Oct. 10 – Oct. 16
*No, they are not the same! Far from it! But you can find out more about Buddhist hell when consulting sources about that topic that we hold in the library.
This week we’ll learn how to use Zotero, a nifty piece of software that links your browser, a reference manager (to keep track of books, articles, etc.) and Google Docs or Word to help with citations. Useful well beyond this class. (Do the words “AIC violation” strike fear in your heart? This software goes a long way to prevent that problem!)
We will also check out what happens when Buddhism meets Chinese ideas about the afterlife. It gets complicated, really quickly – and there are great stories, more than I can fit into the course.
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.
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- □ Plan for your mid-term check in: appointments available this week and next week.
- – Check out availability and book an appointment using the appointments page (marked as “Mid-term”). Book your appointment now, and change slots if your schedule changes. That’s better than needing to scramble because our schedules don’t align. Meet in my office (Ettinger 300A), unless you request to meet on Discord.
- – Why? Even if you don’t need a mid-term grade, it’s good to see where we are at the mid-semester point, and how you can make the second half count. Things we will discuss: what are you doing well? how are you working towards your goals/objectives for this course? how can we work better together to get you towards those goals in the second half of the semester? how is the relative freedom of the assignments allowing you to see things differently, either about (Chinese) history, or about you as a student/writer/researcher?
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- Look back at your Start of Semester reflection and goals, and your First Reflection to help you ponder these questions; think about goals (new, or adjusted goals) for the second half. Do not come to this conversation without preparation!
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| Tuesday |
- □ Prepare before class:
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– Please install Zotero and the connector before we meet. We recommend not signing up with your Muhlenberg email so you’ll maintain access to the group library after graduation too.
– Use Kelly’s handy tutorial, and if need be: consult the help pages for Installation and Quick Start guide. If it really doesn’t work, we will try to get you sorted during the session, or you can visit Kelly or Jess (Denke) in the library, they are pretty good at getting people started.
– Don’t worry about the group library yet. I will invite you to our course’s group library by email or Discord.
- □ Meeting: Trexler Library, B01, 3.30PM
- (Same place as before!)
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- □ 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!
- [links coming Monday]
- * Post 1:
- * Post 2:
- * Post 3:
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| Wednesday |
- □ Catch up, and/or prepare for Thursday!
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| Thursday |
- □ Please prepare before class: Readings
- Our textbook:
- – Durning, Kayleigh. “Buddhist Hell: Overview and Structure.” (link)
- – Schweinler, Dean. “Introduction of Buddhism into China.” (link)
- – Azar, Jarrett. “The Ten Kings and Emperor Taizong.” (link)
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- Podcast: with useful information
- – “The Great Maudgalyayana”. Chinese Literature Podcast, Feb. 17, 2018, https://chinachannel.lareviewofbooks.org/2018/02/07/great-maudgalyayana/
- Primary source:
- “The Quest of Mulian, or The Great Maudgalyāyana Rescues his Mother from Hell”. In An Anthology of Translations: Classical Chinese Literature. Vol. 1: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty, edited by John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, 1088-1110. New York: Hong Kong: Columbia University Press; The Chinese University Press, 2000. (PDF)
- Questions for focus: What did Buddhist hell look like? How could you end up there? How could you avoid going to hell? What does bureaucracy add to the terrors of hell? How was the view of the afterlife different from pre-Buddhist China? How do you think did that affect the behavior of the survivors?
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- Secondary source: read if you’re intrigued by Jarrett’s chapter:
- Ledderose, Lothar von. “The Bureaucracy of Hell”. In Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. Print. The A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts, 1998. (PDF) [note: unfortunately I could not turn this into a text-searchable PDF at this moment]
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- More Buddhist Hell: check out the dedicated webpage if you’re interested –includes two versions of Emperor Tang Taizong in Hell (9th and 16th century)
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- □ Meeting: Ettinger 204, 3.30PM
- Slides (Google slides)
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| Friday |
- □ Catch up with any missing tasks or help a fellow student! Check in the Discord chat.
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| Saturday |
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| Sunday |
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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
