History of Religion in Imperial China
- Course Code:
- 15PSRC051
- Status:
- Course Not Running This year
- Unit value:
- 1.0
- Year of study:
- Any
The first term will mostly focus on the period from the inception of the empire down to the Tang dynasty (618-907), while the second term will cover the “modern” epoch from the Song dynasty (960-1279) to the fall of the Manchus in 1911. Emphasis will be given to the social background and the role of the State in the formation of religious ideologies.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
The course has been designed primarily to acquaint students with the main English-language scholarship on the development of Chinese religion in the period 221BCE-1911CE, and where possible to point out ways in which separate studies suggest coherent patterns of change.
On successful completion of the course students will have become familiar with the main issues in the historical study of Chinese religions during the imperial period.
A secondary aim is to enable students to explore the English language literature in this field on their own, so that they are able to carry out their own reading on a topic of their choice. Time will be set aside on the course to provide guidance in the planning and writing of a single long paper based on individual reading.
