Course Description

The Western world’s interest in China has long followed two paths, one material and one spiritual. While Western traders and government leaders debated various routes to the elusive “China Market,” artists and philosophers deliberated tenets of Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism) and Buddhism, the schools of thought that flourished in traditional Chinese society. The end result was a representation of China still popular in the West, as full of Western dreams and ambitions as it is of Chinese realities. The current debates regarding Chinese trading privileges and human rights abuses are clearly shaped by this Western profile of China. Our course will hold up this picture to scrutiny, while introducing and illuminating both the remarkable and the commonplace from China’s past.

Students taking this course should reach the following goals by the end of the semester:

· Construct persuasive written arguments concerned with an historical topic.

· Utilize the latest methods of Web-based technology to communicate with fellow students.

· Learn of the fundamental historical developments in China from earliest times to ca. 1800.

· Understand better the effect the ancient past has had on the modern world.

· Exhibit self-motivation and self-expression by exploring and asking questions regarding historical topics beyond personal life experiences.