Course Information
Instructor: Mr. Jared Hall
Email: jhall@hotchkiss.org
Office: Academic Office (across from the Post Office)
On-campus residence: Dana East 1
Course description
During this course, we will explore the long span of China’s evolution from the Axial Age of Confucius (around 500 BCE) to the height of its final dynasty during the reign of the Qianlong emperor (just before 1800 CE). The mention of particular individuals here is important, as we will pay close attention to the biographies that populate this expansive historical narrative. We will encounter a tattooed philosopher whose heterodox ideas were nearly erased from history, a Daoist military strategist memorialized in one of the four greatest works of Chinese literature, a concubine celebrated today for her beauty and another infamous as the sole woman to sit atop the dragon throne, a half-Japanese pirate who recaptured a gunpowder-defended Dutch colony, and more than a dozen other fascinating lives. Through these series of portraits we will gain insight into China’s rich history while looking closely at each to practice key historical thinking skills. This course is organized primarily as a seminar with assessment conducted through periodic writing exercises and a short culminating research project. The final weeks of the semester will be dedicated to discussion of Jonathan Spence’s The Death of Woman Wang.
Learning objectives
Above everything else, we have three essential goals, which are to:
After successfully completing this course you should be able to construct biographical portraits that:
In addition to the key elements above, you will also leave this course with an ability to:
Format
Learning in this course structured to follow Bloom’s Taxonomy (outside link) in the path toward developing higher-level thinking within a historical context. While we will speak often about “skills,” it is also important to remember that even in the age of near-instant reference resources, a certain command of “content” is still essential for rigorous application of historical tools. This course is designed to equip you with the knowledge about China’s past necessary to frame your understanding and ask good questions for further research.
On a day-to-day basis, much of our time will be dedicated to discussion of assigned texts, supplemented by interactive activities to practice analysis, research, and other advanced historical thinking skills. At the end of each unit, you will be assessed through an in-class assessment designed to track your comprehension and progress toward our course goals. One unit-length course project will allow you to then apply some of the skills and knowledge we have developed in the course for more independent exploration.
Assessing Achievement & Progress
The goal of assessment in this class is to encourage growth. Research suggests that the best way to do so is to limit the number of possible marks on each assessment, provide written feedback, and to allow penalty-free rewrites for at least a short period of time. Therefore, all assignments will be marked as one of the following:
A Strong
B Satisfactory
C Weak
Please note:
Preparation and engagement (30%)
Why preparation and engagement is assessed. Our class is designed to operate often as a seminar and occasionally as a workshop. For this approach to work, it is vital that we all come to class having thoroughly and thoughtfully engaged in our readings. Specifically, each of us will be expected to read, take notes, and develop textually-driven questions and insights before coming together for each session together. It is equally important that we take turns around the table wrestling with ideas and relying on one another to deepen our understanding.
How preparation and engagement is assessed. Your preparation and engagement will be evaluated on the basis of:
How I can help you succeed. To make these goals attainable, I will start by attempting to provide readings that are both engaging and manageable in scope. Routine homework assignments should not exceed 45 minutes before each class session, even for double periods. I respect your time and will do my best to stay within that timeframe by providing you guiding questions and tips for how to work efficiently through the readings and ensuring unit assessments are conducted during class time and allotting you significant in-class time to complete your course project. In addition, you can expect regular, qualitative feedback on your preparation and your engagement. We will also devote some time in class to expanding on the discussion skills you learned over the course of the Humanities program.
Coursework (70%)
The components below are designed to provide practical shape to our learning objectives.
Extra help and communication
Our time together is designed to be challenging. There may be times when you would like further clarification, need additional support, or are just generally feeling overloaded as you work to balance competing demands on your time. Please know that communicating any of these will be viewed on my part as a sign of intellectual and emotional maturity, not as a sign of falling short.
How do I ask good questions? The best questions are processed-based help (improvement in skills and understanding) and not reward-based help (“How do I get an A?”). You might ask these questions in relation to a historical concept, a specific skill, or performance on a graded assignment or assessment.
Can we meet? Of course! The preferred method for finding a time to meet is to send me an appointment request using Google Calendar, which I work to keep up to date. (Follow this link to see how to do that). Alternatively, you can send me an email with your complete availability for the day(s) that you wish to meet. In general, you should expect at least a 24-hour response time for emails sent during the week and longer on the weekends. I am often available for drop-in help during the school day in my office.
Further Course Policies and Comments
Academic honesty. Academic integrity is vital to the pursuit of knowledge. This class fully complies with the Humanities Program Statement on Academic Integrity. You are expected to submit your own work based on factual and clearly identified sources. You should understand that essays, projects, and other types of assessment are designed primarily to track your progress toward our learning goals. Therefore, it is essential that you rely on your own efforts and do your best to ensure the integrity of all assessments. Any instance of academic dishonesty will be treated as a serious offense.
Citations. As historians, we will make extensive use of primary and secondary sources. Please be careful to always give credit to your sources. All written work should make consistent use of the Chicago Manual of Style systems of citation and should include a Works Cited page. For support, you can consult this helpful guide provided by the Ford Library (PDF), speak with a librarian, seek support from Study Skills, or ask me directly.
