eckhart”, Philosophy East and West, vol. 66 no. 4 (2016), pp.1319-1339; “Above the Literal Sense: Hermeneutical Rules in Zhu Xi, Eckhart, and Augustine”, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, vol. 16 no. 2 (2017), pp. 253-276; “Discipline, Method and Perspective: Rethinking the Methodology of Comparative Philosophy” (学科、方法与视角：有意义的比较哲学如何可能), Philosophy and Culture (哲学与文化), vol. 46 no.6 (2019), pp.155-168, etc.

Zheng’s project aims to form a comparative study on intellectualized spirituality between Eckhart and the medieval Chinese thinkers, which comprises of translation, interpretation and comparison. It will firstly explore the peculiar form of spirituality presented in Eckhart especially in his German homilies, and then move onto comparative agenda on the basis of textual analysis. Along with this comparative research plan comes the translation part in Zheng’s project, which is to translate the volume of Eckhart’s newly structured 64 Homilies for the Liturgical Year (with introduction, translation and notes) by Loris Sturlese and Markus Vinzent. The merit of this volume is obvious comparing with previous editions in terms of structure, complexity and contextualization, and the Chinese version of it will surely enhance the comprehension or reception of Eckhart’s thinking in the Chinese-speaking world. Given the profundity of Eckhart’s thinking and the increasingly heated discussions related to Eckhart over the last few decades in China, Zheng’s work will keep up with the most recent scholarship in Eckhart, and her translation will provide the Chinese reader with a decent Chinese version of Eckhart’s homilies, so that the preconceived mystical reading of Eckhart will be balanced by an equally important appropriation of the learned academic Eckhart.