Animals and Plants in Chinese History

Catalog description

Plants and animals are the basis of human civilization, providing us with shelter, clothing, medicine and, especially, food. While historians have traditionally put humans at the center of history, this course shifts the focus to species that have shaped Chinese society from prehistoric farming to global agribusiness. We will study wild animals, farmed fish, silk worms, crops like rice and soybeans, livestock like pigs and cattle, fruit like oranges and peaches, drugs like tea and opium, and building materials like wood and bamboo. We will examine the roles these species have played from Chinese villages to Brown’s campus, which is home to dozens of Chinese ornamental plants and was built in part from the profits of the tea and silk trades. Studying the histories of specific species will help students appreciate the central roles that plants and animals have played in Chinese civilization, and still play in our daily lives.