Selected problems in East Asian history from early modern times to the present. Typical offerings include social history of late Imperial China, chaos and order in early modern Japan, and moments in East Asian history. This course is a study of the government and politics of the People's Republic of China. The relationship between domestic and foreign policies is also examined. This course is a survey of East Asian international relations from the breakdown of the traditional Chinese world order to the emergence of the Pacific Rim system.
Emphasis is on foreign policies of East Asian nations, security and trade issues.
The influence of India on human religious history has been profound. Developing within and emanating from India, the Mahayana Buddhist tradition has spread to and has continued to develop among persons living in China and Japan. It traces the development of that structure in China, leading to a consideration of forms, from Zen to the Pure Land school, among others, that the tradition has taken as a result of responses in faith made by men and women in Japan who have become Mahayana Buddhists. This seminar investigates a dimension of human self-consciousness that has been addressed by means of the English word faith. Specifically, this seminar considers what leading authors have meant by the term faith and whether the notion communicated by this term might represent a generic category for understanding human religious history and our religiously plural world today.