21H.151
Dynastic China
Examines the first dynasty to 1800. Traces the rise of the world's first centralized bureaucratic state, the development of the world's oldest living written culture, and the formation of the pre-modern world's largest single commercial market. Studies women and men as they founded dynasties, engaged in philosophy, challenged orthodoxies, and invented technologies used around the globe. Explores China's past to understand the country's present, and reflects on what its stories mean for the global world.
Fall 2024
This course surveys the history of China from the first dynasty to the year 1800. It traces the rise of the world's first centralized bureaucratic state, the development of the world's oldest living written culture, and the formation of the pre-modern world's largest single commercial market. It also studies women and men as they founded dynasties, engaged in philosophy, challenged orthodoxies, and invented technologies used around the globe. Finally, the course explores China's past to understand the country's present, and reflects on what its stories mean for the global world.
Readings
- Required Sourcebooks
- [D] = de Bary, William Theodore, and Irene Bloom, eds. Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume 1: From Earliest Times to 1600 . 2 nd ed. Columbia University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780231109390.
- [E] = Ebrey, Patricia B. Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780521669917.
- [EC] = Ebrey, Patricia B., ed. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. 2 nd ed. Free Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780029087527.
- [LF] = Feng, Li. Early China: A Social and Cultural History . Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780521719810.
- [M] = Mair, Victor H., Nancy S. Steinhardt, and Paul R. Goldin, eds. Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture. University of Hawai’i Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780824827854.
- [Z] = Zong-Qi Cai, ed. How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context: Poetic Culture from Antiquity through the Tang . Columbia University Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780231185370.
- Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
- Optional Textbook
- [M] Goldin, Paul R. Chapter 4: “Milfoil-Divination.”
- [LF] Chapter 6: “Inscribed History: The Western Zhou State and Its Bronze Vessels.”
- [LF] Chapter 7: “The Creation of Paradigm: Zhou Bureaucracy and Social Institutions.”
- [M] Goldin, Paul R. Chapter 5: “Heaven’s Mandate.”
- [M] Pankenier, David. Chapter 3: “Astronomy in Early Chinese Sources.”
- Durrant, Stephen, Wai-yee Li, and David Schaberg, translators. “Warfare.” Chapter 5 in The Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan Reader: Selections from China’s Earliest Narrative History . University of Washington Press, 2020, pp. 87–88. ISBN: 9780295747750.
- [M] Goldin, Paul R. Chapter 6: “The Odes .”
- Secondary Source
- [LF] Chapter 8: “Hegemons and Warriors: Social Transformation of the Spring and Autumn Period (770–481 BC).”
- [D] Bloom, Irene. Chapter 3: “Confucius and the Analects, ” pp. 44–63.
- [D] Chapter 6: “The Evolution of the Confucian Tradition in Antiquity,” pp. 114–58.
- [D] Chapter 6: “The Evolution of the Confucian Tradition in Antiquity,” pp. 161–64, and 179–83.
- [LF] Chapter 9: “The Age of Territorial States: Warring States Politics and Institutions (480–221 BC).”
- [D] Chapter 5: “The Way of Laozi and Zhuangzi.”
- [D] Chapter 7: “Legalists and Militarists,” pp. 190–206.
- [LF] Chapter 10: “Philosophers as Statesmen: In the Light of Recently Discovered Texts.”
- Primary Source
- [D] Chapter 7: “Legalists and Militarists,” pp. 206–12.
- [LF] Chapter 11: “The Qin Unification and Qin Empire: Who Were the Terracotta Warriors?”
- [D] Watson, Burton, and William Theodore de Bary. Chapter 11: “The Economic Order.”
- [D] Watson, Burton. Chapter 12: “The Great Han Historians.”
- [LF] Chapter 12: “Expansion and Political Transition of the Han Empire.”
- [LF] Chapter 14: “Ideological Changes and Their Reflections in Han Culture and Han Art.”
- Ban Mengjian. “Rhapsody A: Metropolises and Capitals, Part I.” In Wen Xuan or Selections of Refined Literature, Volume I: Rhapsodies on Metropolises and Capitals. Translated, with annotations and introduction, by David R. Knechtges. Princeton University Press, 2016, pp. 93–180. ISBN: 9780691641560.
- [D] Verellen, Franciscus, Nathan Sivin, et al. Chapter 14: “Daoist Religion.”
- Optional Secondary Reading
- [E] Chapter 5: “A Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty.”
- [Z] Meow Hui Goh. Chapter 9: “The Struggling Buddhist Mind: Shen Yu.”
- [Z] Tsung-Cheng Lin. Chapter 10: “Knight-Errantry: Tang Frontier Poems.”
- [Z] Manling Luo. Chapter 11: “Tang Civil Service Examinations.”
- [Z] Maija Bell Samei. Chapter 12: “Tang Women at the Public/Private Divide.”
- [Z] Chen Yinchi and Jing Chen. Chapter 13: “Poetry and Buddhist Enlightenment: Wang Wei and Han Shan.”
- [Z] Varsano, Paula. Chapter 14: “Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon: Li Bai and the Poetics of Wine.”
- [Z] Jack W. Chen. Chapter 15: “Du Fu: The Poet as Historian.”
- [Z] Ao Wang. Chapter 16: “Poetry and Literati Friendship: Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen.”
- [Z] Ashmore, Robert. Chapter 17: “Li He: Poetry as Obsession.”
- [M] West, Stephen H. Chapter 62: “Recollections of the Northern Song Capital.”
