China History for Professor Anthony only
For your second paper, which should be eight-nine pages in length (double-spaced with a font size of 12), please answer one or two of the following questions (if two, they should be around 4-5 pages each). This assignment is designed so that it can be done using only the class materials: Schirokauer, electronic reserves, and lecture notes. If you use other materials, please identify them in a bibliography at the end, and throughout provide parenthetical citations whenever you quote or otherwise cite a source.
1. Compare the approaches to the achievement of peace and social harmony in the Confucian and Daoist texts that we have read for this course. How do the differences reflect the basic principles of the two philosophies?
2. Describe the development of Confucianism from the 5th through the 3rd centuries BCE as seen in the writings of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi. What differences from the original thought of Confucius can be seen in the later philosophers and what elements remained common?
3. How is it that Buddhism, a totally foreign religion, was successfully established in China? In answering this question, provide an historical overview of the introduction of Buddhism and describe how it developed once it put down roots in China.