Film Seminar: Questions:
HW: Read Sima Qian like a historian. Download this document and be ready to discuss in class next time: a seminar worth 25 points.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
weekend reading Lu buwei
Here's a translation of the Lu Buwei biography from Sima Qian. Read for the seminar. If you want to research more, knock us out with what you find.
At go eagles event so bye. If I die of heart attack, bang a drum
At go eagles event so bye. If I die of heart attack, bang a drum
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wed, 9-21: Emperor and Assassin (movie)
HW at the bottom of the post.
In class:
--Make folder (follow directions)
--Discuss next seminar
--Background on Sima Qian's Shi Ji (Record of the Grand Historian) (the source of the movie and our knowledge of Qin)
--Watch 1 hour of Emperor and Assassin.
Hit "Reply" and respond, in 3 minutes, to these questions:
1. Based on your textbook reading, how might Qin Shihuang be seen as a "monster"? Specify at least 2 reasons.
2. How might he be seen as a "hero" or "great man"? Again, 2 specific reasons.
3. Summarize what happened in the film so far: Who are the characters? What happened at the end of clip 3?
HW: Download the Sima Qian chapter about the "Assassin Jing Ke." Read it and annotate/take notes in response to the questions on the file.
In class:
--Make folder (follow directions)
--Discuss next seminar
--Background on Sima Qian's Shi Ji (Record of the Grand Historian) (the source of the movie and our knowledge of Qin)
--Watch 1 hour of Emperor and Assassin.
Hit "Reply" and respond, in 3 minutes, to these questions:
1. Based on your textbook reading, how might Qin Shihuang be seen as a "monster"? Specify at least 2 reasons.
2. How might he be seen as a "hero" or "great man"? Again, 2 specific reasons.
3. Summarize what happened in the film so far: Who are the characters? What happened at the end of clip 3?
HW: Download the Sima Qian chapter about the "Assassin Jing Ke." Read it and annotate/take notes in response to the questions on the file.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Week Six: Qin Dynasty: Evil, Heroic, Tragic, or What?
Two things I learned over the weekend:
Schedule for the Week:
Monday, Sep. 19:
In class: Xia, Shang, Zhou test
1. Read East Asia textbook, pp.35-41 (Stop at "The Han Dynasty").
Objectives as you read:
• Describe the political, social, and cultural changes enacted by Qin Shihuangdi as he established Imperial China. They’re all huge.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Qin Dynasty.
Key Concepts to Focus On:
The Big Questions
• To what degree (if any) was Qin Shihuangdi justified in his policies of oppression, censorship, and forced labor?
• In what ways was Qin Shihuangdi a hero? A monster?
Chinese cinema is so worth discovering.
The Emperor and the Assassin is one of the most expensive films made in Chinese history. It's about Qin Shihuangdi during the Warring States Period, as he's trying to end it by conquering all the states. It's by one of China's greatest directors, and stars its biggest male and female stars. It's epic, so enjoy it. (And it's based on Sima Qian's Han Dynasty book, Records of the Grand Historian.)
The question: How convinced are you by this framing of Qin Shihuang as a "tragic hero"?
- The free Moodle server is unreliable. That won't do. So we're moving here to Blogger which, run by Google, will have no reliability issues at all. Google never goes down.
- Dropbox--SAS's file-sharing tool of choice--has a bandwidth limit for downloads. So we're moving to SugarSync, which doesn't. This won't require anything from you. You'll still just click links to download files. I'm just letting you know we shouldn't have to worry about file-sharing surprises like the one Dropbox threw us this weekend. (Good job using Skype to file-share for the Late Ones.)
Schedule for the Week:
Monday, Sep. 19:
In class: Xia, Shang, Zhou test
1. Read East Asia textbook, pp.35-41 (Stop at "The Han Dynasty").
Objectives as you read:
• Describe the political, social, and cultural changes enacted by Qin Shihuangdi as he established Imperial China. They’re all huge.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Qin Dynasty.
Key Concepts to Focus On:
• Centralized Government
• Bureaucracy
• Legalism
• Commanderies
• Standardizations
• Mutual Responsibility System
• Censorship
• Mausoleum
• Great Wall
• Xiongnu
The Big Questions
• To what degree (if any) was Qin Shihuangdi justified in his policies of oppression, censorship, and forced labor?
• In what ways was Qin Shihuangdi a hero? A monster?
Chinese cinema is so worth discovering.
The Emperor and the Assassin is one of the most expensive films made in Chinese history. It's about Qin Shihuangdi during the Warring States Period, as he's trying to end it by conquering all the states. It's by one of China's greatest directors, and stars its biggest male and female stars. It's epic, so enjoy it. (And it's based on Sima Qian's Han Dynasty book, Records of the Grand Historian.)
The question: How convinced are you by this framing of Qin Shihuang as a "tragic hero"?
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