History 487/587: China: The Ming and Qing Dynasties

 

 

Spring 2006                                                                             Ina Asim

CRN 38402                                                                             Office: 317 McKenzie Hall

UH 10-11:20                                                                           Phone: 346-6161

PAC 30                                                                             inaasim@darkwing.uoregon.edu

                                                                                               Office Hours: TR 12:00-1:00


Hist 487mingqingBibliography     
TimelineMingQing
M ing1
China's Northern Neighbors 
Ming2Winter
Ming3 summing up Spring   
Ming4 Summer

Ming5Jesuits
Ming6Art

Ming7Summary
Tibet-Yuan
Qing1
Qing2
Ming Religion Philosophy
Qing3

Qing4
Qing5
Qing 6Taiping Rebellion to Boxer Uprising

Presentations
Women
The Jesuits
Chinese Porcelain for Export

Eunuchs and Officials (handout)
Biography of Admiral Zheng He
Treasure Fleet

Chinese African contacts
Forced Migration
Qing Emperor Portraits
Japanese Pirates in the Ming
Ming rebellions
Taiping Chronology
Taiping Summary
About the Boxer Movement


Please continue to read the texts on electronic reserve.
The username to access the library site for electronic reserves is spring06, the password is breeze.

FINAL EXAM


The final exam will be given in PAC 30 on Wednesday, June 14 at 8 am.

The exam will have 8 questions.

Please be prepared to describe one object from the Jordan Schnitzer of Art Collection of Ming and Qing artifacts and contextualize it with reference to our course.
In case you want to visit the museum again remember that it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. No admission fee for students!


Hist 487 Final Review questions: The Ming and Qing Dynasties

 

1.  What were the tasks of a local Magistrate in Late Imperial China?

2.  Please describe the ideal woman of Late Imperial China. What is the Cult of Chastity?

3.  Which role did the Jesuits play in China? Who was Adam Schall von Bell? Why was the Christian doctrine dubious for the

Chinese population in the beginning of the Jesuit mission?

4.  Please name reasons for forced migration in the Ming.

5.  Eunuchs had played an important role in the Late Ming administration. Were they entrusted with equal tasks in the Qing government?

6.       Please describe how Qing imperial portraits differed from the portraits of Ming emperors.


7.  Please describe the policy of segregation that the Qing government installed.   (Keywords: capital; hairstyle; settlements; marriage)

8. What is a banner in the Qing administration?

9. Which function had the Imperial Household Department in the Qing government?

 

  1. Please describe briefly the administrative units in the Qing state.

  

  1. Why were educated men regarded as “both useful and dangerous” by the Qing government?

  

  1. Which crop had a special impact on the land use in the Qing?

 

  1. Who was Hong Xiuquan?

 

  1. Who was Coxinga?

 

  1. Who were the Boxers?

 

  1. Canton was the seat for many foreign trade firms. How did they engage in trade with the Chinese and which goods did they export? (Keyword: Co-hong )

 

  1. Please describe the role of guild houses in Chinese society in the Qing.

 

  1. Why was Chinese porcelain painted with Western décor (biblical subjects, scenes

from Roman and Greek mythology)? 

 

  1. At the end of the Qing young emperor Guangxu tried to conduct a reform that lasted 103 days and failed politically. Which changes were at the core of this reform?



     This is the second part of a series of four upper-division courses that give a survey of late imperial and modern Chinese history (10th to 20th centuries); it covers the period from the founding of the Ming dynasty in 1368 through the end of the Manchurian Qing dynasty in 1911.  Within a chronological framework the first part of the course will focus on a series of topics that show how the dramatic changes in the economy caused the development of a diversified social fabric in Ming China. The second part portraits the rules of the three most eminent Manchu emperors who created a highly pervasive centralized bureaucracy for their cosmopolitan empire. It will conclude with an outlook towards the intellectual, commercial, and military confrontation with the West.

