Session #6 - March 16 (afternoon), Ye Yang

[cgao]

Professor Ye Yang from UC Riverside will focus on Cosmopolitan China for his lecture. The readings are below. 

 

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[Brenda-Jean Shephard]

The pdf's of Ebrey_Buddhim, Aristocracy, and Alien Rulers.pdf and Ebrey_A Cosmopolitan Empire.pdf look interesting, but they are not entirely legible.  Birch_Period of Division.pdf and Birch_Tang Poetry.pdf are sideways, which makes them difficult to read.

[Marcos Rico]

This Chapter covers the history of China from 220-589. Three Kingdoms, Western Jin, Northern (foreigners) and Southern Dynasties. These centuries were a time of warfare and lots of changes. It is a little bit hard to follow due to all the changes that occurred during this time period.

The area that I found more interesting was about the arrival of Buddhism to China, it arrived with merchants and missionaries. At first it was only a  religion of foreigners, but little by little gained acceptance into Chinese Society. Big surprise for me, there is Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, and Tantric Buddhism (makes me wonder, how many other forms of Buddhism are there?). I have so much to learn about world religions. Everyday I learn a little bit more.

According to this chapter during the Zhou and Han period, poverty was so prevalent that many husbands would sell their children and even their wives into slavery (there were laws that forbid the kidnapping and selling of some people into slavery). But I wonder if those laws were ever enforced. The chapter mentions that during there chaotic time, there was an ever increasing use of slave labor.

 

[Marcos Rico]

Brenda, I agree with you Period of Division and Tang Poetry were hard to read on the computer since they appear sideways 🙁  Luckly I was able to download them into my iPad and turn it on its side just enough to be able to read them. I enjoyed reading Peach Blossom Spring, the story sounds familiar, but cannot remember where I read it before. 

[Christine Moguel]

I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Ye’s lecture in that he presented the information in a story telling and personal narrative format.  He gave details explaining most information- the “back story” is engaging, highly expressive and entertaining.    He gave clear visuals of Chinese historical figures, territory maps of china, as well as, images of the scholars that have recorded Chinese language and history timelines.  It was a great review of information about the “middle ages” that I found really accessible to understand.   I particularly appreciated the way in which he was able to link Chinas history with western academics and their ideological, historical, and literary references to China- whether it be language, history, religion- Arnold Toynbee and M. Ricci , Helen Vendler etc.  His quoting of the Vendler text, was poignant and enlightening- as an artist myself, I wholeheartedly agree- to use the products of the cultures to be able to teach and expose our students about the historical period you are teaching.

[Amy Chen]

Professor Ye Yan gives a well rounded lecture on Cosmopolitan China. His experience with comparative literature brings an interesting viewpoint on the history of China. His assigned readings, such as Birch, brings Chinese poetry and philosophy a much needed focus. In CA’s current standards for 6th grade history, there is not much of an emphasis on humanities but more so on facts and social studies. I intent to add more poetry into my class in cross curricular units since I teach both English and History. Additionally, I enjoyed how Professor Yan placed art from the Gu Kaizhi next to a painting by Diego Velazquez so we can compare the similarities. Doing so is a great way to discuss history through the lens of art.

 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

In addition to teaching Haiku and Sijo during the unit "How we express ourselves?" I will also teach the Chinese forms of poetry: lushi, an eight line poem with five, six, or seven charcters per line, and jueju, a four line poem with five, six, or seven characters per line.  Students would listen to a poem by Wang Wei.  Together with the class we would write a jueju.  Thereafter, students will try to compose their own jueju.  All  poems will be colllected and made into a "Poetry around the World" book.  Students will also share their jueju in front of the entire class.  As a follow up lesson, we will talk about chanting vs.singing. Students will listen to the Da Fu poem and chant "Ascending the Heights."  As closure, students will try to chant the poems they wrote in the earlier lesson.

[Dan Thalkar]

I appreciated our lecturer's multidisciplinary approach and believe that we should, in our study of any culture, attempt to use as many different lenses as possible. It's only my including and emphasizing lived experiences and expressions, such as through the arts, that we're able to genuinely connect to and begin to understand other cultures. As such, I think that using some of the poetry samples provided in conjunction with poetry from other cultures and time periods would help compare how artists perceive the world and their responsibility within it. Additionally, constructing a DBQ with poetry and art, along with more "traditional" academic texts, would help expand the scope of student writing and analysis.

[Dennis O'Connell]

Hey!  I just got done asking in my post on session five if anyone had ideas for Chinese poetry.  I come into session six posts, and here is an answer!  Thanks for the ideas!

[Dennis O'Connell]

We are over halfway through!  One of the things which facinated me during this two-part lecture was the fact that exchanges occur between cultures whenever they come into contact.  These exchanges can be local, or they can be over very long distances (the Chinese vases found in Syria are a good example of this).  These exchanges can be cultural, linguistic, religious, commercial, etc.  It might be interesting to engage my students in a discussion about how much Asia affects their daily lives today.  Most of them have never been to Asia, but I bet some of the clothes they wear, the cars they ride in, and the foods they eat have some influence from Asia!  Another thing I gleaned from these lectures was the idea of zeitgeist, the "spirit of the times".  As one studies history, it is important to look at literature, poetry, music, etc. as indicators of how the times are changing.  

[Scott Craig]

I agree too. I actually downloaded the PDF and printed it off so that I could read it. I know that it was a bit of paper and ink, but totally worth it.

[Dan Thalkar]

Marco,

I also thought the arrival of Buddhism was an interesting period. It could be used as a case study with students to examine how religious beliefs spread. By studying its gradual mainstreaming, via foreigners and trade, we'd be able to develop a deeper understanding of how culture shifts and grows. 

[cgao]

I'm working on finding fresh copies of these readings, but these are what we have at the moment. Thanks for coming up with ways to make it work! 

[Stephanie Rodriguez]

I’m going to start off with a major side note and not to do so much with the classroom but I love alien theories and I love how he mentioned the Mayan ancient civilization, the Egyptian ancient civilization, and the Chinese ancient civilization and how they are all very close to the 30-degree line of longitude. I want to look into that and learn about it a little more.

I love how history includes everything, politics, facts, arts which include literature. That really came across today because it was emphasized by the fact that we had two sessions back to back. Growing up I always separated literature and history, I saw literature as a form of art, and I saw art history separate from mainstream history. I love the obvious connections made with both in this lecture. I remember disliking history in school until I got to college. I want to incorporate the arts more in history so that my students enjoy it and learn from it.

Also, when we talked about chanting poems I thought about lyrics to songs and I want to make a strong connection with this in my class. I want to talk about poetry, including haikus and songs.

[Christine Moguel]

My teaching practice focuses on self expression and self advocacy, as well as, art apprecaiation.  I am a theater teacher that also teaches vocational curriculum for my special education adults. Teaching my students about the syntesized and meaningful words that make up Jueju and/or haiku poetry is a great way to empahasize the powerful meaning of words to express ideas about the self, ones feelings and emotions.  I would have my students work on a poem during class after having listened to verbal examples of chinese poets like Wang Wei (701-761 BC), Qu Yuan (339-278 BC), and possibly even  Shi Nai'en (1296-1372) auther of the four great classical novels, will write out some of the poems on large post its so the structure of the poems can sink in as they are pondering their ideas on their own poems.  I will engage students in verbal, visual, tactile, means using strategies such as word walls, small group work, and hopefully present their work out loud when the students are done.

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