Course Description:
Through this course, I hope to illustrate, with the help of objects of museum collections, China's social and economic history from early ages till early modern times, which give us hints on how China has become the China today. Whether you plan to do business or study in China, or come to China as a tourist, this course aims to provide you with a profound insight into the origins of China's current social economic structure and its culture in general. The total length of history covered is broken down into 9 periods: (1) From Neolithic Age to Bronze Age; (2) Zhou Dynasty; (3) Qin and Han Dynasty; (4) From the Third to the Sixth Century AD; (5) Sui and Tang Dynasty; (6) Song Dynasty; (7) Yuan Dynasty; (8) Ming Dynasty;(9) Qing Dynasty.
Course Objectives:
Understand China's social and economic progress from the Neolithic age to early modernity.
Develop historical insights on China's transformation from an ancient civilization into an economic powerhouse.
Examine the link between archeological findings and their social/economic background.
Reference books:
Early China: A Social And Cultural History (New Approaches to Asian History)，Li Feng, Cambridge University Press; New Approaches to Asian History Edition (November 14, 2013)
The Economic History of China -- From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, Richard von Glahn, Cambridge University Press 2016
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, Doug Ordunio, et al. Random House Audio 2011
The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics. Schafer, Edward H. University of California Press (1963).
Supplementary Student Support Materials:
The reference books will be supplemented by outside readings from selected periodicals and journals. Visiting various museums with exhibitions of Chinese objects will be especially helpful in dealing with issues of current interest to this class.
Course schedule:
Week 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Early China--From Neolithic Age to Bronze Age
Section 1: Hallmarks of Civilization
Section 2: Pottery, Agriculture and Sedentary Life
Week 2
Section 3: Jade and Religion
Section 4: The Bronze Age and Emergence of State
Section 5: Oracle-bone inscriptions and the inside of Shang society
Week 3
Chapter 3: Founding the Cultural Traditions—the Zhou Dynasty
Section 1: Fengjian or Feudalism
Section 2: Bureaucracy in a Patrimonial State
Section 3: The Heyday of the city-state (771-481BCE)
Section 4: The formation of identity
Section 5: The warring states
Week 4
Chapter 4: Age of Universal Empire--Qin and Han Dynasty
Section 1: Unification
Section 2: Political Economy of western Han dynasty
Section 3: Glory of the Han Empire
Section 4: A Change of Economic Structure
Week 5
Chapter 5: The Long Disunion--From the Third to the Sixth Century AD
Section 1: The disunion after unification
Section 2: Sinification
Section 3: The rise of exoticism
Week 6
Chapter 6: Reunification and Cosmopolitanism--Sui and Tang Dynasty
Section 1: Culmination of multicultural synthesis
Section 2: Cosmopolitanism
Section 3: A golden age
Section 4: A fundamental transition
Week 7
Chapter 7: Heyday of the Intelligentsia--Song Dynasty
Section 1: An embattled empire
Section 2: Heyday of market Economy
Week 8
Chapter 8: Mongol Rule--Yuan Dynasty
Section 1: A departure from tradition
Section 2: Continuation of prosperity and fall of the dynasty
Week 9
Chapter 9: Beginning of an Inward-looking Age--Ming Dynasty
Section 1: An institutional reversal
Section 2: Maturation of the market
Week 10
Chapter 10: The Last Empire--Qing Dynasty
Section 1: A long flourishing age
Section 2: The biggest change in three thousand years
