Integrative Studies:
English 101 &
Introduction to World
Religions
&
Women in Literature:
Diversity
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Quarterly, 10 credits: 5 cr. English 101; 5 cr. Hum 121
Integrated Curriculum
10 weeks – 7 traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, & Islam.
Required visits to 3 different religious services.
Typical Week: Reading assignment from Huston
Smith’s The World’s Religions; lecture; workshops in
reading and interpreting texts and images; writing
workshops; guest lecture from a practitioner of each
tradition; review.
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Buddhism
◦ Sutra reading
◦ 10 Bulls
Confucianism
◦ Analects of Confucius
◦ Meng Tzu (Mencius)
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Daoism
◦ Lao Tzu Dao De Ching
◦ Chuang Tzu
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Texts as conversations
The problem of religious “isms”
Religions as repertoires
Syncretic religiosities in China and Japan
World Views:
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Non-dualistic
Enlightenment is relational
Harmony in social and natural world
Emptiness and impermanence
The Way
• Synthesize: Using texts,
images, and concepts from the
three traditions, explain your
understanding of an “Eastern”
religious worldview.
• Apply: Use this synthesized
world view to examine a
personal or social issue that
interests you: How can a
different worldview cast light
on the problem?
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Asian Texts – Asian Contexts: Encounters with Asian Philosophies
and Religions. Ed. David Jones and E.R. Klein. Ed. State
University of New York. 2010.
Ames, Roger and David Hall. Dao De Jing: A Philosophical
Translation. Random House. 2003.
Chuang Tzu. Basic Writings. Trans. Burton Watson. Columbia
University Press. 1964
Hershock, Peter. Chan Buddhism: Dimensions of Asian Spirituality.
University of Hawaii Press. 2005.
Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Trans. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.
Vintage. 2011
Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. Grove Press, NY.
1974.
Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: The Growth of a Religion. Stanford
University Press. 1997
Tzu, Lao & Phillip Ivanhoe. The Daodejing of Laozi. Hacket. 2003
Watson, Burton. Trans. The Analects of Confucius. Columbia
University Press. 2009.
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We think back through our mothers if we are women.
Virginia Woolf 1882-1941
I tried to make my mind large,
as the universe is large, so that
there is room for paradoxes.
Maxine Hong Kingston, b. 1940
• Her “no-named” aunt who lives in the realm of hungry ghosts
• Her mother, trained as a doctor in China, who “talks story”
• Fa Mu Lan, a legendary woman warrior (anonymous 5 CE)
• Ts’ai Yen (Cai Wenji) a Han Dynasty poetess (175 CE)
Cultural Contexts
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The Analects of Confucius
Yin and Yang
Foot binding
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Recent Scholarship: Dorothy Ko’s Teachers of the
Inner Chamber: Women and Culture in 17th Century
China. Stanford University Press. 1994. (Hu Ying
presentation)
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Eileen Chang – “instead of the “old” and the “new” is
the timeless. The modern woman channels an ancient
woman and becomes empowered.” (Yun Peng
presentation)
My mother said I would grow up a
wife and a slave, but she taught
me the song of warrior woman, Fa
Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a
warrior woman. (Kingston, Woman
Warrior 20)
Qiu Jin 1875-1907
Traveling together for twelve years
They didn't know Mu-lan was a girl.
"The he-hare's feet go hop and skip,
The she-hare's eyes are muddled and
fuddled.
Two hares running side by side close to the
ground,
How can they tell if I am he or she?“
(Ode of Fa Mu Lan)
Ts’ai Yen (Cai Wenji, 175 CE)
Han Dynasty calligrapher and poet
Eileen Chang
(Zhang Ying) 1920-1955
After twelve years among the Southern
Hsiung-nu, Ts’ai Yen was ransomed and
married to Tung Sau so that her father would
have Han descendants. She brought her
songs back from the savage lands, and one
of the three that has been passed down to us
is “Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed
Pipe,” a song that Chinese sing to their own
instruments. It translated well.
(Kingston, A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe)
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Dale, Corrine H. Chinese Aesthetics and Literature: A
Reader. State University of New York. 2004.
Faurot, Jeannette L. Asian Pacific Folktales and Legends. Simon
and Schuster. New York. 1995
Frankel, Han. The Flowering Plum and The Palace Lady:
Interpretations of Chinese Poetry. Yale University Press.
1976.
Kim, Elaine H. Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the
writings and the social contexts.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. I Love a Broad Margin to My Life. Knopf.
2011.
Lan, Dong. Mulan’s legend and legacy in China and the
United States. Temple University Press. 2011.
Sze, Arthur, Ed. Chinese Writers on Writing. Trinity University
Press. 2010
One does less and less until one does nothing
Lao Tzu