Late work. Unless stated otherwise, late work may be submitted at a penalty of one-third a letter grade per school day. This means a paper submitted three days late would have dropped from an A to a B. If you are finding yourself under pressure, please speak to me as early as possible. While extension requests that fall within 48 hours of a deadline are unlikely to be granted, open, honest communication is always valued, and I will do my best to help find a fair solution.
Technology. Computers, tablet devices, ebook readers, and even mobile phones are all welcome additions to our classroom. Indeed, for many of our lessons, your computer will be an important tool in the learning experience. Nonetheless, distracting or disruptive behavior makes it difficult to learn, both for yourself and for your classmates. As a courtesy to students around you, all sound notifications (especially on phones) should be muted. Please know I will be direct with you if I feel you are not adhering to the spirit of this policy. If necessary, I reserve the right to modify this policy for any individuals or course sections as needed.
Books for purchase
The following texts are available through the School Store and Amazon:
Instructor: Mr. Jared Hall
Email: jhall@hotchkiss.org
Office: Academic Office (across from the Post Office)
On-campus residence: Dana East 1
Course description
During this course, we will explore the long span of China’s evolution from the Axial Age of Confucius (around 500 BCE) to the height of its final dynasty during the reign of the Qianlong emperor (just before 1800 CE). The mention of particular individuals here is important, as we will pay close attention to the biographies that populate this expansive historical narrative. We will encounter a tattooed philosopher whose heterodox ideas were nearly erased from history, a Daoist military strategist memorialized in one of the four greatest works of Chinese literature, a concubine celebrated today for her beauty and another infamous as the sole woman to sit atop the dragon throne, a half-Japanese pirate who recaptured a gunpowder-defended Dutch colony, and more than a dozen other fascinating lives. Through these series of portraits we will gain insight into China’s rich history while looking closely at each to practice key historical thinking skills. This course is organized primarily as a seminar with assessment conducted through periodic writing exercises and a short culminating research project. The final weeks of the semester will be dedicated to discussion of Jonathan Spence’s The Death of Woman Wang.
Learning objectives
Above everything else, we have three essential goals, which are to:
- Demonstrate fearless, independent thinking.
- Trust and engage one another in community.
- Adopt the mindset of a historian and a cosmopolitan. “The past,” as British novelist LP Hartley wrote, “is a foreign country. People do things differently there.”
After successfully completing this course you should be able to construct biographical portraits that:
- Are situated in geographical and historical context,
- Make critically use of primary and secondary sources,
- Explore markers of personal identity like gender and class, and
- Reflect upon how individuals are represented as carriers of tradition, figures in elite and popular literature, and mirrors for the present.
In addition to the key elements above, you will also leave this course with an ability to:
- Understand major patterns of continuity and change in China from the period from 550 BCE to 1800 CE,
- Engage in conversations around a handful of notable figures and events in Chinese history that can serve as a foundation for future study or research,
- Analyze and critique written and visual sources, and
- Engage with historical scholarship through reading, discussion, and writing.
Format
Learning in this course structured to follow Bloom’s Taxonomy (outside link) in the path toward developing higher-level thinking within a historical context. While we will speak often about “skills,” it is also important to remember that even in the age of near-instant reference resources, a certain command of “content” is still essential for rigorous application of historical tools. This course is designed to equip you with the knowledge about China’s past necessary to frame your understanding and ask good questions for further research.
On a day-to-day basis, much of our time will be dedicated to discussion of assigned texts, supplemented by interactive activities to practice analysis, research, and other advanced historical thinking skills. At the end of each unit, you will be assessed through an in-class assessment designed to track your comprehension and progress toward our course goals. One unit-length course project will allow you to then apply some of the skills and knowledge we have developed in the course for more independent exploration.
Assessing Achievement & Progress
The goal of assessment in this class is to encourage growth. Research suggests that the best way to do so is to limit the number of possible marks on each assessment, provide written feedback, and to allow penalty-free rewrites for at least a short period of time. Therefore, all assignments will be marked as one of the following:
A Strong
B Satisfactory
C Weak
Please note:
- The standards above will be translated into specific criteria at the time the assignment is distributed.
- All marks will be accompanied by written explanations that include (a) the reasoning for the mark, and (b) concrete suggestions for improvement.
- If you receive a “C” mark, you may resubmit your work to earn a “B”; the same is true from “B” to “A.” You have up to four class periods from the time you have received a mark and feedback to submit changes. At that point, your mark will be fixed in the gradebook so you can turn your focus to new material.
- Work received that does not meet “C” standards will not be accepted, and will be returned to you ungraded. You will have up to four class periods from the time you have received back your mark to submit changes.
- At the end of the term, your marks will be considered holistically according to the 70/30 formula in the two subsections that follow. Please note that work that consistently exceeds the “strong” standard may be considered for a final mark of “A+.” Consistently poor work that does not meet the “C” threshold may be considered for a final mark of “F.” I expect both cases to be rare.
Preparation and engagement (30%)
Why preparation and engagement is assessed. Our class is designed to operate often as a seminar and occasionally as a workshop. For this approach to work, it is vital that we all come to class having thoroughly and thoughtfully engaged in our readings. Specifically, each of us will be expected to read, take notes, and develop textually-driven questions and insights before coming together for each session together. It is equally important that we take turns around the table wrestling with ideas and relying on one another to deepen our understanding.
How preparation and engagement is assessed. Your preparation and engagement will be evaluated on the basis of:
- your digital notebook (link to Google Doc), and
- your in-class spoken contributions (link to description of key skills).
How I can help you succeed. To make these goals attainable, I will start by attempting to provide readings that are both engaging and manageable in scope. Routine homework assignments should not exceed 45 minutes before each class session, even for double periods. I respect your time and will do my best to stay within that timeframe by providing you guiding questions and tips for how to work efficiently through the readings and ensuring unit assessments are conducted during class time and allotting you significant in-class time to complete your course project. In addition, you can expect regular, qualitative feedback on your preparation and your engagement. We will also devote some time in class to expanding on the discussion skills you learned over the course of the Humanities program.
Coursework (70%)
The components below are designed to provide practical shape to our learning objectives.
- Unit assessments. The course will include four unit assessments that are intentionally designed to address the skills and particular issues explored during the unit. Assessments that demonstrate strong engagement with the materials may be revised and resubmitted within one week of receiving back your grade and feedback. In fairness to everyone, revision grades will be averaged with the original. Each unit assessment will carry equal weight.
- Research essay. Much of Unit IV (“Bridges to Modernity”) will examine the important period between the Song and Qing dynasties. After a few survey lessons, most of your work in this unit will be dedicated to a research essay. In this essay, you will be asked to examine a life from the long period from 960-1800 by posing a question, answering that question in the form of an argument, supporting that argument with primary and secondary sources, and placing that life in its broader historical context. (Equivalent to two unit assessments).
- Woman Wang essay. We will dedicate that “awkward” interlude between the Thanksgiving and winter breaks to reading Jonathan Spence, The Death of Woman Wang (Penguin, 1998; first published by Viking, 1978). Each day we will read 20-30 pages and engage in discussion around various themes in the text. At the close of the term we will make use of the final exam period to write an extended in-class essay connecting the book to our larger course goals. The weight of the final essay is equal to a unit assessment.
Extra help and communication
Our time together is designed to be challenging. There may be times when you would like further clarification, need additional support, or are just generally feeling overloaded as you work to balance competing demands on your time. Please know that communicating any of these will be viewed on my part as a sign of intellectual and emotional maturity, not as a sign of falling short.
How do I ask good questions? The best questions are processed-based help (improvement in skills and understanding) and not reward-based help (“How do I get an A?”). You might ask these questions in relation to a historical concept, a specific skill, or performance on a graded assignment or assessment.
Can we meet? Of course! The preferred method for finding a time to meet is to send me an appointment request using Google Calendar, which I work to keep up to date. (Follow this link to see how to do that). Alternatively, you can send me an email with your complete availability for the day(s) that you wish to meet. In general, you should expect at least a 24-hour response time for emails sent during the week and longer on the weekends. I am often available for drop-in help during the school day in my office.
Further Course Policies and Comments
Academic honesty. Academic integrity is vital to the pursuit of knowledge. This class fully complies with the Humanities Program Statement on Academic Integrity. You are expected to submit your own work based on factual and clearly identified sources. You should understand that essays, projects, and other types of assessment are designed primarily to track your progress toward our learning goals. Therefore, it is essential that you rely on your own efforts and do your best to ensure the integrity of all assessments. Any instance of academic dishonesty will be treated as a serious offense.
Citations. As historians, we will make extensive use of primary and secondary sources. Please be careful to always give credit to your sources. All written work should make consistent use of the Chicago Manual of Style systems of citation and should include a Works Cited page. For support, you can consult this helpful guide provided by the Ford Library (PDF), speak with a librarian, seek support from Study Skills, or ask me directly.
Late work. Unless stated otherwise, late work may be submitted at a penalty of one-third a letter grade per school day. This means a paper submitted three days late would have dropped from an A to a B. If you are finding yourself under pressure, please speak to me as early as possible. While extension requests that fall within 48 hours of a deadline are unlikely to be granted, open, honest communication is always valued, and I will do my best to help find a fair solution.
Technology. Computers, tablet devices, ebook readers, and even mobile phones are all welcome additions to our classroom. Indeed, for many of our lessons, your computer will be an important tool in the learning experience. Nonetheless, distracting or disruptive behavior makes it difficult to learn, both for yourself and for your classmates. As a courtesy to students around you, all sound notifications (especially on phones) should be muted. Please know I will be direct with you if I feel you are not adhering to the spirit of this policy. If necessary, I reserve the right to modify this policy for any individuals or course sections as needed.
Books for purchase
The following texts are available through the School Store and Amazon:
- John E. Wills, Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History (Princeton University Press, 2012).
- Jonathan D. Spence, The Death of Woman Wang (Penguin, 1999). Note, earlier editions of this book maintain the same content and pagination. Feel free to purchase any edition that you would like.
