Revised 02/2015

HIS 255 - History of Chinese Culture and Institutions (3 CR.)

Course Description

Examines traditional Chinese social, political, economic, and military institutions. Also examines major literary, artistic and intellectual achievements from pre-historic times to the present.

General Course Purpose

This course surveys the general history of China from approximately 10,000 BCE to the present. Students will learn about China’s historical development through changes over time in politics, culture, society, and economy.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

None.

Course Objectives

• Upon completing the course, the student will be able to: a) Establish the historical timeline of events from the ancient through modern period in China b) Explain the significance of the influence of China’s inner-Asian frontier and coastal periphery, and China’s interactions with them from its early formation through the modern period c) Identify and analyze the economic, social, cultural, religious, and geopolitical forces that shaped China d) Analyze and critically read primary and secondary sources

Major Topics to Be Included

a) State formation and legitimation of power in early China b) The rise of a bureaucratic empire c) Imperial unification and division d) Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, and other competing schools of philosophy e) Buddhism and the State f) Non-Chinese rule and the Mongol empire g) The civil service examination system and society h) Economic and social change in late imperial China i) Confrontations and accommodations with the West and Japan j) Liberalism, reform, and radicalism in the Republican era k) The War of Resistance with Japan and the Communist-Nationalist Civil War l) Stability versus continual revolution in Communist China m) Greater China and alternate models: Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the overseas Chinese n) Power and wealth in post-Mao China