Week 11 (Nov. 8 – 14)

Table of contents

To do and Schedule of the Week

Reminder

  • The 5-15 report is due on Sunday every week; did you remember to send it in? Just a Google Doc shared with me will do!
  • Find all the Project and Time management info in the tab “Course Resources“.

Good to know

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 23) the course material will be in asynchronous format: that means you don’t have to be in a specific place at a specific time, but you can work at your own pace. It also means, I am not the last thing standing between you and the Thanksgiving break. You still have to engage with course materials, but it will be the Mongols, and who doesn’t want to learn about them??

By Tuesday, 3.30PM

Seating plan: Includes a session of getting up and looking at an object I bring to class.

The Song dynasty (960-1279) came to power after another confusing period of more than fifty years of division (aptly named the “Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms”, it was messy). Song emperors had to contend with powerful neighbors to the north who demanded, and eventually were treated as equals. Although the military remained a significant drain on the state’s resources, one of the diplomatic ways the Song dealt with them, was agreeing to steep annual payments. These were cheaper than continuous warfare, because the during the Song, the region we now know as China enjoyed a big economic boom.

Prepare for class/read

  • Hu, Yongguang. “Song Dynasties, North and South.” In Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, edited by Andrea L. Stanton, Edward Ramsamy, Peter J. Seybolt, and et. al.. Sage Publications, 2012.
  • Wang Anshi’s new policies, and a voice of protest: 
    • “Memorial on the crop loans measure” and “Cheng Hao: Remonstrance against the New Laws”. In Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, 616-619. Edited by Wm Th. de Bary and Irene Bloom. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1999.
      • PDF
      • The treaties and the upkeep of the military were costly to the state: here is Wang Anshi’s policy suggestion for sweeping reforms to solve the issue of financing them, and an opponent’s critique. What do these economic policies reveal about the way the Chinese scholar-officials thought about the role of the state and its relationship to money? What changes do you see with previous time periods?
  • Valerie Hansen Yale. “Valerie Hansen Walks You Through the Qingming Scroll.” Youtube video, Aug. 3, 2020. https://youtu.be/7Rp4nMn-Gms
    • View the video. What can you learn about social and economic history from a painting? (A lot!)
  • More background info: textbook Hansen The Open Empire, Chapter 7

Thursday, 3.30PM

In-class project time and space!

By Sunday, 11:59PM

Fill out and send in/share your “5-15 progress report“

All the details are in the form. This will be a weekly returning assignment that helps us both to ensure you keep working on the course project(s). I often can identify a potential problem area before you’ve even hit it, and steer you on a more successful course, using these weekly reports.

Until further notice (or a full scale rebellion), consider these a weekly returning task. Please be careful when using pitchforks while staging a rebellion.

Slides

Tue: Song China

Where to get help