This course is an introduction to Asian visual arts and cultures through selective key monuments. We will study the arts of India, Southeast
Asia, Himalayan regions, China, and Japan. The course is not intended to be a historical survey, but is organized chronologically according to
different countries and regions. It shows some main trends and unique characteristics of the most important artistic and cultural
developments. The course concentrates on topics of art and religion, art and philosophy, art and history, aesthetics, style, connoisseurship,
medium and creative process of art. It pays special attention to cultural exchanges and common themes that ran through different areas of
Asia. Meanwhile, it emphasizes indigenous traditions to highlight uniqueness of different heritages.
Textbook:
Sherman E. Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art (5th ed.). The textbook is expensive and dense. But it is worthwhile to get a copy of your own.
Requirements:
Readings: Readings consist of two parts–basic and additional. Basic readings are assigned according to subjects rather than dates in the
“Tentative Schedule of Lectures” below. You should read the assignment for a topic before the lectures. The additional readings listed at the
end of the syllabus are intended for your research and research paper; they provide a starting point for your topic. For example, if you want
to do more research on Chinese painting and write a paper on an painter, you should first read pages about the painter and the period in Yang
Xin et al., Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997). Then check the recommended readings at the end
of the book for additional information.
A mid-term examination: Wednesday, March 2. Materials to be covered in the first half of the semester will be tested in the mid-term exam.
There will be no make-ups. 80% of the images in the mid-term exam come from “Review 1” file for exams, available for review at
http://mdid.art.msu.edu
The other 20% of the images in the mid-term exam will be chosen from the textbook as “unknown” images.
A final examination: Wednesday, May 4 2016 10:00am – 12:00pm in C302 Snyder Hall. The format of the final examination is similar to that of
the mid-term. Materials to be covered from the mid-term onward will be tested in the final examination; materials covered before the mid-term
will not be used in the final exam. 80% of the images in the final exam come from “Review 2” file for exam, available for review at
http://mdid.art.msu.edu
The other 20% of the images in the final exam will be chosen from the textbook as “unknown” images.
One paper outline, due on March 30. The outline should include an annotated bibliography–at least three books or articles on your topic.
Topics must be related to the materials covered or to be covered in the course or approved by the instructor. A guideline for the outline and
paper is attached below.
One paper: 5-7 pages, due on April 20. This should be seen as a process of learning how to write a good paper. You should not be discouraged
if the grade of your paper is less than what you expect. Critical comments from the instructor are not intended to criticize you, but to
improve your paper. Late paper will not be accepted.
Class attendance, discussion. Class attendance is important because the course deals with visual art and culture through slide shows, and
major images will be discussed in detail in the lectures. Excessive absences will result in reduction in the final grade or failure in the
course. Cheating in attendance will lead to failure in the course.
Class Etiquettes:
Turn off mobile phone before the lectures start.
Do not disturb the exams.
People tend to fall ill, or cars break down, or grandmas die right before the deadline for the paper or before exams, but make-up exams will
not be given, and paper extensions not granted, except under extremely dire or unusual circumstances and at the discretion of the instructor
before the exam days or due days.
Images shown in the lectures will be put on Department of Art and Art History Image Data Base (http://mdid.art.msu.edu for your review.
Percentage of Grade
Mid-term: 30%; Final: 40%; paper: 30%. This does not mean that attendance does not count; on the contrary, the attendance is taken for
granted. Each absence without a valid reason will downgrade the final grade a little. Normally after the fourth absence no curve in the grade
will be given. Normally the eighth absence will lead to failure in the course.
The 100 numerical grades for exams will be converted to 4 numerical scale according to the following conversion table:
4.0 100-90 3.5 89-85
3.0 84-80 2.5 79-70
2.0 69-60 1.5 59-50
1.0 49-40 0.0 39-0
The A-F letter grades for the paper can be converted to the following table:
A+ 30 A 28 A- 26
B+ 24 B 22 B- 20
C+ 18 C 16 C- 14
D+12 D 10 D- 8
F+ 6 F 4 F- 0
Office Hours: Kresge Art Center 323, M W 1:30 p.m. -2:30 p.m., or by appointment.