 

Paper topics:

 

Carla Anderson: Biography of a Ming Lady

Robin Jones: Ming painting and Ming painters

Jane Kirkland: Women Writers in Late Imperial China

Megan Salsbury: The Cult of Chastity

Prairie Yang: Dangerous Women

 

Christopher Wittich: Eunuchs and Officials in the Ming

Kelly Moffatt: The Role of the Eunuchs 

 

Dainean Nelson: The Treasure Fleet

Corey Howland: Did the Chinese discover America? The Map Controversy.

Dylan Kaiser: China's Expedition to the African Coast

Stefanie Loh: Admiral Zheng He

 

Robert Bick: Feng Menglong's 'Stories to Caution the World'

Zachary Brown-Silverstein: Forced Migration during the Ming

Jonathen Reiter: Ming city and countryside

 

Josgua Coe: The Jesuit Mission in China


Neil Randol: Coxinga and Japanese Piracy

Matthew Greene: The Military Conquest of the Ming

 

Jessica Horowitz: Peasant Rebellions in the Ming

Ben DeLong: The Taiping Rebellion
Bryan Mann: The Boxer Rebellion
Kyle Tuttle: The Boxer Uprising
Darren Lillegard: Martial Arts

Ross Good: Western Colonial Appetites at the End of the Qing
Hana Chan: The Hundred Day Reform
Paul Nolan: China's Transition from Empire to Republic




 

Course Requirements for Undergraduate Students

 

· Reading of assigned materials; REGULAR ATTENDANCE of lectures and participation in

  discussions and museum visit. (20%)

  A visit to a pottery kiln in Junction City will be scheduled when the kiln will be

  fired (mid-April). Participation in the field trip is voluntary.

· Midterm (May 4th) and final exam (June 14th): each 25%, total 50%

· You will have to write a term paper of 8 – 10 pages on a topic of your choice. A

  short presentation of the topic in class will inform the other class participants of

  the topic chosen by you. The presentations will be coordinated in groups of related

  topics. Cooperation between class participants for the presentation is

  recommended. Individual contributions to group presentations must be indicated

  on a one-page handout which is due one week before the presentation date. (30 %)

 

The paper should be based on the material of the course readings as well as further primary and secondary sources available in Knight Library. In week 5 you will provide a draft of your topic which consists of:

 

1. the title and a short description of your topic,

 

2. an introduction of the main sources which you will consult in order to answer the questions raised by your topic,

 

3. the bibliographical data of the sources you intend to use.

 

The paper is due in week 9 in order to avoid delays and collisions with preparations for the finals. Papers handed in late will be accepted only with documented medical justification.

 

All quotations and paraphrases must be documented properly. This includes web pages you might plan to consult. The complete URL web address of any web page used is mandatory. For correct citations please follow the guidelines provided on http://www.libweb.uoregon.edu/network/citing.html

 

Course Requirements for Graduate Students

 

Participation, and short report on reading in week 8.

 

Each student will prepare a three to five page, double-spaced, book review of each of the three books assigned to her or him. Reviews are due on the dates given in the course outline.

In your reviews you should demonstrate a command of the content of the book and the sources the author relies on. Explain the objective of the main thesis developed in the book and the methodology applied by the author. Consult as many professional reviews in relevant  periodicals for Asian Studies (Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Journal of Asian Studies, T’oung Pao etc.) as possible but cite and acknowledge wherever you refer to them. Reading reviews by other authors will help you to place the book in its historical context and guides you to express your own observations.

When preparing the review you can follow the general outline pattern given below. Add other important information that will enhance the understanding of the reader of your review whenever further aspects of the book need to be covered.

 

  1. Bibliographical data
  2. Summary of content / summary of author’s argument
  3. Sources and methodology
  4. Most valuable contribution to the topic
  5. Most important shortcomings and questions that are left unanswered
  6. Your suggestions (for comparisons with other works by the same author/ other authors; further reading; improvements for future editions; regarding the audience of the book etc.) 

 

Required Readings

 

The following texts are available for purchase at Black Sun Books (2467 Hilyard Street, next to Sundance Supermarket and ‘Taste of India’):

 

Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure. Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press 1998.

Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski, Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press 1987.

Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas. The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon

Throne, 1405-1433. New York: Simon and Schuster 1994.

