HSTAS 452 A: Chinese History from Earliest Times to 1276

HSTAS 452: Chinese History from Earliest Times to 1276 (5 credits)

Winter Quarter, 2026

Instructor: Professor Yifan Zheng (yifanzhg@uw.edu)

Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30–4:20 PM

Location: HRC 145 (Hans Rosling Center)

Office hours: Wednesdays 2–3:20 PM and by appointment; Smith Hall 204 B

Course Description

This course surveys Chinese history from the earliest times to the end of the Song Dynasty in 1276. It examines key themes such as empire, state administration, socioeconomic change, literati culture, and religion through both archaeological discoveries and historical texts. The course also considers how history has been interpreted, used, and contested across time, with comparative perspectives introduced where relevant.

This course combines lecture and discussion. Each class will begin with about an hour of lecture, followed by a short five-minute break, and then a discussion session focused on the day’s reading or other planned topics. We will start in small groups and then continue with a larger class discussion. These discussion sessions are designed to help you practice close reading of primary sources, contextualize concepts from lecture and secondary readings, and think critically about how historical interpretations are formed. Guiding questions for each class will provide big-picture framework for our conversation, and they may also serve as starting points for paper prompts and final project themes.

Learning Objectives

Students completing this course will be able to:

1. Identify and explain major political, social, and cultural developments in Chinese history from the earliest times to the end of Song dynasty
2. Analyze and interpret a range of historical sources including documents, literary writings, and archaeological materials, to understand how historians reconstruct the past.
3. Evaluate how Chinese history has been interpreted, contested, and used over time, with attention to different historiographical perspectives.
4. Understand different approaches to Chinese history and place China’s historical trajectory within a broader global context.

 

Books:

Textbook: Patricia B. Ebrey, Cambridge Illustrated History of China, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 3^rd edition (2^nd edition acceptable). [CIHC]

I have requested copies of the required textbook for purchase through the University Bookstore and placed additional copies on course reserve at the Odegaard Library. Earlier editions or used copies are acceptable if they help reduce costs. All other readings will be available in accessible electronic form on the course Canvas website. Below is a list of reference books frequently used in this course. If you prefer print copies, it is often easy and inexpensive to find used copies through online thrift sites or local bookstores.

1. Patricia Buckley Ebrey, ed., Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, New York: Free Press, 1993, 2nd edition. [CC]
2. Victor H. Mair et al., eds., Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005. [HR]
3. Theodore de Bary et al. eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, Columbia University Press, 1999, 2^nd edition. [SCT]

 

Some Useful References:

        A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization: http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/index.htm

       China History Maps by Dynasty: https://www.chinahighlights.com/map/ancient-china-map/ 

        Wade-Giles to Pinyin Conversion Table:  https://www.chineseconverter.com/en/convert/wade-giles-to-chinese 

Assignments and Grading:

        The guiding principle for grading is NOT to punish students, but to encourage reading and participation, inspire thinking, and foster a spirit of mutual understanding and sharing. Below is an overview of assignments and their grade weights, followed by detailed explanations of each:

1). Participation: 15%

2). Reading Response Essays: 15% (3 essays × 5% each)

3). Map Quiz: 5%

4). Midterm Exam (in-class): 25%

5). Final Exam (take-home): 25%

6). AI Project or Oral Interview (choose one): 15%

UW uses a decimal grading scale. Final grades will be converted using the UW Standard Grading System. This chart shows how letter grades and percentages correspond to the 4.0 scale.

 

Notes:

1). Participation: 15%

Active participation is essential for creating an engaging and interactive class. Participation may take many forms, including contributing to in-class and group discussions. Occasionally, we will do brief in-class written responses to help facilitate discussion of primary readings. Students should also be prepared for occasional cold calls during class. If you feel uncomfortable speaking in a large group, you are encouraged to contribute actively in smaller group settings and to contact the instructor to discuss alternative ways of demonstrating your engagement with the readings and lecture contents.

Toward the end of the quarter, the instructor may ask each student to complete a short self-evaluation of their participation. These reflections will help the instructor supplement and calibrate their own observations, ensuring a fairer assessment.

 

2). Reading Response Essays: 15%

Over the course of the quarter, there will be 3 short response papers. These assignments are designed to help students practice close reading and develop skills in writing criticism, reviews, and argumentative essays. The following guiding questions might be helpful while thinking through how to summarize and critique the readings: What is the central argument of the reading? What are its limitations or weaknesses? Are there sources or perspectives we have discussed in class that the author has overlooked?

