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100-183 Understanding Asia
The last lecture put emphasis on readings from week 1, 2, 3 and 12 for the exam. (defining Asia, Mapping China, Hinduism/Buddhism and Asian values)
Week 1 - Introduction/historical overview
Vocabulary
- Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
- Charles Darwin
- Civilizing mission
- Marco Polo
- Nihonjinron
- Opium Wars
- Orientalism
- Race
- Social Darwinism / Social evolution
- Zheng He
Week 2 - Chinese World View
Vocabulary
- Cartography
- GIS
- Geomantic (prophecies/oracle)
- Geomatic (land surveying)
- Orientalism - especially Said's book Orientalism (book)
- discourse
- Imperialism
- Intertextuality
- Mercator projection
- Gall–Peters projection
- ASEAN
- Dutch East Indies
- Batavia
- Persia
- Middle Kingdom (= China)
- Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE)
- Tang Dynasty (581 - 907 CE)
- Song Dynasty (907 - 1276 CE)
- Yuan Dynasty (1215/1276 - 1368 CE)
- Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE)
- Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1900 CE)
Week 3 - Hinduism and Buddhism
Vocabulary
- Arhat
- Bodhisattva
- Buddha / Siddharta Gautama
- Dharma
- Eightfold Noble Path
- Five Precepts
- Four Noble Truths
- Heterodox (= unorthodox)
- Hinayana
- Karma
- Menander (King Milanda) / Nagasena
- Mahayana
- Pali
- Sangha
- Sanskrit
- Upanisads
- Vajrayana
- Vedas
Week 4 - Chinese Philosophy
Week 5 - The first Emperor of China and contemporary interpretations
The first emperor Qin Shi Huang and the Qin Dynasty
Movies
- The Emperor and the Assassin (1999)
- Hero (2002)
Week 6 - Buddhist practice in China and Japan
Week 7 - Islam
- Sharia
- Qu'ran
- Prophet Muhammad, born in Makkah, later was forced to migrate to Medina. 622AD: Islamic calendar begins with migration of Muhammad. Community in Medina as a model of an Islamic state.
- Islamic calendar: Ramadan
- Muslim countries VS Islamic countries (=follows Islamic law and Islamic calendar)
- Muhammad died suddenly without appointing a successor.
- Islamic world view
- Monotheism - see especially Tawhid
- God cannot be described, you cannot depict God
- No images of Muhammad, since it would give him divinity - but only God is divine. - Wahhabism (predominant in Saudi Arabia)
- Unity of God: no other being is glorified; there is only one God who has created the universe out of nothing
- Three concepts of God:
- (predominant view:) God is a personal (= a person, self-conscious), transcendental being (= beyond space and time, because if God was not transcendental then he would be subject to change and limited - but God is unlimited - so God cannot be physical/material)
- maybe God is impersonal (maybe God is not aware of individual beings, because God does not have perception, because perception requires a physical body and God does not have a body)
- maybe God is not separated from the universe/nature - just as we cannot separate our souls from our bodies -> the whole universe is the body of God
- Three concepts of God:
- Unity of the prophethood: all prophets are considered to be true messengers from God (a Muslim has to accept all prophets)
- Unity of the scripture: 3 divine texts: Old Testament, New Testament, Qu'ran (they are not written by human beings but revealed by God)
- Day of Judgement: Divine Justice (God will judge people according to their actions), Divine Retribution (and punish people accordingly) - so there has to be free will. How can God fairly punish someone if he "made" that person bad.
- causa sui and causa immanence
- Creation ex nihilo: God created everything out of nothing (supported by some Qu'ranic verses), time, labor is not involved
- however, God needed 6 days to create the universe, so since time is involved, so is labor
- Rituals in Islam
- Sharia - means "the way"
- more than a law; in civic society a law regulates public life - but Sharia regulates more than that (what to eat, what to wear, how to behave)
- family law has become a matter of debate nowadays: women's rights, structure of the family, status of family members, custody of children; e.g. polygamy - read it as it is written or interpret it historically?
- Session 2 - Philosophy
- Muhammad died in 632 without appointing successors
- disagreement about successor
- one group wanted to have an election/consensus - they later became the Sunnis - a successor should be elected, and should be from the same tribe as Muhammad.
- another group believed Muhammad nominated his first cousin (and son-in-law) Ali, and that the successor should be from the same house as Muhammad - they later became the Shi'ites
- a number of successors, then a revolt against the Caliph, the rebels appointed Ali
- a committee was set up to see which group was right; they ruled against Ali
- a split-group of Ali's group, Kharijis revolted against Ali; most of them were killed, as a backlash Ali was killed; end of Medina period
- Muslims defeated other empires, moved around, came in contact with other cultures - philosophical exchange
- Theological/philosophical search for the truth
- who is responsible for moral corruption? is it the will of God?
- Traditionalists believe in predestination
- Mu'tazilites - rationalist school; Free will? Predetermination? how to resolve contradictions in the Qu'ran on this matter? Argue for free will. Another problem: if God's attributes are eternal and different from God, it would be polytheism. How can the Qu'ran be eternal?
- Ash'arites - moderate school; believe God is beyond human understanding
- religion VS philosophy: belief versus questioning
- Christian and Jewish thinkers translated philosophical works into Arabic - foundation of Muslim (not Islamic!) philosophy
- conflicting view: Islam promulgates creation ex nihilo, but Aristotle argues that is not possible and that God is not a creator but more like an "engineer"
- solution: Platinus (??) argued that like the sun emanates rays, God emanates (emits?) the universe. But if we all emanate from God, how can there be evil?
- Christian and Jewish thinkers translated philosophical works into Arabic - foundation of Muslim (not Islamic!) philosophy
- Vocabulary: