THEO 344 RELIGIONS OF CHINA
中華宗教
Dr. Jonathan Y. Tan
( 陳運佳教授 )

ProfessorJTan@gmail.com
(513) 745-3794
121 Hinkle Hall

Office hours by appointment

Introduction
Course Requirements
Schedule/Readings
Living Personalities Project
Library Research Resources
Religion: Web Resources
Religion: News Resources
Grade Computation
Grading Guidelines
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Buddha Sakyamuni
(Theravada Buddhism)



Buddha Amitabha
(Pure Land Buddhism)



Guanyin (Kuan Yin)
Bodhisattva of Compassion



Guanyin (Kuan Yin)
Bodhisattva of Compassion



Manjusri
Bodhisattva of Wisdom



Maitreya
Buddha of the Future



Buddha (Tang Dynasty)
Living Personalities Project
  1. For this project, you will assume the identity of some generalized type of person from the list below, to be selected through a random drawing in class:

    1. a devotee of the bodhisattva Guanyin (Kuan-yin)
    2. a devotee of Pure Land Buddhism (Buddha Amitabha)
    3. a novice, monk, or abbot in a Chan (Zen) Buddhist monastery

    4. a lay practitioner of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in Asia
    5. a lay practitioner of Chan (Zen) Buddhism in the U.S.

    6. a Daoist spirit medium or shaman
    7. a Daoist priest from the Celestial Masters (Tianshi) Sect
    8. a Daoist practitioner from the Complete Perfection (Quanzhen/Chuan-chen) Sect
    9. a Daoist practitioner from the Shangqing (Shang-ch'ing)/Maoshan Sect
    10. a Daoist practitioner of external alchemy
    11. a Daoist practitioner of internal alchemy
    12. a qigong (ch'i-kung) practitioner
    13. a taijiquan (t'ai-chi ch'uan) practitioner

    14. a fengshui (geomancy) practitioner in Asia
    15. a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner in Asia
    16. a Daoist devotee of a specific deity of your choice in Asia

    17. a fengshui (geomancy) practitioner in the U.S.
    18. a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner in the U.S.
    19. a Daoist devotee of a specific deity of your choice in the U.S.

    20. a patriarch of a traditional Confucian household in Asia
    21. a matriarch of a traditional Confucian household in Asia
    22. an eldest son in a traditional Confucian household in Asia
    23. a daughter-in-law in a traditional Confucian household in Asia
    24. a gay son in a traditional Confucian household in Asia
    25. a lesbian daughter in a Chinese Confucian household in Asia

    26. a patriarch of a traditional Confucian household in the U.S.
    27. a matriarch of a traditional Confucian household in the U.S.
    28. a daughter in a traditional Confucian household in the U.S.
    29. a White daughter-in-law in a traditional Confucian household in the U.S.
    30. a gay son in a traditional Confucian household in the U.S.
    31. a lesbian daughter in a Chinese Confucian household in the U.S.

  2. Your goal will be to assume that person's identity and portray, as accurately as possible, in a class presentation and a project report what the person's daily life experiences (e.g., social, cultural, familial, devotional, spiritual, religious, economic, political, etc.) would be like.

  3. For the purposes of this project, unless otherwise specified or restricted in (1) above, you get to choose:
    • the gender (male or female);
    • the age (young, middle-aged, or elderly);
    • the ethnic/racial/national group (e.g., Singaporean Chinese household, Vietnamese American Confucian household in Orange County, CA, a White American fengshui master in New York City, etc.);
    • the social location in Asia or the U.S.:
      • Asia: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, or Singapore
      • U.S.: choose a specific city, state, or region in the U.S.;
    • the time frame: either historical or contemporary; and
    • the socio-economic class (peasant, working-class, middle-class, elite, etc.)

  4. While you may use any relevant material from the course readings or class discussions as an initial starting point for your research, you will need to do library research, consulting several of the following sources for your project:
    • scholarly books or journal essays
    • biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs
    • oral histories and other archival resources (if available)
    • novels, short stories, or other literary works
    • articles in newspapers or magazines
    (NB: You may also consult movies, films, or video documentaries for your in-class presentation only. Websites are not acceptable as research sources.)