Please use the weekly “guiding questions” as the basis for your reading responses. Each student will submit three response essays: one on the readings from Classes 1–6, one from Classes 7–14, and one from Classes 15–19. The due dates are January 25, February 22, and March 14, all by midnight. It is always wise to plan your papers early. Late submissions will be deducted one-third of the grade for each day they are due. Exceptions will be made only for documented technical failures beyond the student’s control (e.g., Canvas outages, power failures, etc.). Other personal causes for lateness will not be differentiated, so please plan ahead and submit your work on time. Each response may focus on the readings from a single week or bring together multiple weeks’ materials in a meaningful way. Every paper must include at least one quotation from a primary source and one reference to a secondary source, both directly relevant to your chosen prompt. Essays should be 300–500 words in length, and you must indicate the word count at the end of your submission.

These response essays should be analytical and reflect your own perspectives, rather than simply summarizing the original text or offering unsubstantiated personal reactions. In other words, I am asking for informed analysis, not descriptive summaries or emotional responses. When working with primary sources, be sure to situate them in their historical setting. Papers must be submitted electronically through the UW Canvas website, and please ensure that your file is properly attached in .doc or .docx format, double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman, 1” margins. Please use Chicago style for your paper: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html

I strongly encourage you to make use of the History Writing Center (https://history.washington.edu/history-writing-center) for guidance and feedback on your writing.

 

3). Map Quiz: 5%

This short in-class map quiz (about 10 minutes) will take place by the end of Week 3 (the exact time will be announced in class and posted on Canvas). Geography is the stage on which all historical events unfold, and a solid grasp of it is essential for understanding the development of history. The quiz will test your ability to locate major places, rivers, mountains, canals, and important geographical boundaries. You will be provided with a blank map of China and a list of names, and your task will be to accurately fill in the map. This exercise is designed not only to test recall, but also to strengthen your spatial awareness of the historical landscape we will study throughout the course. All geographical information for the quiz will come from lecture slides and assigned readings, but the quiz itself will be closed-book.

 

4) & 5). Exams: 25% (midterm) + 25% (final)

The midterm and final exams will contain term identifications and explanations, short-answer questions, primary text analyses, reading-based questions, and short essays. There may also be a small number of multiple-choice questions. In the review sessions, the instructor will provide a list of key terms and sample questions to help the students prepare. The midterm exam will be held in class and will last 90 minutes. It will be closed-book, except that each student may bring one sheet of notes (A4 size, front and back is fine) for personal reference. Notes may be handwritten or printed, and can include any information you find helpful—timelines, key terms or brief summaries, but no photocopies from textbooks are allowed.

The final exam will be take-home exam. You are expected to complete it independently and consult only the assigned readings, lectures, and your own notes from this course. The exam questions will be released on Canvas, and you will have 90 minutes to complete the exam. Please submit your answers on Canvas as a Word document. Late submissions will not be graded. Format your exam as single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman.

The midterm exam will cover lectures and readings from the beginning of the course through Class 9. The final exam will cover all lectures and readings, but with a primary focus on materials from Class 11–19.

6). AI Project OR Oral Interview: 15%

For the last component of evaluation, students may choose either to complete a research project that incorporates AI tools OR to participate in an oral interview with the instructor.

AI Project: The purpose of this project is to give you a chance to explore and reflect on what AI can do in the study of history and humanistic inquiry, how it can support your learning, but also to recognize where its limits lie. These limits include generating unreliable or even fabricated texts, authors, and sources, oversimplifying historical narratives, and relying on source information that may themselves be fundamentally biased.

For the AI project, you may select any topic of interest (e.g., the Tang-Song transition) and work with certain AI tools using class materials (at least one primary source and one piece of secondary scholarship). The project emphasizes both the process and the product. Document your interaction with AI step by step, leaving clear traces of each step, including your inputs and AI outputs. As you continue to probe and challenge, the AI tools may be exhausted and stall—starting to repeat itself, cease to generate useful responses, or fail to improve on earlier answers. Your task is to identify these moments, diagnose the limits of the tool for your historical topic, and then go further: compose a more accurate, nuanced, and well-supported answer of your own based on what you’ve learned in this class. Your final submission includes three parts: (1) the AI’s best answer to your question; (2) your answer that corrects, complicates, and explicitly highlights the AI’s shortcomings; and (3) a step-by-step record of your interaction (with screenshots) showing how you arrived there.

