Cultural History of China

This course proposes a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Chinese cultural history conceived of as a succession of modes of rationality (philosophical, bureaucratic, and economic processes of rationalization). The focus will be on the moments of paradigm shift from one mode of rationality to another. For each of these moments, cultural facts and artifacts - thought, literature, ritual - will be examined in relationship to changing social, political, and economic systems. The specific focus of this course is on the emergence of modern China in the Song-Yuan (960-1368) and of today's China 1850 to the present. We will see how the modern attack on religion, redefined as "superstition", led not only to religious reform movements but also to a society in which science and the nation became the primary value systems promoted by the state.