History and Culture of East Asia (20034)
Degree/study:Degree in Humanities
Year: 4t.
Term:1st
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 125 hours
Teaching language or languages: spanish and catalan
Teaching Staff: Manel Ollé
1. Presentation of the subject
The subject is a general introduction about the historical, geographical an cultural principles in the Chinese territories and also it is the study of thematic aspects (from linguistics, literature, art, philosophy, antrophology etc.) and the relevant periods of time of their history, all this studied taking special attention to historical and cultural keys that allow us understanding the contemporaneous China and the experience of chinese diaspora.
2. Competences to be attained
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Transferable skills |
Specific competences
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Competence when managing and critically treating information from several sources. Ability to analyse and synthesise Use reasoning in different ways and look for multicausal explanations in order to understand the historical events and evaluate their competences. Understand and interpret in a reasoned and adequate way academic oral and written texts and also other academic documents (pictures, maps, etc.). Justify with consistent arguments the own opinions and defend them in front of an expert or a non-expert audience. Use the informatics' tools, with their corresponding applications, needed to develop both academic and professional activities in humanities.
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Identify the most relevant events of ancient and modern history of China within he context of East Asia. Know the defining features of the language, the culture and the Chinese thinking, and their impact on East Asia. Critically think on events and periods of time that where relevant in Chinese history. Analyse the causes and the consequences of the historical cultural events treated in class. Understand the historical points of view about changes that China and East Asia have undertaken in the context of global history. Analyse the process of mutual relationships and perceptions between China and the external world, specially with Europe and East Asia. |
3. Contents
UNIT 1: Ancient China
1.1. The beginnings of the historical period
1.1.1. General Introduction
1.1.2. Writing and prediction
1.1.3. Sacrifices and violence
1.1.4. Human and animal imaginary on the Shang bronces.
1.2. Classicism and ritualism
1.2.1. Emergence of Zhou
1.2.2. Family and religion
1.2.3. Ritual Zhou culture and its rationalisation
1.2.4. Confucius and the origins of Confucianism
1.3. Fertility of the disorder
1.3.1. Combatant kingdoms
1.3.2. The art of the war
1.3.3. Rhetoric and persuasion
1.3.4. Other intellectual currents: Mohism, legalism and Taoism.
1.4. Unification and consolidation of the empire
1.4.1. Qin dynasty
1.4.2. The emergence of Han
1.4.3. The formation of a canon
1.4.4. Confucianism fortune
(Seminar Session Unit 1: classic texts reading)
UNIT 2 Culture and power in Imperial China
2.1. Chinese language and writing
2.1.1. Chinese semantic, morphological, phonetic and syntactic features
2.1.2. Characteristics and development of Chinese writing
2.1.3. Chinese writing: political, social and anthropological issues.
2.2.4. Word and power: imperial examinations
2.3. Brush arts
2.3.1 Chinese calligraphy and landscaping wash
2.3.2 Word arts: poetical tradition
2.3.3. From the tearooms to the lawyers' shelves: stories and novels
2.4. Body arts and the silence
2.4.1. Tradition Chinese conception of body
2.4.2. Martial Arts, alchemies and immortality myths
2.4.2. Sexuality, morals, health and family
2.4.4. Chinese food
(Seminar session Unit 2: workshop on translation of Tang poems)
UNIT 3 China and the external world
3.1. Asiatic borders
3.1.1. Chinese space and the sino-centrism
3.1.2. Silk roads by land and sea
3.2. Europeans' China
3.2.1. Marco Polo and medieval travellers
3.2.2. The modern image of China: from sinophilia to sinophobia
3.3. The big divergence
3.3.1.Chinese and European development from a comparative point of view.
3.1.5. Centre Empire and the colonial powers
(Seminar Session Unit 3: analysis of Iberian descriptions of the Chinese Empire)
*The full version with the sections: 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.
4. Assessment
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5. Bibliography and teaching resources
5.1. Basic bibliography
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5.2. Complementary bibliography
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5.3. Teaching resources
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6. Metodology
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7. Planning of activities
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