Primary source analysis

Guidelines

also see syllabus

  • 800 words (± 10%;  excl. footnotes and bibliography)
  • Due Febr. 21 (rewrite March 8) and April 24 (rewrite May 4)
  • Email a link to the file to me/share the doc with me.
  • Google Doc works best for the next step, peer review. If you have strong objections to using Google Docs, let me know.

History is created through the study of primary sources, and in these essays you get a chance to demonstrate your skills in interpreting sources and using them to construct a historical argument.

You select two or more primary sources and put them in dialogue, and show how a historian can use these to deepen our understanding of Japanese history. You can trace a genre or topic in time, or you can put two sources from the same time period in dialogue. Keep your eyes and ears open throughout the semester for interesting combinations of documents to use in this essay: read others’ reflections or go back in your own personal archive, listen out in class discussions, read through your class notes.

The main task is to place the document in its historical context, to follow up on ideas raised but not explored in full in the discussion, to think about how the material connects to the rest of the course or other courses, and to raise some questions for further debate or research. This is a very good exercise to come to grips with thinking and writing as a historian.

  • Format: Here is a template google doc (<–use this template):
        • “shared” settings set to “anyone at Muhlenberg can comment” for peer review purposes.
        • Line spacing 1.5.
        • Use paragraphs.
        • Use footnotes and add a bibliography; use Chicago “notes and bibliography” style.
        • Tip: references on the website are provided in the Chicago bibliography style; adjust them when citing in footnotes.
  • 800 words (excl. footnotes, bibliography), ±10% for final version.
        • First version is not graded, don’t panic if you’re not yet at 800 words on Friday night: submit what you have.
  • Rewrite: possible, based on feedback and peer reviews.
List of materials

Choose at least two sources from the following list:

  • Early Chinese records on Japan:
          • “Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 1-9. Introduction to Oriental Civilizations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. (PDF, Canvas link)
  • Founding myths of Japan in the Kojiki:
          • “Book 1.” In Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Abridged ed., edited by Haruo Shirane, 15-21. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. (PDF, Canvas link)
  • Early Japanese historical record (Optional extra)
          • “Archaic Rule and Conflict: Chronicles of Japan (Nihongi).” In The Life of Ancient Japan: Selected Contemporary Texts Illustrating Social Life and Ideals Before the Era of Seclusion, edited by Kurt Singer, 37-42. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014. (PDF, Canvas link)
  • Prince Shōtoku’s “Constitution”
          • “The Seventeen Article Constitution of Prince Shōtoku.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 50-55. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. (PDF)
  • Selection from “The Reform Edict of Taika”
          • “Reform Edicts.” In Japan: A Documentary History: The Dawn of History to the Late Tokugawa Period, edited by David J. Lu, 69-74.  Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. (PDF)
  • Chinese histories on Japan during the Sui and Tang dynasties.
          • “History of the Sui Dynasty (Suishu).” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 9-12. Introduction to Oriental Civilizations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. (PDF)
  • Selection of primary sources on Buddhism and the state during the Nara period. (1 PDF, two different references):
          • “The Sutra of the Golden Light”. In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 99-101. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
          • “State Sponsorship and Control of Buddhism”. In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 104-108. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
  • Poems from the Man’yōshu (for each poem, refer to the specific page in your footnotes)
          • Varley, H. Paul. Japanese Culture. Fourth edition, updated and expanded. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000. (link)
  • Extract of a Provincial gazetteer (was an optional extra)
          •  “Provincial Gazetteers (Fudoki).” In Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Beginnings to 1600, edited by Haruo Shirane, 53-56. Columbia Univ. Press, 2012. (PDF)
  • Keikai’s Record of Miraculous Events in Japan
          • “Keikai.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 117-126. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
          •  (PDF)
  • Kūkai’s “parabel” on reaching enlightenment
          • Kūkai, “Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 157-162. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. (PDF)
  • Kokinshu selection
          • “Kokinshū (Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems, Ca. 905).” In Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Abridged ed., edited by Haruo Shirane, 146-168. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. (PDF)
  • “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”
          • “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari, ca. 909)”. In Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Abridged ed., edited by Haruo Shirane, 168–184. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.(PDF)
  • “Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China”
          • “Translation of Kibi Daijin Nittō Emaki.” In Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan, by Noriko T. Reider, 102-110. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2016.  (PDF)
  • Genji selections: You can use all three, or only 1 of the selections, but they must be paired with at least one other source (that is not Genji)
          • “Murasaki Shikibu: On the Art of Fiction.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 201-202. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
          • “Kiritsubo.” In Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of Heike, translated by Helen Craig McCullough, 25-26; 32-33. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. (PDF)
          • “The Broom Tree.” In Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of Heike, translated by Helen Craig McCullough, 42-47. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. (PDF)
          • “Aoi” In Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of Heike, translated by Helen Craig McCullough, 135-137, 141-142. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. (PDF)