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"Elements of Culture"

Assessments & Team Activities

Practice Research

Practice Instructions

Extra Credit

> Extra Credit Readings

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Extra Credit

Students who have kept up with and enjoyed all the readings may wish to earn extra credit to supplement their grades using any or all of the means listed below. However make sure to prioritize required assignments, since these are worth five to ten times more than extra credit supplements.

Additional Readings, Practices & Terms for **Unit 2**

In selecting a practice & terms for each unit, most people will be drawn to a practice identified in one of the readings guides and addressed in one of the Application Exercises done in class. Interested students may earn **EXTRA CREDIT**, however, by doing additional reading that either (A) provides additional information about one of the above mentioned practices or (B) describes an entirely different practice not yet considered in class. You can also add points to a TRA score by doing a written analysis of one of these optional sources.

B. Additional Practices NOT Considered in Class
  • Confucian study
    IAR 210-23 + Analects & Xun Zi [excerpts] (IAR, 374-79)
    (reflection: jen, ancestors, tianming)
    (community: civil service, yi, five relationships)
  • Pure Land Buddhist nien-fo
    "Death-Bed Testimonials" (RAP, 282-92) & IAR 249-60
    [optional: Pure Land Sutra (web site)
    & Lotus Sutra [excerpts] (IAR, 380-81)]
    (reflection: Amitabha, pure land, bodhisattva)
    (community: sangha, patriarchs)
  • ritual of the Celestial Masters & later Daoist reformers
    IAR, 198-206 + EB: (TBA)
    & "Daoism Burning" (video) [--> advance to 30:50 - 36:15]
    (reflection: Laozi, shen, dao, yin/yang)
    (community: Sichuan, Maoshan, Tang dynasty, Taiwan)
  • Guanyin sutra recitation
    "The White-Robed Guan Yin" (RAP, 350-58)
    (reflection: Guan Yin, bodhisattva, dharma)
    (community: male heir, Qu Riji, Yan Daoche)
  • channeling a martial god in Malaysia
    "Teachings of a Spirit Medium" (RAP, 266-75)
    (reflection: Second Commander of the Eastern Quarter, Taiji, Dao li)
    (community: Southern Min, Confucian scholar, Boxer Rebellion)
  • dedication & offering at local Song Confucian shrines
    "Shrines to Local Former Worthies" (RAP, 405-17)
    (reflection: tianming, ancestor, learning)
    (community: Zhu Xi, Mencius, teacher/student)
  • composing & placing Song dynasty tomb contracts
    "Laws of the Spirits" (RAP, 396-404)
    (reflection: spirit, law/justice, netherworld)
    (community: Song dynasty, family, law codes)
  • translating Buddhist sutras into Chinese (IAR, 237-48)
    (reflection: bodhisattva, shunyata, Mahayana)
    (community: Silk Road, Dunhuang, Tiantai)
  • Wu Ch'eng-En's adaptation of Journey to the West
    Monkey (MOO, 477-96)
    (reflection: Jade Emperor, Immortal, Heaven)
    (community: Hsüan-tsang, Holy Terrace Mountain, sangha)
  • Lu Hsün's short story writing
    "Madman's Diary," "Medicine" & "Soap" (MOO, 531-56)
    (reflection: death, filial duty)
    (community: National Peking University, Communist revolution, family)
  • Maoist adaptations of Shanghai opera
    "The Red Lantern" (MOO, 556-62) & EB: "Qing dynasty"
    [optional: "Women in Maoist China" (web site)]
    (reflection: Confucius, bodhisattva, virtue, humanity)
    (community: boxer rebellion, Communists, Peking opera)
  • viewing paintings in Ming dynasty period
    "Practices of Vision" (ASA, 352-61)
    (reflection: beauty, dao, nature)
    (community: Ming dynasty, literati, Shangqing school)
  • Qing period painting by Chen Shu
    "The Conventional Success of Chen Shu" (ASA, 380-94)
    (reflection: Confucian virtues, Guanyin, nature)
    (community: Qing dynasty, Qian Chenqun, concubines/courtesans)
  • representing & displaying Mao Zedong
    "Quotations from...Mao Zedong" & "Icons of Power" (ASA, 431-47)
    (reflection: the people, culture, mandate of Heaven)
    (community: Cultural Revolution, Red Guards, post-Mao reformers)
  • contemporary Chinese art of Wenda Gu & Xu Bing
    "Pseudo-languages: a Conversation..." (ASA, 462-75)
    (reflection: language, heaven, global community)
    (community: Cultural Revolution, Qin Shi Huang, Ludwig Wittgenstein)
  • Falun Gong practice
    "Falun Gong Exercises" (web site)
    (reflection: Falun, qi, yin/yang, xinxing)
    (community: Li Hongzhi, Communism)

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