HSTAS 490 A: Topics in Asian History

HSTAS 465

Books before Printing:

Manuscript Culture in East Asia up to 1200

Instructor: Yunxiao Xiao

      yxxiao@uw.edu

Time: M W 3:30 – 5:20 PM

Location: Raitt Hall 116

Office Hour: M Wed 2:15 – 3:15 PM

Course Description

This course examines books and readers in East Asia from the 4^th century BCE to the onset of the printing era around 1000 CE. We explore how classical knowledge and pragmatic information was composed, practiced, circulated, and forgotten via various pre-printing materials such as bamboo, wood, silk, and paper, and how readers and writers before the advent of printing employed their learning tools and informational devices. Introducing a series of seminal pieces of scholarship and newly found materials from China, Japan, and Korea, we cover the most important archeological materials, and examine a series of recently found literary, philosophical, historical, legal, religious, epistolary writings on bamboo slips, wooden boards, silk sheets, and paper scrolls. After serving as material supports for knowledge and communication one to two millennia ago, they were entombed, buried, or discarded, and were eventually discovered through archaeological excavations in tombs or relic sites. Discovering these excavated manuscripts as both cultural documents and material objects, we will explore a diverse array of knowledge practices within their specific historical, material, and intellectual contexts.

We ask questions such as: How did people read, write, and learn from their books two thousand years ago? How was information represented and utilized through the media of bamboo, wood, and paper? How was the imperial administrative system and classical textual tradition established and renovated through the scribal culture of writing on bamboo, wood, and silk? Why did books in both the Western and Eastern traditions change from scroll to codex? And finally, we ask, how is our digital/printing age different, and how has it been inherited from the era of manuscript culture?

Learning Goals and Outcomes

This interdisciplinary course equips students with a solid grasp of the materials and methodologies critical for studying pre-modern East Asian culture and society, as well as the ability to evaluate theories of communication and information. To give a concrete and tangible context of how the historical books and documents were produced and used, we will cover a wide range of genres of handwritten documents, including literature and classics, historical documents, philosophical and technical texts, as well religious records. Students will be introduced to various angles to study East Asian texts and history—including historical analysis, sociology of knowledge, anthropology of writing, politics and economy of information, literary theories, and philosophical inquiry—mostly involving recent archeological finds. In addition to traditional lectures and discussions, we will also offer hands-on experience with reading and writing on historical media, such as bamboo slips, wooden boards, and paper scrolls. This will allow students to engage with writing and reading in settings similar to those of ancient and medieval East Asia, as well as to explore the complexity of the making of historical knowledge. Overall, the course aims to broaden and deepen students’ understanding of East Asian culture and history, preparing them for further exploration not only from a non-Eurocentric perspective on the history of the book, knowledge, and media, but also of the diverse origins of our contemporary “age of information.”

Credits: 5.0

Prerequisites

No prerequisites. Interested students of any linguistic or cultural background are welcome to join.

Preparation and Class Meetings

Class meetings

Class sessions will include both lecture on related topics and discussion of assigned texts outlined in the course syllabus, as summarized in the Course Schedule below. 30–50 pages of reading per week with a 1- to 2-paragraph response to the readings per week. Students are expected to finish the assigned readings in advance and should be prepared to participate actively. To participate effectively in class, students should prepare thoroughly by, for example, taking careful notes, identifying questions, and bringing specific passages or images for discussion.

Class time will focus on four main components:

1. Monday Lecture: Instructor-led introduction of the cultural and historical background of the topics.
2. Wednesday Seminar: Close reading of the assigned primary sources.

