FT Tero Tähtinen 孫空山
I am a Finnish writer, translator and scholar of classical Chinese literature and ways of thought. I got my PhD from Tampere University in 2024. My dissertation discusses the relationship between the human and the nonhuman in classical Chinese poetry and is the first academic research on classical Chinese poetry to be undertaken in Finland.
I lived and studied in East Asia for several years. In 2012 I spent six months as a visiting scholar in Fudan University, Shanghai. Later, I returned to China and studied Chinese, classical Chinese and Chinese philosophy first in Nanjing University (2014–2016) and then in Beijing Language and Culture University (2016–2017). In addition, I spent the year 2018 in National Taiwan University funded by Taiwan Fellowship program.
Apart from my academic studies, I have also translated several works from Chinese to Finnish, including The Art of War by Sunzi, Wild Grass by Lu Xun, a collection of classical landscape poetry and Zen teachings by Layman Pang, Bodhidharma and master Huangbo Xiyun. In addition, I have translated Gary Snyder’s essay collection The Practice of the Wild and poetry collection This Present Moment into Finnish.
My main research interests include the classical period of Chinese poetry and especially its poetics and worldview(s). Currently, I am engaged in a postdoctoral research entitled “Taming the Poisonous Dragon” in which I explore the Buddhist metaphors, allegories and imagery in Wang Wei’s (701–761) poetry. My aim is to apply the theoretical tools of modern literary criticism to analysing the writings of one of the main Tang-era poets.
My Chinese name is Sun Kongshan 孫空山. The surname Sun is taken from my wife and the first name Kongshan comes from a poem by Wang Wei. The name contains, of course, a reference to Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy: the whole world can be seen as a huge, looming mountain but in the end even the mightiest peaks are merely empty forms.
Promo photo - Taken by Sami Reivinen
Tero at Taishan - Photo by Dominik Michoński