History 206
History of East Asia
 Yoshistune and Benkei
Meiji-era print of Yoshitsune and Benkei admiring cherry blossoms

    This course will deal with the history of East Asia from the dawn of time to the present, focusing mostly on China and Japan. Rather than trying to cover every aspect of the evolution of East Asian societies from the dawn of time to the present we will look at various different ways that individuals in Asia have tried to adopt to and chage their world. The first part of the course will focus on the Chinese model, the set of questions and answers about human societies that were developed in China and adapted and modified throughout the rest of Chinese and Asian history. In the second part of the course we will focus on the modern transformation of Asia. This is a process that had a lot to do with the arrival of "westerners," but also a lot to do with trends that already existed in Asia. It also added a new set of personal choices on top of the old ones, and in many cases led to the creation of powerful states that would help you make these choices about your life. 

Professor Alan Baumler 222 Keith phone 7-2573 E-mail baumler@iup.edu Office Hours MWF 10:30-11:30. 1:00-2:00 http://www.chss.iup.edu/baumler/index.html

Books

Burton Watson, trans. Chuang Tzu. Columbia U.P. 1996
Paul Varley Warriors of Japan: As Portrayed in the War Tales. Hawaii U.P., 1994.
Johnathan Spence The Death of Woman Wang. Penguin, 1998
Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro Son of the Revolution. Vintage, 1983

It is very important that you keep up with the readings. This is a class that moves through a lot of history, much of it history that you will not be very familiar with. If you don't keep up you will not know what is going on. Also there may be quizzes on the readings.

1/10 The World of the Ancestors
The Shang created the first "state" in East Asia, although the Shang royal system was as much a warrior clan as a bureaucratic state. This week we will look at the family as the model unit of political and social organization.
-Oracle bones, shamanism and the Shang Kings
-The warring clan, the ancestors and the junzi
-The a-historical Asian family

Readings from Kishlansky, et al. (you should keep up with this every week)

1/19 The World of the Sage
With the decline of the Zhou a new class of experts and texts emerged. Moral excellence and technical skills became something that could be learned from books and teachers. This week we will look at both what these teachers taught and also the teacher-student relationship and meaning of schools.
-Sunzi, the experts and the creation of the classics, Confucius and bringing order to the universe.
-Zhuangzi and escape.

Analects
The Great Learning
Read Zhuangzi, entire

1/24 The World of the Court
The rulers of the Qin and Han transcended the old Shang family-state and created an Emperor and a court that were the center of the political and moral universe. We will look and the evolution of the court as the center of the elite world and the relationship between ruler and minister.
-Crossbows, irrigation and the Warring State
-Legalists, Qin and the Great Wall
-Han synthesis and the tribute system.

Read biographies of Lu Bowei and Li Si from Ssuma Qian Records of the Grand Historian

1/31 The World of the Buddha
Buddhism is the most important pan-Asian religion, and it spread quickly in part because it offered things that existing religions did not and in part because of its ability to adopt to local conditions.
-India and the no-world of the Buddha
-Zen, Pure Land and the Sinification of Buddhism
-Popular Buddhism and the monasteries.

Reading from Soho Machida Renagade Monk: Honen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. California U.P. 1999.

2/7 The World of Rivers and Streams
 In the Tang and Song periods a series of transformations in the economy and technology opened up new opportunities for those outside the elite. We will look at the nature of the Tang-Song transition and what we can learn about the lives of ordinary people during this period.
-Tang-Song transition and the new world of trade.
-World of print. Popular culture and the exams.
-Shi Jin and the world of the bandits.

Chapters 38 and 39 of Water Margin, from the Dent-Young translation

2/14 The World of the Kami
On the edges of China a series of  states made the transition from clan-based to imperial rule. This was the same transition that China had made, but the these other societies had the advantage of the Chinese example. In Japan in particular the system that developed was quite different from that in China.
-Vietnam , Korea, and shamanism.
-Japan and the uji.
-Heian and culture of the court.

Selections from the early Japanese chronicles from DeBarry, Sources of Japanese Tradition v.1
Selections from Sei Shonagon, Keene translation

Midterm (Take-home)

2/22 The World of the Samurai
Although the court and court culture remained important in Japan after the Heian period was the age of the Samurai. We will examine the rise of this class of people, the political structure they created and how they understood themselves.

-Kamakura and the Shoguns.
-Sengoku and the Daimyo.
-War tales and bushido

Read, Varley, Warriors of Japan: As Portrayed in the War Tales, entire; Selection from Yoshitsune (optional)

2/28 World of the Shi
Shi is a Chinese term which is usually translated as "gentry." From the Ming and Tokugawa periods China and Japan were dominated by a bureaucratic elite that ran society both formally through the state and informally through their economic and cultural positions.
-Exams and education, the class of shi.
-Shi without the state in the Qing and Tokugawa.
-Woman Wang

Read Spence The Death of Woman Wang, entire

3/7-3/12 Spring Break 

3/14 The World of the Southern Barbarians
Although foreigners had been coming to East Asia for centuries the period from 1400 on saw a great increase in the importance of maritime trade. We will examine the Chinese spread into the South Seas and above all the arrival and challenge of the Europeans.
-Junk trade and the South Seas
-Opium wars and the European empires
-Treaty ports and imitation foreign devils

Anthony Reid "Chinese Trade and Southeast Asian Economic Expansion in the Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: An Overview" From Cooke and Li, eds. Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750-1880.

3/21 World of the Revolutionaries
As the Europeans began colonizing Asia a series of revolutionaries tried to radically transform their societies. We will look at both the reformist revolutionaries of Japan and the Pan-Asian radicalism that produced communist parties across Asia.
-Meiji and the new Japan
-Sun Yat-sen and a new China
-Ho Chi Minh and Pan-Asian revolution.

Selections on Yoshida Shoin and Fukuzawa Yukichi, from DeBarry, Sources of Japanese Tradition v. 2
"Daughters of Annam" from Hue-Tam Ho Tai Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution.

3/28 World of the Peasants

There had always been peasants in Asia, but for the new national states they were a problem. How were millions of illiterate farmers to be transformed into modern citizens? We will look at how the elite attempted to do this and what the peasants thought of it.

-Peasants as a problem in China and Japan.
-Kokutai, peasants and militarism in Japan.
-Mao and peasant revolution in China.

Read Mao Dun, Mud; Pauline Keating "Getting Peasants Organized: Village Organizations and the Party-State in the Shaan Gan Ning Border Region, 1934-1945" from Feng and Goodman eds. North China at War: The Social Ecology of Revolution, 1937-1945. 

4/4 World at War
The Twentieth century was a century of war for most Asians. Starting with warlordism in China we will look at the impact of war on the Asian world, culminating in the Pacific War, which resulted in drastic changes for every nation in Asia.
-China under the Warlords
-Japanese Empire
-Pacific War and a New Asia

Readings from Cook and Cook Japan At War

4/11 The nation at  war with itself
The early revolutionaries were as likely to use education as force to reform the people. Both in Japan and China totalitarian attempts to remake the people had dramatic, and mostly bad, effects.
-Militarism and pacifism in Japan
-Mao's China
-Cultural Revolution

Read Heng and Shapiro Son of the Revolution

4/18 World of the Salriman
Since 1945 a series of Asian economies have taken off, starting with Japan. We will examine both why this happened and what it has meant for the lives of people in Asia.
-Japan in the age of MITI
-Deng Xiaoping's China
-Awful pop music and Jackie Chan

Readings from Watson ed. McDonalds in East Asia

Final Exam

Grades
Zhuangzi paper 150 points
Other paper 150 points
Mid-term and Final 250 points each
Quizzes 200 points

900-1000 pts A
800-899 pts B
700-799 pts C
600-699 pts D
500-599 pts F

Papers
Each of you will write a paper on Zhuangzi . Each of you will also write one other paper on either Varley or Spence. If you like you may also write a paper on Heng and Shapiro and keep the highest two grades.
Exams
There will be two exams, a mid-term and a non-cumulative final. The exam questions will be pretty much the same questions that are on the syllabus. Note that to write a good exam answer you need to be able to answer question thoroughly and give examples to support your points.
Quizzes
Anything else you do for this class is part of your quiz grade. This includes the map tests, in-class writing assignments and quizzes, and the various small writing assignments you may be asked to do.
Attendance policy-- You are expected to come to class every day, but the point is not just to come to class, but to come having done your reading and being ready to talk about it.
Academic dishonesty-- All students are required to abide by the University's policies on Academic Integrity, as found in the catalogue.

INTASC standards

    In addition to your grades, those of you in Social Studies Ed will also be assessed on your mastery of the INTASC standards. I will assess 2 of your assignments and record (on a special web page in URSA provided for this purpose) if you have not met, met or exceeded expectations for the standard.  These assesments will not effect your GPA, your graduation or your certification.

Conceptual Framework

INTASC Standards

Program Objectives

Course Objectives

Course Assessments [Underlined items are the selected key assessment(s)]

Planning and Preparation

 

Time, Continuity, and Change

Discuss developments in China and Japan.

 

Examine developments in Chinese and Japanese societies over time.

Quizzes,  papers, mid-term, Final Exam

 

 

Science, Technology and Society

Make judgments about how scientific and technological developments shaped

Chinese and Japanese societies.

Quizzes,  papers, mid-term, Final Exam

 

Spring 2005