Pre-Modern Chinese History
Instructor: Dr. Yunwei Song
E-mail: songyunwei@ruc.edu.cn
Office Hours: to be announced
Course Description
The traditional model of Chinese history demarks the past into dynasties and their cycles
of emperors. But across dynastic timelines, various long-term forces and patterns
repeatedly crop up in Chinese society, which over many thousands of years has been
shaped by social groups and cultural encounters, some unique and others recurrent. This
course will help you better understand both changes and continuities in Chinese history,
up to the country that you see today, by looking at China's multi-layered and dynamic
past. We will follow dynastic periods to cover the political, economic, cultural, and social
patterns of pre-modern China. We will also try to compare Chinese history and European
history so that we can understand different civilizations better. This course begins with
the origins of Chinese civilization and ends with the Opium War.
Course Objectives
Lectures, readings, excursions, assignments, discussions, and presentations are designed
to help you develop the skills to:
- think historically, read critically, and write and speak persuasively;
- situate major historical events in China's early history in their proper geographical,
chronological, and thematic contexts;
- connect and integrate historical understandings, and grasp their ethical and moral
dimensions;
- appreciate the greatness and complexity of Chinese cultural and religious traditions;
- seek better understanding of the origins of the present development of China;
- evaluate and critically assess the validity of historical evidence and interpretations;
- use primary and secondary sources to construct sophisticated, persuasive, and logical
interpretations of historical problems and events.
Course Requirements and Form of Assessment
Classes’ attendance and participation in all discussions (30%).
The midterm reports (30%, one report due in Week Seven – 4-5 pages) You will choose
topics from required readings. You should write the report according to what you choose.
The paper should be justified double spaced. The font size should be 12-point, and all
citations should be footnoted.
Final project - research paper and presentation (40% - Due in Week thirteen. The topic
will be chosen in consultation with the instructor. The paper should be 10-12 pages,
justified double spaced. The font size should be 12-point, and all citations should be
footnoted. The reference books or essays should be no less than five. You may be failed
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if you make citations just from the internet. The paper should be an argument, a
comparison or analyzing an issue, not just telling the process of a historical event. Such
as I want the topic like “What are the obstacles to Capitalism in Pre-modern China?” not
like “the history of Christianity in China”.
We will basically have two hours of lecture each week, and then 45 minutes either for
discussion or movies. When we have a seminar, you will be divided into several groups,
and then you will present your group’s conclusion. All topics that will be discussed in the
classes are listed in this syllabus.
You will be assigned about 100 pages of readings per week. Reading assignments are
carefully chosen to match lectures, discussions, films, and field trips. Students are
expected to have completed the assigned weekly readings before attending class, as
lectures will require the background knowledge of the readings, and discussions will be
based, in part, on the readings.
Please email me your paper and also bring the hard copy of your paper to me. If you can’t
bring the hard copy of your paper to me before deadline, I will not evaluate it unless you
got my permission for extension.
Makeup exams will be given only in cases of documentable emergencies. In case of such
an emergency, please notify me by email or phone as soon as possible.
Grading Scale: <59.4 F; 59.5-66.4 D; 66.5-69.4 D+; 69.5-73.4 C-; 73.5-76.4 C; 76.5-79.4
C+; 79.5-83.4 B-; 83.5-86.4 B; 86.5-89.4 B+; 89.5-93.4 A-; 93.5 and up A.
Attendance Policy
Only valid medical or family emergencies qualify as an absence, and documentation of
the same must be presented to the professor no later than the next class meeting.
An excused absence requires a written medical excuse or written approval from the
school's administration office. All other absences are considered to be
unexcused. Unexcused absences will affect your grade (see below). Arriving more than
10 minutes late for any three classes will cumulatively count as one unexcused absence,
while arriving 30 minutes late for any class will count as an unexcused absence.
Penalties for unexcused absences:
1 absence, class participation grade drops one full letter grade (example: A- to B-).
