Questions on the Reading

Week 1

Introduction to "Myth and History: East Asian Origins."

The first set of readings for this course includes some of the earliest texts about East Asia. Yet several texts date from times much later than those of which they write, and the earliest accounts of Korea and Japan were written by Chinese historians. The oracle bones in the first chapter of Sources of Chinese Tradition are the only materials that tell of the period from which they date (Shang dynasty, ca. 1554-1045 BCE). The texts discussed in the second chapter of Sources of Chinese Tradition are later editions of Zhou-dynasty texts or idealized accounts of that period (Zhou dynasty, ca. 1045-256 BCE). The early Chinese descriptions of Korea and Japan derive from Chinese dynastic histories that were compiled at various occasions during the first millennium of the common era. The creation myths of Japan were first recorded in the early eighth century (Kojiki, 712; Nihongi, 720), while the Korean foundation myths were not written down until the thirteenth century (Samguk yusa, by the monk Iryon, 1206-1289).

1. How do the authors of these texts present the origins of their own culture? What do they emphasize in these creation narratives? How, do you think, may the narratives have been relevant to the times in which they were written?

2. How do the Chinese accounts depict the peoples of Korea and Japan? What do the accounts emphasize? What do these accounts tell us about Korea and Japan, and what do they tell us about China?

3. How would you classify the form and style of these texts? What do they tell us about East Asia? Which reading or readings do you find to reveal the most about early East Asian history, and why?