ARHA 279-01
Art of China and Japan: Ritual Bronzes to Zen Gardens
Fall 2014
M. and W. 11: am -12:20 pm; Wyllys Rm.110
Office hours: Tu 3:00-4:00 pm, Freeman Center, Rm. 204
This course surveys major modes and styles of artistic representation and
expression in East Asia, with a focus on China and Japan. Because of the
extraordinary early influence of Chinese civilization on its East Asian neighbours,
we will consider not only the impact of religion, thought, and social-economic forces
on the arts of each country, but also patterns of reception and transformation.
Major topics include literati painting, narrative scrolls, calligraphy, pictorial carving
and sculpture, court art, Zen Buddhism, ceramics, and wood-block prints.
Major Textbooks:
Michael Sullivan. The Arts of China. Fifth Edition. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2008.
Joan Stanley-Baker. Japanese Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000.
ISBN 9780500203262
Supplemental textbooks:
Clunas, Craig. Art in China. Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
ISBN 9780199217342
Mason, Penelope. History of Japanese Art. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson Prentice Hall, c2005.
ISBN 2004044653
Examination and Assignments:
Two three-page papers (30%), one final paper (20%), one mid-term exam (20%) and
final exam (30%).
W1 (9/1, 3)
Introduction; Ritual bronzes and Jomon
pottery [Sullivan, Mason, Stanley-Baker]
W2 (9/8, 10)
Quest for immortality, silver and gold
(Eastern Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties);
haniwa (Kofun period) [Sullivan, Mason,
Stanley-Baker]
W3 (9 /15, 17)
Buddhism and Buddhist art [Sullivan,
Stanley-Baker]
W4 (9/22, 24)
9/24: first paper due
Cosmopolitan Tang and Nara [Sullivan,
Stanley-Baker]
W5 (9/29, 10/1)
Song dynasty: the Classical period of
Chinese art [Sullivan, Vinograd]
W6 (10/6, 8)
Heian-period courtly art: emakimono;
calligraphy [Mason, Stanley-Baker]
W7 (10/13, 15)
(Break)
China under Mongol rule (Yuan
dynasty); the samurai Japan (Kamakura
period) [Sullivan, Stanley-Baker]
W8.2 (10/22)
Mid-term exam
W9 (10/27, 29)
Chan and Zen (Southern Song and
Muromachi) [Sullivan, Stanley-Baker]
W10 (11/3, 5)
The Brilliant Empire: Ming dynasty
[Sullivan]
W11 (11/10, 12)
11/12: second paper due
Momoyama period: the way of tea
[Mason, Stanley-Baker]
W12 (11/17, 19)
(Kathy Tsiang talk 11/19)
Ming-Qing transition and the Edo period
[Sullivan, Stanley-Baker]
W13 (11/24)
(11/26 Thanksgiving break)
Art of the Floating World
[Mason, Stanley-Baker]
W14 (12/1, 3)
12/3: last paper due
Modern and Contemporary
Books and articles on reserve at Olin:
Art in China/Clunas, Craig
Oxford history of art, 2009. 2nd ed.
N7340 .C59 2009
The Arts of China / Sullivan, Michael Fifth ed.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008
N7340.D92 2008
Chinese art & culture / Thorp, Robert L. and Richard Ellis Vinograd
2001
NX583 .A1 T49 2001
Japanese art / Stanley-Baker, Joan
World of art, 2000, Rev. and expanded ed.
N7350 .S7 2000
History of Japanese Art / Mason, Penelope Mason. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, c2005.
Reading assignments
Xiaoneng Yang, "A History of Modern Chinese Archaeology," in Xiaoneng Yang, ed., A
Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology (Washington, DC., 1999), pp. 25-45.
Edward Kamens, "‘The Tale of Genji’ and ‘Yashima’ Screens in Local and Global
Contexts," Yale University Gallery Bulletin, Japanese Art at Yale (2007), 100-120.