Oct31st/Nov1st Discussion Sections

Discussion sections on the 31st of October and November 1st will be focused on the paper. In other words, we won't be going over the material in the lecture. It's an optional section. However, you are still responsible for following the paper guidelines which I will post on the blog. If you do come to next week, you might want to think about brining your sourcebook and about possible topics you might do so that we can talk about them in class. Bring any questions you might have as well about the assignment.

Discussion Section for Next Week

Discussion sections on the 31st of October and November 1st will be focused on the paper. In other words, we won't be going over the material in the lecture. It's an optional section. However, you are still responsible for following the paper guidelines which I will post on the blog.

If you do come to next week, bring your sourcebook (or if you haven't printed it out bring some of the readings you think you might use). Also, think about possible topics you might do so that we can talk about them in class. Bring any questions you might have as well about the assignment.

Information Unable to Cover in Discussion Section

In Tuesdays discussion section I wasn't able to get through everything. I imagine it will be the same for my Wedensday section so I am posting what I didn't get through. I will update it later if there is other information I'm not able to get through in my Wednsday section.

Basically, we got all the way up to Ashoka. What's important about Ashoka is that he conguored a lot of what is now India (except the south) and used Buddhism to try and rule. He put up lots of pillars exhorting people to follow Buddhist morality and on some he explained that this was because he felt bad after killing a lot of people in the Kalinga war. However, it seems like he also used Buddhism to encourage people in his country to be peaceful, most notably the forest tribes. Even though he conquored a lot, there were places inside his empire's borders where there was resistance, so he hoped to use Buddhism to end that resistance. He also used Buddhism to strengthen his foreign policy (he sent Buddhist missionaries to Thailand and Burma). Going back to the pillars he had them inscribed in various languages so as to reach as wide a group of people as possible as his empire included people who spoke many different languages.

Professor Harlow actually goes through this pretty clearly in the notes so I dont' think I need to add anything more. One last thing, in section A3 (the page after the Ashoka page) there is some information on the four objectives of humanity. I want to stress that it is possible to follow more than one objective at a time. For example, a householder should work for wealth and power but is still allowed some kama. Students however should focus on dharma and not be distracted by kama.

Good luck on the test!

Lost Text and Binder

If you forgot your text and notes in discussion they have been found. Please contact me if you are the person who lost them.

Student email

A student just emailed me saying that finding the facts that we need to know for the course isn't too hard but that she was having difficulty finding the overall themes from which essay questions could be chosen. Here is my reply:

I'll give you some hints on finding the themes and then give you a couple. For finding the themes you want to look closely over the introductions that Professor Harlow has provided on the course notes. Remember at the beginning how we had the long discussion on what makes up Asia and all that? There are courses notes on that and some questions might be pulled from there about how we define Asia. Each topics 1 and 2 have short introductions in the notes and each chapter in the sourcebook has introductions. Professor Harlow wrote those so there is a good chance you will find themese from there. Topic 3 doesn't have an introductory paragraph but it does have that chart comparing India and China. Make sure you understand that (if you have trouble just bring the questions to the review session). Then look through your notes. If you see ideas that are stressed in lecture and then again in discussion, there is a good chance that those are important themes.here are some examples

1) Buddha as hillbilly and rabble rouser, what does this mean, what does it say about Buddhism and about the people who first became Buddhists

2) India, China and writing history, Chinese tended to see politics as very important and history as a way to become moral and to act in a politically effective way whereas Indians tended to stress otherworldly religious ideas. Therefore we have a bunch of early Chinese history and not so much Indian history (and a lot of the early stuff is by non-Indians!).

3) look at the whole thing about memory and history, when do we have history? also, what happens when we have writing that we can't read (Indus Valley)

Topic 3B and Review

It looks like we won't really get into topic 3B before the midterm. If it's mentioned in lecture on Thursday though, it is fair game for the test. In any case, you most likely won't need to work on the reading guide for 3B until after the midterm.

The review session will be on this coming Tuesday in Buchanan B. It will either be in room 318, 320, or 322. It will start at 7pm. It's hard to say an ending time. I said 9pm in discussion, but that's just a guess. It might end as early as 8:30 or so. It shouldn't go much longer than 9 because I'll be getting really tired by then! Basically, what I'm saying is that the beginning time is fixed but the ending time isn't. Bring questions and lecture notes.

Topic 3B China

I don't think we will complete 3B for the test. Whatever we get up to in class is as far as we will go in the midterm. I'm not sure how far we will get so I am putting up the whole reading guide.

