Dates: 02/03 - 05/22
M	T	W	Th	F	Sa	Su
	1:30 pm 3:10 pm JRC 414		1:30 pm 3:10 pm JRC 414

Subject: History (HIST)

CRN: 21678

Lecture

St Paul: John Roach Center 414

Requirements Met:
     Writing in the Discipline

  Jaymin Kim

This course will investigate imperial orthodoxy and heresies in a historical context. We will start with the establishment of Confucianism as the orthodox school of thought in China by the second century BCE, focusing on Confucius and his followers as well as their opponents. In the second part of the class, we will encounter Confucianism as an institutionalized imperial orthodoxy by looking at the imperial legal codes as well as the civil service examination system, two key institutions that perpetuated its orthodoxy in late imperial China (1368-1912). Last, we will look at various “heresies” that went against this imperial orthodoxy, ranging from disobedience to one’s parents to the practice of Christianity. By analyzing legal records from the Qing dynasty (1636-1912), we will look at how orthodoxy worked in practice as well as how heresies operated and sometimes were persecuted by the imperial state. The overarching goals of this course are to highlight the historical relevance of Confucianism as a sociocultural structure, to become aware of the diversity of ways of life in imperial China, and to introduce basic components of source analysis and analytical writing.

4 Credits