Week 5: First Emperor’s Tomb & Early China review

Sept. 26 – Oct. 2

This week we look at the culmination of “all the things” we’ve seen so far, in the form of the First Emperor’s tomb, and a “Retrospective” to consolidate our knowledge.

Heads-up: From next week onward, we will begin to build tech and library skills to help us navigate through the textbook work. We’ll still add new content, but at a less intense pace, as I create “lab time” in our schedule for hands-on work with Pressbooks.

Unless otherwise noted, all assignments and tasks are due by 11:59PM. I strongly suggest you keep a healthy life-work balance and make sure to get enough sleep. Check the “best-before dates” policy in the syllabus.

 

Monday
  • □ 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:
  • Best-before-date changed to Tuesday, Sept. 27 due to Bergbuilds mishaps!
Tuesday
  • □ Prepare before class: Readings:
  • Review: Primary Source: Wang Chong. “On Death.” In Lun Heng, Vol. 1: Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch’ung. Translated by Alfred Forke. 2nd ed. New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1962. (PDF)
          • Do you see parallels in the commonly held beliefs (which he argues against) and the ideas covered in von Glahn’s chapter? What new information do you find in Wang Chong’s Lunheng?
          • Exclusive NEW edition preview: PDF (Same content – Only read “On Death”)
                • Do you like the layout better? Does it read more easily? Unfortunately you can’t highlight the text, under the agreement I have with the publisher for this excerpt, but we may have access to the published version soon (before the end of the course?). What do you think?
  • Podcast: “The Terracotta Army.” You’re Dead to Me, with Greg Jenner, Julia Lovell, and Phil Wang. BBC Radio 4 Podcasts. Aug. 12, 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0cshgzq
        • Greg and his team research everything carefully so this is a great way to learn all about the First Emperor, while having a laugh too.
        • How does this information connect to/contrast with what we learned on Wednesday?
  • Alternative for the podcast: Ledderose, Lothar. “”A Magic Army for the Emperor.” In Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art. The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1998, 50-73. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
        • PDF: If you prefer reading over listening, roughly the same information as the podcast.
        • How does this information connect to/contrast with what we learned last week?
  • Textbook: Closely study how we can improve this section
  • □ Meeting: Ettinger 204, 3.30PM (Slides)
Wednesday
  • □ Catch up, and/or prepare for Thursday!
Thursday
  • We have covered a lot of ground in the past 4-5 weeks, and it is time to consolidate our knowledge about Early China’s magical creatures (and locations), before heading into a new historical phase. Next week we move into a new phase with some tech and library skills, and from week 7 we begin to explore how the introduction of Buddhism influenced the Chinese world view, and conceptions of strange and uncanny experiences. To prepare for this session: refresh your memory on the topics and primary sources we covered.
  • □ Prepare before class:
    • Go back through the course materials from week 1 onwards. (link to overview)
            • Some stood out, but likely you have forgotten others: refresh your memory, by going over your notes, the slides, and re-acquainting yourself with the primary sources and main ideas from the secondary studies.
            • For each session, jot down 2-3 ideas that you associate with it.
              • If you want to go into more detail, you can do this for each primary source (texts, objects,…).
    • Read through the list of ideas you generated in the previous step: what are the big themes and topics that are starting to emerge? What are the connections you can draw between different materials?
            • Note that this may be different for every student!
    • Determine what you think the key points are a student should remember from what we covered in this course so far:
            • This will serve as a touch stone for future weeks: having a solid understanding of Early China’s world view will allow us to track what changes, and what stays the same.

  • In class we will use small group work and various activities to come to a collective interpretation of Early China’s (up to 220CE) cultural history of the strange.

  • □ Meeting: Ettinger 204, 3.30PM
Friday
  • □ First Reflection: Find all the details on the dedicated webpage 
  • Note that the contents/prompts for the remaining reflections this semester will each time be slightly different, so check carefully! Future reflections are on Nov. 4 and Dec. 9.
Saturday
  • □ Rest day
Sunday

Where to get help:

  • Tea Room on Discord:
    • open anytime for you
    • I will be hosting Tue 2PM-3PM; Wed. 11AM-12PM, or at other times by appointment via Google Calendar. You can also find me in my office during Tea Room times.
    • Private room for confidential chat available on request.
  • Discord Channel #hst107 and the (anonymous) Padlet (both also useful for chatting, sharing fun stuff)
  • DLAs: Digital Learning Assistants: schedule coming soon!
  • Writing Center: Sunday-Wednesday: 3:30 – 5:30 pm and 7-11 pm; Thursday: 3:30 – 5:30 pm and 7-9 pm; drop in or make an appointment
  • Trexler Library Course Subject Guide: our own dedicated subject guide for the course 
  • Safety on/around campus: report an incident