2 absences, class participation grade drops two full letter grades.
3 absences, class participation grade drops three full letter grades.
4 or more absences, class participation grade is a failing grade.
Any absence, whether excused or not, will require catch-up reading.
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Academic Honesty
Please refer to the following web link for policies on academic honesty:
http://www.luc.edu/cas/pdfs/CAS_Academic_Integrity_Statement_December_07.pdf
Required Textbooks
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Combridge Illustrated History: China, Cambridge University
Press, Second Edition, 2010
Required Readings:
Constance A. Cook, John S. Major，“Towns and Trade,” Defining Chu: Image And
Reality In Ancient China, University of Hawaii Press, Jul 30, 2004, pp.100-119.
Kwang-chih Chang, “ The Yangshao period : prosperity and the transformation of
prehistoric society”, The formation of Chinese civilization : an archaeological
perspective , New Haven : Yale University Press, 2005.
Stephen D. Houston ed, “Anyang writing and the origin of the Chinese writing system”,
The first writing : script invention as history and process, Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp.190-249.
Dallas McCurley， “Performing Patterns: Numinous Relations in Shang and Zhou
China”， TDR (1988-), Vol. 49, No. 3 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 135-156
Constance A. Cook，”Wealth and the Western Zhou”，Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 60, No. 2 (1997), pp.
253-294
Angus Charles Graham, “The cosmologist”, Disputers of the Tao : Philosophical
argument in ancient China, La Salle, Ill. : Open Court, 1989, pp.315-369.
Edgar Kiser, Yong Cai, “War and Bureaucratization in Qin China: Exploring an
Anomalous Case”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Aug., 2003),
pp. 511-539
Peter R. Moody, “Rational Choice Analysis in Classical Chinese Political Thought: The
‘Han Feizi’”，Polity, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan., 2008), pp. 95-119
Cho-yun Hsu, “Farming Resource”, Han agriculture : the formation of early Chinese
agrarian economy (206 B.C. - A.D. 220) edited by Jack L. Dull,Seattle : Univ. of
Washington Pr., 1980, pp.81-108.
Loewe, Michael, “The armed forces”, The government of the Qin and Han Empires :
221 BCE-220 CE, Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Company, Inc., c2006.
Herrlee Creel,1964. "The Beginning of Bureaucracy in China: The Origin of the Hsian."
Journal of Asian Studies 23,1964, pp.55-84.
Eric Henry, “Chu-ko Liang in the Eyes of His Contemporaries,” Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies, 52.2, 1992, pp.598-611.
Stanley K. Abe, “Provenance, Patronage, and Desire: Northern Wei Sculpture from
Shaanxi Province”, Ars Orientalis, Vol. 31, (2001), pp. 1-30
Erik Zurcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adapation of Buddhism
in Early Medieval China, Leiden, 2007, pp. 57-80.
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Katherine R. Tsiang, “Changing Patterns of Divinity and Reform in the Late Northern
Wei” ,The Art Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Jun., 2002), pp. 222-245.
Timothy C. Wong, “Self and Society in Tang Dynasty Love Tales”, Journal of the
American Oriental Society, Vol. 99, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1979), pp. 95-100.
Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt， “The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese
Architectural History”， The Art Bulletin, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Jun., 2004), pp. 228254
Peter Bol, “ Transformation of the Shih”, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions
in Tang and Sung China, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992, pp. 32-76.
David Christian, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History”,
Journal of World History, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 1-26
Victor Cunrui Xiong, “Sui Yangdi and the Building of Sui-Tang Luoyang”, The Journal
of Asian Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 66-89
Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, “The Tang Architectural Icon and the Politics of Chinese
Architectural History”， The Art Bulletin, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Jun., 2004), pp. 228254
John Curtis Perry and Bardwell L. Smith , “The An Lu-shan Rebellion and the Origins
of Chronic Militarism in Late Tang China, ” Essays on Tang society : the
interplay of social, political and economic forces, Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1976, pp.
61-89.
