EALC

This course examines the politics, society, and culture of East Asia from ancient times until c. 1600.  Our focus will be on examining key historical moments and intellectual, social, and cultural trends with an emphasis on the region as a whole. Students will read and discuss culturally significant texts, and be introduced to various approaches to analyzing them.

The Aynu indigenous peoples of Japan have an extensive collection of oral tales that have been collected over the past century. In this course we will read and translate (from Japanese and Aynu originals) into English, various examples of Aynu oral literature. The selections range from everyday tales in the Uwepeker(Talking Tales) genre to the sacred songs of the Aynu Yukar.  Reading ability in Japanese is required.

This graduate seminar confronts the challenges of writing history from the bottom up. Although the syllabus engages heavily with the debates launched by the Subaltern Studies collective, our investigation will not be bounded by any specific regional or temporal focus. Students should feel free to experiment beyond their usual comfort zone in both terms of writing style and or topic. We will consider the theoretical legacies and challenges of postcolonial history writing, the linguistic turn, subaltern studies, and microhistory. The course pays special attention to different ways to grapple with sources and the construction of diverse archives.

This course investigates literary and visual strategies in China through which material objects are depicted and animated. Our emphasis will be on reading primary sources and viewing real objects (online) up through the 18th century,  but we’ll also incorporate approaches from anthropology, the history of material culture and technology, literary theory, and art history in a comparative context.  Genres to be covered include the ode on things, the it-biography, tales of the strange, the vernacular novel, handbooks for connoisseurs and collectors, paintings and illustrated books. Students will be guided throughout the term to produce a final research paper. This may take the form of a cultural biography of a real object or class of objects; it could be a study of how objects are depicted in fiction or drama, in painting or a specific site; it could investigate how objects are treated in the antiquarian scholarly tradition, or become a form of obsessive collecting; or how they work in religious worship, commerce, or global exchange, but there are many other possibilities. All readings will be available in English. Some previous background in Chinese literature, history, or art history would be helpful but is not required.

The Foshuo guanwuliangshoufojing shuji 佛說觀無量壽佛經疏妙宗鈔 (known for short as the Guanjingmiaozongchao or Miaozongchao) was written by the great Tiantai thinker Siming Zhili 四明智禮 (960-1028) in 1021. For the previous 20 years, Zhili had been the main spokesman and theoretician of the Shanjia (“Home Mountain”) faction in the heated doctrinal debates with the Shanwai (“Off Mountain”) faction of the Tiantai school, and this work brought those controversies to a new fever pitch, making the most radical of the Shanjia doctrinal claims aggressively and provocatively clear.  Among these positions, the Shanjia ideas of “the ultimate dung beetle” 究竟蛣蜣and “all that exists is mind alone, but also matter alone” 唯心唯色 aroused perhaps the fiercest opposition, but the contentions concerning the nature and relations of the Three Bodies of the Buddha (trikaya) with respect to Amitabha Buddha in this subcommentary to a Pure Land sutra were also highly inflammatory, and a Shanwai attack soon followed. Zhili’s disciple Jingjue Renyue淨覺仁岳 (992-1064), his ablest and most ferocious attack dog during much of the previous 20 years of debate, quickly wrote a closely argued defense.   But soon thereafter, Renyue suddenly reversed his position, turning against many of the key Shanjia positions that he himself had so powerfully defended in years past, writing increasingly virulent polemics against his former teacher, thereby initiating the final phase of the Shanjia-Shanwai debate—now between Zhili and his former heir apparent. This class will be a close reading of the key texts in this debate: the Miaozongchao itself and Renyue’s defense and subsequent attack of that text. All readings will be in classical Chinese, reading proficiency in which is a prerequisite for this course. Some familiarity with Buddhist Chinese and theory is also highly recommended. Discussion will be in English. Prerequisites: Strong reading proficiency in Classical Chinese required. Previous knowledge of Buddhism and some experience with Buddhist Chinese is recommended.

Equivalent course(s): DVPR 40450, HREL 40450

From the earliest centuries of the common era until the 1870s, Japanese writers, artists, and scholars considered themselves to be living in the Sinosphere: the realm of China’s cultural and political centrality. Starting with a consideration of Chinese material culture in the Tale of Genji, we will proceed to address topics such as the relation between Chinese and Japanese handscroll paintings, the spread of Chinese-style ink monochrome painting in Japan, the rise of the Kano school as official painters and Chinese-style painting experts, and the immense popularity of literati painting and calligraphy. Korean painting’s intersection with Chinese and Japanese art in the medieval and early modern periods will also factor into the discussion. We will evaluate the changing dynamics around political power and gender embodied in the Chinese/Japanese oppositional duality and reassess the prevailing narratives concerning how the Sinosphere faded from view in the Meiji era.

A reading of the Yijing, its commentaries, and the uses to which it is put in Confucianist, Daoist and Buddhist traditions.

This year we will read ritual texts from the Dunhuang cache –yuanwen, zhaiwen, huanwen, etc– in the context of relevant archaeological finds.

The late-nineteenth century saw the transformation of cities around the world as a result of urbanization, industrialization, migration, and the rise of public health. This course will take a spatial history approach; that is, we will explore the transformation of London, Tokyo, and New York over the course of the nineteenth century by focusing on the material "space" of the city. For example, where did new immigrants settle and why? Why were there higher rates of infectious disease in some areas than in others? How did new forms of public transportation shape the ability to move around the city, rendering some areas more central than others? To explore questions such as these, students will be introduced to ArcGIS in four lab sessions and asked to develop an original research project that integrates maps produced in Arc. No prior ArcGIS experience is necessary, although students will be expected to have familiarity with Microsoft Excel and a willingness to experiment with digital methods. Assignments: Discussion posts, homework (mapping), and a final research project.

This class explores the history and cultural life of Beijing from the Yuan dynasty to the present. First, in what ways did the city develop over the course of the past millennium and how did the material space of the city impact people’s daily life? Using materials from archaeology and architecture, we will track the permutation of the city plan, the process of construction and destruction, and the social and cultural life of urban residents. Second, how was Beijing experienced, understood, and represented in varied literary and art forms from the imperial period to today? Through literature (Lao She, Lin Yutang), art (Xu Bing, Song Dong.), and film (directed by Chen Kaige, Jia Zhangke, Guan Hu) that features Beijing and its people, we will study the city not only as an imagined site of remembrance and nostalgia, but also a political site constructing cultural identities and reflecting social conflicts. This class has a Language across the Curriculum section, and we will read selected novels and poems on Beijing.   Open to MAPH students but not PhD students.