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Asian 11: Perspectives on Asia: Zen Moments, Confucian Lives

Description and general information:

The cultures of East Asia have been greatly influenced by beliefs, practices, and moral standards derived from Buddhism and Confucianism. This course combines the study of religious beliefs and practices with a focus on individual men's and women's lives in traditional and modern culture. The purpose is to explore the variety of ways in which Buddhism and Confucianism have influenced both the living of individual lives and the effort to invest life stories with meaning. Some of these lives are self-consciously Buddhist or Confucian. Others are just as self-consciously opposed.We will balance the study of personal, spiritual, and social doctrines with selections of memoirs. Professors Caddeau and Dennerline.

Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00-3:20
Webster 217

Requirements: All assigned readings are to be completed before class. Six short writing assignments, from two to four pages in length, and a final paper, approximately five pages in length, are to be submitted during the semester. One-half letter grade will be deducted for each day written assignments are submitted beyond the due date. Regular attendance, contribution to class discussion, and completion of assignments will factor into final grade.


The following books can be purchased at the Jeffery Amherst College Store:

Wills, John, Jr. Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History
Varley, H. Paul. Japanese Culture
Spence, Jonathan. The Death of Woman Wang
Waley, Arthur, tr. Monkey
Chang Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Ariyoshi Sawako. The Doctor’s Wife (on order)

Additional readings are contained in two course packets, available from the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, 110 Webster. A fee will be charged to your account to cover duplication costs for materials distributed during the semester.

In addition to regular class meetings film screenings have been scheduled for this course in Chapin 202 at 4:00 and 7:30 pm as follows:

1/30 (T) Tokyo Story
2/6 (T) The Emperor and the Assassin
3/27 (T) Rikyu
4/1 (SU) Life of Oharu
4/10 (T) Shall We Dance?
4/29 (SU) Yellow Earth
5/1 (T) Ju Dou

Students unable to attend a scheduled screening should make arrangements to view the film in the media center before the class for which the film has been assigned. All films will be on reserve for this course in Frost Library. See scheduled dates on syllabus for details concerning director, production year, call number , and run time for each film.


The web site for this course can be found at the following URL:

http://courseinfo.amherst.edu/courses/ASIAN-11-00S/

Syllabus

• Week 1 Introduction/Course Overview
  
  • 1/29 introduction to the course *lecture in Webster 220 at 4:00 pm*
    
  • 1/30 film: Tokyo Story (Ozu Yasujiro/1953/134 m/PN1997 .T63)
    
    • screening in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
      
  • 1/31 read: Murakami Haruki, “Elephant Vanishes” 400-16
    
  • 2/2 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT I DUE in Webster 106 by 4:00 pm
    
    
• Week 2 The Confucian Tradition and the Mandate of Heaven
  
  • 2/5 read: Mountain of Fame, ch. 2: “Confucius”; “The Great Learning” and “The Doctrine of the Mean,” excerpts
    
  • 2/6 film: The Emperor and the Assassin (Chen Kaige/1999/160m/DVD on order)
    
    • screening in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
      
  • 2/7 read: Mountain of Fame, ch. 3: “The First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shihuang)”
    
    • (Complete this assignment before seeing film on 2/6.)
      
      
  • 2/9 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT II DUE in Chapin 12 by 4:00 pm
    
    
• Week 3 The Buddhist Tradition and Continental Culture
  
  • 2/12 read: Mountain of Fame, ch. 8: “Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch” and ch 9: “Empress Wu”
    
  • 2/14 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 2: “The Introduction of Buddhism” 19-47; “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” (Taketori monogatari) 275-305
    
    
• Week 4 The Japanese Imperial Court
  
  • 2/19 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 3: “The Court at Its Zenith” 48-76 ; Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book (Makura no sôshi) 156-99
    
  • 2/21 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 5: “The Canons of Medieval Taste” 91-140; Monkey, ch. 1
    
    
• Week 5 Searching for the Dharma
  
  • 2/26 read: Monkey, chs. 2-18
    
  • 2/28 read: Monkey, chs. 19-30
    
  • 3/2 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT III DUE in Webster 106 by 4:00 pm
    