Your work will be evaluated on several dimensions: the complexity and variety of your interactions with AI, the effectiveness with which you draw on course materials and knowledge, the extent to which your own answers improve upon the AI’s initial responses, and the thoroughness with which you document and preserve evidence of each step in the process. The due date for this project is March 18.

 

Oral Interview: As an alternative to the AI project, students may choose to complete a short oral interview (approximately 15 minutes) during the final week and exam week. The oral format is designed to complement written work by giving you the chance to demonstrate your knowledge and skills in real time, much like historians do through discussion, debate, and presentation. The interview will take place in my office and will be recorded for evaluation purposes only. Questions may include discussion of specific historical developments, analytical argument, responses to readings, as well as more personal reflections on your learning experience in the course. This format not only evaluates your grasp of the material but also gives you practice in articulating historical ideas clearly and thoughtfully.

By the end of Class 18, students should indicate whether they will complete the AI Project or the Oral Interview, so the instructor can prepare the interview schedule.

 

How to Do Well in This Class: Attend lectures regularly so you don’t miss important content; Engage actively in class discussions and learn from your classmates; Keep up with the readings, and take notes both while reading and during lectures and discussions; Submit all work on time and cite sources properly in every assignment; Whenever possible, revise and refine your drafts before turning them in; Finally, communicate with me promptly if you have questions or encounter difficulties—whether during office hours or through scheduled online meetings.

 

General Policies:

Access and Accommodations:

Your experience in this class is important to me. It is the policy and practice of the University of

Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and

state law. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for

Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so we can discuss how they

will be implemented in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or

permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental

health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), contact DRS

directly to set up an Access Plan. DRS facilitates the interactive process that establishes

reasonable accommodations. Contact DRS at disability.uw.edu.

 

Religious Accommodations:

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request Form.

 

Plagiarism & Academic Misconduct

Academic misconduct, such as unauthorized collaboration, cheating on exams, and plagiarism, is prohibited at UW and may result in disciplinary action. Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct at UW. It is defined as the use of creations, ideas, or words of publicly available work without formally acknowledging the author or source through appropriate use of quotation marks, references, and the like. Along with the University of Washington, the Department of History takes plagiarism very seriously. Plagiarism may lead to disciplinary action by the University against the student who submitted the work. Any student who is uncertain whether their use of the work of others constitutes plagiarism should consult the course instructor for guidance before submitting coursework. Here is more information.

 

AI Policy: In this course, the responsible and reflective use of AI tools is allowed and encouraged, but with clear boundaries. The guiding principle is that AI should support—not replace—your own thinking. Here are the rules and examples to guide you:

1) What Is Allowed

You may use AI tools for the following tasks, as long as you do so transparently and critically:

Grammar and writing style support: checking for sentence structure, clarity, typos, etc.

Generating prompt ideas or brainstorming directions for your projects

Suggesting lines of inquiry, counterquestions, or “what if” scenarios to deepen your research

Translating passages if you check against original language and context

Asking the AI to clarify concepts, definitions, or provide historical context

When you make use of AI for our final AI Project, you should clearly identify which tool(s) you used, the date used, the prompt(s) you gave, and how you transformed or verified the AI output.

2) What Is Not Allowed

You should not use AI to do the heavy lifting for you in your graded assignments. Examples of disallowed uses include:

Asking AI to summarize the entire article and submitting that summary as if it were your own

Asking AI to write full paragraphs or sections of your paper or project and submitting them with minimal revision

Having AI generate your thesis, main arguments, or entire drafts that you simply tweak

Presenting AI-generated content as your own ideas without attribution

Using AI in these ways undermines your learning and constitutes a breach of academic integrity. Failure to disclose AI use when it has substantively contributed to your work may be treated as academic misconduct. AI can stimulate new questions and help you explore possibilities—but the heart of this class centers on your interpretive judgment, close reading skills, and historical reasoning. Ensuring you wrestle with the material yourself protects the learning outcomes of the course and helps maintain academic fairness. For my part, I affirm that I do not use AI tools to grade your papers, exams, or other assignments, and that all evaluative decisions are made by me.

