Belief and Social Life in China

(4 Credits)

The Chinese word for religion means ?teaching.? ?Teaching? immediately implies someone else besides the self. Belief in China has always been theorized and practiced as mediated by the presence of others, miraculous and mundane. The class explores what Chinese people ?taught? themselves about the person, society, and the natural world and thus how social life was constructed and maintained. Examines in historical perspective the classic texts of the Taoist and Confucian canon and their synthesis; Buddhist, especially Ch?an (Zen) practices in China; issues of gender in past and present practice; and religion?s relation to the state.