Reading Guide 3B China
97-109
How did the Qin state under Qin Shi unite China?
What sort of changes did Qin rule bring in terms of status and economics? What measures were used to unite China?
What kind of people was Qin Shi afraid of and how did he deal with them?
Who is Li Si? What philosophy did he follow and how did it influence the Qin Empire?
What are some of the reasons the Qin Empire is remembered poorly? What are some of its accomplishments?
How did the Qin empire fall?
Who is Liu Bang and what is he famous for?
How did was the Han dynasty similar and different from the Qin?
What was the role of Confucianism in the Han dynasty?
How was the Han dynasty viewed by later Chinese dynasties?
Who is Wu Di? What was his reign like?
What was the Silk Road?
How were China and Rome linked?
Look at the map on page 103. Why does the Han Empire have such a strange shape?
What sort of trade patterns emerged among the various empires in Europe and Asia?
How did the Han dynasty use exams to staff government posts? What effect did this have on Chinese politics?
Who is Wang Mang?
What is primogeniture? What problem did large landowners cause the government?
What is the Later Han and what is the Former Han? How did the Later Han re-establish Former Han’s glory?
Why did the Han dynasty fall?
Who are Ban Zhao and Ban Gu?
What were some of the Han dynasty’s achievements?

Sourcebook
China of the Ch’in and Han Dynasties

Ch’in Dynasty

The first Emperor Unifies China
How does the Qin emperor legitimize his conquest?
Why doesn’t the Qin emperor appoint kings to help him rule? What does he do instead?

The Great Wall
How big of a project was the Great Wall?

Edicts of an Emperor
Order
Why is the eclipse of the son important? What does it mean?
How are the king’s actions related to keeping order?

Agriculture
Why is the tax abolished?

Punishments
What are some of the punishments that are abolished? Why are they abolished?

The problem of the barbarian frontier
Why are the barbarians difficult to fight?
Why do the Chinese look down on the barbarians?

The trials of the Han in the far west
How are soldiers punished? What happened here and how is it being dealt with?

A mock contract between a slave and his master
What sort of joke is played on the slave?

Male favorites of the emperors?
How did males gain the favor of the emperor? What sorts of problems did they cause?

A remarkable empress
Why is the empress so remarkable?

Review Session

Our midterm will be in class on October 26th. Therefore, we will be having an optional review session on October 24th at 7pm. Because we don't have an official room, the session will be in either Buchanan B318, 320, or 322. I have listed several rooms because there is always a chance someone will be occupying one. It will be in one of those three. The session will probably last until about 9 or so. Bring the notes you print out from webct. We will review by going through those. If you have any other questions (such as from the reading guide), bring those as well.

I have had some students ask about how to study. I think you want to first start with the notes you took at lecture and the notes you print out at webct. Make sure you know all the terms and why they are important. Pay special attention to the introductions professor Harlow has written as that will give you a clue to what the essay questions will be about. If you have time after doing that than look over your notes from discussion section. Then, look at the reading guides and make sure you can answer those questions. If you really have lots of time, you might want to reread the assigned readings.

For our discussion sections next week you can ask specific questions if you have them. If there aren't questions than I will quickly review the material that we have not yet had time to go over. If there are things that I wanted us to go over but we weren't able to go over in discussion I will post them on the blog, hopefully by Tuesday, but by Wednesday early evening at the latest.

Good luck on the test!

Make Your Comments

We are around the halfway point of the semester and so it's a good time to reflect on class and see what we can do to improve things in our discussion section. If you have any suggestions on how to improve discussion or the blog please make a comment here. You can do it anonymously. Enjoy the weekend!

Reading Guide for Topic 3A India

Reading Guide Topic 3A India

72-79
How did agriculture lead to the formation of states?
What does it mean that 326 BCE is the first “certain date in Indian history” (72)
What influence did the Greeks have on India? What influence did India have on Greece?
Why do we know little of Indian history before the Mauryan dynasty? Where do some of our earliest sources for information on Indian history come from?
What were some of the accomplishments of the Mauryan dynasty under Chandragupta?
Why was Ashoka considered a great king? How did he spread Buddhism and Indian culture to other parts of the world? How did Buddhism affect the way he ruled his state?
Who were the Kushans? What does it mean to say they became “Indianized”? (77)Who is said to have established a Christian community in India?
What caused the north-south divide in India?

Sourebook

Early State and Society
What is the relationship between morality and power?
How are Indian and Chinese ideas of morality and political unity similar and different?

