Week 3: Five Phases; Classic of Mountains and Seas

• □ Look ahead at the readings and tasks for this week, and plan in when you will do them.
• – This prevents last minute panic, and means you can make the most of our time together in class.
•  
• □ Feedback on your fellow students’ posts:
• – Read through and use Hypothes.is (Group HST107) to comment on your fellow students’ First Post: everybody likes some encouragement! Here is a random selection of three posts. If two or more posts are the same, or one is your own, just refresh the page for a different set. It’s all random, it’s all good!
• * Post 1:
• * Post 2:
• * Post 3:

• □ Prepare before class: Take notes of what you find interesting, strange, remarkable, or where you have questions:
• 1) Secondary source: Wang, Robin R. “Yinyang (Yin-yang).” In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/yinyang/
  • – you can annotate with Hypothes.is group HST107
• 2) Secondary source, with translations of primary sources: Goldin, Paul R. “The Five Phases.” In Hawaii Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, edited by Victor H. Mair, Nancy S. Steinhardt, and Paul R. Goldin, 164–68. University of Hawai’i Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvvn6qz.36.
  • – That’s Chapter 26 only! (But if you’re curious, browse through the book, of course)
• 3) Primary source: Gan Bao, In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record. Translated by Kenneth J DeWoskin, and J. I Crump.. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996. (PDF)
  • – Chapter 6: “A Discussion of Possessions and Anomalies”: after reading the opening section, scroll to p. 3 of the PDF and pick out from the following pages three stories that fascinate you.
  • – Reading questions: How do Gan Bao’s explanations fit into the ideas explained about yin-yang theory and the Five Phases? Even if the stories you picked do not contain that explanation, can you see why Gan Bao included them in this chapter?

• Useful background (optional): “The Han Synthesis” podcast from In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast Oct. 14, 2004).
  • Three experts talk with Melvin Bragg about the Han dynasty, yinyang, and Five Phases in the wider historical context. Perfect for keeping you entertained during a boring workout, while cleaning your room, etc.
• Optional extra: Primary sources about anomalies and explanations: Page on course website
• Additional resources if you want to write about this topic: Page on course website

□ Meeting in Ett. 204, 3.30PM (Slides- Google drive)

• □ Catch up, and/or prepare for Thursday!

• □ Prepare before class: In the library at the front desk, ask for a book that’s on reserve for this course:
• (available from Saturday 9/10 afternoon)
• Birrell, Anne. The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1999.
• 1. Check in the Spreadsheet which chapters you have been assigned, and use the Table of Contents at the front of the book to locate your assigned section.
• 2. Select one “creature” in your section that speaks to your imagination. This could be an animal, a plant, or a geographical feature mentioned in the text.
• 3. Copy or photograph the paragraph which contains the description, (e.g. type into a Google doc) If multiple items are mentioned, put in bold the one which fascinates you most.
• 4. Bring it to class on Thursday for an exercise.
• 5. Look through the Table of Contents (TOC) at the start of the book. Do you notice a pattern? How is the world laid out, based on this TOC? Take notes, we will use these in class!

• □ Catch up with any missing tasks or help a fellow student! Check in the Discord chat.

• □ Rest day

• □ Get your Weekly Report (aka “5-15”) in tonight as a blog post in category HST107. Thanks!