Silk Roads and Samurai

Catalog description

An overview of the societies and cultures of China and Japan (and to a lesser extent, Korea) before 1600 C.E. through primary and secondary sources. Because East Asia developed in relative isolation from the West one goal of this course is to point out and study distinctive aspects of "East Asian civilization." A second goal is the study of the relationship between the evolution of China and Japan. Since China has the oldest identifiable civilization in the region, we will spend somewhat more time on Chinese history.