Yihong Pan, “The Sino-Tibetan Treaties in the Tang Dynasty”, T'oung Pao, Second
Series, Vol. 78, Livr. 1/3 (1992), pp. 116-161
John Curtis Perry and Bardwell L. Smith , “Tang’s tribute relations with the inner Asian
barbarian,” Essays on Tang society : the interplay of social, political and
economic forces, Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1976, pp. 90-109.
Peter Bol, “For Perfect Order: Wang An-shih and Ssu Ma-Kuang”, This Culture of
Ours: Intellectual Transitions in Tang and Sung China, Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1992, pp.212-253 .
Peter Bol, “For Perfect Order: Wang An-shih and Ssu Ma-Kuang”, This Culture of Ours:
Intellectual Transitions in Tang and Sung China, Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1992, pp.212-253 .
Sufumi So, Billy K. L. So, “Population Growth and Maritime Prosperity: The Case of
Ch'üan-Chou in Comparative Perspective, 946-1368”, Journal of the Economic
and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2002), pp. 96-127
Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt , “Toward the Definition of a Yuan Dynasty Hall”, Journal
of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), pp. 57-73.
Richard Breitman，”Hitler and Genghis Khan”，Journal of Contemporary History,
Vol. 25, No. 2/3 (May - Jun., 1990), pp. 337-351
Donald B. Wagner, “The Administration of the Iron Industry in Eleventh-Century China”,
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 44, No. 2 (2001),
pp. 175-197
Larry Moses, “Legends by the Numbers: The Symbolism of Numbers in the ‘Secret
History of the Mongols’”, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 55, No. 1 (1996), pp. 73-97.
E. Dora Earthy, “The Religion of Genghis Khan (A.D. 1162-1227)”, Numen, Vol. 2, Fasc.
3 (Sep., 1955), pp. 228-232
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吳 秀 良 Silas Wu, “Transmission of Ming Memorials, and the Evolution of the
Transmission Network, 1368-1627”, T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 54, Livr. 4/5
(1968), pp. 275-287
Richard von Glahn, “Municipal Reform and Urban Social Conflict in Late Ming
Jiangnan”, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 280-307
Schuyler Cammann, “A Ming Dynasty Pantheon Painting”, Archives of the Chinese Art
Society of America, Vol. 18, (1964), pp. 38-47
Richard von Glahn, “Municipal Reform and Urban Social Conflict in Late Ming
Jiangnan”, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 50, No. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 280-307
Patricia Buckley Ebrey， Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940，
University of California Press, Aug 8, 1986, pp. 211-245.
David A. Bello, “To Go Where No Han Could Go for Long: Malaria and the Qing
Construction of Ethnic Administrative Space in Frontier Yunnan”, Modern China,
Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 2005), pp. 283-317
Susan Mann, “Widows in the Kinship, Class, and Community Structures of Qing
Dynasty China”, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Feb., 1987), pp. 3756
John E. Herman, “Empire in the Southwest: Early Qing Reforms to the Native Chieftain
System”, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 47-74
Alternative Books
1. Patricia Buckley Ebrey, ed. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, New York, the Free
Press, 1993
2. Constance A. Cook, John S. Major，Defining Chu: Image And Reality In Ancient
China, University of Hawaii Press, Jul 30, 2004, pp.100-119.
3. Kwang-chih Chang, The formation of Chinese civilization : an archaeological
perspective , New Haven : Yale University Press, 2005.
4. Stephen D. Houston ed, The first writing : script invention as history and process,
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp.190-249.
5. Angus Charles Graham, Disputers of the Tao : Philosophical argument in ancient
China, La Salle, Ill. : Open Court, 1989, pp.315-369.
6. Cho-yun Hsu, Han agriculture : the formation of early Chinese agrarian economy
(206 B.C. - A.D. 220) edited by Jack L. Dull,Seattle : Univ. of Washington Pr.,
1980, pp.81-108.
