Students are expected to complete all required readings in advance of each week’s sessions. Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are available under Files in Canvas; all other readings are accessible online or through course reserves. Items labeled [P] indicate primary sources.
Week 1 (Jan. 6/8): The Idea of China
- Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire, 2nd ed. (New York and London, 2015), pp. 3–15;
- How to Read a Document;
- History Writing Centre;
- For students unfamiliar with Mandarin Chinese, see the online pronunciation guide.
Week 2 (Jan. 13/15): Worlds Lost and Found
- Hansen, pp. 19–55;
- *[P] “Shang Dynasty Oracle-Bone Inscriptions,” in Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, ed. Victor H. Mair, Nancy S. Steinhardt, and Paul R. Goldin (Honolulu, 2005), pp. 8–12.
Focus: How do we know about the past?
Week 3 (Jan. 20/22): Early Cultural Orientations
- Hansen, pp. 57–89;
- [P] “Confucian Teachings,” in Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey, 2nd ed. (New York, 1993), pp. 17–26;
- [P] “Daoist Teachings,” in Ebrey, pp. 27–31.
Focus: What were the central concerns of early Chinese thinkers?
Week 4 (Jan. 27/29): The First Empire
- Hansen, pp. 91–105;
- [P] “Legalist Teachings,” in Ebrey, pp. 32–37;
- [P] “Penal Servitude in Qin Law,” in Ebrey, pp. 51–53.
Focus: What were the main challenges faced by the Qin state?
Week 5 (Feb. 3/5): Political Foundations
- Hansen, pp. 106–121;
- [P] “Heaven, Earth, and Man,” in Ebrey, pp. 57–59;
- [P] “The Classic of Filial Piety,” in Ebrey, pp. 64–68.
Focus: To what extent was the Han a Confucian state?
Week 6 (Feb. 10/12): Social and Economic Foundations
- Hansen, pp. 122–137;
- *[P] “State Control of Commerce and Industry,” in Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed., vol. 1, comp. Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (New York, 1999), pp. 358–363.
Focus: What were at issue in the debates over the salt and iron monopolies?
Week 7 (Feb. 23–27) Midterm Conversations
No class this week. Students will sign up for individual meetings with the instructor.
Week 8 (Mar. 3/5): The Age of Division
- Hansen, 141–152;
- [P] “Ge Hong’s Autobiography,” in Ebrey, pp. 91–96;
- *[P] “Tales of Strange Events,” in Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, ed. Wendy Swartz, Robert Ford Company, Yang Lu, and Jessey J. C. Choo (New York, 2014), pp.576–591.
Focus: What were some of the major concerns of the scholars/literati of this period? In what ways were such concerns different from those of earlier times?
Week 9 (Mar. 10/12): The Buddhist “Conquest”
- Hansen, 152–171;
- *[P] “The Coming of Buddhism to China,” in de Bary and Bloom, pp. 420–432.
Focus: Why was Buddhism considered a threat to Confucian teachings?
Week 10 (Mar. 17/19): The Second Empire
- Hansen, pp. 173–184;
- *[P] “Custom and Society: The Family Instructions of Mr. Yan,” in Swartz and others, pp. 494–510.
Focus: What was the significance of Yan Zhitui’s Family Instructions?
Week 11 (Mar. 24/26): The Cosmopolitan Age
- Hansen, pp. 184–199;
- [P] “The Tang Legal Code,” in Ebrey, pp. 116–119;
- *[P] “Two Tales of Keeping Faith,” in An Anthology of Chinese Literature, ed. and trans. Stephen Owen (New York and London, 1996), pp. 518–531.
Focus: What was it like to be living in the Tang dynasty?
Week 12 (Mar. 31/Apr. 2): In Search of the Way
- Hansen, pp. 201–220;
- *[P] Han Yu, “A Memorial on the Relic of the Buddha,” in Mair, Steinhardt, and Goldin, pp. 355–358;
- *[P] Han Yu, “The Original Way,” in Mair, Steinhardt, and Goldin, pp. 359–362;
- *[P] “Tang Poems as Vehicles for Ideas,” in Mair, Steinhardt, and Goldin, pp. 340–347.
Focus: What was Han Yu’s “Way”?
Week 13 (Apr. 7/9): Empire at the Crossroad
- Hansen, pp. 221–234;
- *[P] “Transformation Text on Mahamaudglyayana Rescuing His Mother from the Underworld,” in The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair (New York, 2000), pp. 607–642.
Focus: To what extent was China “Chinese”?