Phone: 517-355-7633; E-Mail: jinga@msu.edu
Readings:
1. China
Neolithic Cultures and the Three Dynasties (Readings: pp. 23-56)
Qin and Han Dynasties (Readings: pp. 57-72)
Between Han and Tang (Readings: pp. 151-163, 286-296)
Tang Dynasty (Reading: 173-186, 296-308)
Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasties (Readings: pp. 358-396, 450-509)
2. India
Indus Valley Civilization (Readings: pp. 18-23)
Buddhist Art (Readings: pp. 80-132)
Hindu Art (Readings: pp. 190-237)
Hindu and Jain Art (Readings: pp. 238-251)
Mogul Architecture and Painting (Readings: pp. 251-256)
3. Nepal and Tibet
Himalayan Buddhist Art (Readings: pp. 132-137)
4. Japan
Shinto Shrines (Readings: pp. 27-28, 74-78)
Buddhist Temples (163-171, 173-185, 314-347, 397-416)
Narrative scroll (347-357, 404-416)
Prints (Readings: pp. 541-551)
5. Southeast Asia
Borobudur (Readings: pp. 139-150)
Angkor (Readings: pp. 263-284)
Additional Readings Reserved in the Library:
Susan Huntington, Art of Ancient India (New York: Weatherhill, 1985).
Michael Sullivan, The Arts of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
Wen Fong, The Great Bronze Age of China (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980).
Yang, Xin et al., Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997
Penelope Mason, Japanese Art (New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1993).
John Clark. Modernity in Asian Art. Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney East Asian Series, No. 7. Broadway, NSW, Australia: Wild Peony
Publishers, 1993.
Guideline for Outline and Paper
Outline
Hand in a one-page, printed outline of your paper with annotated bibliography on March 30. By this time you should have completed preliminary
research and know well what you are going to do and how to do it. But if by then you have done only little research and don’t know how you are
going to proceed, you don’t have to cook up one and submit it, because that would be a waste of your time and my time; it is entirely
voluntary. In other words your outline must be based on your solid research. The purpose of the outline is to make sure that you are on right
track: your topic is meaningful, manageable, and can contribute to your knowledge and understanding of the course.
Length of outline: one page, including bibliography.
List the main books and articles you are going to use for your paper, and explain how they contribute to your paper. Pay special attention to
new studies from university and scholarly presses and scholarly journals.
Use at least three specialized studies in English on your topic (books or articles in scholarly journals) . You can use additional sources,
either in English or other languages. If you use Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan sources, the original scripts must be provided.
The chance of success of the paper depends heavily on the quality of your bibliography. For some topics books are necessary.
One important source you can easily use to find useful scholarly articles is www.jstor.org/ which MSU library subscribes, and you can search
for key words and download articles. For example, if you want to write a paper on a monument or an artist, you can enter their names and
search. In your citations of the sources (in the footnotes and bibliography of your paper) downloaded from the website, you must provide the
names, article titles, journal titles, dates and issue numbers of the journals, and the page numbers of the articles.
Your annotated bibliography is a good indicator of the depth of your research. If your bibliography is only a website or irrelevant, it
reveals that you have not done much research.
If you are unable to locate useful materials, do not list unrelated books or articles casually just to make up the numbers, for that will not
help me evaluate your outline.
In your outline provide at least the topic, main points and structure of your paper, and bibliography.
Format of the Paper:
A research paper should be an in-depth or focused study of an art work, a group of related works, or an artist.
Your research should go much deeper than what is provided in an average website. So do not quote non-scholarly websites as scholarly sources.
However, you can use studies in scholarly journals in electronic form.
Your research should go much deeper than what is discussed in your textbook. So do not quote the textbook as a scholarly source.
Purchased paper is not acceptable.
Provide page number.
Use font no. 12.
Use double space, not triple.
Illustrations: make a copy of the art work you discuss in your paper, and if necessary, copies of other images you discuss in the paper, and
attach them to your paper as “fig. 1,” “fig. 2,” etc. at the end of your paper.