7. Loewe, Michael, The government of the Qin and Han Empires : 221 BCE-220 CE,
Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Company, Inc., c2006.
8. Peter Bol, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in Tang and Sung China,
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992, pp. 32-76.
9. John Curtis Perry and Bardwell L. Smith , Essays on Tang society : the interplay of
social, political and economic forces, Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1976, pp. 61-89.
10. Patricia Buckley Ebrey， Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940
，University of California Press, Aug 8, 1986, pp. 211-245.
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Class Schedule
Week One: Origins of Chinese Civilization
Questions:
1. Did all civilizations originate in river valleys? Did all river valleys develop
civilization? Why did the four oldest civilizations originate in river valleys - the Nile, the
Tigris/Euphrates, the Indus, and the Huang He/Yellow River?
2. What are the differences between the Greek myths and Chinese myths? Why?
Common Readings: (More readings will be introduced during the lectures)
Ebrey, textbook, pp. 10-37.
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 3-5.
Selected Readings: (To be chosen according to your own interests.)
1. Andrew L. March: The Myth of Asia, in The Idea of China, New York: Preager,
1974, pp.23-43, 61-67
2. Lothar Ledderose，Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in
Chinese Art，Princeton University Press, 2000.
3. James Leibold. 2006, Competing Narratives of Racial Unity in Republican China:
From the Yellow Emperor to Peking Man, Modern China, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 181-220.
4. Chen, Lie, The ancestor cult in ancient China, Mysteries of Ancient China: New
Discoveries from the Early Dynasties, ed., Jessica Rawson. New York: G. Braziller,
1996, pp. 269-272.
5. Jessica Rawson, The ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and the Zhou, Mysteries of
Ancient China: New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties, New York: G. Braziller,
1996, pp. 248-265.
6.Kwang Chih Chang, Shang Civilization, Yale University Press, 1982.
Lecture Topics:
1. Introduction to China: Geography, Population, Language and Nationalities (Maps
distributed and worked on in groups)
2. Creation Myths
3. Archeological Findings of Neolithic Cultures
4. Historical and Cultural Continuity
5. The Shang Dynasty
6. Shang Contributions to Chinese Civilization
7. The End of the Shang Empire
Week Two: Warriors and Philosophers
Questions:
1. Compare Confucius and Socrates.
2. What was the Axial Age?
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3. Is the Confucianism a religion? Why and why not?
4. How do you evaluate Confucius thoughts, and his impact on China?
Common Readings:
Ebrey, pp. 38-59
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 6-45
Selective Readings:
1. David N. Keightley, Archaeology and Mentality: the Making of China.
Representations, No. 18 (Spring, 1987), pp. 91-128 Published by: University of
California Press
2. David N. Keightley, Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How it became
Chinese, . Paul S. Ropp, ed. Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on
Chinese Civilization, Berkeley : University of California Press, 1990, pp. 16-54.
3. P. J. Ivanhoe, The Nature of Morality: Mencius, Ethics in the Confucian Tradition:
the thought of Mengzi and Wang Yangming, Indianapolis, IN : Hackett Pub.
Co., 2002. pp. 5-14.
4.. D.C. Lau, transl., Confucius: The Analects, Penguin Books, 1979.
5. Stephen F. Teiser: The Spirits of Chinese Religion, from Donald S. Lopez, Jr ,
Religions of China in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996
6. Selections from Laozi, Zhuangzi and Mencius.
Lecture Topics:
1. Western Zhou (1027-771 B.C.)
2. The Spring and Autumn Periods and Warring States Periods
3. The Age of Philosophers: A Hundred Schools of Thought Confucius and Confucianism, Mencius, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism
4. The Axial Age
Week Three: The Great Unification: The Qin Dynasty
Questions:
1. Why did states in Athens practice democracy, whereas China was an
imperial dictatorship?
2. How do you evaluate Shi Huangdi?
Common Reading:
Ebrey, pp. 60-86
Ebrey Sourcebook, pp. 51-85.
