(About materials and the time period seen in the course up to 221BCE)
Get ready!
As we near the best-before date of the first Show and Tell (Sept. 23), you get a chance to showcase what you learned so far. There are many different ways you can do that: traditional, scholarly, or more creative and interpretive. As long as you can share your project digitally with your colleagues in the course, the sky is the limit (more or less). Example: A live theatre performance does not work because we too often have students choosing to isolate; a video recording of a performance or a script you share as a link on your blog is great. There are more examples for you to look through from previous courses and be inspired about the format!
Maybe you’re not feeling ready yet for a digital project. We will have a closer look at some options in Week 5 with the help of Tim Clarke from Digital Learning, so help is on the way for future Show and Tells!
Brainstorm
To make sure you pick a viable project, one that your colleagues feel is of equitable size and effort, and to get a sense of the variety of ideas there are, please pitch your idea in the Discord chat channel #hst269 by Tuesday, Sept. 20 11.59pm. Just a few lines about format and topic is fine!
I will respond with suggestions (sources, direction, or digital tricks) and/or give the green light.
How to submit
To submit your Show and Tell project:
- Create a blog post, and share a link to the project. (If it’s a text-based Show and Tell, you can of course submit it as the blog post.)
- Use the words “Show and Tell 1:” in the title of the post; you can further customize the title by adding a title that will draw the reader in.
- Note: make sure to use the exact words and numeral, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
- Add the post to the category hst269.
- In a separate document, keep notes on what you think the strong points are, and the areas for improvement. We will use this for the check-in at mid-semester!
Good to know
You can revise your Show and Tell based on feedback from me and your colleagues. Just alert me to a revised version, so when the mid-term check-in happens, we’re both talking about the same project!
Further ideas and suggestions for formats
The description of the assignment (linked via the syllabus) contains a lot of suggestions, including information for more traditional assignments (in blog post form), small digital projects, response papers, … One student each can also provide a new or updated version of the map layer or timeline we have for the corresponding part we covered on the course website (now linked in the drop-down menu under “General Resources”). I will give you access to them if you let me know!
Useful starting point for further information: Credo Reference, an online reference library, available through Trexler, and our own library subject guide.
For response papers, I can help you find new materials you haven’t seen yet, but you can zoom in closer on the ones we’ve already seen and make connections doing a traditional “contrast and compare” to start with, and then moving into your response. Oh, and here is an overview of what a response paper is and isn’t. Keep the summary to a minimum, and instead focus on the how the writer does things with words/texts. The point is not to explain the “plot”, but explain how the piece makes you feel, and how it changes your view on Chinese history.
List of primary sources:
Oracle bones from the Shang:
List of materials
Oracle bones from the Shang:
- Keightley, David. “Chapter 1: The Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty”. In Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600, edited by W. deBary et al. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1999. (PDF)
Bronze inscriptions from the Zhou:
- Shaughnessy, Edward L. Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. (PDF with short selection, or go to the e-book to find more background)
- “Chapter 2” [Yu the Great] in Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian. Translated by Burton Watson. Revised edition. Columbia Univ. Press, 1993.
Commentary of Mr Zuo:
Selection of stories from the Zuozhuan (Commentary of Mr. Zuo). In Owen, Stephen. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. (PDF)
Various pre-Qin thinkers: (one PDF packet with selections), or find the books in the library/e-library for a more detailed look at a single one:
- Selection from Analects. In Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600. Edited by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1999.
- Illustrated version: Confucius. The Analects. Illustrated by Cai Zhizhong. Translated by Brian Bruya. The Illustrated Library of Chinese Classics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. (ebook)
- Selection from Mencius. Translated by D.C. Lau. Penguin Classics, 1970.
- Full text: Mencius, Philip J Ivanhoe, and Irene Bloom. Mencius. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. (ebook)
- Excerpt from Xunzi, Vol. 1, books 1-6. Translated by John. Knoblockx. Stanford Univ. Press, 1988.
- Full text: available as ebook
- Selection from Mozi: The Complete Translation. Translated by Ian Johnston. Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 2010. “Universal Love 1” (or “Impartial Care”)
- Full text: available as ebook
- Selection from Laozi.Translated by D.C. Lau. Penguin Classics, 1963.
- Illustrated version: Cai, Zhizhong, and Laozi. Dao De Jing. Translated by Brian Bruya. The Illustrated Library of Chinese Classics. Princeton , New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2020. (ebook)
- Selection from The Complete Works of Zhuangzi. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Chapter 17: “The Autumn Floods.”
- Full text: available as ebook
Legalist and military thinkers:
- Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600. Edited by Wm. de Bary and Irene Bloom. Second Edition. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1999. (PDF)
- Han Fei. The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu: A Classic of Chinese Political Science. Translated by Wengui Liao. Probsthain’s Oriental Series, 25-26. London: Arthur Probsthain, 1959.
- Full text: available via this website
Intrigues of the Warring States (Zhanguo ce)
- Crump, James I. Chan-Kuo Ts’e. 2. Ed., Rev ed. [occasional Series / Chinese Materials and Research Aids Service Center, 41]. San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1979. (PDF)