For illustrations and images, you can use www.artstor.org/ which MSU Library subscribes.
Do not cut illustrations from library books.
Do not use pens to mark library books.
Provide footnotes, not endnotes; use correct format. Footnotes should be used mainly to identify sources you use in the paper, such as the
author, title, page number, journal name of a source. Footnotes can also be used to discuss technical detail that may be interesting only to
specialists. Do not use footnotes to explain simple terms like “Buddha,” “Gupta;” these should be explained (if necessary) in the text.
Consult at least three scholarly articles and books on or related to your topic. For some topics, articles alone are not enough, and scholarly
books should be used.
Provide a bibliography; use correct format.
Correct formats for footnotes and bibliography. Your can learn correct formats from the scholarly sources you use in your research.
Paper without footnotes, bibliography or illustrations is not acceptable.
Do not use any cover page.
Give a title to your paper.
At the beginning of your paper, you may want to write an introductory paragraph, introducing your subject, your thesis, the structure of your
paper and so on. Avoid sweeping statements about arts, Indian art, Buddhist art and other large topics of which you have barely scratched the
surface in this course.
At the end, you may want to write a conclusion or summary.
Content
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is absolutely not allowed, no matter it is an idea, a whole article, passage, or sentence. It will result in failure in
the course.
Your paper should be a focused study on a topic, not a broad survey, such as “Song Landscape Painting” or “Gupta Sculpture.”
A paper should not be a summary of the textbook or class notes.
A paper should not be a collection of discussions of individual works one after another without a unifying thesis, structure, or conclusion.
Do not write on topics with no connection to the course, for example, American art.
Organize your paper around your thesis (your idea, your argument, your opinion, your own understanding), which should be solidly supported by
scholarly sources. In other words, your thesis must be informed by the main scholarly views and achievements about your topic. Your idea which
is unaware of the scholarly and critical views about your topic can not be a valid thesis.
Your thesis or argument should not be too simple or vague; for example, “Buddhist art is beautiful.”
Your thesis should not be too big or abstract so that they can hardly be supported.
If you do not have a thesis or idea, you may want to write an introduction to an art work (its date, the artist, its historical circumstances,
its style, its function etc.), a topic or an artist, but only very careful and thoughtful work of this kind may get an “A” grade.
A common mistake is to copy a whole sentence or paragraph from a source and paste it into your paper, without integrating it into your own
writing by some sorts of introduction, discussion or explanation. Too many direct quotes like it turn your paper into a discrepant hodgepodge.
Tentative Schedule of Lectures:
1/11: Introduction, Yangshao and Longshan ceramics
1/13: Liangzhu jades
1/18: no class
1/20: Shang bronze
1/25: Shang bronze; bronze outside the Shang
1/27: bronze vessels and paintings from Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasties
2/1: The First Emperor’s mausoleum
2/3: Mawangdui
2/8: tomb of Liu Sheng; the Flying Horse
2/10: Fengxian Monastery, the Great Goose Pagoda, Yan Liben
2/15: Gu Hongzhong, Li Cheng
2/17: Guo Xi; Southern Song painters
2/22: Beijing and the Purple Forbidden City
2/24: Indus Valley Civilization
2/29: Asoka Pillar; the Great Stupa
3/2: Mid-term exam
Monday, 3/7-Friday, 3/11: Spring Break
3/14: Chaitya; Buddha images
3/16: Ajanta
3/21: Bamiyan, Pala art
3/23: Elephanta
3/28: Mamallapuram
3/30: Ellora, Khajuraho
4/4: Mughal painting and architecture
4/6: Himalayan art
4/11: Himalayan art
4/13: Jomon and Yayoi
4/18: Kofun and Shinto shrine
4/20: Horyu-ji, Yakushi-ji, Toshodai-ji
4/25: Toji, Himeji
4/27: Southeast Asia
Class end: Friday, 4/29
5/4: Final Exam: Wednesday, May 4 2016 10:00am – 12:00pm
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