Selective Readings:
1. Elvin, Mark, The Pattern of the Chinese Past: A Social and Economic
Interpretation, Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1973, Ch. 1-2, pp.17-34.
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2. Fritz-Heiner Mutschler amd Achim Mittag, Conceiving the empire: China and
Rome compared, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008
3. Film: Assassin directed by Chen Kaige
4. Michael Loewe, Everyday Life in Early Imperial China: During the Han Dynasty,
New York, NY: Dorset Press, 1988, pp. 54-87, 108-137, and 137-171.
5. Derk Bodde, China’s First Unifier: a Study of the Ch'in Dynasty As Seen In the
Life of Li SSU(280?-208 B.C.), Hong Kong University Press, 1967.
6. Cho-yun Hsu, “The Spring and Autumn Period." Pp. 545-86 in The Cambridge
History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC, edited by
M. Loewe and E.L. Shaughnessy. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press. 1999
7. Mark Lewis, The Early Chinese Empire, Qin and Han, follows of Harvard College,
2007.
Lecture Topics:
1. Qin Unification of China
2. Shi Huangdi's Policies
3. Decline of Qin Dynasty
4. Film: The Immortal Emperor: Shihuangdi
Week Four: The Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms Period
Questions:
1.What were some of the differences between the Han Empire and Roman Empire? Why
was the breakup of the Han Empire followed by a reconstitution of a unitary empire
by the Sui, the Tang, and then - after another interregnum - the Song? This is a
major feature of the uniqueness of Chinese history.
2. How do you evaluate Han Wudi?
Common Readings:
Ebrey Sourcebook, pp.87-96.
Selective Readings:
1. Film: Red Cliff
2. Arthur Wright, The Thought and Society of Han China, and The period of
preparation, Buddhism in Chinese History, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1971pp. 3-41.
3. Michael Ng-Quinn, National Identity in Premodern China: Formation and Role
Enactment, China's Quest for National Identity, Dittner Lowell, ed., pp. 33-61
4. Hans Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press. 1980.
5. Tung-tsu Chu, Han Social Structure, University of Washington Press, 1972.
6. Rafe de Crespigny, Generals of the South: The Foundation and Early History of
the Three Kingdoms State of Wu, Australian National University, Faculty of Asian
Studies, 1990
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Lecture Topics:
1. The Rise of the Han Dynasty
2. The Rule of Han Dynasty
3. Science, Technology and Culture in the Han Dynasty
4. Comparing the Han Empire and Roman Empire
5. The Collapse of the Han Dynasty
6. The Three Kingdoms Period
7. The Jin Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Dynasties
Week Five: Buddhist Conquest of China
Questions:
1. Compare Buddhism and Christianity. What are the differences in religious
doctrines? Give some reasons behind differences in the corporate roles and powers of the
trans-state religion of Roman Catholicism in Western and Central Europe, and the
Eastern Orthodox state religions in Byzantium, Russia, Bulgaria, and Serbia, versus the
non-state roles of Daoism and Buddhism in China.
2. Why did people in medieval Europe kill each other just over differences in type of
Christianity, whereas, in China, this kind of religious conflict never occurred?
Common Reading:
Ebrey, pp. 86-107
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 97-111
Selective Readings:
1. Selection from Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism in Chinese History, Stanford,
Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1971, pp. 99-127
2. William Theodore de Barry, The Coming of Buddhism to China, The Buddhist
Tradition in India, China and Japan, New York: Vintage Books, 1972, pp. 125138.
3. Selections from Kathyrn Ann Tsai, Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese
Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1994.
4. William Jenner, Memories of Loyang: Yang Hsüan-chih and the lost capital (493534), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.
5. Kenneth Chen, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism, Princeton University
Press, 1973
6. Livia Kohn, Daoism and Chinese Culture, Three Pines Press, 2001
Lecture topics:
1. Introduction to Buddhism
2. The Blending of Chinese and Foreign Cultures
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3. Chinese Buddhism and Traditional Culture
4. The Three Teachings Return to the One
Week Six: The Tang Empire, the Height of Ancient Chinese Civilization
Questions:
1. Compare the differences between Western feudalism and Chinese feudalism,
including in the land and tax systems, and differences in the concept of feudalism in
China versus the West.