Preparation

Specific instructions for each week’s readings will be provided. Before the class meetings, you should be prepared to:

• Carefully read the assigned reading
• Accurately summarize the authors’ ideas
• Come up with your own thoughts by linking what you’ve already learned from class and/or be prepare connect what will be discussed in class
• Draft and edit your response paper (you may choose to post about either Monday’s or Wednesday’s reading, or preferably both.)
• Comment constructively on classmates’ contributions

Assignments and Assessment

Grading

• Class Participation: 20%
• Response paper (1- to 2-paragraph, will be discussed in class) 20%

• Quizzes (4 x 10%) 30%

• Final Evaluation: 30%

Final Quiz (in-class, handwritten)

OR

Final Essay + Oral Exam

Class participation

Students are expected to actively engage in class discussions. Prepare carefully for each class session; complete all readings beforehand. Students should also submit their response paper on points of uncertainty to Canvas no later than 9:00 pm on the day before class.

Quizes

The course includes four short in-class quizzes (15 minutes each). All questions will come from material discussed in class. Make-up quizzes or exams are not given. Please plan accordingly. The lowest score of the quizzes will be dropped.

Schedule:

• Quiz 1: Monday, January 19
• Quiz 2: Wednesday, February 4
• Quiz 3: Monday, February 16
• Quiz 4: Wednesday, March 4

Final Evaluation

Each student may choose either to take in-class exam or to write an essay on a related topic.

• If choosing the exam: The exam will be a 60-minute, in-class, no-computer exam held on Wednesday, March 11. Students may prepare and bring one page of self-prepared notes to use during the exam.
• If choosing the essay: Students may select any topic from the class that interests them (in consultation with the instructor). The essay should synthesize the topics and methods studied in class to conduct an independent analysis of the chosen text or theme. Students who choose this option should begin considering paper topics early and discus their proposed subject with the instructor no later than Week 8 (Sunday), preferably with a rough draft. For the oral exam, students are expected to deliver a 5-minute presentation followed by an oral discussion of their project, and to submit a 6–8-page double-spaced annotated translation (not exceeding 8 pages). Due by March 13. The oral exam will be scheduled separately.

References

Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions [Second Edition] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).  

Rong Xinjiang, Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang, translated by Imre Galambos (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2013).

Peter F. Kornicki, Languages, Scripts, and Chinese Texts in East Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

Course Guidelines and Policies

Assignments: Late Work

All assignments should be submitted on Canvas by the end of the day they are listed on the syllabus. Submitting late work is strongly discouraged, but if you have extenuating circumstances, please contact me so we can discuss it. In general, late work that did not receive the instructor’s prior approval for late submission will be graded as follows:

• for 75% credit if submitted within 2 days after the listed due date;
• for 50% if submitted within 4 days after the listed due date;
• for 20% if submitted within 7 days after the listed due date;
• for 0% if submitted beyond these 7 days.

Academic Integrity

The University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121) defines prohibited academic and behavioral conduct and describes how the University holds students accountable as they pursue their academic goals. More information can be found online at: https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct/Links to an external site.

The University takes academic integrity very seriously. Academic integrity is part of your responsibility to our shared learning community. If you’re uncertain about whether something constitutes academic misconduct, don’t hesitate to ask me. I am willing to discuss any questions you might have.

Acts of academic misconduct may include but are not limited to:

• Cheating (working collaboratively on quizzes/exams and discussion submissions, sharing answers, and previewing quizzes/exams)
• Plagiarism (representing the work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original author(s))
• Unauthorized collaboration (working with each other on assignments)

Concerns about these or other behaviors prohibited by the Student Conduct Code will be referred to the appropriate campus office for investigation and resolution.

Access and Accommodations

Your experience in this class is important to me. The University of Washington is committed to creating 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.eduLinks to an external site..

Religious Accommodation

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 (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/Links to an external site.). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/Links to an external site.).

Technology

Please use electronic devices in class only to support your participation in class activities. Use of devices for other purposes (emailing, social media, etc.) may reduce your participation grade.

Use of large language model-based chatbots such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot can be fun and occasionally helpful, but regular use subverts the fundamental goals of this course, i.e. the development of your own knowledge and analytical skills. One of the main learning goals of this course is to acquire translation skills necessary to interpret passages in Classical Chinese -- a reliance on such large language models precludes the acquisition of those skills. Any use of such programs in work you submit for this course must be acknowledged, and is strongly discouraged. Unacknowledged use constitutes academic misconduct and will be dealt with as such.

