Barbarians and Mandarins: China and Her Inner Asian Neighbor

Catalog description

By redefining China and Mongolia as multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural empires, this course examines the dynamic of nomadic and sedentary civilizations in East Asia from the earliest times to the 20th century. It also examines the history of both countries within the wider context of global-international conflicts and cultural exchanges across inner-Asia. Major topics include the strategic significance of the Great Wall, the arrival of Buddhism in China and Mongolia, the development of literati and martial cultures, Genghis Khan and the Mongol conquest, the rise of the Manchus, the arrival of the West, and regional developments in the Communist and post-Communist eras.