Spring

This class will explore three sets of paired authors from ancient China and Greece: Herodotus/Sima Qian; Plato/Confucius; Homer/Book of Songs. Topics will include genre, authorship, style, cultural identity, and translation, as well as the historical practice of Greece/China comparative work.

After a general survey of local and oral history studies in 20th century Chinese history, students will examine secondary scholarly literature and primary documents from three ongoing local rural history research projects (a country history, a regional history and a village history). Documents including transcripts of oral interviews and individual life histories, local gazetteers, memorials, edicts, biographies, social surveys, household registrations, essays, and recent county histories. Some of these Chinese documents have English language translations appended. Students will examine two oral history cases studies in detail.

Peking opera (jingju) is the one nationally prominent form of traditional performing arts in China. This course will introduce concepts and methods that can be applied to the study of Peking opera. Emphasis will be put on understanding artistic elements essential to the living tradition of performance - the visual aspects including stylized stage gesture and movement, sets and costumes, and colors; the music and oral transmission. Topics for discussion include "realism", alienation, time and space, connoisseurship, and film. Students will not only engage with scholarly literature that cuts across different disciplines, but also be introduced to a rich body of sources ranging from gramophone recordings, to photographs, opera films and documentaries. Motivated students will also learn some basics of singing and moves. Field trips to Chinese community Peking opera troupes may be arranged. Mandarin a plus but not a prerequisite.

This course surveys major areas of study in the Chinese landscape painting tradition, focusing on the history of its pictorial representation during pre-modern eras. Format will be primarily class discussion following a series of lectures. Areas for consideration may include: first emergence and subsequent developments of the genre in court and literati arenas; landscape aesthetics and theoretical foundations; major attributed works in relation to archaeological evidence. Emphasis is on artistic options and the exercise of choice within the context of social, political, religious, and economic forces. Students are expected to gain skills in formal analysis through looking with reading, and a critical perspective on the processes of art historical placement and interpretation based on assigned readings in secondary literature.

This course is part of a three-quarter sequence on the civilizations of China, Japan, and Korea or Viet Nam, with emphasis on major transformation in these cultures and societies from the Middle Ages to the present. Taking these courses in sequence is not required. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.

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.

This quarter we will focus on reading selected tales from Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋誌異, Pu Songling’s 蒲松齡seventeenth-century masterpiece, using Zhang Youhe’s 張友鶴variorum edition Liaozhai zhiyi huijiao huizhu huiping ben 聊齋誌異會校會注會評本alongside the nineteenth-century glossaries and pingdian 評點commentaries included. Problems to be addressed include how to deal with allusions (diangu) and engage with period/ individual style in literary Chinese.  We will work on not only understanding the meaning of the text but also on producing stage by stage polished English translations. This will culminate in a class anthology of our final translations. The course meets remotely Mon/Wed 11:30-12:50 PM.

E-versions of tales we select for translation in class will be available on canvas.

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.

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

In KORE 21300, students will learn basic principles, methods, and techniques in translation and apply appropriate strategies and methods to the practice and description of translation. Students will watch pre- recorded lecture videos, complete their weekly translation assignments (Korean to English and English to Korean), and participate in group or individual sessions to discuss their translation works. Students will also choose a literary work or a text of their own choice for their final translation project. The materials covered in this class include medical guidelines, campaign flyers, newspaper articles, reports, brochures, resume, business/academic emails, and editorials.