READING QUESTIONS FOR EAST 331
(all questions are based on articles in Heritage of China except for set # 10)
1. According to J. Spence (p. 1-14), "Western Images of China," what have been the
major aspects of Western understanding of China? What form should Western
understanding now be taking?
2. Based on David N. Keightley's, "Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It
Became Chinese" (p. 15-54), what were the initial causes for the following characteristics
among the Chinese people:
a. less individualism, more group-orientation;
b. general optimism; and
c. the non-pluralistic nature of Chinese society?
3. Questions on Tu Wei-ming=s, "The Confucian Tradition in Chinese History" (p.
112-137):
a. What commonality exists in the thinking of Confucius and Mencius?
b. What has been the impact of the Confucian tradition on the values of Chinese
life?
c. Why does Tu Wei-ming say that the AConfucian tradition remains a vital force
that can touch our hearts, stimulate our minds, and enrich our lives even in the twentieth
century@ (137)?
4. Based on Patricia Ebrey's "Women, Marriage, and the Family in Chinese History" (p.
197-223), describe the general status of women in Chinese history. Provide examples
from the reading for your claims.
5. Based on T. H. Barret, "Religious Traditions in Chinese Civilization: Buddhism and
Taoism" (p. 138-163),
a. Describe the history of Daoist religion in China.
b. Describe the history of Buddhism in China.
c. Based on the reading describe the strengths of Daoist religion.
d. Based on the same reading describe the strengths of Buddhism.
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6. Based on Jack L. Dull's article, "The Evolution of Government in China" (p. 55-85),
describe the manifestations that characterized each of the four-stage periodizations in
the evolution of pre-modern Chinese governments.
7. According to Albert Feuerwerker, "Chinese Economic History in Comparative
Perspective" (p. 224-41),
a. Why did China=s population continue to grow compared to Europe and what
consequences did this have for modern economic development?
b. Why have modern Western economic gains not been equalled in China?
8. Questions on Stephen Owen's, "Poetry in the Chinese Tradition" (p. 294-308),
a. What is the function of poetry in Chinese society compared to that in the West?
Why are their functions different?
b. What is Owen referring to in his continued use of the term "good reader"?
c. What is meant by the phrase "Chinese poetry becomes a way to create
community"? Is poetry, rather than any other literary form, better for this purpose? Why
or why not?
9. Questions on Nathan Sivin, in "Science and Medicine in Chinese History" (p. 164-181,
86),
a. Why does Sivin say that the ancestry of modern science in not exclusively
European? What examples does he provide?
b. How was science in China different from that in the West?
c. Why does Sivin say "But the greatest foreign scientific influence on China in
early centuries, as in the seventeenth-century heyday of Jesuit missionary activity, was
exerted in astronomy." (191-92); and "This metamorphosis of astronomy did not lead to
the fundamental changes in thought and society that are naively supposed to be the
inevitable outcomes of a scientific revolutions."(193)?
10. Questions on Nathan Sivin's, "Science and Medicine in Chinese History" (p.
178-186),
a. What does Nathan Sivin mean when he says "Most of the aspects of natural
order studied in early science were not governed by number and measure. The patterns
of function and dysfunction in the human body, for instance, could be accounted for only
by qualitative theories." (178)?
b. say AA closer acquaintance with the literature of classical medicine and with its
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practice in today=s China suggests that these are partial pictures of a more complicated
reality.@ (p. 183)
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