China and Japan To 1600: Histories, Cultures, Identities

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to the histories and cultures of China and Japan from the origins to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868). Students will be guided in analyzing pieces of archaeological, historical, literary, and artistic evidence and in developing a comparative perspective with the West. Funerary and ritual practices, warfare, state formation, ideology, and the influence of Confucianism, Daoism, Shintoism, and Buddhism on institutions and society will be among the main themes treated in class.