HONORS CORE
Spring 2009
 
A Gu Indeed!: Three dynasties ritual vessels and understanding Chinese history
                                                                                                                                                                                   
We will be looking at one particular type of thing (bronze ritual vessels) and how people have used them to understand Chinese society. Some of these people were ancient Chinese, some of them are modern people who call themselves historians, classicists, archaeologists or art historians. All of them have different sorts of questions to ask and different sorts of evidence they prefer. You should be able to understand the scholarly world we are looking at and be able to participate in it by asking and answering worthwhile questions.
 
Book:
 
Chang, K. C. Art, Myth and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China. Harvard University Press, 1988.
 There are also various other readings, mostly articles and book chapters. All of these are available on e-reserve, and I will also distribute them on the first day of class.
 
Instructor:
Alan Baumler                                                            Office Hours:
216 Keith Hall                                                              MWF               1:15-2:15
Baumler@iup.edu                                                       T-Th                          12:30-1:30
X 4066
 
Assignments:
Unit Papers: This is a well-developed, persuasive paper designed to present your thinking on a topic related to the class. You will be graded on your ability to create and refine a good topic, your ability to organize an argument and support it with evidence, and your writing.
 
Journals.  A good journal entry has two parts: one, a clear explanation of the argument the reading is making and the main reasons and evidence offered in support and two, your critical response. Some days we may have more than one reading, and you a free to focus on only one of them if you wish.   
 
New York Times Journal Entries.  You are expected to hand in a NYT entry every TUESDAY.  These are in addition to any other journal entry that may be assigned.
 
You must have your journal entry reading to hand in as you ENTER class. You only have to do 15 journal entries, although there are 17 days of reading. You only have to do 4 NYT journals.
 
Grades:
Thesis paper:                          45%
Journals:                                 20%
Participation:                           15%
Peer Editing:                           10%
Presentation                            10%
 
 
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
 
SPRING 2009 UNIT C
 
 
DATE 		 
TOPIC/READING 		 
ASSIGNMENTS DUE
Monday
12 Jan 		Introduction to Art: Great Hall  
Tuesday
13 Jan 		Introduction to unit Journal Essay due on the presentation
Thursday
15 Jan 		Historical Background  Lu Liancheng and Yan Wenming “Society during the Three Dynasties” from Kwang-chih Chang et. al. The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archeological Perspective Yale, 2005 Journal Essay due
Friday
16 Jan 		Wyatt, James “The Bronze Age and the First Empires” From Wen Fong, et. al. Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum Taipei 1996 Journal Essay due
Tuesday
20 Jan 		Chang, K. C. Art, Myth and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China. Harvard University Press, 1988. Journal Essay due
Thursday
22 Jan 		Chang, part 2 Journal Essay due
Friday
23 Jan 		”The Shang Kings at Anyang” from Thorp, Robert L. China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Journal Essay due
Monday
26 Jan 		How they (Ancient Chinese) understood Bronzes
-Keightley, David “The Science of the Ancestors: Divination, Curing and Bronze-Casting in Late Shang China”
-Selections from the Book of Songs    		Journal Essay due
Tuesday
27 Jan 		-Xunzi 19 & 10 and Lu Buwei 5
-Alt, Wayne. “Ritual and the Social Construction of Sacred Artifacts: An Analysis of Analects 6.25” Philosophy East and West Volume 55, Number 3, July 2005, pp. 461-469 		Journal Essay due
Thursday
29 Jan 		-Puett, Michael “Humans and Gods: The Theme of Self-Divination in Early China and Early Greece” From Shankman, Steven, and Stephen W. Durrant. Early China/Ancient Greece: Thinking Through Comparisons. State University of New York Press, 2002.
-“The Natural Philosophy of Writing” from Lewis, Mark Edward. Writing and Authority in Early China. SUNY Press, 2007. 		Journal Essay due
Friday
20 Jan 		Bronzes as Art
-Sarah Allan “Art and Meaning” and Robert Bagley “Meaning and Explanation”  both from  Whitfield, Roderick. The Problem of Meaning in Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes. Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1993.  		Journal Essay  due
Monday
2 Feb 		 What is the Taotie?
-Li, Rawson, Xiong and Wang, all from Whitfield, Roderick. The Problem of Meaning in Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes. Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1993
-Kesner, Ladislav. “The Taotie Reconsidered: Meanings and Functions of the Shang Theriomorphic Imagery.” Artibus Asiae 51, no. 1/2 (1991): 29-53.   		Journal Essay Due
Tuesday
3 Feb 		Wu Hung “The Nine Tripods and Traditional Chinese Concepts of Monumentality” from Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture. Stanford University Press, 1997. Journal Essay Due
Thursday
5 Feb 		Picture day. Slide lecture on bronzes and how to understand them (these will be student presentations that we will talk about later.) Presentations (these are part of your participation grade.)
Friday
6 Feb 		Picture day 2  
Monday
9 Feb 		Bronzes as technology
Li Liu “The Products of Minds as Well as of Hands”: Production of Prestige Goods in the Neolithic and Early State Periods of China
-“Casting Bronze the Complicated Way” Ledderose, Lothar. Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art. Princeton University Press, 2001. 		Journal Essay due
Tuesday
10 Feb 		How bronzes show social change
“Ethnic Contrasts” and “E. Zhou religious change” Falkenhausen, Lothar Von. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (Monumenta Archaeologica). Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2006.   		Journal Essay due
Thursday
12 Feb 		-“Western Zhou Archeology” by Jessica Rawson. From CHOAC Journal Essay due
Friday
13 Feb 		-“Disorder and Decline: The Political Crisis” From Feng, Li. Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Journal Essay due
Monday
16 Feb 		“The Household” from Lewis, Mark Edward. The Construction of Space in Early China. State University of New York Press, 2006. Journal Essay due
Tuesday
17 Feb 		“Things of the past” from Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. University of Hawaii Press, 2004. Journal Essay due
Thursday
19 Feb 		Paper swap Bring 3 copies of your paper
Friday
20 Feb 		Edit  
Monday
23 Feb 		Revisions due  
Tuesday
24 Feb 		Conferences
  		 
Thursday
Feb 26 		2 Presentations  
Friday
Feb 27 		2 Presentations  
Friday
9 March 		1 Presentation