Fall 2009

ANS 301M • History of East Asia to 1800

Course Description

A lower-division lecture-and-discussion course on the history and culture of East Asia in pre-modern times, focusing on China and Japan but touching also on Korean and Vietnam. Objectives of the course include the following: (1) To introduce the student to the principal cultural elements of East Asian civilization in traditional times (e.g., the ideographic script, Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism); that is, what constitutes "East Asia" and makes it distinctively different from other parts of Asia and the world? (2) To trace the evolution over time of this East Asian civilization. Where did this civilization begin, and how did it change temporally as it spread spatially across present-day East Asia? (3) To point out the substantial differences as well as the many similarities among the four national cultures of East Asia. How were (and are) the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Koreans, and the Japanese different from, but also similar to, each other at various points in time? (4) To examine some of the ways historians study and write about the past. What kinds of questions do they ask? How do they find the answers to those questions? How do they present their findings?

Grading Policy

Grades will be based on in-class and take-home (essay-type) tests, homework assignments

Texts

Conrad Schirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations, 2nd ed. (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989), of which you will read the first half. Other readings: TBA

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