Thoughts

-Know the following terms:

Celestial Masters
The Celestial Masters were the first group of organized Daoists. Before their
foundation, Daoism did not exist as an organized religion. Being the first organized
religious Daoists, the Celestial Masters are the ancestors of subsequent Daoist
movements such as the Shangqing and Lingbaomovements.


Shangqing revelation
The Shangqing corpus of inspired scriptures and
cosmological and hagiographic revelations from the Maoshan area in southern
Jiangsu province incorporated elements of ancient shamanistic traditions of
southeast China. Shamanistic ritual seems indeed to have been at the origin of
these texts, which in turn developed meditative and visionary techniques, while
their ecstatic poetry and inspired calligraphy exercised a major influence on Chinese
art and letters.

Lingbao revelation
Created links between daoist canon and popular public liturgy. Inspired by
Buddhism, included new hymns inspired by Braham psalmody in pseudo-Sanskrit
language.

Zhen Gao ,
T he Pronouncements of the Perfected (Zhen Gao) is a vast and multifaceted
collection of poetry and prose of the fourth century C.E. The texts, thought to have
been divinely inspired, were originally "dictated" (gao) by Daoist "true beings," or
the Perfected (zhen), to the highly literate medium and shaman Yang Xi (fl. 364-
370), hence the title of the collection.
The Zhen Gao is a unique source for our understanding of the ancient shamanistic
Daoism of Southern China. The texts especially the poems show a distinct
relationship to earlier shaman inspired literature. As in these earlier works, the
spiritual quest for a divine lover who is at the same time a redeemer is a central
theme in the ecstatic poetry of the Zhen Gao. The Daoist adepts male and female
exchange love poems with their immortal counterparts, in celebration of their
ecstatic union.

Human Nature (xing ),
Zhu Xi agreed with Mencius people are innately good. Even if people displayed
immoral behavior, the supreme regulative principle was good. The cause of immoral
actions is qi. Zhu Xi's metaphysics is that everything contains li and qi. Li is the
principle that is in everything and governs the universe. Each person has a perfect li.
As such, individuals should act in perfect accordance with morality. However,
while li is the underlying structure, qi is also part of everything. Qi obscures our
perfect moral nature. The task of moral cultivation is to clear our qi. If our qi is clear
and balanced, then we will act in a perfectly moral way.


Heart-Mind (xin )
Mind-and-heart contains Nature and Emotion.
( xn tng xng qng)

Principle (li ),
The fundamental of Principle is engendering (shng )

Material Force (qi )

Ultimate Supreme (taiji )
Zhu Xi maintained that all things are brought into being by the union of two
universal aspects of reality: qi, sometimes translated as vital (or physical, material)
force; and li, sometimes translated as rational principle (or law). The source and
sum of li is the Taiji (Wade-Giles: Tai Chi), meaning the Supreme Ultimate.
According to Zhu Xi's theory, every physical object and every person has its li and
therefore has contact in its metaphysical core with the Taiji. What is referred to as
the human soul, mind, or spirit is understood as the Taiji, or the supreme creative
principle, as it works its way out in a person.

Great Learning (Daxue )
The Great Learning (daxue)
[
was one of the "Four Books" in Confucianism.
The Great Learning had come from a chapter in the Classic of Rites which formed
one of the Five Classics. It consists of a short main text attributed to the teachings of
Confucius and then ten commentary chapters accredited to one of Confucius'
disciples Zengzi The ideals of the book were supposedly Confucius's; however the
text was written after his death.
The "Four Books" were selected by the neo-Confucian Zhu Xi during the Song
Dynasty as a foundational introduction to Confucianism andexaminations for the
state civil service in China.
The text of the Great Learning provides an educational basis for those aspiring
obtain a leadership role. In addition to self-cultivation and the expansion of one's
knowledge, the Great Learning goes into significant step-by-step detail with respect
to the qualities of a proper ruler. The text then goes on to describe the projected
quality and stability of the state if its ruler follows the guidelines described therein.
One such passage states that a person should "cultivate himself, then regulate the
family, then govern the state, and finally lead the world into peace"

Three Guiding Goals:
1. Illustrate the evident virtues
2. Renovate/transform people
3. Stay in the highest goodness

Eight Sequential Paths to Goals
1. Study things 5. Cultivate oneself
2. Complete ones knowledge 6. Regulate ones family
3. Rectify ones mind 7. Rule the nation
4. Be sincere in ones intentions 8. Pacify the world


Study things (gewu )
-Find and understand the Nature in your heart.
-How? Study All Beings and learn the Nature/Principle in them.

Complete [ones] knowledge (zhizhi )
Then you will know how to interact with them in harmony.


-How is religious Daoism different from the philosophical Daoism of Pre-Qin period?


What were the main concerns of religious Daoism?


-What did Zhu Xi mean by Human Nature is the Principle (xing ji li )?


What was Wang Yangmings disagreement with Zhu Xi and what was the implication
of that disagreement?

Holding to Confucius and Mencius' conception of humanity as innately good, Zhu Xi
articulated an understanding of li as the basic pattern of the universe, stating that it
was by understanding these principles that one could live with li and live an
exemplary life. In this sense, li according to Zhu Xi is often seen as similar to the
[Dao] in Daoism or to [telos] in Platonic philosophy. Wang Yangming, a philosopher
who opposed Zhu Xi's ideas, held that li was to be found not in the world but within
oneself. Wang Yangming was thus more of an idealist with a
different epistemic approach.


