Week 10: Liao and Jin

Oct. 31 – Nov. 6

Unless otherwise noted, all assignments and tasks are due by 11:59PM. I strongly suggest you keep a healthy life-work balance and make sure to get enough sleep. Check the “best-before dates” policy in the syllabus.

Monday
  • □ Look ahead at the readings and tasks for this week, and plan in when you will do them.
  • – This prevents last minute panic, and means you can make the most of our time together in class
Tuesday
  • □ Feedback on your fellow students’ posts:
  • – Read through and use Hypothes.is (Group HST269)  to comment on your fellow students’ posts: everybody likes some encouragement! Here is a random selection of three posts. If two or more posts are the same, or one is your own, just refresh the page for a different set. It’s all random, it’s all good! 
  • * Post 1:
  • * Post 2:
  • * Post 3:
Wednesday
  • □ Prepare before class: Readings
    • Textbook: Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire : A History of China to 1800. Seconded. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
      • PDF of Chapter 8: “The Northern Dynasties: Non-Chinese Rule in the North” (Selections marked with red brackets)
      • Try to construct a timeline of events; where does it intersect with what you already know from last week? Do you see returning patterns of interaction between different ethnic groups (“Han Chinese” and others) when you look back at earlier time periods (e.g. “Period of Division”)? 
    • Primary source: Dudbridge, Glen. “Chapter 7: The Khitan”. In A Portrait of Five Dynasties China: From the Memoirs of Wang Renyu (880-956), 144-160. Oxford Oriental Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
      • PDF: A few short sections marked in red brackets, pp. 9-10 and 11-13 of PDF or printed pages 152-53 and 155-56 (the rest is for background if you’re curious).
      • Guiding questions: Wang Renyu was a Han Chinese man who lived through the devastation of the Tang-Song wars and political turmoil. How does he explain this turmoil and the breakdown of society? What are his views on the Khitan?
    • Primary source: Franke Herbert. “A Sung embassy diary of 1211-1212. The Shih-Chin Lu of Ch’eng Cho.” In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 69, 1981. pp. 171-207.
      • PDF
      • The diary pp. 176-204 is marked between red brackets; the intro and concluding remarks are for your information.
      • This is a longer piece, but a lot of the information is repetitive: pick a few passages you find interesting, remarkable or strange to focus on. Guiding question: How does Cheng see his northern neighbors?
      • Useful to know: The notes provide some useful information, in particular on historical or mythical references contained in the text.
      • The war between the Mongols and the Jin has just started in 1211, and will end with the destruction of the Jin dynasty in 1234. This influences Cheng’s journey.
    • Optional Extra: Primary source Franke, Herbert. “The “treatise On Punishments in the Liao History“. Central Asiatic Journal 27, no. 1/2 (1983): 9-38.
      • PDF: Two excerpts, marked in red brackets, pp. 13-14 and pp. 28-29 ( the rest is for background).
      • A brief excerpt of the official history of the Liao, on the punishments. It may be useful to compare with the Qin and Tang legal codes. Do you find similarities? Differences? What might be the reasons?
  • □ Meeting in Ettinger 213, 9.30AM
  • Slides (Gdrive link)
Thursday
  • □ Today is a great time to catch up on missing assignments, and think about your third Show and Tell: tomorrow you will share with your colleagues where you are in your journey with your project to get feedback and help you develop a better quality project!
Friday
  • □ Prepare before class:
    • Collect what you currently have for your Third Show and Tell and be ready to share with your colleagues in class (small groups): you will be giving constructive feedback to each other to help identify areas for improvement, and to solve problems (incl. the “does this make sense?” question)
  •  
  • □ Meeting in Ettinger 213, 9.30AM
  • □ Second reflection: Find all the details on the dedicated webpage. 
  • Note that the contents/prompts are different each time, so check carefully! The final reflection will be due on Dec. 9.
Saturday
  • □ Rest day
Sunday

Where to get help:

  • Tea Room on Discord:
    • open anytime for you
    • I will be hosting Tue 2PM-3PM; Wed. 11AM-12PM, or at other times by appointment via Google Calendar (usually a 15-20min appointment is enough). You can also find me in my office during Tea Room times.
    • Private room for confidential chat available on request.
  • Discord Channel #hst269 and the (anonymous) Padlet (both also useful for chatting, sharing fun stuff)
  • DLAs: Digital Learning Assistants: check the schedule!
  • Writing Center: Sunday-Wednesday: 3:30 – 5:30 pm and 7-11 pm; Thursday: 3:30 – 5:30 pm and 7-9 pm; drop in or make an appointment
  • Trexler Library Course Subject Guide: our own dedicated subject guide for the course 
  • Safety on/around campus: report an incident