Session 5 - April 14

[Jennifer Macchiarella]

My favorite line from the reading about courtly tastes: "Although life’s uncertainties would remain a persistent theme in Japanese literature, corpses were avoided as the subject of poetry."  While I am not an expert in poetry,  I don't think corpses are a common theme in poetry at all. That being said, I found the acknowledgement of the uncertainties of life a useful theme for teaching. I teach a blocked English/history class and every we tweak the themes we focus on across genres and history. Those that cross, like this one, are especially valuable in helping students see commonalities across the human experience.  I image students examining, over the entire year, how industry, politics, and governance are influenced by the uncertainties of life. How diseases and child mortality rates change and how that affects people's attitudes. How characters, from Macbeth to Persepolis, face mortality.  

[Jennifer Macchiarella]

I agree that diversifying the curriculum is important.  In the English department we are trying to introduce more literature that reflects our growning Asian student population. We want all students to see themselves in the literature.  From this class I have been especially appreciative of ideas of how to incorporate art and poetry into the curriculum.  Our history textbooks have a lot of pictures of Greek and Roman art, but not much from China or Japan.  We practice reading pictures as texts, and many of these examples will be useful.

 

[Bin He]

1. Story content:

Ancient Chinese documents record the story of "Pangu created the world and the earth." It is about the chaos at the beginning of the world, and then Pangu, who had been sleeping for thousands of years, woke up and created the world, and finally died due to fatigue and turned into everything in the world.

When the Japanese talked about the origin of the world, they only said that when the heavens and the earth were separated, in a "high heavenly source" place, three gods were born one after another. Among them, the Lord God of Heaven's Imperial Palace appeared once, and he naturally became the ruler of heaven and earth. As for the other four "other gods" and the later seven generations of gods, they are just like the gods of heaven, aloof and far away from human life.

 

2. The Origin of God

Chinese gods: They have extraordinary achievements, and at the same time, they have another identity; they are the leaders of the human clan.

The earliest creation god recorded in Chinese literature is Fuxi and Nuwa. Their achievements are: Nuwa repairing the sky and creating man, the legend of Fuxi and Nuwa creating humankind,

 

Japanese gods: directly incarnate, and others are the second generation of gods, the third generation of gods..., such as Izan's destiny and Izan's beautiful life, they gave birth to many gods. The Chinese immortals had to work hard from the beginning, not to mention that the later cultivators had to practice both internally and externally.

 

[Bin He]

3.The origin of humankind

 

Regarding the origin of humankind, there are no such stories in the Japanese "Kojiki," only Izana brothers and sisters turned their backs, the sister said: "...I will kill a thousand of your countrymen every day." The brother replied. "Then I will build 1,500 delivery rooms every day, and 1,500 babies will be born every day." So the population is increasing, but the origin of humankind is not mentioned.

In Chinese mythology, people are derived from the creation of clay by gods.

 

4. Other differences in beliefs.

 

For example, there are legends of "Kuafu chasing the sun" and "Houyi shooting the sun" in China. However, Japan worships the sun and regards Amaterasu, the god of the sun, as the ancestor of the emperor of Japan and the main god of Shintoism.

 

[Jennifer Macchiarella]

I also found it interesting how the capital changed location with each new dynastry. I don't recall anything similar in European history. Rome was Rome and all roads led there, no matter who was emperor.  In Washington, we learn about how a group of determined civic leaders had an election, possibly fraudulent, and moved the county seat of Snohomish country from Snohomish to  Everett, where it is today.  I think my students would like to compare this to the current debate about DC statehood.  What is the importance of a capital? Why does it need to be separate from the states? Does it have to be separate? How has the history of those living within its boundaries shaped the attitudes of those who support and oppose DC statehood?

[Johnny Walker]

I really enjoyed learning about the idea of “geomancy”, the Chinese philosophy that places value on geographic and natural elements that seems to blend animistic traditions with city planning. I’m wondering how universal these ideas are and how they manifest themselves in other cultures. While the Japanese design of the capital of Kyoto was picked specifically because of its fertile and auspicious location, the specificity of eastern hills, deep mountains to the north, agricultural regions to the south, and rivers to the west providing a chanel to the inland sea, I am wondering how common these considerations are in determining a center of power are in other cultures without direct influence from these ideas. In addition to a grid-based plan, the Tang Dynasty influence on Japanese capital design was believed to be efficacious in creating a political structure to keep the sovereign in power. I’m imagining the City of Tenochtitlan specifically, and based upon its grid, relationship to mountains, water and fertile plains, am curious how closely it aligns to the values of geomancy.

As our cities require greater care and urban planning to serve all inhabitants and have an even greater awareness of environmental factors in both resource management and protection from ever greater climate threats, this theory seems worth unearthing and even more prescient today. It would be interesting to consider the different philosophical considerations that are stratified upon modern cities and have our students examine the material, cultural, environmental, economic, and political ramifications of ideological influence on city planning. As we look to dismantle racist institutions today, many of its legacies remain embedded in concrete and steel of the archetecture that surround us.

[Taylor Bub]

I love that you are trying to learn Japanese.  I personally have always had a fascination with learning new languages.  I think however, many people choose to learn more Euro-centric languages (thinking French, Spanish, Italian, and German) because they are seen as 'impressive' to be able to be fluent in.  However, I have always found it much more impressive that people, expecially those who have immigrated from China, Vietnam, Thailand and other Aisan countries have been able to learn English so well considering how different the languages are from one another.  I have watched other people make rude comments or just act in rude ways towards people who are speaking Korean or Vietnamese and switching between that and English.  I wonder if this rude attitude comes from some form of jealousy that other people are able to communicate in more than one language, or if it really is just from believing that people who speak languages other than English from birth are lesser.  Personally I would love to learn Japanese or Korean, but I have found that the grammatical rules compared to English seem so complex (even though I know that the English language has some more complex grammatical rules).

[Cynthia Jackson]

As I’ve been looking for ways to have students compare and contrast cultures in similar geographical regions, I want to take advantage of the opportunities East Asia offers. One of the ways I want to do this is by teaching students about myths from China, Japan, and Korea. Myths are always popular lessons for those that teach Greece and Rome because students love learning about the different gods, goddesses, and heroes. Although cultures all around the world have myths and folktales, those besides the Greek and Roman ones are hardly ever taught and I think it suggests to students that Greece and Rome are more interesting to learn about than other places. I want students to be fascinated by Japan’s origins and understand their cultural values and religions in a way that acknowledges and capitalizes on the fact they are kids. If I start with a creation myth, I can lead students in comparing China, Japan, and Korea’s creation myths, first focusing on their similarities and what they suggest about which culture had the most influence over the others, then focusing on their differences and having students draw conclusions about each culture’s unique characteristics.

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