In a history class like this, your own engagement matters most. As long as you keep up with the readings, take part in class discussions, and attend lectures, you will almost always do better than AI. Tools may produce polished language, but they cannot replace your understanding, reflections, and connections to what we study together. Even if AI use goes unnoticed, it is unlikely to earn you a higher grade—because what counts here is your ability to think historically, articulate ideas with conviction, and bring your own perspective into dialogue with the sources. If you ever feel uncertain whether a particular use of AI is acceptable, please ask me before submission. I’m happy to clarify.

 

Electronic devices are only allowed in class to access course materials and to take notes.

 

Lecture PowerPoints or notes will be uploaded to Canvas after class (for personal use only; please do not share them outside this course). Lectures in this course will not be routinely recorded for all students. If you require recording access as an approved accommodation through Disability Resources for Students, please notify me and the accommodations process will be arranged in consultation with DRS. If you miss a session, I encourage you to come by my office hours, and I will be glad to help you catch up or connect with classmates to share notes and review together.

 

Course Schedule and Readings

(This syllabus is subject to change. See the Canvas site for the most up-to-date schedule and readings.)

 

Week 1:

Class 1 (Jan. 6): Introduction to the Course

Course Overview, Chronology and Geography, Romanization

Readings: 1. (secondary source) Robert S. Ramsey, “Chapter 2: China, North and South” in The Languages of China, Princeton University Press, 1987, 19-26.

Guiding Questions: Why do geography matter in studying history? What are the limits of geographical determinism? What kinds of evidence (archaeological, textual, visual) do historians use to study ancient China, and what are the limits of each? How do modern categories such as “China” or “civilization” influence the way we interpret the past?

 

Class 2 (Jan. 8): Origins of Chinese Civilization: The Neolithic Period to the Shang Dynasty

Readings: 1. (primary source) Sima Qian, “The Five Emperors, Hsia, and Yin” in The Grand Scribes’ Records (translated by William H. Nienhauser), Indiana University Press, 1994, 1-54.

2. (secondary source) Patricia B. Ebrey, “Chapter 1: The Origins of Chinese Civilization: Neolithic Period to the Western Zhou Dynasty” in The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (thrid edition), Cambridge University Press, 2023, 12-39.

Guiding Questions: What are the relationships between history, legend, and archaeology? What becomes considered reliable historical evidence? How can we draw useful historical information from mythological accounts?

Week 2:

Class 3 (Jan. 13): The Zhou Dynasties and the Classical World

Readings: 1. David Keightley, “Chapter 1: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty” in Theodore de Bary et al. eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition (2^nd edition), vol. 1, Columbia University Press, 1999, 4-22.

2. (primary source) Gilbert I. Mattos, “Chapter 2: Shang and Zhou Ritual Bronze Inscriptions” in Victor Mair et al. eds., Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, University of Hawai’i Press, 2005, 13-17.
3. (primary source) Edward L. Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History, Introduction, University of California Press, 1991, 1-4.
4. (secondary source) Patricia B. Ebrey, “Chapter 2: Philosophical Foundations: The Eastern Zhou Period” in CIHC, 40-63.

Guiding Questions: What constant themes appear in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, and how do they relate to rulership? Why was ritual central to ancient Chinese polities? What recurring themes can be identified in early Chinese ritual literature?

Class 4 (Jan. 15): Confucius, the Masters, and the Five Classics

Readings: 1. “Chapter 2: Classical Sources of Chinese Tradition” in de Bary et al. eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 24-34.

2. (primary source) Simon Leys trans., The Analects, The Norton Critical Edition, Chapters 1-5.
3. (secondary source) Mark Csikszentmihalyi, “Confucius.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2019), 1-19.
4. (secondary source) Michael Nylan, The Five “Confucian” Classics, Yale University Press, 2014, Chapter 1, 1-39.

Guiding Questions: What was the relation between Confucius and the Five Classics? How do we understand Confucius’ political and philosophical ideas as arising from the worlds he lived in and before him? What is the “Mandate of Heaven,” and how was it articulated in early texts? What was the relationship between Confucius and the “hundred masters”?

 

Week 3:

Class 5 (Jan. 20): Qin Unification and the First Emperor

Readings: 1. (primary source) Sima Qian, “The Basic Annals of the First Emperor of the Qin” in Burton Watson trans., Records of The Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, Columbia University Press, 1993, 62-123. 