2. Compare women's social status in feudal society in China and in Europe.
Common Readings:
Ebrey, pp. 108-136.
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 112-136.
Selective Readings:
1. Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State, London : Verso, 1979, The key
chapters are the final three: "The House of Islam", "Japanese Feudalism", and "The
'Asiatic Mode of Production'".
2. Immanuel Wallerstein The Modern World-System, III - The Second Era of Great
Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s, San Diego : Academic Press ,
1989, Chapter 4, "Settler Decolonization of the Americas, 1763-1833".
3. Nathan Sivin, Science and Medicine in Chinese History, Heritage of China, pp.
164-223.
4. Denis Twitchett, Chinese Social History from the Seventh to Tenth Centuries, Past
and Present, 35, 1966, pp. 28-53.
5.Peter Bol, This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in Tang and Sung China,
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992.
6.Charles Benn, China’s Golden age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty, Oxford
University Press, 2004
7. R Guisso, Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China, Bellingham:
Western Washington, 1974.
8.Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T'Ang, Yale University
Press, 1981
Lecture Topics:
1. The Rise and Fall of the Short-lived Sui Dynasty
2. The Glory of the Tang Empire
3. The First Emperor: Tang Taizong (Li Shimin)
4. Administration and Legal Code of the Tang Dynasty
5. The Civil Service Examination System
6. Tang Poetry
7. Women in the Tang Dynasty
Week Seven: Tang Cosmopolitanism and the Silk Road
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The mid-term paper due.
Questions:
1. What are the reasons for the peace and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty? Why didn't
this kind prosperity last long?
2. How should we evaluate the Silk Road?
Selective Readings:
1. Selections from Edward Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, A Study of
Tang Exotics, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
2. Richard C. Foltz, Buddhism and the Silk Road, A Refuge of Heretics: Nestorians
and Manichaeans on the Silk Road, Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade
and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, New York: St.
Martins Griffin, 1999, pp. 37-60.
3. Selections from Sally H. Wriggins, Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk
Road, Boulder and Oxford, Western View Press, 1996.
4. Frances Wood, The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia,
University of California Press, 2002.
5. Susan Whitefield, Life Along Silk Road, University of California Press, 1999.
6. Luce Boulnois, Silk road: monks, warriors & merchants on the Silk Road, Odyssey,
2004
Lecture Topics:
1. Changan: The Capital of the Tang Empire
2. One Family in Four Seas
3. The Silk Road
4. The Decline of Tang Dynasty
Week Eight: The Song Dynasty
Questions:
1. What were the reasons leading the economic miracle of the Song Dynasty?
2. Why didn't the advanced technology, science, and engineering of the Song
Dynasty survive in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties?
Common Readings:
Ebrey, pp. 136-163
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 137-191
Selective Readings:
1.Benjamin Elman, Political, Social, and Cultural Reproduction via Civil Service
Examinations in Late Imperial China, Journal of Asian Studies: 50:1, 1991.
2. Selections from Gernet, Daily Life on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, London,
1962.
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3．Brian McKnight, Village and Bureaucracy in Southern Sung China, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1971.
4.Linda Walton, Academies and Society in Southern Sung China, Honolulu: Hawaii
University Press, 1999.
5.Hilde Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service
Examinations in Imperial China (1127-1279), Cambridge: Harvard University, 2007.
6.Patricia Ebrey, Family and Property in Sung China: Yüan Tsʻai's Precepts for Social
Life, Princeton University Press, 1984.
7.Alfreda Murck, Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent,
Fellow of Harvard College, 2000.