    
• Week 6 Men and Women I: Ideals
  
  • 3/5 read: Mountain of Fame, ch. 13: “Wang Yangming”; Tu Wei-ming, “Selfhood and Otherness: The Father-Son Relationship in Confucian Thought”; Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers 68-112
    
  • 3/7 read: Peony Pavilion selections
    
    
• Week 7 Men and Women II: Realities
  
  • 3/12 read: Jonathan Spence, The Death of Woman Wang
    
  • 3/14 read: Jonathan Spence, The Death of Woman Wang
    
  • 3/16 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT IV DUE in Chapin 12 by 4:00 pm
    
    
• March 17-25 Spring Recess
  
  
• Week 8 Zen Buddhism in the Edo period
  
  • 3/26 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 6: “The Country Unified” 140-64; Varley and Elison, “The Culture of Tea from Its Origins to Sen no Rikyû” 187-222
    
  • 3/27 film: Rikyu
    
    • (Hiroshi Teshigahara/1991/116m/PN1997 .R52 ) in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
  • 3/28 read: R. Tsunoda, et. al., “Zen Buddhism” 226-60; H. McCullough, ed., “Travel Accounts by Matsuo Basho” 509-51
    
    
• Week 9 Confucianism in the Edo period
  
  • 4/1 film: Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi Kenji/1952/146m/PL794 .K569)
    
    • screening in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
      
  • 4/2 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 7: “The Flourishing of a Bourgeois Culture” 164-204; Saikaku Ihara, ”The Woman Who Spent her Life in Love” 154-217
    
  • 4/4 read: The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (Sonezaki shinjû) 39-56; Japanese Culture, ch. 8: “Heterodox Trends” 205-34
    
    
• Week 10 Traditional Practices in a Modernizing World
  
  • 4/9 read: Ariyoshi Sawako, The Doctor’s Wife
    
  • 4/10 film: Shall We Dance? (Suo Masayuki/1996/118m/PN1997 .S463)
    
    • screening in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
      
  • 4/11 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 9: “Encounter With the West” 271-303
    
  • 4/13 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT V DUE in Webster 106 12 by 4:00 pm
    
    
• Week 11 Confucian Lives in Doubt
  
  • 4/16 read: Mountain of Fame, ch. 17: “Liang Qichao”; Jerry Dennerline, “Qian Mu and the World of Seven Mansions” 115-137 and 37-44; Lu Xun, “New Year’s Sacrifice”
    
  • 4/18 read: Jung Chang, Wild Swans, chs. 1-4.
    
    
• Week 12 Revolution and Confucian Legacies
  
  • 4/23 read: Mountain of Fame, ch. 19: “Mao Zedong”; Liu Shaoqi, “How to be a Good Communist” selections; Wild Swans, chs. 5-10
    
  • 4/25 read: Wild Swans, chs. 11-16
    
  • 4/27 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT VI DUE in Chapin 12 by 4:00 pm
    
    
• Week 13 Images of the Past
  
  • 4/29 film: Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige/1985/90 m/PN1997 .Y444)
    
    • screening in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
      
  • 4/30 read: Wild Swans, chs. 17-23
    
  • 5/1 film: Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou/1990/98 m/PN1997 .J8)
    
    • screening in Chapin 202, 4:00 & 7:30
      
      
  • 5/2 read: Wild Swans, chs. 24-28; Jianying Zha, “Shadows on the Screen” (in China Pop on reserve in Frost P92.C5 Z43 1995); W.A. Callahan, “Gender, Ideology, Nation: Ju Dou in the Cultural Politics of China”
    
    
• Week 14 Images of the Future
  
  • 5/7 read: Japanese Culture, ch. 11: “Culture in the Present Age” 304-53
    
  • 5/9 read: Japanese short story
    
    
• 5/12-13 Reading Period
  
• 5/14-18 Examination Period
  
  
• FINAL PAPER DUE in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations Office (Webster 110) by 12:00 pm on 5/14

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