2. (primary source) Paul Goldin, “Chapter 21: Hanfeizi and His Antecedents” in Haiwai'i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, 137-141.
3. (primary source) Paul Goldin, “Chapter 23: The Laws of Qin before the Empire” in Haiwai'i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, 147-150.

Guiding Questions: How did Qin rise and conquer the other six states? What is the significance and implication of the unification of China? How do we understand the different images of the first emperor?

 

Class 6 (Jan. 22, In-class Map Quiz): The Han Empire and Its Steppe Neighbors

Readings: 1. (primary source) “The Debate on Salt and Iron” in Patricia Buckley Ebrey, ed., Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. Free Press, 1993, 2nd edition, 60-63.

2. (secondary source) Patricia Ebrey, Chapter 3 “The Creation of the Bureaucratic Empire: The Qin and Han Dynasties” in CIHC, 64-89.
3. (secondary source) Nicola Di Cosmo, “Chapter 5: Those Who Draw the Bow: The Rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the Political Unification of the Nomads” in Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History, Cambridge University Press, 2002, 161-205.

Guiding questions: What were the government structure of the Han empires? How did the state inherit and practice political ideologies from pre-Qin masters?

 

*********First Response Paper Due (Jan. 25 midnight) *********

Week 4:

Class 7 (Jan. 27): Cosmology, Ritual and the Making of Han Imperial Ideology

Readings: 1. (primary source) “Selected Writings of Dong Zhongshu” from de Bary et al. eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 294-308.

2. (secondary source) Michael Loewe, “Chapter 12: The Religious and Intellectual Background,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, 649-725.

Guiding questions: How did thinkers like Dong Zhongshu reshape earlier traditions into a comprehensive imperial ideology? How did cosmology and ritual become embedded in statecraft during the Han?

 

Class 8 (Jan. 29): The Six Dynasties: Division, War and Transformation

Readings 1. (primary source) “The Ballad of Mulan” in Hans H. Frankel trans. The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry, Poem 49, Yale University Press, 1976, 68-72.

2. (primary source) Excerpts from Family Instructions of the Yan Clan, (trans. by Xiaofei Tian, De Gruyter, 2021.)
3. (primary source) Yang Yun, “Letter to Sun Hui-tsung” in Cyril Birch ed., Anthology of Chinese Literature, vol. 1, Grove Press, 1965, 159-168, 182-83.
4. (secondary source) Patricia Ebrey, “Chapter 4 Regional Regimes: Buddhism, Aristocracy, and Alien Rulers: The Age of Division” in CICH, 90-113.

Guiding questions: Where did the nomadic groups come from? Are they “ethnic” groups by modern definition? How were the northern dynasties different from the Han regimes? How do Chinese sources portray them? In what sense were the Six Dynasties a period of “division” and why does that matter?

 

Week5:

Class 9 (Feb. 3): Aristocracy and Elite Culture

Readings: 1. (primary source) Selections from A New Account of the Tales of the World (Shishuo Xinyu).

2. (primary source) “Early Medieval Stories of Filial Piety” in Victor Mair et al. eds., Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, 278-81.
3. (secondary source) Albert Dien and Keith Knapp eds., The Cambridge History of China vol. 2 The Six Dynasties, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chapter 23 “Qingtan and Xuanxue,” 511-530.
4. (secondary source) Wai-yee Li, “Shishuo xinyu and the Emergence of Chinese Aesthetic Consciousness in the Six Dynasties,” in Chinese Aesthetics: The Orderings of Literature, the Arts, and the Universe in the Six Dynasties (3rd to 6th Century), edited by Zongqi Cai, Hawaii University Press, 2004, 237-276.

 

Guiding questions: How did aristocratic families shape cultural and political life in early medieval China? In what ways did intellectual movements such as qingtan (“pure talk”) and xuanxue (“mysterious learning”) reflect both philosophical interests and social practices among the elite? What role did filial piety stories and other moral exempla play in negotiating tensions between Confucian ethics and the lifestyle of the aristocracy?

 

Class 10 (Feb. 5): Mid-Term Examination

 

Week 6:

Class 11 (Feb. 10): The Cosmopolitan Tang Empire and the Silk Road

Readings: 1. (primary source) Selections from The Essentials of Governance, “Chapter 1: The Way of the Sovereign,” edited by Hilde de Weerdt, Glen Dudbridge and Gabe van Beijeren, Cambridge University Pres, 2020, 7-16.

2. (secondary source) Patricia Ebrey, Chapter 5 “A Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty” in CIHC, 114-139.
3. (secondary source) Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History with Documents (Oxford University Press: 2016) Chapter 6 “The Time Capsule of Silk Road History: The Dunhuang Caves,” 167-97.

 

Guiding questions: In what sense was Tang a cosmopolitan empire? In what ways did the Tang Empire become a more “open and inclusive” society to different cultures and religions?

Class 12 (Feb. 12): Tang Government and Society

Readings: 1. Selections of The Great Tang Code from Sources of Chinese Tradition, 546-553 and Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, 116-119.

2. (secondary source) Jack Chen, “Introduction: Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong (r. 626-649)” in The Poetics of Sovereignty: On Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (Harvard University Asia Center, 2011), 1-47.
3. (secondary source) Mark Lewis, China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty (Harvard University Press, 2009) Chapter 4 “Urban Life” and Chapter 5 “Rural Society,” 85-144.
4. (secondary source, optional) Richard von Glahn, The Economic History of China: from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2016, Chapters 5 “The China-Nomad Synthesis and the Reunification of the Empire (485 to 755),” 168-207.

 

Guiding questions: How do we understand the emperor’s role in Chinese history? What has changed and what remained unchanged in the understandings of good rulership from the Qin-Han to Tang?

Week 7:

Class 13 (Feb. 17): Buddhism and Daoism

Readings: 1. (primary source) Selected Buddhism and Daoism Readings

2. (primary source) Han Yu, “Memorial Discussing the Buddha’s Bone” in Stephen Owen, ed. An Anthology of Chinese Literature, 598-601.
3. (secondary source) Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaption of Buddhism in Early Medieval China, Brill, 2007, Chapter 1 “Introduction,” 1-17.

 

Guiding questions: How do you see the roles that religions played in history? Can we see “Confucianism” as a religion in the sense that Buddhism and Daoism were? How did Buddhism and Daoism compete with and influence each other?

Class 14 (Feb. 19): Literati and Culture in Medieval China

Readings: 1. (primary source) Selections of Tang Poetry

2. (primary source) Selected Tales from Tang Dynasty China
3. (secondary source) Mao Han-kuang, “The Evolution in the Nature of the Medieval Genteel Families,” in Albert Dien ed., State and Society in Early Medieval China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), 73-110.
4. (secondary source) Stephen Owen: The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T’ang (Yale University Press, 1981) “Introduction” and “Part One: The Beginning of the High T’ang and the First-Generation Poets,” xi-10.

 

Guiding questions: What do poems tell us about history that historical documents do not? Is there such a thing as “spirit of the age” that we can learn from literatures?

 

*********Second Response Paper Due (February 22, midnight)********

Week 8:

Class 15 (Feb. 24): Song China and the Tang-Song Transition

Readings: 1. (primary source) “Recollections of the Northern Song Capital” in Hawaii Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture University of Hawaii Press, 2005, 405-22.

2. (primary source) New Policies of Wang Anshi Reform from Sources of Chinese Tradition, 609-634.
3. (secondary source) Ebrey, Chapter 6 “Shifting South: The Song Dynasty” of CIHC, 136-63.
4. (secondary source) Nicolas Tackett, “Chapter 10: A Tang-Song Turning Point” in Michael Szonyi ed., A Companion to Chinese History, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2017, 118–128.

 

Guiding questions: Why is the periodization of history useful and what are some of the limits of it? What is the historical narrative of “Tang-Song Transition” and what are the potential limits of this narrative?

 

Class 16 (Feb. 26): Agriculture, Economy, and Technological Development

Readings: 1. (primary source) Analysis of the handscroll “Along the River during the Qingming Festival” (online: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/song-scroll/song.html)

2. (primary source) Selected excerpts on markets, festivals, and urban life from Meng Yuanlao’s A Dream of Splendors Past in the Eastern Capital (from HR).
3. (secondary source) Richard von Glahn, The Economic History of China: from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2016, Chapter 6 “Economic Transformations in the Tang-Song Transition (755 to 1127),” 208-54.
4. (secondary source) Mark Elvin, “Chapter 9: The Revolution in Farming” in The Pattern of The Chinese Past, Stanford University Press, 1973, 113-130.
5. (secondary source) Mark Elvin, The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 3-39.

