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History of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1300 (01:165:461) Course Guidelines and Syllabus Fall 2013 Instructor: Professor Wendy Swartz Scott Hall 215 Scott Hall 323 T 1:10-4:10 wendy.swartz@ rutgers.edu Course Description: This course introduces traditional Chinese literature from its beginnings through the Song dynasty (960-1279). Readings consist of both primary texts in English translation and secondary critical works. This course surveys major narrative and poetic genres, forms and works. Particular attention will be paid to developments of important literary themes, practices and conventions. Relevant cultural and historical contexts will be provided in class. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions, during which the texts will be read closely. In addition to class discussion, students are required to do at least one in-class presentation on the assigned readings. At the end of each class, the professor will briefly introduce the coming week’s readings and provide questions and issues for thinking about the texts. No background in Chinese language or literature is required. Students with reading ability in Classical Chinese are encouraged to read the texts in the original, though class discussions will be based on the English translations. Requirements and Grading Undergraduate students: Attendance and Participation (10%): Students are required to attend all classes. Should your absence be unavoidable, please use the Absence Self-Reporting system (https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/) to indicate the date and reason for your absence. Students will need to come to class having read and pondered all of the assigned texts (both primary and secondary). Students must bring a copy of the reading assignment to class. Participation does not mean just attendance; rather it means active engagement in group discussion. Class Presentations (20%): Students are to lead the seminar discussion in turn and present on the assigned texts over the course of the semester. Class presentations may be based on the provided discussions questions and/or the students’ own interpretation of the interest and/or import of the texts. They may also address larger issues or make comparisons with other course readings. Each student is expected to make several presentations throughout the semester. Everyone is required to come prepared for discussion whether or not s/he is presenting that week. The presentation should be between 5-10 minutes. Note on civility in the classroom: students are expected to uphold basic standards of classroom decorum, which means arriving to class on time, no texting or surfing the internet, no chatting with your neighbors, and no eating during class. Weekly Reflections (40%): The weekly analytical reflection will consist of close reading of the assigned primary texts. Questions will be provided in advance for these weekly reflections, though these reflections may include also your own ideas and questions that arise during your reading of the texts. Students must demonstrate that they have read the texts carefully and thoughtfully, that they are able to connect it with other assigned readings, and that they can

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History of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1300 (01:165:461) Course Guidelines and Syllabus

Fall 2013 Instructor: Professor Wendy Swartz Scott Hall 215 Scott Hall 323 T 1:10-4:10 wendy.swartz@ rutgers.edu Course Description: This course introduces traditional Chinese literature from its beginnings through the Song dynasty (960-1279). Readings consist of both primary texts in English translation and secondary critical works. This course surveys major narrative and poetic genres, forms and works. Particular attention will be paid to developments of important literary themes, practices and conventions. Relevant cultural and historical contexts will be provided in class. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions, during which the texts will be read closely. In addition to class discussion, students are required to do at least one in-class presentation on the assigned readings. At the end of each class, the professor will briefly introduce the coming week’s readings and provide questions and issues for thinking about the texts. No background in Chinese language or literature is required. Students with reading ability in Classical Chinese are encouraged to read the texts in the original, though class discussions will be based on the English translations. Requirements and Grading Undergraduate students: Attendance and Participation (10%): Students are required to attend all classes. Should your absence be unavoidable, please use the Absence Self-Reporting system (https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/) to indicate the date and reason for your absence. Students will need to come to class having read and pondered all of the assigned texts (both primary and secondary). Students must bring a copy of the reading assignment to class. Participation does not mean just attendance; rather it means active engagement in group discussion. Class Presentations (20%): Students are to lead the seminar discussion in turn and present on the assigned texts over the course of the semester. Class presentations may be based on the provided discussions questions and/or the students’ own interpretation of the interest and/or import of the texts. They may also address larger issues or make comparisons with other course readings. Each student is expected to make several presentations throughout the semester. Everyone is required to come prepared for discussion whether or not s/he is presenting that week. The presentation should be between 5-10 minutes. Note on civility in the classroom: students are expected to uphold basic standards of classroom decorum, which means arriving to class on time, no texting or surfing the internet, no chatting with your neighbors, and no eating during class. Weekly Reflections (40%): The weekly analytical reflection will consist of close reading of the assigned primary texts. Questions will be provided in advance for these weekly reflections, though these reflections may include also your own ideas and questions that arise during your reading of the texts. Students must demonstrate that they have read the texts carefully and thoughtfully, that they are able to connect it with other assigned readings, and that they can

articulate intelligently what they understand to be the themes and issues raised by the texts. Each reflection must be approximately 250 words, typed, single-spaced, and include a title and word count (not to exceed 300 words). Each student must submit one analytical reflection per week, except for the student(s) leading the discussion that week. The ten highest grades will be used when calculating this component of the course grade. Term Paper (30%): 5-7 pages in length. Choose a theme, issue or author and construct an argument based on close reading of two or more texts. Try to be original and careful in your analysis. Students must retain a copy of each paper. Written work for this course must be entirely your own and careful citation of credible sources should conform with The Chicago Manual of Style. For guidelines, see: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Violations of academic integrity, such as cheating, plagiarism, helping others to violate academic integrity, or submitting another’s work as your own, will not be tolerated. Any violation will result in zero credit for that assignment and will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Ignorance of the rules and conventions of attribution and citation is not considered a mitigating factor. See Rutgers University guidelines on academic integrity at: http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml

Graduate students: 1. Attendance and Participation (10%): See above. 2. Class Presentations (20%): See above. 3. Weekly Reflections (40%): See above. 4. Term Paper (30%): 10-15 pages. Please see me to discuss your topic. Course Materials: I. There are two types of required reading materials, of which students will need a hard copy: A) A course reader in a PDF file, which will be made available to students enrolled in the course B) The following textbook may be purchased at Barnes and Noble and NJ Books. It is also on

reserve at the Alexander Library. Stephen Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. II. You may wish to consult secondary literature on Chinese poetry for additional background on individual poets, periods and styles. The following books, on reserve at the Alexander Library, will be useful research sources for papers:

Birrell, Anne. New Songs from a Jade Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry. New York: Penguin Books, 1982.

Cai, Zong-qi. The Matrix of the Lyric Transformation. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Campany, Robert. Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China. New York: SUNY Press, 1996.

Chang, Kang-i Sun. Six Dynasties Poetry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.

Frankel, Hans. “Yüeh-fu Poetry.” In Studies in Chinese Literary Genres, edited by Cyril Birch. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

Hawkes, David. Ch’u Tz’u: The Songs of the South. Boston: Beacon Press, 1959.

Hightower, James Robert. The Poetry of T’ao Ch’ien. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.

Knechtges, David, trans. Wen xuan or Selections of Refined Literature. 3 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982-1996.

Kroll, Paul. Meng Hao-jan. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.

Kwong, Charles Yim-tze. Tao Qian and the Chinese Poetic Tradition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1994.

Mair, Victor H. The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Miao, Ronald. “Palace-Style Poetry: The Courtly Treatment of Glamour and Love.” In Studies in Chinese Poetry and Poetics, edited by Ronald Miao. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, Inc., 1978.

Nienhauser, William. The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. 2 Vols. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986-1998.

Owen, Stephen. The End of the Chinese ‘Middle Ages’: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.

----------. The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T’ang. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

----------. Readings in Chinese Literary Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992.

Schaberg, David. A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, Asia Center, 2001.

Strassberg, Richard. A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Swartz, Wendy. Reading Tao Yuanming: Shifting Paradigms of Historical Reception. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, Asia Center, 2008.

Wagner, Marsha. Wang Wei. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.

Waley, Arthur, trans. The Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry. New York: Grove Press, 1996.

Watson, Burton, trans. The Complete Works of Chuang tzu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968.

----------. Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

----------. Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

----------. The Tso Chuan: Selections from China’s Oldest Narrative History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.

Wu, Fusheng. The Poetics of Decadence: Chinese Poetry of the Southern Dynasties and Late Tang Periods. New York: SUNY Press, 1998.

Yu, Pauline. The Poetry of Wang Wei: New Translations and Commentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.

----------. The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

III. The following history books provide useful background and context.

The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C.

The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 1. The Ch’in and Han Empires.

The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 3. Sui and T’ang China.

Fairbank, John K., and Merle Goldman. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998.

Fairbank, John K., and Edwin O. Reischauer. China: Tradition and Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Hucker, Charles. China to 1850: A Short History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978.

Schirokauer, Conrad. A Brief History of Chinese Civilization. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991.

Syllabus:

Week 1 (September 3): Introduction

“The Great Preface” to the Classic of Poetry; Ode #1 “The Ospreys Cry”

Week 2 (September 10): Selections from the Classic of Poetry, or the Book of Songs

Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature (hereafter “A”), Classic of Poetry (selections): Odes #245 “She Bore the Folk,” #236 “The Greater Brightness,” #255 “Overbearing,” #131 “Yellow Bird,” #9 “The Han is So Wide,” #10 “Bluffs of the Ru,” #113 “Huge Rat,” #23 “Dead Roe Deer,” #76 “Zhong-zi Please,” #26 “Cypress Boat”

#205 “Northern Hills” (Reader)

Secondary readings: Stephen Owen, foreword to The Book of Songs, trans. Arthur Waley, xii-xxv; Jeffrey Riegel, “Shih-ching Poetry and Didacticism in Ancient Chinese Literature,” in The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair, 97-109.

Week 3 (September 17): Early folk poetry and literati poetry

“Mulberries by the Path”, (A, 234-35) “Song of White Hair”, (A, 233-34) “East of Ping-ling” (A, 229), “The One I Love” (227-28)

“Nineteen Old Poems” Nos. 1 (A, 253-54), 2 (A, 259), 3 (A, 255), 5 (A, 259-260), 9 (A, 258), 15 (A, 261)

Secondary readings: Hans Frankel, “Yüeh-fu Poetry,” 69-94.

Week 4 (September 24): Early Narrative

Selections from the Zuo Commentary, or Zuozhuan: “Two Brothers of Cheng and the Mother Who Doted on the Younger,” “Duke Hsien of Chin and Lady Li,” “Ch’ung-erh”: The Years of Wandering,” “Ch’ung-erh: The Return to Chin,” “The Battle of Ch’eng-p’u” (Reader)

More selections from the Zuo Commentary and other early narrative: (A, 77-99)

Secondary readings: Burton Watson, introduction to the Tso Chuan, xi-xxxviii.

Week 5 (October 1): No class

Week 6 (October 8): Selections from Zhuangzi

“Free and Easy Wandering,” “Discussion on Making All Things Equal,” “In the World of Men,” “Robber Chih,” “Discoursing on Swords” (Reader)

Secondary readings: Burton Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang-tzu, 1-28.

Week 7 (October 15): Selections from the Records of the Grand Historian, or Shiji

“The Biography of Bo Yi and Shu Qi” (A, 142-45), from the “Biographies of the Assassins”: Nie Zheng (A, 152-54); from the “Biographies of the Assassins”: Jing Ke, “Basic Annals of Xiang Yu,” “The Biography of Sima Xiangru” (Reader)

Secondary readings: Burton Watson, introduction to Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, ix-xx; introduction to Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty I, xv-xx.

Week 8 (October 22): Strange Writings

From Kan Pao’s (Gan Bao) Search for the Supernatural: Preface, “Wang Tao-ping’s Wife Restored to Life,” “Treasure Recovered Through the Classic of Changes,” “The Origins of the Man Barbarians,” “The Spirit of Young Mrs. Ting,” “Liang Wen and Lord Kan-shan,” “The Archers and Keng-lei” (Reader)

From Tsu Ch’ung-chih’s Accounts of Strange Things: “Ou Ching-chih and the Corpse Eater”; Guideways Through Mountains and Seas (also known as the Mountains and Seas Classic)), Nos. 1-100 (Reader)

Secondary readings: Richard Strassberg, A Chinese Bestiary, 1-13, 30-43, 43-57; Robert Campany, Strange Writing, 1-17, 24-27, 146-150.

Week 9 (October 29): Selections from the Recluse Poet Tao Yuanming

Tao Yuanming: “Returning to Farm to Dwell” Nos. 1 and 2, “A Lament in the Ch’u Mode,” “On Moving House” Nos. 1 and 2, “A Reply to Secretary Kuo” No. 1, “Peach Blossom Spring,” “Twenty Poems After Drinking Wine,” Preface, Nos. 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, “Biography of the Gentleman of the Five Willows” (Reader)

Secondary readings: Swartz, Reading Tao Yuanming, 1-22; Chang Sun Kang-i, Six Dynasties Poetry, 3-46.

Week 10 (November 5): Selections from Southern Dynasties palace poetry

He Xun, “Performers on the Terrace of the Bronze Sparrow” (A, 326)

Xie Tiao, “A Companion Piece for Xie Jing’s ‘Terrace of the Bronze Sparrow’” (A, 326)

Xiao Gang, “Source of Pain” No. 2 (A, 327), “Song: Every Night” (A, 327), “Roaming in the North Park by Night”(A, 327), “Sending a Palace Lady Back at Night to the Rear Boat” (A, 327), On a Lone Duck” (A, 327)

Xiao Yan, “Zi-ye Song” (A, 328); Shen Yue, “Going Out Early and Meeting an Old Love, I Give This to Her in Her Carriage” (A, 328); Wu Jun, “Quatrains on Various Topics” No. 1 (A, 328); Wang Seng-ru, “Spring Longings” (A, 329); Liu Xiaochuo, “On a Woman Unwilling to Come Forth” (A, 329)

Secondary readings: Ronald Miao, “Palace-Style Poetry,” 1-42; Anne Birrell, introduction to New Songs from a Jade Terrace, 1-28.

