TEAS 250 (8844) China s Confucian Tradition Fall 2017 Meets TTh 1:15 2:35 p.m. in SS-133. Associate Professor Anthony DeBlasi Office: Humanities 244 Phone: 442-5316 E-mail: adeblasi@albany.edu Office Hours: Tuesday 5:45 7:00 p.m.; Thursday 11:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m.; and by appointment. This course addresses the central philosophical and ethical issues in the Confucian tradition, a main source of East Asian cultural values. The emphasis will be on reading and discussing translations of primary sources, including the Analects of Confucius, the Mencius, excerpts from the other Confucian Classics, and Confucianism s key interpreters in later centuries. Topics addressed will include human nature, the foundations of political life, ethical decision-making, and the Confucian vision of learning. Upon completion of the course, students will have an appreciation of both the richness of the tradition and the challenges it faces in adapting to the modern world. Books for Purchase: Confucius. Analects, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Tr. Edward Slingerland. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 2003. ISBN-13: 9780872206359 Mencius. Mencius. Tr. D.C. Lau. Rev. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 2006. ISBN-13: 9780140449716 Other Required Readings: Besides the above readings, other assigned readings are available on the University s Blackboard course management system. REQUIREMENTS: Text Interpretation Paper (5 pages) 25% Problem Analysis Paper (5 pages) 25% Two Reflection Papers (2 pages each) 10% Final Examination 20% Class Participation 20% CLASS PARTIPATION: This course is a seminar. On most days, we will be engaged in careful discussion of important Confucian texts. Your participation in those discussions is a key component of your grade. It is important that you carefully read the material assigned for each day BEFORE that class. Because most of the texts deal with complicated philosophical issues and use different Romanization systems for Chinese terminology, you should also allot sufficient time to read and digest the material. Be sure to bring a copy of the reading with you each day. FINAL EXAMINATION: We will have one, two-hour, cumulative final examination at the end of the semester. I will distribute a study guide prior to the examination to assist you in your preparation.
REFLECTION PAPERS: Each student must compose TWO short (two pages) reaction papers reflecting on a text that we have been discussing in class. There will be five options from which you must choose two. Specific questions will be distributed in advance of when each paper is due. The due dates for the different papers are indicated in the schedule below. Plan your choices accordingly. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: Each student is required to select a passage from the assigned reading and write a five-page essay explaining the meaning of the passage. The assignment requires that you address the historical context of the passage as well as refer to other texts from the assigned reading to explain it. I will distribute more detailed guidelines in advance of the due date. PROBLEM ANALYSIS PAPER: Each student will also write a five-page essay analyzing an ethical or political problem from a Confucian perspective. Detailed guidelines and a list of suggested problems will be distributed ahead of the due date. A first draft is due (as indicated in the schedule) two weeks in advance of the final due date. Grading policies: Please note the following policies: 1. Letter grades are assigned according to the following scale: A=93-100, A-=90-92, B+=87-89, B=83-86, B-=80-82, C+=77-79, C=73-76, C-=70-72, D+=67-69, D=63-66, D-=60-62, E=less than 60. Work never turned in counts as a zero (0). 2. Late papers lose one grade step for each day late (thus a B+ that is two days late receives a B-). 3. I do not give make-up quizzes or extensions unless you have an acceptable and documented excuse. Absences are only excused for legitimate reasons (e.g. religious observance, illness, family emergency). 4. I will not consider requests for incompletes without a clearly documented and acceptable reason. 5. Plagiarism is taking (which includes purchasing) the words and ideas of another and passing them off as one's own work. If in a formal paper a student quotes someone, that student must use quotation marks and give a citation. Paraphrased or borrowed ideas are to be identified by proper citations. Plagiarism will result, at the minimum, in a failing grade for the assignment.
General Education: General Education courses: 1. offer explicit understandings of the procedures and practices of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. 2. provide multiple perspectives on the subject matter, reflecting the intellectual and cultural diversity within and beyond the University. 3. emphasize active learning in an engaged environment that enables students to become producers as well as consumers of knowledge. 4. promote critical thinking about the assumptions, goals, and methods of various fields of academic study and the interpretive, analytic, and evaluative competencies central to intellectual development. This course fulfills the general education category International Perspectives by meeting learning objectives focused on a region beyond Europe. Such courses enable students to demonstrate: 1. knowledge of the distinctive features (e.g. history, institutions, economies, societies, cultures) of one region beyond Europe or European North America. 2. an understanding of the region from the perspective of its people(s). 3. an ability to analyze and contextualize cultural and historical materials relevant to the region. 4. an ability to locate and identify distinctive geographical features of the region. This course also fulfills the Humanities general education category. Humanities courses teach students to analyze and interpret texts, ideas, artifacts, and discourse systems, and the human values, traditions, and beliefs that they reflect. Depending on the discipline, humanities courses will enable students to demonstrate some or all of the following: 1. an understanding of the objects of study as expressions of the cultural contexts of the people who created them; 2. an understanding of the continuing relevance of the objects of study to the present and to the world outside the university; 3. an ability to employ the terms and understand the conventions particular to the discipline; 4. an ability to analyze and assess the strengths and weaknesses of ideas and positions along with the reasons or arguments that can be given for and against them; 5. an understanding of the nature of the texts, artifacts, ideas, or discourse of the discipline and of the assumptions that underlie this understanding, including those relating to issues of tradition and canon. Schedule of Classes: Date Day Topic Assignment 8/29 T Class Introduction and Historical Background Confucius and His Teaching 8/31 Th Confucius Analects I Analects, Books One to Five (1-51) 9/5 T Confucius Analects II Analects, Books Six to Thirteen (52-152) 9/7 Th Confucius Analects III Analects, Books Thirteen to Twenty (153-235) 9/12 T NO CLASS Watch Bronze Age videos (Links on Blackboard) 9/14 Th NO CLASS Watch A Confucian Life in America (Link on Blackboard)
Confucian Government and Society 9/19 T Ideals of Rulership in the Classics: Book of Documents (the Shujing) 9/21 Th Holiday 9/26 T Visions of Antiquity in the Classics: Book of Odes (the Shijing) James Legge, tr. Shoo King The Counsels of Kaou-yaou, The Speech of T ang, Instructions of E and The Great Plan : pp. 68-75, 173-76, 191-98, and 320-44. Reaction Paper #1 due Legge, tr. She King, Kwan ts eu (guan que), Pih fung (Northern Wind), Shih shoo (Big Rats), Luh ming (Call of the Deer), Wăn wang (King Wen) and Heuen nĕaou (Dark Bird): pp. 1-5, 67-68, 171-73, 245-47, 427-32, 636-38. Stephen Owen, Reading in Chinese Literary Thought, The Great Preface, pp.37-48. Confucian Views of Human Nature 9/28 Th Mencius Mencius, pp.3-98. 10/3 T Mencius Mencius, pp.99-167. 10/5 Th Xunzi Wing-tsit Chan, comp. Naturalistic Confucianism: Hsun Tzu in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, pp.115-135. Reaction Paper #2 due 10/10 T The Great Learning Wing-tsit Chan, comp. Moral and Social Programs: The Great Learning in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, pp.84-94. 10/12 Th Wang Yangming s Inquiry on the Great Learning. Wing-tsit Chan, comp. Dynamic Idealism in Wang Yang-ming in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, pp.654-67. Confucian Cosmology 10/17 T Book of Changes (the Yijing) Legge, tr. The I Ching, pp.57-63, 107-108, 213-15, 233, 348-407. Reaction Paper #3 due. 10/19 Th The Doctrine of the Mean Wing-tsit Chan, comp. Spiritual Dimensions: The Doctrine of the Mean in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, pp. 95-114. 10/24 T The Correlative Cosmology of Dong Zhongshu Wing-tsit Chan, comp. Yin Yang Confucianism: Tung Chung-shu in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, pp. 271-288. 10/26 Th Neo-Confucianism I Selections from Zhu Xi. Textual Analysis due.
10/31 T Neo-Confucianism II The Confucian Family and Gender Roles 11/2 Th The Record of Rites (the Liji) Legge, tr. The Li Ki, pp.61-82 and 449-79. Reaction Paper #4 due 11/7 T The Implications of Family Relations Walter H. Slote, Psychocultural Dynamics within the Confucian Family, pp. 37-51. Tu Wei-ming, Selfhood and Otherness: The Father-Son Relationship in Confucian Thought, in Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation, pp.113-130. 11/9 Th Women in Confucian Thought Excerpts from the Classics: Robin R. Wang, ed. Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period through the Song Dynasty (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003), pp.25-31. Ban Zhao s Lessons for Women: Nancy Swann, tr. Lessons for Women, in Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China (1932 Rpt. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, 2011), pp.82-99. Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, A Feminist Appropriation of Confucianism in Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond, pp.175-90. Draft of Problem Analysis Paper due. 11/14 T Class Exercise Confucian Solutions to Moral Problems 11/16 Th Confucian Views of War Yao, Fuchuan. War and Confucianism. Asian Philosophy 21.2 (2011): 213-26. Yu Kam-por. Confucian Views on War as Seen in the Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. Dao 9 (2010): 97-111.
11/21 T Confucianism and Political Liberty Sor-hoon Tan, Confucianism and Democracy, in Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond, pp.103-20. Henry Rosemont, Two Loci of Authority: Autonomous Individuals and Related Persons, pp.1-20. 11/23 Th Holiday 11/28 T Presentations of Problem Analyses Final Problem Analysis Paper due. 11/30 Th Presentations of Problem Analyses 12/5 T Presentations of Problem Analyses 12/7 Th Course Wrap-up FINAL EXAMINATION: Wednesday, December 13, 10:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m. in SS-133.