Fall 2005

ANS 372 • 7-Chinese Thought and Culture

Course Description

In this course we examine major thought systems and cultural patterns that have had a lasting impact on Chinese society throughout its history. Topics to cover include ancestor worship, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucian thought (lixue). We will pay close attention to changing social and cultural patterns, including kinship and family, women's roles, and education. Throughout the course we will correlate intellectual and cultural developments with changes in material culture. Towards the end of the class we will examine the persistence of "traditional" culture in the modern era.

Texts

De Bary, Wm. Theodore and Irene Bloom, comp. Sources of Chinese Tradition. Volume 1. 2nd edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999-2000. Graham, A. C. Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1989. Gregory, Peter. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002. Kohn, Livia. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993. Thompson, Laurence G. Chinese Religion: An Introduction. 5th edition. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1996. Many of the readings for the course will be contained in a course packet.

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