 

Guiding questions: What do visual sources such as Along the River during the Qingming Festival reveal about daily life and urban economies in the Song? How did technological and agricultural innovations transform society and the environment in the Tang-Song transition? What long-term patterns of environmental change shaped Chinese history? How does the Tang-Song economic transformation fit into debates on the “Great Divergence,” and what comparisons can we draw between the trajectories of economic and technological development in East Asia and Europe?

 

Week 9:

Class 17 (Mar. 3): The Examination System and the Intellectual World

Readings: 1. (primary source) “The Great Learning” and the “Doctrine of the Mean” from Sources of Chinese Tradition, 330-339. “Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucian Program,” 720-737. 

2. (primary source) “Zhu Xi on Ancestral Rites” from Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, 157-163.
3. (primary source) Su Shi’s “Rhapsody of the Red Cliff” from Anthology of Chinese Literature, 381-384.
4. (secondary source) John W. Chaffee, Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: Social History of Examinations (Cambridge University Press, 1985), 3-65, 157-181.

 

Guiding questions: How did the examination system shape social mobility and the reproduction of elite culture? In what ways did Neo-Confucian thought influence intellectual life and political institutions in the Song?

 

Class 18 (Mar. 5): Family, Gender, and Women

1. (primary source) “A Letter Submitted to Hanlin Academician Qi Chongli (by Li Qingzhao)” from Ronald Egan trans., The Works of Li Qingzhao, De Gruyter, 2019, 61-67.
2. (primary source) Selected Tang and Song Tales on Women
3. (primary source) “The Book of Filial Piety for Women” translated by Ebrey, from Susan Mann and Yu-Yin Cheng edited Under Confucian Eyes: Writings on Gender in Chinese History, University of California Press, 2001, 47-66.
4. (primary source) Excerpts from The Enlightened Judgements, translated by Brain E. McKnight and James T.C. Liu, annotated and introduced by Brain E. McKnight, SUNY, 1999, 259-267.
5. (secondary source) Patricia Ebrey, “Women, Money, and Class: Sima Guang and Song Neo-Confucian Views on Women” in Women and the Family in Chinese History, Routledge, 1992, 10-38.

 

Guiding questions: How were women represented in Song and Tang writings, and what do these representations tell us about gender norms? In what ways did law, ritual, and morality define women’s roles in the family and society? How did elite and common women experience different forms of agency or constraint?

 

**********Decide whether you will choose the AI Project or

The Oral Interview and inform the instructor of your choice by March 6 **********

 

Week 10:

Class 19 (Mar. 10): Northern Peoples: Tanguts, Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols

Readings:

1. From Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook: “Weiming Yuanhao’s Letter to the Song,” 140-141; “Longing to Recover the North,” 169-171.
2. (secondary source) Ebrey, “Chapter 7: Alien Rule: The Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties (907-1368)” of CIHC, 164-89.
3. (secondary source) Wang Gungwu, “The Rhetoric of Lesser Empire: Early Sung Relations with Its Neighbors” in China Among Equals, University of California Press, 1983, 47-65.
4. (secondary source, optional) Thomas J. Barfield, “Inner Asia and Cycles of Power,” in Rulers from the Steppe (Los Angeles: Ethnographic Press, 1991), eds. Seaman and Marks, 21-62.

 

Guiding questions: How did Chinese dynasties conceptualize their relations with northern peoples, and how did these groups represent themselves? In what ways did conquest dynasties adapt Chinese institutions, and where did they maintain distinct traditions? How do cycles of interaction between steppe and agrarian states challenge conventional narratives of Chinese history?

 

*********Third Response Paper Due (March 13. midnight) *********

Class 20 (Mar. 12): Review Session, Q&A

Guiding questions: What major patterns of continuity and change can we trace across Chinese history from the Neolithic to the Song? How did political authority and the idea of rulership evolve across dynasties? In what ways did geography, environment, and interactions with neighboring peoples shape Chinese history? How did religion, philosophy, and ideology both challenge and reinforce state power? What are some useful comparative frameworks for thinking about China in a broader world history context?

 

        AI Project: due by March 18

        Oral Interview: To be scheduled during the Final Week (Week 10) and the Exam Week

 

Final Exam: Date and Time to be announced