-Mind is Principle( xn j l)
-If Principle is one and All Beings have it, why should we look for it outside?


Language (Short answers, filling-in blanks and/or multiple choice questions)

-Know the characteristics of Chinese language we discussed (tonal, SVO, Topic-
Prominent) and what we mean by them about Chinese. Be able to give simple
examples to illustrate your answers.

-Know the facts about the Chinese dialects. (What are the major dialect groups,
where they are spoken, etc.)

Language Speakers Where Spoken Cities
Mandarin 836 million N, W, SW Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu
Wu 77 million Zhejiang, Jiangsu Shanghai, Suzhou
Xiang 36 million Hunan Shuangfeng, Changsha
Gan 21 million Jiangxi, e. Hunan Nanchang
Hakka 26 million Jianxi, Guangdong Meixian
Yue 46 million Guangdong, Guangxi Guangzhou
Min 36 million Fujian, Taiwan Fuzhou, Xiamen

-Know how Chinese characters are formed. How do we dissect them in the majority
of cases? If you were given a set of related characters, can you figure out some
things about their relations?

Shuwn Jiz [Explanation of simple graphs and analysis of compound
graphs] by X Shn was the first true dictionary in China, and probably the
world. Completed in 100 CE, presented to the Hn throne in 121 CE.
In his introduction, X Shn defined six types of writing, or lish. Listed
here are these six principles, which explain how characters are created, with X
Shns examples.

1) zhsh indicating the idea -- ideographs. Examples: .
2) xi{ngxng resembling the form -- pictographs. Examples: .
3) xngshng giving form to the sound -- phonetic compounds. Examples:
.
4) huy joining meanings -- compound ideographs. Examples: .
5) zhunzh mutually referent -- (meaning unclear). Examples: .
6) jiji borrowings-- loan characters. Examples: .

-Can Chinese writing system be best described as pictographs, Ideographs, or
something else?

Logographic system with characters that are partially morphosyllabic

-What are the names for the Chinese language? (Mandarin, Hanyu, Putonghua,
Guoyu, etc.) How are they different?

Zhongwen used to refer to language in general, as an academic discipline
Hanyu Han language refers to the language spoken by the Han people (92% of
China population). General term for languages, many are mutually unintelligible
Putonghua common language refers to standard dialect of the country. A
constructed norm based on North-variety Chinese spoken in Beijing.
Huayu another Chinese name for Han-Chinese (used in Singapore, southeast Asia)
Guoyu national language refers to standard Chinese (used in Taiwan)
Mandarin refers to Northern Chinese (used in English, because Mandarin officials
of Qing spoke in this language)
Hanfangyan different dialects of Han Chinese

-How did Modern Standard Chinese develop? What were the important issues
related to the Chinese language in the modern society?


Literature (Short answers and/or multiple choice questions)

-Know the literary works that we read in class.

-Know some of the generic terms related to Chinese literature, such as:

huaben short vernacular fiction (Ming-Qing)

regulated verse Tang lushi style, characterized by lack of personal pronouns,
dense with concrete images/ideas (lots of images), few extra words (lexical
economy), parallel couplets and semantic rhythm

rimes

ping/ze (even/deflected tones) level tone is ping, three other tones are
deflected

In late fifth century poets began alternating level and deflected tones between key
positions in a line and between corresponding positions in the two lines of a couplet
(tonal balancing and parallel couplets)

Yuan drama

xiaoshuo chapter installment fiction

chuanqi

Toward the end of the Yuan dynasty, southern drama was revived
under the name chuanqi (literally, "spreading the incredible"). Chuanqi
theater usually concentrated on romantic themes and was to dominate the Chinese
stage for the next 200 years

zhiguai

martial-arts novels (wuxia xiaoshuo )

historical writings

Airs (feng ) from Classic of Poetry

Here the Preface distinguishes the "Airs" (Feng) from the "Odes" (Ya). The "Airs" are
supposed to be the voice of a particular person in a particular place or situation. By
contrast, the "Odes" are supposed to speak more generally and apply to the whole
kingdom.

It is best then to see the "Airs" as representing regional song traditions, with
lyrics drawn from diverse sources and transformed by the song traditions of the
Zhou feudal courts

Odes (ya )

-If you were given a description, can you identify the literary piece that we read in
class, and briefly explain the piece? For example, collection of strange stories about
ghosts and supernatural phenomena, or a story of an assassin who tried to kill the
First Emperor of Qin?

-What is Tang Regulated Verse? How many lines are there? Where are rimes
located? Why are they also called Recent-style Verses?

-What do scenes of nature do in Chinese poetry? (Think about Owens explanation
on the Fishhawk in the Classic of Poetry.)

-What can you say about Chinese Theatre and Drama?

-There were some important motifs or objects that appear in the story that carry
more symbolic significance than it seemed. Can you say some things about them?
For example, what is the significance of the names of the main characters in the
Monkey? Ghosts and foxes in the Strange Stories of the Chinese Studio? The book in
the Fox Volant in Snowy Mountain?

-How are the texts of Twenty-Four Stories of Filial Piety and Biographies of
Exemplary Women constructed? How do these stories promote such moral values
as filial piety and female devotion? What are the typical actions taken by the heroes
and heroines in these stories? What kinds of actions were depicted as virtuous?