ASIA 368 - The Court, Consorts, and Courtesans

1 unit(s)

(Same as CHIN 368) The course is designed to serve the increasing needs among students with very high or near native Chinese proficiency who want to read more sophisticated literary texts in the original and thereby to benefit their Chinese literary reading and writing as well as their knowledge of traditional Chinese literature and culture. The course chooses primary texts mainly from the Three Kingdoms, Six Dynasties and the Tang times in medieval China and frames them in historical and literary continuum. These texts include Cao Zhi, Xie Lingyun, Liu Yiqing, Gan Bao, Du Fu, Li Shangyin and Tang romances. Some relevant modern texts and criticisms such as Lu Xun, Chen Yinke, and Qian Zhongshu are also incorporated to make up such continuum. Students are required to submit a series of writing exercises in Chinese that analyse, discuss and rewrite the original texts. Students gain great familiarity with how meanings were generated in medieval Chinese poetry and fiction, acquire insights into more personal and intimate perspectives of historical events and social mores, and improve their own Chinese reading and writing. Haoming Liu.

Prerequisite(s): Advanced Chinese or its equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Most of the readings are in Chinese.

Two 75-minute periods.

Not offered in 2018/19.