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Classical East Asian Thought

Code: 101537 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500244 East Asian Studies OB 2

Contact

Name:
Arturo Lozano Mendez
Email:
artur.lozano@uab.cat

Teachers

Gustavo Pita Céspedes

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

This subject does not have specific academic prerequisites. To make the most of it, one ought to have reading habits and intellectual curiosity, and be open to dialogue.


Objectives and Contextualisation

On successfully completing this subject, students will be able to show that… 

  • They know and understand the basic concepts of classical East Asian thought, having read translated primary texts and explanatory teaching material;
  • They can apply their knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts of classical East Asian thought in discussions;
  • They can form opinions on the interpretation of the basic concepts of classical East Asian thought and on how they may be applied to solve social, economic and political problems, by gathering and interpreting relevant data; 
  • They can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions related to the basic concepts of classical East Asian thought; 
  • They have acquired the learning skills needed to continue studying East Asian thought with a high level of autonomy.

Competences

  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  • Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  • Having interpersonal skills.
  • Knowing and comprehending the classical, modern and late modern thinking of East Asia.
  • Knowing the great literary, philosophical, and artistic movements of East Asia.
  • Knowing, comprehending, describing and analysing the values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia.
  • Knowing, understanding, describing, analysing, and assessing the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
  • Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Respecting the gender equality.
  • Solving conflict situations.
  • Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  • Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  • Understanding the referential universe of written and verbal texts in the languages of East Asia.
  • Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  • Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  2. Developing self-learning strategies.
  3. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  4. Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  5. Having interpersonal skills.
  6. Knowing and comprehending the classical, modern and late modern thinking of East Asia.
  7. Knowing the great literary, philosophical, and artistic movements of East Asia.
  8. Knowing, comprehending, describing and analysing the values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia.
  9. Knowing, understanding, describing, analysing, and assessing the history, thought and literature of East Asia.
  10. Producing innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  11. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  12. Respecting the gender equality.
  13. Solving conflict situations.
  14. Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  15. Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  16. Understanding the referential universe of written and verbal texts in the languages of East Asia.
  17. Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  18. Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Content

MODULE 1: CHINA

  1. Ancient myths and beliefs.
  2. Confucianism.
  3. Mohism.
  4. Yang Zhu.
  5. Daoism.
  6. School of Names.
  7. Legalism.
  8. Buddhism in China.

MODULE 2: JAPAN 

Buddhism in Asia:

  • Historical origins and development
  • Ethical and philosophical teachings
  • Main branches

Japan:

  • Buddhism
  • Confucianism 
  • Daoism
  • Shintoism

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 52.5 2.1 4, 16, 6, 8, 9, 1, 14, 11, 12, 15, 5, 18, 3
Type: Supervised      
Document based class discussions 5 0.2 4, 16, 6, 8, 9, 2, 1, 10, 14, 13, 11, 12, 15, 5, 18, 17, 3
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous work 50.5 2.02 4, 16, 6, 8, 9, 2, 1, 10, 11, 15, 3

(Please note: all module 2 lessons will be imparted in English by prof. Artur Lozano.)

The learning methodology is comprised of lectures about the topics. Lessons will contain texts that will both expand and reinforce students’ knowledge of the issues involved. It will be compulsory to read certain texts in order to benefit fully from the course and to pass its tests.

If the professors deem it convenient, some of the sessions will be centred on the discussion of primary documents, which the students will read in advance.

To write their essays, students will research academic and specialised sources, whose information they will need to contrast to form and express their own conclusions. 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Individual written assignment 40% 38 1.52 4, 16, 7, 6, 8, 9, 2, 1, 10, 14, 13, 11, 12, 15, 5, 18, 17, 3
Quiz about the contents of Module 1 30% 2 0.08 16, 7, 6, 8, 9, 2, 12, 15
Quiz about the contents of Module 2 30% 2 0.08 16, 7, 6, 8, 9, 2, 12, 15

Continuous assessment

Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing various tasks and tests. These activities are detailed in the table at the end of this section of the Study Guide.

Review

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.

Missed/failed assessment activities

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. 

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for. In case of retaking, maximum grade will be 5 (Pass).

Classification as "not assessable"

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.

Misconduct in assessment activities

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the student involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject.

Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (e.g. plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from recovery.

Single assessment

This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting. 

Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.

Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website.

On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport). 

Single assessment activities

The final grade for the subject will be calculated according to the following percentages:

  1. Quiz about the contents of Module 1: Chinese thought (30% of the subject's final mark).
  2. Quiz about the contents of Module 2: Buddhism and Japanese thought (30% of the subject's final mark).
  3. Individual written assignment (40% of the subject's final mark).
Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continual assessment. See the section above in this study guide.

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html


Bibliography

Bibliography (China):

Cheng, Anne (2006) Historia del pensamiento chino. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.

Feng Youlan (1991) Selected philosophical writings. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

Graham, Angus Charles (2012) El Dao en disputa. La argumentación filosófica en la China antigua. Traducción de Daniel Stern; revisión de Flora Botton. México D. F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Maspero, Henri (2000) El taoísmo y las religiones chinas. Valladolid: Editorial Trotta.

Xinzhong Yao (2001) El confucianismo. Madrid: Cambridge University Press.

Bibliography (Japan):

Asian Philosophy. An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East. Taylor and Francis. 

Barnes, Gina L. (2007): State Formation in Japan: Emergence of a 4th-Century Ruling Elite. London: Routledge.

De Bary, William Theodore (1972). The Buddhist Tradition in India, China & Japan. New York: Vintage Books.

De Bary, William Theodore; Gluck, Carol; Tiedemann, Arthur E. (eds.), Sources of Japanese Tradition—Volume 2: 1600 to 2000. Part One: 1600 to 1868. Abridged, Second edition, vol. 2, part 1, New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

De Bary, William Theodore; Gluck, Carol; Tiedemann, Arthur E. (eds.), Sources of Japanese Tradition—Volume 2: 1600 to 2000. Part One: 1868 to 2000. Abridged, Second edition, vol. 2, part 2, New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

De Bary, William Theodore; Keene, Donald; Tanabe, George; Varley, Paul (eds.), Sources of Japanese Tradition—Volume 1: From Earliest Times to 1600, second edition, vol. 1, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

González Valles, Jesús (2002) Historia de la filosofía japonesa. Madrid: Tecnos.

Heisig, J. W., Kasulis, T. P., & Maraldo, J. C. (2011): Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Kasulis, T. P. (2004). Shinto: The Way Home. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Naumann, Nelly (1998): Antiguos mitos japoneses. Barcelona: Herder.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: <http://plato.stanford.edu>. Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University.

Swanson, P. L. (Paul L., & Chilson, C. (2006). Nanzan guide to Japanese religions. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Zavala, Agustín Jacinto (ed) (1995) Textos de la filosofía japonesa moderna / Antología, Vol. I. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán.

Zavala, Agustín Jacinto (ed) (1997) La otra filosofía japonesa / Antología, Vol. II. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán. 


Software

The course does not require any particular software. Students will only need the kind of apps necessary to conduct common academic tasks.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 English first semester morning-mixed