Megasthenes Describes India
Society
How does Megasthenes present the caste system in India?

The King
What sort of life does the king lead according to Megathenes?
Does the description of his life seem plausible?

Philosophers
What sort of life do the Brahmans lead according to Megasthenes?

King Ashoka’s dharma
(rock edict 13, pillar edict 7, and rock edict 1)
How does Ashoka explain his turning to Buddhism?How does he use Buddhism to rule?

Statecraft

The King
Kautilya, Arthashastra, 1.19.29-36
What kind of advice is the king given?
How is the economy viewed?

Kautilya, Arthashastra, 7.5.19-27
What are some of the things a king must do?
What does impoverishment cause?

Spies
How are religious beliefs used in order to make effective spies? What does this say about how the author views religion?

Papers

Papers are due this Friday. I'll be looking at rough drafts on Wednesday. Make sure that you have read the assignment sheet and the supplementary guidelines closely. I've had been asked several questions already that were covered in those documents. Make sure you read them both cloesly!

Discussion for Oct 10th/11th

For discussion next week we will be talking about Hinduism and Buddhism. Don't forget papers are due on the 13th!

Reading Guide for Topic 2B China

Topic 2B China

Textbook 30-33
Confucianism
Did Confucius ever hold official political positions?
How did Confucius want to solve the difficulties society faced during his lifetime?
What did Confucius think about law?
What did Confucius think about human nature? How did this relate to education?
How do the natural world and human world relate to each other in Confucianism?
Why in Confucianism are sons so important?

There are also some problems in Murphey:
“Confucianism has its temples too, monuments to the doctrine, though it lacks a prescribed ritual or organized priesthood; for those things, Confucianists turn elsewhere.” (30)

Considering that one of the five classics is the “Book of Rituals” and that Confucius thought that proper ritual (especially the rituals of the Zhou dynasty) this statement seems incorrect. Confucianism also does have a sort of priesthood in that adult educated men are generally the ones who perform rituals. In addition, at least in Korea, there were massive fights about how to properly perform Confucian rituals. The temples are often monuments to certain Confucianists, including Confucius himself and offerings are made to their spirits.

This brings up another issue, the question of whether Confucianism is a religion or philosophy. Considering that in its earliest forms it held a rather anthropomorphic view of Heaven and involved rituals to feed deceased ancestors it fits even the most basic definitions of a religion. One UBC professor, Edward Slingerland, in his translations of the Analects simply calls Confucianism a religion.

31 “These are still notably Chinese values, and the culture built around them has attracted the admiration of successive generations of Western observers, who approach it from the perspective of their own more somber and more theological religious and social tradition with its overtones of original sin, guilt, retribution, and divine judgement.”

There are several problems with this. I don’t see how there can’t be guilt in Confucianism. Guilt arises when we fail to do something we know we should do. Because of Confucianism’s strict rules everyone will fail at times to follow them and so there will be guilt. There are also ideas of retribution and a sort of divine judgement in the belief that Heaven will punish evil people (or at least their descendents).

In addition Confucius did not live during the Warring States period, but during the Spring and Autumn Period. Murphey does not differentiate between the two strongly enough.

Finally, I should point out that Confucianism seems pretty much like a religion to me. It involves rituals performed to feed dead ancestors. While people later on maybe said that they didn’t really need to eat or didn’t even believe in ancestors, they were departing from the

Daoism 33-34
Can the Dao be described? Why or why not?
Who was Laozi? What happened to him?
Why is water important to Daoists?
What is the story of Zhuangzi and the butterfly? What does it mean?
What happened when Daoism developed a mass following?
How does Daoism relate Chinese medicine?

Sourcebook

Confucius: the Analects

Humanity
What does it mean to have the virtue of humanity?
What is the relationship between being human and being a person of humanity?

Filial Piety
Why is filial piety so important? Why could it be consideration the foundation of virtue?
Why do you think Confucius said that when people have spare energy they should study literature and art?

Education
What is the relationship between thinking and education?
What does Confucius mean about how someone should be able to give him three corners if he gives them one?
How does Confucius rank people in terms of knowledge and education?

State and Government
What is the difference between ruling with law and punishment and ruling with virtue and propriety?

Women
From this passage, how does it seem that Confucius viewed women?

Mencius

Equality
Why does Mencius stress the importance of environmental factors and then say “The sage and we are the same in kind”?