- [E] Chapter 6: “Shifting South: The Song Dynasty.”
- [EC] Chapter 32: “The Tanguts and Their Relations with the Han Chinese.”
- [EC] Chapter 33: “Book of Rewards and Punishments.”
- [EC] Chapter 34: “Precepts of the Perfect Truth Daoist Sect.”
- [EC] Chapter 35: “Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, and Emperor Shenzong.”
- [EC] Chapter 36: “Rules for the Fan’s Lineage’ Charitable Estate.”
- [EC] Chapter 37: “Ancestral Rites.”
- [EC] Chapter 38: “Women and the Problems They Create.”
- [EC] Chapter 39: “Longing to Recover the North.”
- [E] Chapter 7: “Alien Rule: The Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties.”
- [EC] Chapter 40: “Zhu Hi’s Conversations with His Disciples.”
- [EC] Chapter 41: “The Attractions of the Capital.”
- [EC] Chapter 42: “The Mutual Responsibility System.”
- [EC] Chapter 43: “On Farming.”
- [EC] Chapter 44: “A Mongol Governor.”
- [EC] Chapter 45: “A Schedule for Learning.”
- [EC] Chapter 46: “A Scholar-Painter’s Diary.”
- Cahill, James Francis. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279–1368. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN: 9780834801202.
- Schaeffer, Kurtis, Matthew T. Kapstein, and Gray Tuttle, eds. “Mongol Domination and the Yuan Dynasty.” In Sources of Tibetan Tradition . Columbia University Press, 2013, pp. 328–45. ISBN: 9780231135986.
- Jackson, Peter. “ Pax Mongolica and a Transcontinental Traffic.” Chapter 8 in The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. Yale University Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780300125337.
- Ko, Dorothy. “From Ancient Texts to Current Customs: In Search of Footbinding’s Origins.” Chapter 4 in Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding . University of California Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780520218840.
- Yuán Cháo zájù. “Yuan Drama.” In Berkshire Encyclopedia of China . Berkshire Publishing Group, 2009, pp. 2594–98. ISBN: 9780977015948.
- [E] Chapter 7: “Alien Rule: The Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties,” pp. 172–99.
- [EC] Chapter 47: “Proclamations of the Hongwu Emperor.”
- [M] Schlepp, Wayne. Chapter 70: “Tang Shi, ‘Lament for a Song Girl,’ Four Stanzas.”
- [M] Foster, Robert. Chapter 71: “Wang Yangming, ‘Inquiry on the Great Learning.’”
- [M] Calitz, Katherine. Chapter 72: “In Praise of Martyrs: Widow-Suicide in Late-Imperial China.”
- [M] Seamon, Gary, and Victor H. Mair. Chapter 73: Lu Xixing (attrib.), Romance of the Investiture of the Gods .
- [M] Taylor, Romeyn. Chapter 74: “Imperial Preface to the Revised Edition of the Collected Statutes of the Ming .”
- [M] Hagman, Jan L. Chapter 75: “Schools and Civil Service in the Ming Dynasty.”
- [E] Chapter 8: “The Limits of Autocracy: The Ming Dynasty.”
- Late Ming and Qing Primary Sources
- [M] Pei-Yi Wu. Chapter 79: Shen Cheng, “A Requiem for My Daughter Zhen.”
- [M] Struve, Lynn. Chapter 80: Zhang Maozi, A Record of Life Beyond My Due .
- [M] Lowry, Kathryn. Chapter 81: Feng Menglong, Preface to the Mountain Songs .
- [M] Mair, Victor, H., and Robert Foster. Chapter 82: Fang Yizhi, Introduction to Notes on the Principle of Things .
- [M] Bartlett, Thomas. Chapter 83: Gu Yanwu, Preface to Five Treatises on Phonology .
- [M] Teng, Emma. Chapter 84: Yu Yonghe, Small Sea Travelogue (excerpts).
- Session 24: The Qing (Qīng cháo 清朝; 1636/1644–1912) through Qianlong
- [M] Teng, Emma. Chapter 84: Yu Yonghe, Small Sea Travelogue (Excerpts).
- [M] Hostetler, Laura. Chapter 85: “Miao Albums.”
- [M] Mair, Denis. Chapter 86. “Yuan Mei, Champion of Individual Taste.”
- Qing Primary Sources
- [EC] Chapter 59: “The Yangzhou Massacre.”
- [EC] Chapter 60: “Proverbs About Heaven.”
- [EC] Chapter 61: “Taxes and Labor Service.”
- [EC] Chapter 62: “Permanent Property.”
- [EC] Chapter 63: “Lan Dingyuan’s Casebook.”
- [EC] Chapter 64: “Exhortations on Ceremony and Deference.”
- [EC] Chapter 65: “Village Organization.”
- [EC] Chapter 66: “The Village Headman and the New Teacher.”
- [EC] Chapter 67: “Boat People.”
- [EC] Chapter 68: “Placards Posted in Guangzhou.”
- [EC] Chapter 69: “Infant Protection Society.”
- [EC] Chapter 70: “Mid-Century Rebels.”
- [EC] Chapter 71: “The Conditions and Activities of Workers.”
- [EC] Chapter 72: “Genealogy Rules.”
- [E] Chapter 9: “Manchus and Imperialism: The Qing Dynasty.”
- Start reading The Story of the Stone if you have time.
- Primary Source (in Chinese)
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2024
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.