Lecture Topics:
1. Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
2. The Economic Miracle of the Song Dynasty
3. Technology, Science, and Engineering of the Song Dynasty
4. The Examination and Elite Families
5. Women in the Song Dynasty
6, movie: what the ancients knew: The Chinese
Week Nine: Field Trip: Short cultural trip
Week Ten: Alien Rule: The Liao, Jin, Xia and the Yuan Dynasty
Questions:
1, How should we evaluate the Mongols conqueror? What were the advantages and
what were the disadvantages to Chinese?
2, What did China look like in Macro Polo’s eyes?
Common Reading:
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 192-201
Ebrey, pp. 164-189
Selective Readings:
1. Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 2004.
2. Morris Rossabi, Kublai Khan, Berkley, 1988.
3. Colonel Sir Henry Yule, The Travels of Marco Polo: the complete YuleCordier edition, New York, 1993.
4. Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo go to China, Boulder: Westview Press, 1995.
5. John D. Langlois, Jr. “Yü Chi and his Mongol Sovereign: The Scholar as
Apologist”, The Journal of Aisan Studies, Vol. 38, 1, 1978, pp. 99-116.
6. Ruth Dunnell, The Great State of White and High: Buddhism and State
formation in Eleventh Century-Xia, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1996
7. Denis Twitchett ed., Cambridge History of China, Vol. 5, 2007.
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8. John Langois, China Under Mongol Rule, Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1981.
Lecture Topics:
1, The Rule of Liao, Jin and Xia
2, Nomadism and the origin of the Mongols
3, The Mongol’s Conquests
4, The Mongol Impact on China and the World
5, Movie: Genghis Khan
Week Eleven: The Ming Dynasty
Questions:
1, Compare Zhenghe’s voyages and Columbus’ voyages. What were the differences of
their motivations and effects?
2, What were the reasons for the collapse of the Ming dynasty?
Common Readings:
Ebrey. pp. 190-219
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp.203-266
Selective Readings:
1. Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming
China, 1998, pp. 86-152.
2. Susan Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life 1400-1900, Berkley: University
of California Press, 2000.
3. Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers, Stanford University Press, 1994,
pp. 144-176.
4. Joanna Flug Handlin, Action in Late Ming Thought: The Reorientation of Lü
Kʻun and Other Scholar-officials, University of California Press, 1983.
5. Arthur Waldron, The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990.
6. Ray Huang, 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline,
Yale University Press, Sep 10, 1982.
7. Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming
China, University of California Press, 1999.
Lecture Topics:
1, The Ming and the Reestablishment of Chinese World Order
2, The Development of Economy
3, Society and Culture
4, Zhenghe and His voyage
5 The Decline of Ming Dynasty
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Week Twelve: The Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Collapse of Imperial China
Questions:
1, Why did the Japan go over to capitalism in the early modern period, while China
didn't?
2, What were the reasons that the Qing dynasty couldn’t resist the invasion of the
West?
Common Readings:
Ebrey, pp. 220-261
Ebrey, Sourcebook, pp. 267-329
Selective Readings:
1. Pamela Kyle Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing
Imperial Ideology, Berkley: University of California Press, 1999.
2. Joseph W. Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising, Berkley: University of
California Press, 1987.
3. Paul A. Cohen, History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and
Myth, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
4. Victor Purcell, The Boxer Uprising: A Background Study, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1963.
5. Loyd Eastman, Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in
China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949, Oxford University Press,
1988.
6. Herbert Franke and Hok-Lam Chan, Studies on the Jurchens and the Chin
Dynasty, Ashgate Publishing, 1997.
7. Luther Goodrich, The Literary Inquisition of Ch’ien Lung, Paragon Book
Reprint Corp., 1966
Lecture Topics:
1, The Manchu Conquest and the Qing Empire
2, Penetration of Western Colonial Forces
3, The Opium Wars
4, The Internal Adversaries: Taiping rebellion and Boxer movement
5, Movie: The Opium War
Week Thirteen: Final Paper Due. You need bring your final paper to class and
present it to your classmates and instructor.
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