  5. Please begin your research here: Library Research Resources for Theology/Religion. For ideas, issues, or resources to get you started, please also consult the following resource pages:

  6. In view of the fact that the Xavier University Library lacks a comprehensive collection of print resources in the study of Chinese religions, you will need to visit the University of Cincinnati's Walter C. Langsam Library (Main Library) in person to browse their stacks for books, journals, and other print resources, in order to produce a decent research project for this course. Your XU ALLCard (or Library/ID card) gives you admission and borrowing privileges at all UC Libraries. Browsing the stacks in person enables you to locate books in the same call number range that would be relevant to your research. You may also encounter titles that jump up at you, which you could then check out for further reading.

  7. The project comprises the following three components:

    • PROPOSAL:
      a 3-4 page double-spaced and typed proposal (in Microsoft Word or Word 2007, WordPerfect, PDF, or Open Office document format) of your ideas and plans and preliminary bibliography of at least five books or ten journal articles, or a combination of books and journal articles (NB: websites are not acceptable as sources) to be e-mailed to ProfessorJTan@gmail.com for the instructor's review and approval by 5:00 p.m. on 8 October 2008. Please also list the video documentaries, movies, or films that you plan to consult to prepare for your in-class presentation. This proposal will comprise 10% of your final grade. All late submissions will be penalized with a 2% reduction of your final grade. All students are required to submit a proposal (including bibliography) before beginning their projects. The instructor must approve your proposal and bibliography before you begin work on your research project. If you fail to submit any proposal, your project will not be accepted for your final grade and you will be assigned a zero for the entire project component (60%) of your final grade.

    • PRESENTATION:
      You will introduce your assumed identity to the class in a 10 minute presentation during the last weeks of the semester. You are encouraged to be as creative as possible in your presentation (i.e., you may use any combination of PowerPoint, film/video clips, music clips, photos, interviews, dramatization or reenactment, art, food, statues, sculptures, paintings, posters, charts, images, any relevant props, etc. in your presentation). After each presentation, the instructor and students will have the opportunity to ask questions or give feedback on the subject matter of the student's presentation. Please feel free to incorporate this feedback in your project report. Please reserve a date to make your in-class presentation by 30 October 2008. Your presentation will comprise 20% of your final grade for this course.

    • PROJECT REPORT:
      Finally, using the sources you have found (and the feedback you received in your class presentation, if relevant), please write a three-part project report as follows:

      • Part I (7-10 pages): should explain the daily life experiences (social, cultural, familial, devotional, spiritual, religious, economic, political, etc.) of the person in accordance with the specifics (e.g., social location, time frame, socio-economic class, etc.) that you have chosen.

      • Part II (2-3 pages): self-evaluation, discussing how you found your materials, any challenges you faced in completing the project, and any lessons learned or insights gained.

      • Part III (1-3 pages): a complete bibliography of sources cited or referred to in Part I.

    • All references to external sources, e.g., books or articles, must be properly cited in accordance with either the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the Turabian writing style. All project reports that do not conform to either one of these writing styles will also be rejected as unacceptable. Please visit Xavier University's James A. Glenn Writing Center if you require assistance in writing properly formatted papers.

    • Please e-mail your completed project report in Microsoft Word (doc or docx), WordPerfect, PDF, or Open Office format, together with your PowerPoint presentation, video clips, photos, etc. (if any) to ProfessorJTan@gmail.com by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 12 December 2008. Printed papers will not be accepted. Your project report will comprise 30% of your final grade for this course. For grading criteria, please refer to the Theology Department's Grading Guidelines. All late submissions will be penalized with a 5% reduction of your final grade. Please be warned that the instructor will not accept any late submissions beyond 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 18 December 2008, and will accordingly assign a zero for the project report component (30%) of your final grade. All submissions will be independently verified to ensure compliance with the university's policy on plagiarism/dishonesty.

子曰:「學而不思則罔,思而不學則殆。」

The Master [Confucius] says:
"Learning without thinking is a waste of time,
Thinking without learning is dangerous" (Analects 2:15).

REQUIRED
TEXTBOOKS:


Joseph A. Adler
Chinese
Religious Traditions

(Prentice Hall, 2002)


de Bary & Bloom, eds.
Sources of
Chinese Tradition
(2nd Ed), Vol. 1

(Columbia, 1999)


Eva Wong
Shambhala Guide
to Taoism

(Shambhala, 1997)


Kenneth Chen
Buddhism in
China: A
Historical Survey

(Princeton, 1964)


Google Scholar

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Revision 1.0.0004. Originally created: 23 March 2008. Last updated: 3 August 2008.
Designed, created and maintained by: Jonathan Y. Tan. © Copyright Jonathan Y. Tan, 2008. All rights reserved.