AS 201 Perceptions of China (Bodde)

First, what are some ways to explore/discuss the Genji?

 

 

 

What does it offer us as a center piece of Japanese classical literature?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is noteworthy or "striking" about it to you?

 

 

 

 

 

We know it is treasured as a "compendium," a Resource for Heian court life, for Japanese aesthetics; for notions of beauty, artistry, elegance and refinement, and on the value and practice of Poetic Exchanges. Examples?

What else might there be?

Rank seems so important. Why?

What responsibilities come with Rank or Elite Status?

What "matters" in Heian times? In China we know it had to know with understanding the world, finding a path of self-cultivation, and one's making life or experience meaningful.

It was often about learning How to Live and How to Do the Right Thing? "Optimizing our experiences."

How about Japan?

What was important there in 9th-12th centuries?

Can you write something about how the Genji helps us answer this question?

What's the best way to go about this?

Which events or moments in the text are the most illustrative for you?

What would you have your reader take from these passages? How can we best read and interpret them?

Perhaps a goal for this paper is to have it be a blend of your voice and the voice of the author and/or her characters.

Think of your paper flowing smoothly or seamlessly as it moves back and forth between these two voices with possibly some commentary by "experts" sprinkled about here and there for effect. The "experts," in this case, would mostly be critics and reviewers that I have linked and referenced in my pages online.

 

 

 

Let's Read Observations by 10 Travelers to China

Sulaiman the Merchant

Marco Polo

Friar Odoric

Bishop Andrew

Ibn Battutah

Galeote Pereira

Matteo Ricci

Voltaire

Arthur Smith

S. Wells Williams

Eugene Simon, Ricci Trigault Journals

 

1. Sulaiman the Merchant c. 851

--All Chinese aspire to learn the characters, to learn to read and write.

--Govt issues food from reserves

--Public health care for poor

--Schools in every town with School Masters

 

2. Marco Polo writes in 1275-1292,

--Beijing has vast population and multitude of houses

--City of Hangzhou = finest, noblest city in the world;

--Everything is on a vast scale

--The natives of the city of Hangzhou are men of peaceful character...They know nothing of handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions among them.

--They are thoroughly honest and truthful, and there is such a degree of good will and neighborly attachment among both men and women that you would take the people who live on the same street to be all one family."

3. Friar Odoric writes c. 1323-1327:

--In that country the number of people is so great that among us here it would be deemed incredible.

--And no man ever seeketh alms, however poor he may be, as long as he can do anything with his his own hands to help himself.

--But those who have fallen into indigence and infirmity are well looked after and provided with the necessities.

4. And Bishop Andrew (1326):

--The Wealth, Spendor and glory of the Emperor, the vastness of his domain, the multitudes of subjects, number and greatness of China's Cities are incredible

--People of every nation and Sect live freely here according to their creed

5. Ibn Battutah from Arabia (1347):

--this is a vast country with rich variety of things; no other country can rival China

--Their skill in the Arts, especially Painting is unmatched

--Also, safest place to travel int he world!

6. Galeote Pereria 1549-1552 Southern China:

--one of the best lands in all the world

--Justice is right on; they listened and were patient even with foreigners

--No beggars in eveidence

--Everyone free to worship and follow path of own choice

7. Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1550s-1610)

--variety of plant and animal life; no need to import food;

--no wars of aggression

--Kingdom administerd by "Order of the Learned," the Philosophers or Confucian Scholar officials

--Order and Harmony prevail

--Fighting and Violence almost unheard of --Chinese anitquity highly regarded; fewest errors

--Their ancient Classics filled with salutary advice on becoming Virtuous

--Ultimate purpose = Public peace and order

--Economc security of family and virtuous training of the individual is key

8. Voltaire: "the organization of their Empire is in truth the best the world has ever seen!"

But...In the 19th Century

A complete REVERSAL occurs:

9. English Protestant Missionary Arthur Smith

--Hopeless poverty;

--indifference to suffering of others

--completely insincere and deceitful

--society may look good at first but is shabby and repulsive underneath

--China needs Righteousness! Knowledge of God and new conception of Man

--China needs Christianity!!

 

10. American Protestant Missionary S. Wells Williams

--Vile and polluted people! Filthy,shocking, impure!

--Sins of the flesh and Lies. Disregard of truth

--Thieving is common

-- Genuine hospitality lacking

--no public or private charity

--politeness is on the surface only; underneath is rudeness, brutality, coarseness

--Female Infanticide, Opium use, dishonesty, lewdness, harsh cruelty

--Moral degradation beyond belief!

Simon lived in Hankow for 34 years - only 1 murder, never saw a cae of intanticide;

Ricci-Trigualt = did complaint of wantonness, slaver, people living in fear of abitrary justice from mageistrates!

 

 

How can we Explain this Reversal?

 

1. What about the perspective of the beholders? Did economic and social changes in west change attitudes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. How might life in China have been changing? Dynastic decline, population pressures, poverty, destructive impact of western imperialism?

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Were Chinese less hospitable to foreigners because of repeated humiliation at their hands?

 

 

 

 

 

4. Were 19th Businessmen and Missionaries seeing more of the seamy side and less of China's good side?

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Had Western psychology/attitudes changed too? More smug, superior, nationalistic, racially intolerant, more self-righteous, subscribing to "white man's burden," theories, etc.?

 

 

 

Instructions