Make sure you completed all your assignments from week 1 before Tuesday’s class!
Tue 1/21: Common beliefs in the present day
Prepare before class: View the embedded video (Tan Pin Pin, “The Grave Digger’s Luck”, 2003, URL https://vimeo.com/116726922) and take notes:
- What is remarkable, strange and/or interesting?
- What are some of the ideas, topics and issues mentioned in this video you’d like to learn more about?
- What different types of beliefs do you notice? Do you see similarities with other traditions you are more familiar with?
- Remember you can ask questions or post thoughts to share with the group on the Pad
Thu. 1/23: Common beliefs, premodern: “The Tribute of Yu”
Read before class: Primary source text: “The Tribute of Yu” In Book of Documents (Shangshu), trans. James Legge (modified to pinyin transcription) (note: Original appeared in: Legge, James. The Chinese Classics. Vol 3: The Shoo King or the Book of Historical Documents. London: Trubner, 1865) (PDF on Canvas) (Link to scan of original book on the Internet Archive)
This text is a chapter from a venerated book, known as the Book of Documents, in Chinese known as Shangshu or Shujing (older transcription may also call it Shu-ching). The section we read follows the journey of Yu the Great across the world known to the people of Zhou China. The events are set in the mythical past (but often Yu is said to have lived 2123 – 2025 BCE), and this version of the text probably was written around the third century BCE. The myth begins with a big flood, and Yu is appointed to stop the (Yellow) River from flooding; the text we read picks up as Yu is sorting out the geography of the state.
- What can you find out about this book? What sources do you use to find out more?
- What is strange, remarkable, interesting about the “Tribute of Yu”?
- What can we learn from this text? What makes this text difficult to learn for us, now?
- What other types of literature do you know like this?
- You can add thoughts, ideas, and questions to the Pad
- Slides (Gdrive link)
Optional extra: Learn more about Yu the Great and the other “culture heroes” of early Chinese mythology in this video (Canvas link) (Excerpt from: Great Mythologies of the World. Directed by Kathryn McClymond, Julius Bailey, Robert André LaFleur, Grant L Voth, and Teaching Company. Great Courses, 2015. DVD.)
Glossary of Chinese terms:
- Yu the Great = Da Yu, Ta Yü
- Tribute of Yu = Yugong, Yü-gung