Safety

Preventing violence is a shared responsibility in which everyone at the UW plays apart. Call SafeCampus at 206-685-7233 anytime – no matter where you work or study – to anonymously discuss safety and well-being concerns for yourself or others. SafeCampus’s team of caring professionals will provide individualized support, while discussing short- and long-term solutions and connecting you with additional resources when requested: www.washington.edu/safecampusLinks to an external site.

Sex- and Gender-based Violence, Harassment, and Discrimination

The UW, through  numerous policiesLinks to an external site., prohibits sex- and gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination and expects students, faculty, and staff to act professionally and respectfully in all work, learning, and research environments.

For support, resources, and reporting options related to sex- and gender-based violence, harassment, or discrimination, refer to the UW Title IX’s websiteLinks to an external site., specifically the Know Your Rights & ResourcesLinks to an external site. guide. Should you wish to make the Office of the Office of the Title IX Coordinator aware of a Title IX concern, visit the Make a Title IX ReportLinks to an external site. webpage. 

Please know that if you choose to disclose information to me about sex- or gender-based violence, harassment, or discrimination, I will connect you (or the person who experienced the conduct) with resources and individuals who can best provide support and options. You can also access additional resources directly:

• You can request anonymous support, from SafeCampus Links to an external site.
• You can request confidential support, from a confidential advocateLinks to an external site..
• If you know you want to submit a formal complaint, contact the Civil Rights Investigation OfficeLinks to an external site..

Please note that some senior leaders and other specified employees have been identified as Officials Required to Report .Links to an external site. If an Official Required to Report learns of possible sex- or gender-based violence, harassment, or discrimination they are required to contact the Office of the Title IX Coordinator and report all the details they have in order to ensure that the person who experienced harm is offered support and reporting options. 

Grade Conversion Chart (Percentages to 4.0)

General conversion principles (note that Canvas calculates grades to two decimal places. I round up grades that are within 0.1% of the higher cut-off: eg. 91.92 will be counted as 92 = 3.7):

4.0 – greater than or equal to 95

3.9 – between 94 (inclusive) and 95

3.8 – between 93 and 94

3.7 – 92-93

3.6 – 91-92

3.5 – 90-91

3.4 – 89-90

3.3 – 88-89

3.2 – 87-88

3.1 – 86-87

3.0 – 85-86

2.9 – 84-85

2.8 – 83-84

2.7 – 82-83

2.6 – 81-82

2.5 – 80-81

2.4 – 79-80

2.3 – 78-79

2.2 – 77-78

2.1 – 78-79

2.0 – 75-76

1.9 – 74-75

1.8 – 73-74

1.7 – 72-73

1.6 – 71-72

1.5 – 70-71

1.4 – 69-70

1.3 – 68-69

1.2 – 67-68

1.1 – 66-67

1.0 – 65-66

0.9 – 64-65

0.8 – 63-64

0.7 – 62-63

0.0 – less than 62

Course Schedule

Week 1 (Jan. 5 & 7)

Introduction: The Written Culture of Premodern East Asia

Context:

• Robert Darnton, “What Is the History of Books?” Daedalus No. 3 (1982), 65–83.
• Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 90–113.

Primary Sources:

• Shuihudi 睡虎地Tomb No. 4 Qin Manuscript: “Letters to Home from Army Scribal Assistants Heifu and Jing, April 223 BCE,” in The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China, 116–125.

