The following textbook is aailable for purchase at Black Sun Bookstore (on Hilyard Street and 24th St., next to the restaurant 'Taste of India'):
Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire. A History of China to 1600. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000.
Further readings will be distrbuted as photocopies or made available on electronic reserve.
Course Description
The course Hist 387 Early China provides a historical survey from the Neolithic to the tenth century. The focus of this course is to familiarize the participants with early developments in philosophy, religion, and the evolving bureaucracy which formed the basis of the Chinese state. The Age of Philosophy (Jaspers) included teachers of ancient China such as Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi and others whose teachings to this day enjoy popularity among readers in China and abroad. The various teachings will be introduced and contextualized with regard to their origins and their intellectual appeal for the ruling elite. The Han dynasty (220 BCE-206 CE) saw the emerging of a state based on Confucian ideals, which came to flourish after a period of disunity during the Tang dynasty (618 – 907 CE), the period often called the ‘Golden Age of China’. The rulers of the Tang dynasty were the last committed to the ideals of an ethnically diverse aristocracy before the Neo-Confucian oriented class of non-aristocratic scholar-officials came to dominate the government.
Archaeology is a young discipline in China and has changed the perception of the locality of the various emerging centers of Chinese culture. Textual sources will be matched with archaeological evidence to introduce the various centers of development that came to constitute the complex construct of ‘Chinese culture’. Finally, the course discusses the use of history for political purposes: The Chinese government shows a vigorous interest in developing a new concept of historicity for the earliest –mythical- dynasty. Contemporary examples will show how the legitimizing power of a distant past is utilized today.
Class News
Final: Thursday, March 13 in class (5.00 - 6.20 pm)
Make-up quiz: Tuesday, March 18, 7.00 pm.
1/8 U 1. Introduction; chronological survey of political and military events
1/10 H 2. The first written records of Chinese history (Hansen 17-40).
1/15 U 3. The Zhou Conquest of the Shang (Hansen 41-53).
1/17 H 4. The 'Age of Philosophy" in a time of war (Hansen 54-67)
1/22 U 5. Confucius and subsequent teachers (Hansen 67-95)
1/24 H 6. China's First emperor (Hansen 97-112)
1/29 U 7. Film on Qin Shi huangdi
1/31 H 8. Power struggles and economic problems in the Han (Hansen 112-135)
2/05 U 9. The restauration of the Later Han (Hansen 136-142)
2/07 H 10. MIDTERM
2/12 U 11. Philosophical Daoism and the evolution of the Daoist church (Hansen 142-149)
2/14 H 12. The transmission of Buddhism (Hansen 153-175)
2/19 U 13. Patrons of Buddhism: The rulers of the Northern Wei (Hansen 175-189)
2/21 H 14. Unification under the Sui-Dynasty (Hansen 191-202)
2/26 U 15. The Golden Age of the Tang Dynasty (Hansen 203-219)
2/28 H 16. Film on the Tang Dynasty
3/4 U 17. The An Lushan Rebellion and its consequences (Hansen 221-245)
3/6 H 18. The significance of the silkroad and the finds of Dunhuang (Hansen 245-258)
3/11 U 19. The Tang-Song transition (Hansen 261-275)
3/13 H 20. Review session
3/18 U 7.00 pm Final exam