Winter Term 1999, History 487/587 Professor Cynthia Brokaw

History 487/587ii: China—The Ming and Qing Dynasties

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11:00-12:20 UH / 166 LA Download Text-Only
CRN:25906/25908 Office Hours

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is the second course in the upper-division survey of Chinese history; it covers the period from the founding of the Ming dynasty in 1368 through the middle of the Qing dynasty (the end of the 18th century). Within a chronological framework the course will focus on a series of important topics in late imperial history: the growth of autocratic government and the political consequences of centralization; the relationship between the bureaucracy and local society; the commercial boom of the 16th and 17th centuries and its impact on the social order; changes in the family and the roles of women; the interaction between elite and popular cultures and the "popularization" of Confucianism; and finally, China’s understanding of its place in the world on the verge of the confrontation with the West in the 19th century.

COURSE POLICIES
Course Requirements for Graduate Students
Participation in class discussions. The major discussion sessions are marked on the syllabus, though there will be other opportunities for discussion during the lecture sessions. I assume that students complete the reading assignments and be ready to discuss by the relevant class. Your grade on the map assignment will also be included in this category. 20%
Two papers of 4-5 pages each. There are several topic options listed on the syllabus; instructions will be handed out for each option. 20% each.
Two take-home tests, with in-class quizzes. 20% each.
Course Requirements for Graduate Students
As the nature of the extra requirements for graduate students will depend on the number and interests of the students, we will meet briefly in the first week to discuss these requirements.

REQUIRED TEXTS

The following texts are available for purchase at the University Bookstore:
Jacques Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization.
Ray Huang, 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline.
David Roy (trans.), The Gathering (volume one of Plum in the Golden Vase).
Robert Van Gulik, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee.
Philip Kuhn, Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768.
Additional readings are on reserve—either book or electronic—in Knight Library. All the titles listed above are also on reserve.

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

1/5 U 1. Introduction: The Ming and Qing Dynasties in Chinese History.
Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization, pp. 1-34.
1/7 H 2. Ming Taizu and the Creation of Ming Institutions.
Gernet, pp. 385-422.
George Er-lang Chang, "The Placard of People’s Instructions," Ming Studies, 7 (Fall 1978), pp. 63-72 (packet).
1/12 U 3. The Yongle Emperor and the Overseas Expeditions of Zheng He.
1/14 H 4. The Ming State in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.
1/19 U 5. The Examinations and the Bureaucracy (Discussion).
Ichisada Miyazaki, "Preparing for the Examinations," in China’s Examination Hell, pp. 3-17 (packet).
Wu Ching-tzu, The Scholars, pp. 1-47 (chapters 1-3), 199-223, 243-251 (chapters 15-17, 19-20 or portions thereof; on reserve).
1/21 H 6. The Economic Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: I. The Agrarian Economy
Gernet, pp. 423-430.
Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past, pp. 235-267 (packet)
Tanaka Masatoshi, "Rural Handicraft in Jiangnan," Linda Grove et al., eds., State and Society in China: Japanese Perspectives on Ming-Qing History, pp. 79-100 (electronic reserve).
1/26 U 7. The Economic Revolution: II. Commerce and the Merchant Class.
"Merchants in the Ming," from Patricia Ebrey, Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook, pp. 155-160 (packet).

Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past, pp. 268-316 (on reserve).

Ho Ping-ti, "The Salt Merchants of Yang-chou," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 17.1-2 (June 1954), pp. 130-168 (packet).
1/28 H 8. Challenges to Intellectual Orthodoxy: Wang Yangming and His Followers
(Discussion).
Gernet, pp. 437-460.
Wang Yangming, "Inquiry into the Greater Learning, in Wing-tsit Chan (trans.), Instructions for Practical Living by Wang Yang-ming, pp. 3-25, 269-280 (electronic reserve).
Wm. Theodore de Bary, "Individualism and Humanitarianism in Late Ming Thought," in Self and Society in Ming Thought, pp. 145-248 (on reserve).
Sakai Tadao, "Confucianism and Popular Educational Works," in Self and Society in Ming Thought, pp. 331-366 (electronic reserve).
Take-home test due; in-class quiz.
2/2 U 9. Urban Society and Culture (Discussion).
Roy, The Gathering (volume 1 of Plum in the Golden Vase), entire.
Paper option due.
2/4 H 10. The Publishing Boom of the Late Ming and Chinese Book Culture.
2/9 U 11. The Problems of Late-Ming Government (Discussion).
Gernet, pp. 430-436.
Huang, 1587, A Year of No Significance, entire.
Paper option due.
2/11 H 12. The Seventeenth-Century Crisis.
Frederic Wakeman Jr., "China and the Seventeenth-Century Crisis," Late Imperial China, 7.1 (June 1986), pp. 1-26 (packet).
2/16 U 13. The Manchus and the Fall of the Ming.
Gernet, pp. 460-473.
2/18 H 14. The Consolidation of Manchu Rule: The Kangxi Emperor.
"Ruling" and "Valedictory," in Jonathan Spence, Emperor of China, pp. 25-59, 143-151 (packet).
2/23 U 15. Local Government and Local Society (Discussion).
Van Gulik, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, entire (including the Preface).
Paper option due.
2/25 H 16. Women and the Family in Qing Society.
3/2 U 17. The Workings of the State (Discussion).
Gernet, pp. 474-496.
Kuhn, Soulstealers, entire.
Paper option due.
3/4 H 18. Intellectual Life in the Qing.
Gernet, pp. 497-527.
3/9 U 19. The Qing Court (Museum Visit).
3/11 H 20. Conclusion: The False Glories of the Qianlong Era.
"The Emperor’s Decree to the Outer Barbarians," in Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell, eds., Imperial China, pp. 104-113 (packet).
Take-home test due; in-class quiz.