Week 4: Nara/Buddhism and Heian

Check you have completed your end of week 3 assignments by the start of Tuesday’s class!

IMPORTANT: PASSWORD ACCESS TO PDFs:

Username and password can be found on the Canvas Homepage

Remember to post questions, queries, musings and ideas on the Pad! As always, prepare the assigned readings before class: read, take notes, and think of questions you want answered or explored.

Tue. Feb. 4: Nara/Buddhism

  • Textbook:
        • Varley, pp. 28-47. (note: refresh your memory on what he has to say about Buddhism in the section 19-28, too.)
  • Primary Sources:
        • Selection of primary sources on Buddhism and the state during the Nara period in Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600 2nd edition, edited by William Th. de Bary. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. (PDF)
              • What do these texts tell you about the relation between the state and Buddhism? Who benefits most from that relationship?
        • Poems from the Man’yōshu in Varley, pp. 44-47.
              • The Man’yōshu is one of the most beloved poetry collections in Japan. Why do you think poems that are well over 1,000 years old still speak to the Japanese? How do you respond to these poems?
        • Optional extra: “Provincial Gazetteers (Fudoki).” In Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Beginnings to 1600, edited by Haruo Shirane, 53-56. Columbia Univ. Press, 2007. (PDF)
            • Why do you think the court thought it important for provinces to write down these legends? Can you make connections with other material and ideas about myths and legends in early Japan?
  • Slides (Gdrive link)
  • Image gallery (Gdrive link)
  • Useful extra: Encyclopedia articles:

Thu. Feb. 6: Heian Japan

  • Textbook
    • Varley, pp. 48-58 (stop at “Of all the arts that flourished…”)
  • Primary Sources
    • Keikai, Record of Miraculous Events in Japan. In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600 2nd edition, edited by William Th. de Bary. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
    •  (PDF)
          • Background info from the editor: why and how did Buddhist stories begin to appear?
          • How does Buddhism seem different from the texts we read on Tuesday (2/4)?
    • 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 William Th. de Bary. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
    •  (PDF)
          • This selection contains some complex concepts of the Buddhist teachings. How does Kukai present these? Do you think these stories were convincing ways to convert people to Buddhism?
    • Slides (Gdrive link)
    • Worksheet Nara-Heian comparison (Gdrive link)
    • “How to read a text” (PDF) for historians