Week 2 (Jan 12 & 14)

The Materiality of Writings: Tables, Index, and Information

Comparative Perspectives: Ancient China vs. Roman in Antiquity

Context:

• Costantino Moretti, “Scribal Errors and ‘Layout Genetics’ in Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts,” T’oung Pao 107, 3–4 (2021): 262–318.
• (optional) Joseph Howley, “Tables of Contents,” in Book Parts, eds., Dennis Duncan and Adam Smyth (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2019), 65–80.
• (optional) Matthias L. Richter, “Manuscript Formats and Textual Structure in Early China,” in Confucius and the Analects Revisited: New Perspectives on Composition, Dating, and Authorship, eds. Michael Hunter and Martin Kern (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2018), 187–217.

Primary Sources:

• (Korean) Paekche Buyeo Ssangbuk-ri 328-2.
• (Japanese) Ōsawa Taniuchi 209.
• (Japanese) Heijō-kyū ato SK19189.
• (Chinese, WS) The Tsinghua University Manuscript: *Suanbiao (Mathematic Table)
• (Chinese, Qin) Liye 12.2130a+12.2131a+16.1335a,
• (Chinese, Tang) Dunhuang S. 4569.

Week 3 (Jan 19 & 21)

Early China: Literature and Literacy

(Library Skills Workshop with Aubrey J Williams & Lucy Li)

Context:

• Owen, Stephen, “Introduction,” in The Making of Early Chinese Classical Poetry (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2006), 1–22.
• (optional) Martin Kern, “Methodological Reflections on the Analysis of Textual Variants and the Modes of Manuscript Production in Early China,” Journal of East Asian Archaeology 1–4 (2002): 143–181.

Primary Sources:

• “Guan Ju” 關雎 “Join, the Osprey” (Mao 1), “Huang Niao” 黃鳥 “Yellow Birds” (Mao 131), “Shuo Shu” 碩鼠“Big Rat” (Mao 113) in Shaughnessy’s “A First Reading of the Anhui University Bamboo-Slip Shi jing.”
• The Guodian 郭店 Chu Manuscript, *Laozi A 老子甲, slip 1–2 “絕智棄辨～少私寡欲,” in Cook’s The Bamboo Texts of Guodian, 225–230.

Week 4 (Jan 26 & 28)

Medieval China: Literature and Literacy

Context:

• Ronald Egan, “To Count Grains of Sand on the Ocean Floor: Changing Perceptions of Books and Learning in Song Dynasty China,” in Knowledge and Text Production in An Age of Print: China, 900-1400, edited by Lucille Chia and Hilde De Weerdt (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011), 33–62.
• (optional) Susan Cherniack, “Book Culture and Textual Transmission in Sung China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 1 (1994), 5–125.

Primary Sources:

• Li Qingzhao, “Afterword to Catalogue of Inscriptions on Metal and Stone,” in The Works of Li Qingzhao, 69-71, 73, 75, 79. (for Monday)
• Ou Yangxiu, “On the Family Shrine Stele of Tian Hongzheng of the Tang Dynasty” (for Wednesday)
• (optional) The Dunhuang “Qinfu yin” 秦婦吟 verses Manuscripts: S692, S5476, S5477, Nugent’s translation.

Week 5 (Feb 2 & 4)

Early China: Laws and Pragmatics

Context:

• Anthony Barbieri-Low, “The Instructions of Governor Teng, May 3, 227 BCE,” in The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China, 86–91.
• (optional) Ma Tsang Wing, “Scribes, Assistants, and the Materiality of Administrative Documents in Qin-Early Han China: Excavated Evidence from Liye, Shuihudi, and Zhangjiashan,” T’oung Pao 103, 4–5 (2017), 297–333.

Primary Sources:

• “The Eloping Lovers from Qi,” in “Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year,” Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China, Vol. 2, 1195–1201; “A Cunning Scribe Solves a Robbery and Attempted Murder,” 1394.

Week 6 (Feb 9 & 11)

Medieval China: Society and the World

Context:

• John Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 164–185.
• Tomas L. Høisæter, “Seals and Sealing Practices in the Kingdom of Kroraina,” in Saved from Desert Sands: Re-discovering Objects on the Silk Roads, edited by Kelsey Grange and Imre Galambos (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2024), 75–103.
• (optional) Valerie Hansen, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 1–16.

