A good knowledge of classical Chinese is required for the seminar.
As in the previous four years, the seminar was devoted to a chapter from the Treatise on Rites (Liji 禮). This year it was the chapter entitled " The black robes "(Ziyi 緇衣). Classified by Liu Xiang 劉向, Liu Xin 劉歆, then Zheng Xuan 鄭玄, among the " general treatises "(Tonglun 通論) along with the famous " Zhongyong " 中庸, it appears as a series of twenty-three relatively short articles that follow the same composition : a ritualistic propos introduced by the formula : " The Master says " and closed with a quotation taken from the classics of Odes (Shi 詩) and Documents (Shu 書).