Week 9 (Oct. 25 – Oct. 31)

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

From Nov. 22 onwards, the course will be online because I will be out of the country. What are your suggestions, tips, recommendations, or “absolutely avoid like the plague/covid” wishes for making the most of those final three online weeks? Email, share in class, or leave a note on the Padlet.

I know this is not what you signed up for, but neither did I for not seeing my family for 2 years, and unfortunately my visa situation now requires a longer wait at the consulate. (Please complain with USCIS or your president). I hope you understand.

By Tuesday, 3.30PM

Seating plan: large group for close reading of text.

Let’s have a look at what happened after the fall of the Han dynasty. That was a great dynasty, and we barely touched it, but there is so much more history of China to look at. And let’s not get blinded by the shiny. Next up: a closer look at that bit of history everybody tried to avoid for a long time, and nobody knows what to call (Six dynasties? Northern and Southern Dynasties? Period of Division?) because it doesn’t fit the mold of a neat unified, central empire ruling something we can recognize as China.

  • Lewis, Mark Edward. “China and the Outer World”. Chapter 6 in China between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties, 144-169. History of Imperial China. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
    • PDF
    • This extract gives you the background on how non-huaxia people (or non-Chinese, but that’s a complicated question/term) came to occupy and rule over the northern half of what is now China.
  • Excerpt from Mouzi. In Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600, 2nd edition, edited by Wm. Th. de Bary and Irene Bloom, 421-426.
    • How does Mouzi explain the “strange” customs of the Buddhists? How does he try to convince people? Who do you think is his audience or intended reader?
    • Mouzi is a Buddhist apologist, not to be confused with the pre-Qin thinker Mozi of “Universal Love” or “Equal Care” (jian’ai) fame of week 5.
  • Fun extra: In the spirit of Halloween, some Buddhist miracle stories:
    • Stories 2,3 and 4. In Robert Ford Campany, Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China, 71-77. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press/Kuroda Institute, 2012.
      • PDF
      • These tales demonstrate the power of Buddhism. Why do you think these tales were so popular? How did they help spread Buddhism? What other factors may have played a role in the spread of Buddhism in China at this time?

Thursday, 3.30PM

In-class project time: sharing is caring! You’ll be doing another round of sharing your project with each other and then spending time working on it.

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

Tuesday: Buddhism in early medieval China

Where to get help