Primary Sources:

• Kharosthi wooden tablet HTB000405, “Deed of Divorce.”
• Dunhuang Divorce Document P.4525, in Hong Yue, “Divorce Practice in Late Medieval Dunhuang,” 37–38.
• (optional) The Imperial Order of 711(DH S. 11287A), in Wen, The King's Road, 20–23.

Week 7 (Feb 16 & 18)

Japan and Korea: Literature and Literacy

(Feb 18: Manuscript Viewing Session at the Tateuchi East Asia Library)

Context:

• Peter F. Kornicki, “Manuscripts up to 1600,” in The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 87–98.
• (optional) Burge, Marjorie, “Wooden Inscriptions and the Culture of Writing in Sabi Paekche,” Asian Perspectives1 (2019), 47–73.
• (optional) Elman, Benjamin, “One Classic and Two Classical Traditions: The Recovery and Transmission of a Lost Edition of the Analects,” Monumenta Nipponica1 (2009), 53–82.
• (optional) Zev Handel. “Chapter 5: Linear Adaption: Korean and Japanese,” in Chinese Characters Across Asian (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2025), 97–138.

Primary Sources:

• Nihon shoki II: 133–35 [Bidatsu 1/5/15], Nihon shoki I:371–73; Ōjin 15/8/6 and 16/2); Nihon shoki I:377; Ōjin 28/9, and Kojiki 266–68, in Lurie, Realms of Literacy, 105–114.
• “The Cult of the Book in Buddhism” in Lowe, Ritualized Writing, 3–6.

Week 8 (Feb 23 & 25)

Punctuation and Notation System

Context:

• Rens Krijgsman, “An Inquiry into the Formation of Readership in Early China: Using and Producing the *Yong yueand Yinshu Manuscripts”, T’oung Pao1–2 (2018), 2–65. 
• (optional) Imre Galambos, “Punctuation Marks in Medieval Chinese Manuscripts,” in Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field, ed. Jörg B. Quenzer, Dmitry Bondarev, and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 359–374.

Primary Sources:

• (In-class punctuation exercise) the Guodian “Five Conducts” and “The Great Unity Gives Birth to Water” manuscripts
• (optional) “The Nature of Kundoku” and “Chinese Texts and Genres”, in Lurie, Realms of Literacy, 175–180, 187–190.
• (optional) Introduction, 1.1, 1.2, and 5.1 How to Read okototen: The Example of the Baishi wenji 白氏文集[Collected Works of Bai Juyi], in Literary Sinitic in East Asia, 1–11, 54–58.

Week 9 (March 2 & 4)

Funerary Texts: Writing the Afterlives

Context:

• Jie Shi, “‘My Tomb Will Be Opened in Eight Hundred Years’: A New Way of Seeing the Afterlife in Six Dynasties China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies2 (2012), 217–257.
• (optional) Valerie Hansen, “Why Bury Contracts in Tombs?,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 8 (1995), 59–66.

Primary Sources:

• “Suffering, Impermanence, and No-Self” in John Strong, The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations (Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2008), 99–108.
• (optional) The Mawangdui 馬王堆 Han Manuscript: “Guiding and Pulling Chart” (導引圖 Dao yin tu).

Week 10-1 (March 9)

Epistolary Culture: Writing Intimacy

Context:

• Antje Richter, Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 3–72.
• (optional) David B. Lurie, “A World Dense with Writing,” in Realms of Literacy: Early Japan and the History of Writing (Harvard University Asia Center, 2011), 115–166.
• (optional) Charles Sanft, Literate Community in Early Imperial China: The Northwestern Frontier in Han Time(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019), 139–158.

Primary Sources:

• Shuihudi 睡虎地Tomb No. 4 Qin Manuscript: “Letters to Home from Army Scribal Assistants Heifu and Jing, April 223 BCE,” in The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China, 86–91.

Week 10-2 (March 11)

Student Presentation & Final Exam