Conducted in terms: 2024Z, 2025Z

Erasmus code: 08.9

ISCED code: 0229

ECTS credits: 2

Language: Polish

Organized by: Faculty of Oriental Studies

Chinese Civilisation (Culture and Religion) 3600-7-SI5-CCHNKR1

Course consisting of 30 hours is dedicated to students who want to deepen their knowledge on Chinese culture and religions. Main aim of this course is to acquaint students with state of art concerning the topic selected for discussion and with methods of analyses. Every week student will receive new material to prepare at home so that during classes, after short introduction to the problem, they could take part in discussion. To receive a pass it is necessary to systematically prepare for the classes, prepare presentations according to the schedue and actively take part in the classes.
Topics are selected according to students' interests and needs

Term 2024Z:

The class will discuss and analyse source and descriptive texts on Chinese physical and spiritual/psychological health care techniques that have influenced the formation of traditional Chinese medicine. Issues such as:
- Chinese ancient concepts of the structure and function of the human body.
- the first medical texts
- philosophical texts on nurturing the body and spirit (e.g. Neiye or Daoyin) on physical exercise, diets, breathing and meditation exercises
- the first pharmacopoeias and beliefs on the medicinal and magical properties of plants in Chinese culture
Students will be given a reading list to read and study for each class, and then the topics discussed will be discussed in detail.

Term 2025Z:

The classes are generally divided into 4 parts
1) Introductory topics (2 classes):
-) Influence of ideas about the material / visible and immaterial / invisible human constitution on the issue of death in Chinese culture
-) Views of major philosophical schools on death
2) For those who stay ( 6 classes)
-) ancestor worship
-) burial in the past and today
-) Mourning once and today
-) Minghun
3) For those who leave (6 classes)
-) Minghun
-) process of dying
-) images of the hereafter (heaven and hell)
-) post-mortem options: immortality, reincarnation, staying in the hereafter
4) Varia (3 classes)
-) Minghun
-) The birth of forensic medicine
-) Capital punishment, organ donation,
-) relocation of graves in the PRC

The number of classes assigned to each thematic section is indicative and depends on the interest of the students

Mode

Blended learning
Remote learning
Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

To participate it is necessary to read fluently in English and to have basic knowledge on Chinese history and culture.

Course coordinators

Ewa Paśnik-Tułowiecka

Type of course

Term 2025Z:

elective courses

General:

obligatory courses

Learning outcomes

K_W03-has extended knowledge of particular problems pertaining to the culture of China (within the scope of culture and literature or language and religion or history and socio-political issues);
K_W04,
K_W06-knows and understands methods of advanced analysis and interpretation of various products of culture in China, which are relevant for selected traditions, theories and research schools within the scope of studies on literature, language, culture and religion;
K_W07-knows and understands the local academic tradition (methods of analysis, interpretation and evaluation) in the context of China;
K_W08-demonstrates good knowledge of contemporary cultural life of China and Taiwan;
K_W10-has wide and profound knowledge of the structures and social relations as well as socio-cultural behaviour in China and Taiwan, which enables professional verbal communication in social and intercultural contexts;
K_W11-knows and understands the rules of copyright and intellectual property management;
K_U01-can search for, analyse, evaluate and use information from different sources and can form critical judgement on its basis;
K_U02-can indicate sources of cultural differences between different regions of the Orient or Africa, also on the basis of source materials;
K_U03-can acquire knowledge independently and enhance research skills as well as develop abilities to build a professional career;
K_U06-;can use the terminology from the domain of religion of China to analyse and interpret religious phenomena, ethical motives and social behaviour, as well as cultural differences
K_U08-can read, analyse and interpret advanced literary texts and other works of culture (film, press, social writing) of China, Taiwan and Chinese language circle and appropriately place them in their cultural context;
K_U09-can compare and thoroughly analyse interrelations between selected literary texts and other works of culture (film, press, social writing) of China and Taiwan, and the issues of tradition and modernity ;
K_U10-can carry out a critical analysis and interpretation of different products of culture of China appropriate to a selected tradition, theory and research schools within the scope of studies on literature, language, culture and religion employing unique attitude of Oriental studies;
K_U11-can evaluate, select and describe most important products of contemporary culture in China;
K_U17-can choose and formulate a subject of an MA thesis, select and find sources in Chinese language, refer to certain theories and other sources;
K_U18-acquires ability to describe in Polish, Mongolian and Tibetan languages diverse aspects of Mongolian and Tibetan culture, taking into consideration the intellectual traditions of China;
K_K01understands the need to learn all one’s life, can inspire and organize other people’s process of learning ;
K_K05-is open to new ideas and trends as well as cultural diversity ;
K_K07-understands responsibility and ethical issues that come with imparting knowledge of China and Taiwan ;
K_K11-actively acts in aid of sharing and promoting cultural heritage and most important products of contemporary culture in China and Taiwan

Assessment criteria

To receive a pass it is necessary to systematically prepare and actively take part in the classes (40% of the final grade) and in the first semester prepare presentation and in the second write an essay or prepare presentation (60% of the final grade)

The classes are obligatory . The student can be absent without excuse two times during each semester. If excused absences exceed 30% the student will not receive a credit.