Filial Piety, Respect, Reciprocity and the State
How do we help others to be good, according to this passage?

Hsun Tsu (Hsun Tsu was a Confucian though he disagrees with some of the things we usually see as being part of Confucianism. Some of his disciples, including Han Fei, would becoming leading members of the Legalist school, which stressed law and punishments stressed the negative aspects of human nature. The Legalists were important during the Qin dynasty, but the horrors of that time hurt the popularity of that school of thought and helped lead to the rise of state Confucianism during the Han dynasty)

Human nature
How does Hsun Tsu view human nature and desires?
How does Hsun Tsu disagree with Mencius?

Taoism
Notice how different the two translations are. What does this say about the difficulty in translating old Chinese texts?
How is paradox used to explain what cannot be explained?
What do you think the doctrine of taking no action (無為)means? (#2)
In #3 why are the people kept in ignorance? How does this differ from Confucianism?

Chuang Tzu
Why does Chuang Tzu want to drag his tail in the mud?
Why doesn’t Chuang Tzu mourn his wife’s death?

Legalism

Selecting Subordinates
What are the dangers of choosing bad subordinates?
Why is punishment so important?

The Villainous Strategies of Ministers
Why does Han Fei bother to categorize villainous strategies in this way?

Music
Music is Joy
Why is music so important?

Sourcebook

Professor Harlow has fixed the problems with the sourcebook. You should now be able to access it without any problems. If there are any problems, please let me know either at class or through email.

Paper Guidlines

I am posting the handout on the paper guidelines. This is the same document I handed out a couple of weeks ago:

Supplemental Paper Guidelines

General
1) Margins should be set at one-inch top and bottom and 1.25 inches left and right.
2) Fonts for the body of the paper should be 12 point and the paper double spaced.
3) Pages should be numbered.
4) Pages should be stapled together. Folders or tape should not be used.
5) No marks should be made on the paper with pencil, pen, or other writing instrument.
6) Either on a topic page or the heading of the paper the following information must be included: Your name, your student number, the title of your paper, the topic you have chosen, and your discussion section number.
7) Papers are to be turned in to my Asian studies mailbox or to me in person. Assignment One is due by October 13th and Assignment Two is due by November 24th. The office closes at 3:30pm.
8) Failure to follow these guidelines will result in points being deducted from your grade.

Citations
1) Only MLA style will be accepted. Any other forms will result in a lower grade. You can find a link to a website showing how to use MLA style from the course blog.
2) You must make in text citations. If you quote someone or use ideas or information from a source you must cite that source. Failure to make sufficient citations will result in a lower grade or a 0 (or worse!) in the case of plagiarism.
3) To cite the sourcebook in your works cited section, write Converging and Diverging, Chapter X.
4) To cite the sourcebook in the text of your paper write (Converging and Diverging, Chapter X, page Y).
5) In assignment one your works cited does not need to be on a separate piece of paper but in assignment two it will need to be on a separate page. Citations are not included in the number of pages required for the assignment.

Organization
1) Make sure your paper has a clear thesis statement at the beginning of the paper.
2) Support that thesis statement with evidence, not opinions.
3) Connect each paragraph with previous paragraphs and to the thesis statement in a logical fashion.
4) I suggest writing an outline before starting to write your paper. Write multiple drafts.

Other
1) In the current issue topic, make sure you pick a narrowly focused issue.
2) You may not use novels for the book topic.
3) If you choose the place topic, the place should be no bigger than a city.
4) Your paper must deal with aspects of Asia between the years of 3,000 BC to 800 AD.

Sourcebook: Converging and Diverging

It was made known to me that the sourcebook is no longer available on Webct. I have emailed Professor Harlow and hopefully this problem will be fixed soon.

Office Hours and Office Location

On Wedensday the 11th of October I will have office hours from 10am-11:50am and then from 1pm to 4pm. The TA office is in Auditorium Annex B room 104. There is a sign outside the door that says its the Asian Studies office. I'll be somewhere in the office (there aren't assigned desks so I don't know where exactly I will be. It's not a very big office though so it won't be hard to find me). Finding the office is a bit tricky. If you look at the map I linked to you will see an arrow pointing to a building that looks like an upside down "L". Next to it is a little building. Our office is on the East side of that little building. Basically, if you walk around that little building you will find our office. It's a bit tricky but you should be able to find it. Good luck!

Discussion

In discuss this week we will finish up early India (Topic 1A) and then move on to China (Topic 1B). I hope all is going well with the papers. Let me know if you have any questions.