Week 11 (November 12): High Tang poets: Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Li Bo, and Du Fu

Wang Wei: “The Wang River Collection” (with Pauline Yu’s commentary in Reader); “When Living Quietly at Wang-chuan I Gave This to Pei Di”; “Villa on Zhongnan Mountain”; “Answering Magistrate Zhang” (A, 390-91)

Meng Haoran: “Gazing from a Boat in the Early Morning” (A, 396), “Early Cold on the River: Something on My Mind” (A, 396), “Year’s End, Returning to My Southern Mountains” (in Owen’s chapter, 85) “Visiting the Country Home of an Old Friend” (Reader) “Climbing Zhang Pavilion to Watch the Tidal Bore with Yan of Qiantang” (Reader)

Li Bo: “Drinking Alone by Moonlight” (A, 403), “Summer Day in the Mountains” (A, 404), “Rising Drunk on a Spring Day, Telling My Intent” (A, 404), “Bring in the Wine” (A, 284-85), “Dialogue in the Mountains” (A, 403)

Du Fu: “A Song of My Care When Going from the Capital to Fengxian” (A, 417-420), “The View in Spring” (A, 420), “Lament by the River” (A, 422-23), “Qiang Village” Nos. 1 and 3 (A, 423-24), “Bending River” (A, 424), “Recruiting Officer of Shih-hao” (Reader)

Secondary readings: Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High T’ang, 27-51, 71-88, 109-143, 183-224.

Week 12 (November 19): Mid-Tang poets: Bo Juyi, Han Yu, and Meng Jiao

Bo Juyi: “Song of Lasting Pain” (A, 442-47), “What Came to Mind When Chanting My Poems” (A, 497), “Light Furs, Fat Horses” from Songs of Qin (Reader), “Salt Merchant’s Wife” (A, 501)

Chen Hong, “An Account to Go with the ‘Song of Lasting Pain” (A, 448-452)

Han Yu: “Autumn Meditations” Nos. 1 and 8 (with Stephen Owen’s commentary in Reader)

Meng Jiao: “Autumn Meditations” No. 2 (with Stephen Owen’s commentary in Reader); “Cold Creek” No. 3 (with Stephen Owen’s commentary in Reader); “Tormented” (A, 479)

Secondary readings: Stephen Owen, introduction to The End of the Chinese ‘Middle Ages’, 1-11.

Week 13 (November 26): Thursday classes

Week 14 (December 3): Song shi-poetry: Mei Yaochen, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian

Mei Yaochen: “Writing of My Sorrow” (A, 690), “A Companion Piece to Xie Jingchu’s ‘Spending the Night in My Wife’s Study, Hearing Mice and Being Greatly Troubled’” (A, 649), “In the Rain, Spending the Night in the Library of Messrs. Xie, Xu and Pei” (A,

650), “At a Party Given by Fan Zhongyan the Guests Spoke of Eating ‘River-Hog,’ or the Blowfish” (A, 650-51)

Huang Tingjian: “Following the Rhymes of Huang Dalin’s ‘Sent to Su Che’,” “To Huang Jifu,” “Asking for a Cat” (A, 694-95)

Su Shi: “Getting Up at Night in a Boat” (A, 667), “Eight Poems on Eastern Slope” Nos. 1 and 2 (with Ronald Egan’s commentary in Reader) “On the Winter Festival I Visited Lone Mountain and the Two Monks Huijin and Huisi” (A, 669-670), “Mountain Villages” Nos. 3 and 4 (with Ronald Egan’s commentary in Reader)

Secondary readings: Michael Fuller, “Sung Dynasty Shih Poetry,” in The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair, 337-369.

Week 15 (December 10): Song ci-poetry

Yan Jidao: to “Butterflies Love Flowers” (Die lian hua), to “Partridge Weather” (Zhe gu tian) (“With such feeling...) (A, 572)

Liu Yong: to “Joy at Midnight” (Ye ban le) (A, 575)

Zhou Bangyan: to “Gallant” (Fengliu zi), to “Spring in the Mansion of Jade” (Yulou chun) (A, 576-77)

Su Shi: to “Song for the River Tune” (Shui diao ge tou), to “Immortal by the River” (Lin jiang xian), to “Settling Wind and Leaves” (Ding feng bo) (A, 577-78), “To the tune, ‘River Town’” (Jiang cheng zi) (Recording a Dream on the Night of the 20th Day of the 1st Month of Yimao [1075]) (with Egan’s commentary in Reader)

Li Qingzhao: “Like a Dream” (Ru meng ling), to “Note After Note” (Sheng sheng man); to “Southern Song” (Nan ge zi) (A, 580-82)

Lu You: “To ‘Partridge Weather’” (Zhe gu tian) (A, 583)

Xin Qiji: to “Clear and Even Music” (Qing ping yue) (An Account on the Censer Mountain Road), to “West River Moon” (Xi jiang yue) (Expressing What was on My Mind) (A, 584)

Secondary readings: Stuart Sargent, “T’zu,” in The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair, 314-336; Stephen Owen, “Meaning the Words,” in Voices of the Song Lyric in China, ed. Pauline Yu, 30-69.

Final paper due Friday, December 13, 12 noon. Email an electronic copy to Professor Swartz. You must retain a copy of your paper.