 

Additional readings required for graduate students:

            Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things. Material Culture and Social Status in Early

            Modern China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press 2004.

Richard J. Smith, China’s Cultural Heritage. The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912. Boulder: Westview Press 19942.

 

 

Further readings are on reserve as books (articles in journals and additional texts will be available in a course packet in the Copyshop on 13th street.). 

 

 

Spring term possibilities to improve writing skills:

 

1. The American English Institute offers writing classes for students who want to improve their writing skills. The AEI is located in 107 Pacific Hall. Leonard Terrible (346-1090) in 109 Pacific Hall is head of the Intensive English Program.

 

For international students there is the option of courses offered by the program "Academic English for International Students" in 112C Pacific Hall (346-0513).

 

2. The Writing Lab in the Center for Academic Learning Services is located in 68 PLC (Prince Lucien Campbell Hall). The Writing Lab offers assistance in the process of writing term papers etc. You can drop in, usually it is not necessary to make an appointment (346-3226).

 

________________________________________________________________________

Booklist

 

A bibliography of relevant literature that may be useful for your papers will be handed out on the first day of the course. All listed books that are available in Knight Library are indicated on the list, some of them have been selected and will be on (traditional) reserve to be accessible for all class participants throughout the course

 

Course Outline

 

Week 1

 

 

04/04 T            1. Introduction: Bibliography of Ming-related literature available in

                            Knight Library

 

 

 

04/06 R             2. Introduction: Northern Neighbors of China, Map of the Ming

_____________________________________________________________

 

Week 2

 

04/11 T            3. The Founding of the Ming

Reading: Brook, 1-56; begin reading Levathes

 

 

 

04/13 R            4. The State-run Economy: Price Control and Labor Service

Reading: Brook, 57-101; continue reading Levathes

_________________________________________________________________

 

Week 3

 

04/18 T            5. International Trade and Public Culture

Reading: Brook, 102-152; continue reading Levathes

 

04/20 R            6. Religion and Scholarly Life in an Age of Commerce 

Reading: Brook, 153-190; continue reading Levathes

_________________________________________________________________

 

Week 4

 

04/25 T            7. Production for Consumption - The Role of Daughters, Wives, and

                            Courtesans 

 Reading: Brook, 191-237; finish reading Levathes

 

04/27 R            8. Ming Artisans and Artists

Reading: Clunas, 175-185

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Week 5

 

05/0T            9. The Fall of the Ming 

Reading: Brook, 238-262

 

05/04 R          10. MIDTERM (covers lectures, sections, and readings of weeks 1-5)

__________________________________________________________________

 

Week 6

05/09 T            11. The Manchu Takeover

                        Reading: Naquin, Rawski, 1-32

 

05/11 R            12. Kinship Organization and Work

Reading: Naquin, Rawski, 33-54

________________________________________________________________________

 

Week 7

 

05/16 T            13. Culture and Ritual

Reading: Naquin, Rawski, 55-93

 

05/18 R            14. The Social Fabric of Regional Society I 

Reading: Naquin, Rawski, 93-167

________________________________________________________________________

 

Week 8

 

05/23 T            15. The Social Fabric of Regional Society II

Reading: Naquin, Rawski, 168-193 

 Group presentations: Group 1 Women in Late Imperial China

05/25 R            16. Qing Scholarship

Reading: Smith, 129-164 (graduate students’ report)
Group presentations: Group 2 Influential Forces at Court

________________________________________________________________________

 

Week 9

 

05/30 T            17. The Confrontation with the West 

Reading: copies to be handed out

                       [ Art: Objects from the Scholar’s Studio;

                        Ritual robes of the Qing]

Group presentations: Group 3The Treasure Fleet Expeditions

 

06/01 R            18. The Decline of the Qing

Reading: Naquin, Rawski, 217-236

Group presentations: Group 4: Ming and Qing Rebels

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Week 10

 

06/06 T            19. Concluding summary, review and Group presentations:

Group 5 Ideology in Practice

 

06/08 R            20. Group presentations: Group 6: The Great Transition from Empire to Republic
and review

________________________________________________________________________

 

Week 11

 

06/14 W          8.00 Final Exam