Practical placement

none

Bibliography

Defined each year and depending on students' interest and needs.

Term 2024Z:

Among others:
-Imagining Chinese Medicine, ed.Vivienne Lo 羅維前, Penelope Barrett, Brill, 2018
-Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in CHina. A History of Ideas, University of California Press, 1985
-The Chinese Medical Classics NAN-CHING.The Classic of Difficult Issues, With commentaries by Chinese and Japanese authors from the third through the twentieth century, translated and annotated ted byPaul U. Unschuld, University of California Press, 1986
- Early Chinese Medical Literature. The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts, translation and commentary Donald J. Harper
-Innovation in Chinese Medicine, ed. Elisabeth Hsu, Cambridge University Press, 2001
-LINDA L. BARNES, Needles, Herbs,Gods, and Ghosts, China, Healing, and the West to 1848, Harvard University Press 2005
-TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE Heritage and Adaptation, PAUL U. UNSCHULD, Translated by Bridie J. Andrews, Columbia University Press 2018
-Huang Di Nei Jing Ling Shu.The Ancient Classic on Needle Therapy. The complete Chinese text with an annotated English translation by Paul U. Unschuld, University of California Press, 2016
- Paul U. Unschuld, What is Medicine? Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing, translated by Karen Reimers, University of California Press, 2009
- Dictionary of Bencao Gangmu, vol. 1,2,3 and 4

Term 2025Z:

Asen, Daniel. Death in Beijing: Murder and Forensic Science in Republican China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016.

Campany, Robert Ford. Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009.

———. Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012.

———. Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1996.

———. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2001.

Chan, Cecilia Lai Wan, and Amy Yin Man Chow, eds. Death, Dying and Bereavement: A Hong Kong Chinese Experience. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006.

Clark, Kelly James, and Justin Winslett. A Spiritual Geography of Early Chinese Thought: Gods, Ancestors, and Afterlife.

.Cook, Constance A. Death in Ancient China: The Tale of One Man’s Journey. Leiden: Brill, 2017.

Cuevas, Bryan J., and Jacqueline I. Stone, eds. The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007

.Eskildsen, Stephen. “Emergency Death Meditations for Internal Alchemists.” In Daoism: Religion, History and Society, vol. 5 (2013): 1–22.

Goldin, Paul R. “The Consciousness of the Dead as a Philosophical Problem in Ancient China.” Asia Major 20, no. 1 (2007): 13–36.

Hong, Jeehee. Theater of the Dead: A Social Turn in Chinese Funerary Art, 1000–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016.

Kohn, Livia, ed. Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies, 1989.

Lai, Guolong. Excavating the Afterlife: The Archaeology of Early Chinese Religion. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., ed. Religions of China in Practice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Lu, Hong, and Terance D. Miethe. China’s Death Penalty: History, Law, and Contemporary Practices. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Mu-chou Poo, ed. Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Olberding, Amy, and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds. Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought. New York: SUNY Press, 2011

.Pu Songling. Mnisi-czarnoksiężnicy czyli niesamowite historie o dziwnych ludziach. Warszawa: 2008.

———. Opowiadania, anegdoty, notatki. Wybór z Liaozhai zhiyi. Warszawa: 2012.

Puett, Michael. "Ritual and Ritual Obligations: Perspectives on Normativity." History of Religions 48, no. 2 (2008): 130–152.

Teiser, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

------,The Scripture on the Ten Kings (...), Honolulu, 1994

Tong, Chee-Kiong. Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore. London: Routledge, 2004.

Waters, Dan. "Chinese Funerals: A Case Study." Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 31 (1991): 104–134.

Watson, James L., and Evelyn S. Rawski, eds. Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1988.

Wu, Hung. The Art of the Yellow Springs: Understanding Chinese Tombs. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010.Zheng, Xiaojing, ed. Zhongguo siwang wenhua da guan (中国死亡文化大观). Nanchang: 2010.

Zhuangzi. Prawdziwa księga południowego kwiatu. Warszawa: 2009.Luo, Mengshan, ed. Shanhaijing (山海经). Beijing: 1998.

Notes

Term 2024Z:

Compulsory classes. 2 unexcused absences per semester are allowed. The number of excused absences may not exceed 30%

Term 2025Z:

none

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 3600-7-SI5-CCHNKR1 in USOSweb