China: Early China

4 credits · Undergraduate

This lecture course is designed (1) to introduce a framework for grasping pre-historical and early historical developments of the human societies in China, from the birth of the classical era to the end of the classical era (323 BC.-A.D. 316); (2) to identify the political, social, economical, and ideological driving forces behind these developments; (3) to give an overview of the main archaeological and historical sources available for that period; (4) to assess the benefits, costs, as well as the characteristics of early Chinese forms of social and political organization as well as belief systems. Reference will also be made to the imaginaries about Early China that played their roles in later periods of Chinese history.