Introduction to Ancient Chinese Philosophy and Literature

Catalog description

This course is a survey of ancient Chinese philosophy (prior to the Qin Dynasty of the late third century BCE) and its influence on Chinese literature and aesthetics of the subsequent dynasties. We will focus on the primary texts by key philosophers of the Confucian, Daoist, Mohist, and Legalist schools. We will examine how the secular moral ideal and the transcendent ideal of Chinese aesthetics arise from the Confucian and Daoist schools of thoughts. We will also study their subsequent interplay in folk poetry, Xuanyan (metaphysical or philosophical) poetry, and Shanshui (landscape) poetry from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty.