Discovering History
  • Courses
    • Archived Courses >
      • Chinese History >
        • Ancient/Early Modern: Living China's History >
          • Living China's History (fall 2017) >
            • Course Information
            • Course Project
            • In-Class
            • Assignments
          • Living China's History (fall 2018) >
            • In-Class >
              • The Death of Woman Wang
            • Assignments
        • Modern: China's Fall and Rise >
          • China's Rise and Fall (spring 2019) >
            • Course Info
            • In Class
            • Assignments + Units
          • China's Fall and Rise (spring 2018) >
            • Course Information
            • In-Class
            • Assignments
        • Contemporary: Thinking about a Changing China >
          • Thinking about a Changing China (spring 2017) >
            • Course Information
            • In Class
            • Assignments
      • Global Thinking (grade 9 seminar) >
        • HS150 Course Information
        • HS150 In-Class
        • HS150 Assignments
      • Japanese History >
        • Japan's Empire and its Legacies (fall 2016) >
          • Course Information
          • Daily Review
          • Schedule >
            • JE Unit 1
            • JE Unit 2
            • JE Unit 3
            • JE Unit 4
            • JE Unit 5
            • JE Unit 6
          • Research >
            • Issues of History
            • Research Schedule >
              • Checkpoint #2: Annotated Bibliography
              • Checkpoint #3: Outline
              • Checkpoint #4: Supplemental Pages
      • U.S. History >
        • Humanities History (2017-18) >
          • Course Information
          • In-Class
          • Assignments
        • Humanities History (2016-17) >
          • Course Information
          • In Class
          • Assignments >
            • U1: The American Revolution & the Constitution
            • U2: Defining the Nation
            • U3: 19th Century Social & Cultural Transformations >
              • Cemetery Project
            • U4: A House Divided
            • U5: Industry & Empire
            • U6: Progressive Promise & Disillusion
            • U7: Global Conflicts
            • U8: Civil Rights & Human Rights
      • More Course Descriptions
  • Skills
    • Reading >
      • Active Reading
      • Advanced Reading Strategies (Upper Mids and Seniors)
      • Outlining for Reading
      • Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
      • Analyzing Primary Sources with SOAPSTone
      • Analyzing Visual Primary Sources
      • Selecting & Evaluating Secondary Sources
    • Thinking >
      • What is History?
      • Historical Thinking Chart (PDF)
      • Breaking Down History with the SPICE Factors
    • Discussing >
      • Engaging in Class Discussion
      • Evaluating Discussion
    • Researching >
      • Identifying Research Topics & Questions
      • Note Cards
    • Writing >
      • Zero Draft
      • Thesis Statements
      • Forming Counterarguments
      • Formatting Chicago-Style Papers
      • Ford Library Guide to Chicago-style Citations (PDF)
    • Tech Tips
  • Reference
    • Chinese History Tools
    • Further Reading in Asian Studies >
      • Books
      • News
      • Podcasts
    • Current Events around the World
  • About
    • About
    • Writing

China between Empires

10/23/2018

0 Comments

 
Welcome back / quick check in on presentations

What’s in a name?
  • Historians—traditional, popular, and professional—tend to focus on times of unity and strength, particularly in early Chinese history
  • The period we are exploring through the Romance of the Three Kingdoms tends to be downplayed, that is the four centuries between the crumbling final years of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and the rise of the Sui (隋 581-618) and Tang (唐 618-907). (Here’s a more detailed timeline of what happened in the middle).
  • What do we call this period?
    • “Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties” (Wei Jin Nan Bei chao shiqi 魏晉南北朝時期)?
    • “Age of Disunion”?
    • “Dawn of a Golden Age”?
    • “Early Medieval Period”?
  • This seemingly simple question will be our overriding question today. Why does it matter? Keith Knapp, who we will explore in a little more depth today, argues:
    • “Periodization cannot be overlooked because it helps us make sense of historical phenomena. If historical time is not divided into discrete periods, how can we discern change over time?” (Knapp, 12).

Context
  • Important trends in this period. Beginning of:
    • Geographic redefinition of China
      • In north, armies of non-Chinese horsemen who had emerged as the power behind the Han army in the latter half of the dynasty seized control over northern China
      • “Aliens” were to rule the Yellow River valley for 9 of the 18 centuries after the fall of the Han.
    • Large percentage of the Han population southward
      • End of early Han, less than one quarter of population lived along Changjiang (Yangzi River), and people were considered somewhat alien
      • Movement south hard to quantify with erosion of centralized statistics, but can be seen in cleared hillsides, drained marshes, and transformation of cultural practices in area
      • By reunification by the Sui in 589, region had emerged as “breadbasket” of China
    • New international links
      • City today known as Guangzhou emerged as maritime trade center connecting China to southeast Asia
      • Buddhism (link to map) in particular drove contact with India, Japan
  • Religious and cultural transformation 
    • Han and earlier, much of religious life was sponsored directly by the imperial state
      • ​Buddhism benefited from sponsorship of several smaller kingdoms
      • In absence of strong state, Daoism and Buddhism created new forms of social connections independent of the state and new ways of thinking about life and the afterlife
    • Intellectuals became detached from formal power structures
      • Among most famous examples was the eclectic band of writers, musicians, and metaphysical Daoists known as the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (Zhulin qixian 竹林七賢) from the third century

Today’s task
  • Imagine you are no longer a high school class, but the editors of a new multi-volume book series on Chinese history.
  • You have received a proposal from Keith Knapp arguing that the volume covering the period between the Han and Sui dynasties be called “China’s Middle Ages” or “China’s Medieval Age.” It has been submitted as a brief article, below: Keith N. Knapp, “Did the Middle Kingdom have a Middle Period? The Problem of ‘Medieval’ in China’s History,” in Education about Asia, volume 12, number 3 (Winter 2007), 12-17. (PDF) (Focus mainly on the first 3 pages).
  • You will have a very short time to read his proposal individually (after all you are a busy titan of the book industry!), and then we will discuss:
    • What is compelling about using “middle” or “medieval” age to label this period of history?
    • Why is this label better than some of the alternatives we introduced at the beginning?
    • Why might we want to be cautious about using this label?
    • Should we accept his proposal? Why or why not?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Course Info
    In-Class
    Assignments

    Unit Overviews

    • ​I. Finding a Path
    • ​II. Making China Great Again
    • ​III. "The Empire, Long Divided, Must Unite . . ."
    • IV. China's Golden Age
    • Course Project
    • V. The Death of Woman Wang

    Timelines

    Axial Age
    (600-200 BCE
    )
    ​Early Empires
    ​(200 BCE-200 CE)

    Archives

    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

    Categories

    All
    Archaeology
    Axial Age
    Confucianism
    Confucius
    Daoism
    Death Of Woman Wang
    Han Dynasty
    Legalism
    Literature
    Mengzi
    Mozi
    Qin Dynasty
    Sima Qian
    Song Dynasty
    Tang Dynasty
    Three Kingdoms
    Wang Mang
    Xunzi

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Courses
    • Archived Courses >
      • Chinese History >
        • Ancient/Early Modern: Living China's History >
          • Living China's History (fall 2017) >
            • Course Information
            • Course Project
            • In-Class
            • Assignments
          • Living China's History (fall 2018) >
            • In-Class >
              • The Death of Woman Wang
            • Assignments
        • Modern: China's Fall and Rise >
          • China's Rise and Fall (spring 2019) >
            • Course Info
            • In Class
            • Assignments + Units
          • China's Fall and Rise (spring 2018) >
            • Course Information
            • In-Class
            • Assignments
        • Contemporary: Thinking about a Changing China >
          • Thinking about a Changing China (spring 2017) >
            • Course Information
            • In Class
            • Assignments
      • Global Thinking (grade 9 seminar) >
        • HS150 Course Information
        • HS150 In-Class
        • HS150 Assignments
      • Japanese History >
        • Japan's Empire and its Legacies (fall 2016) >
          • Course Information
          • Daily Review
          • Schedule >
            • JE Unit 1
            • JE Unit 2
            • JE Unit 3
            • JE Unit 4
            • JE Unit 5
            • JE Unit 6
          • Research >
            • Issues of History
            • Research Schedule >
              • Checkpoint #2: Annotated Bibliography
              • Checkpoint #3: Outline
              • Checkpoint #4: Supplemental Pages
      • U.S. History >
        • Humanities History (2017-18) >
          • Course Information
          • In-Class
          • Assignments
        • Humanities History (2016-17) >
          • Course Information
          • In Class
          • Assignments >
            • U1: The American Revolution & the Constitution
            • U2: Defining the Nation
            • U3: 19th Century Social & Cultural Transformations >
              • Cemetery Project
            • U4: A House Divided
            • U5: Industry & Empire
            • U6: Progressive Promise & Disillusion
            • U7: Global Conflicts
            • U8: Civil Rights & Human Rights
      • More Course Descriptions
  • Skills
    • Reading >
      • Active Reading
      • Advanced Reading Strategies (Upper Mids and Seniors)
      • Outlining for Reading
      • Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
      • Analyzing Primary Sources with SOAPSTone
      • Analyzing Visual Primary Sources
      • Selecting & Evaluating Secondary Sources
    • Thinking >
      • What is History?
      • Historical Thinking Chart (PDF)
      • Breaking Down History with the SPICE Factors
    • Discussing >
      • Engaging in Class Discussion
      • Evaluating Discussion
    • Researching >
      • Identifying Research Topics & Questions
      • Note Cards
    • Writing >
      • Zero Draft
      • Thesis Statements
      • Forming Counterarguments
      • Formatting Chicago-Style Papers
      • Ford Library Guide to Chicago-style Citations (PDF)
    • Tech Tips
  • Reference
    • Chinese History Tools
    • Further Reading in Asian Studies >
      • Books
      • News
      • Podcasts
    • Current Events around the World
  • About
    • About
    • Writing