Aims

The aim of this course is to enable students to understand the relationship between political power and thought in East Asia before direct contact with Western thought.

East Asia is associated with exotic and mystical thought but most of the main schools of traditional East Asian thought are political in origin. The module examines the main trends in political thought in China and Japan before direct contact with the West in the 19th century. There are a variety of new and intriguing ideas from Confucianism and Taoism in China to the role of Buddhism and Shinto in Japanese political thought. It is a challenging module but it almost invariably encourages student interest in the thought and history of the region, as well as builds the confidence to examine further East Asia.

Outline Of Syllabus

Lecture Schedule

Lecture 1. Introduction
Lecture 2. Early ‘Confucianism’
Lecture 3. Early Challenges to ‘Confucianism’
Lecture 4. Two Early ‘Confucian’ Thinkers
Lecture 5. Legalism and the Unification of China
Lecture 6. The Han Synthesis
Lecture 7. ‘Dark’ Learning: Neo-Taoism
Lecture 8. The Origins of East Asian Political Thought
Lecture 9. Early Buddhism and the State in East Asia
Lecture 10.The Han Synthesis in Ancient Korea
Lecture 11. Challenge of Buddhism in the T’ang Dynasty
Lecture 12. The Evolution of Chinese Thought in Silla
Lecture 13. The Ritsuryo State
Lecture 14. The Rise of Buddhist Power in Japan
Lecture 15. Rise and Fall of Koryo Buddhism
Lecture 16. Kamakura Buddhism's Political Implications
Lecture 17. Sung Learning of the ‘Way’
Lecture 18. Chu Hsi and ‘Neo-Confucianism’
Lecture 19. The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea
Lecture 20. The Golden Age of Confucianism in Choson
Lecture 21. Suppression of Buddhism in Japan
Lecture 22. Tokugawa Orthodox Neo-Confucianism
Lecture 23. Wang Yang Ming and his ‘Neo-Confucianism’
Lecture 24. Impact of the Lu-Wang School in East Asia

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

There is much new and challenging information in the module so traditional lectures and seminars have been the best way to convey the information to students.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The gobbets give the students practice in analyzing short segments of text in order to interpret them and place them in the larger context of history, schools of thought and the work of individuals. Since this type of analysis is new to students, there is a formative element in that only the higher of the two marks for the gobbets will be counted toward the final mark. However, both gobbets must be of sufficient standard to pass in order to encourage students to take both gobbet submissions seriously. The examination covers ‘neo-Confucianism’ in gobbet form and is the culmination of East Asian political thought in this period so stretches student understanding of the basics acquired through the essay gobbets. In both forms of assessment, students must master the academic literature on a key thinker. The gobbet approach places emphasis on both context, of which the students will often be unfamiliar, and interpretation of the texts. Given the nature of the material, this intensive and deep reading approach is most appropriate.

Exchange Students:
An alternative form of assessment will be set for exchange students from non-English speaking home institutions replacing the examination. The alternative form of assessment is set in accordance with the University Assessment tariff.

*Only the highest gobbet mark for one of the two gobbets will be counted toward the final mark so long as both gobbets obtain a minimum mark of 40. Otherwise, the marks for both gobbets are averaged to produce one mark constituting 25% of the final mark.