Poli 113a ucsd

POLI 113A: East Asian Thought in Comparative Perspective

Prof. Victor Magagna∗

Fall 2018 MWF | 12:00 & 13:00 | Price Theater

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an analytic introduction to East Asian political thought

and culture from 551 BC to the present.

Assignments and Grades

Course grades are based on one take home midterm exam (worth 40% of the final grade) and one take home

final exam (worth 60%). Both exams must be submitted digitally via the Turnitin assignment link on TritonEd. No hard copy will be required.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please visit the UCSD academic integrity office’s website at http://academicintegrity.ucsd.edu.

If you need help writing these essays, you are encouraged to make an appointment with the UCSD writing

center (http://commons.ucsd.edu/students/writing/index.html). Specific deadlines, instructions, and

submission guidelines will be announced when the exam prompts are posted to TritonEd. The midterm

prompts are included on the final page of this document.

Course Resources

Lectures will be available via podcast at https://podcast.ucsd.edu. Prof. Magagna’s notes from each

lecture will be posted to TritonEd as well.

Readings

Weeks 1 – 5:

• Yao, X. 2000. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge University Press. (Read entire book.)

• C.C. Tsai. 2018. The Analects: An Illustrated Edition. Princeton University Press. (Read entire book.)

Weeks 6 – 10:

• de Bary, W.T. et al. 1999. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 1: From Earliest Times to 1600. Columbia University Press. (Read sections on Mencius, Xunzi, Confucius and the Analects, plus either Zhu Xi or

Wang Yangming sections.) ∗Office: SSB 375; Phone: (858) 337-1926.

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http://academicintegrity.ucsd.edu
http://commons.ucsd.edu/students/writing/index.html
https://podcast.ucsd.edu
Teaching Assistants

The TAs for this course are Mariana Carvalho Barbosa, Todd Levinson, Stan Oklobdzija, Michael Seese, and

Liesel Spangler. The TAs will not hold regular office hours. At least one TA will be present at every lecture;

students are encouraged to approach the TA with questions either before or after the class session.

Please send all email communication to Michael Seese at mseese@ucsd.edu.

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mailto:mseese@ucd.edu
Midterm Exam

Directions

• The midterm exam is due Friday, 9 November at 2:00pm.

• You will be required to submit a digital copy of your paper to the Turnitin link on TritonEd. Please retain a copy of your submission confirmation, in case there are any technical issues with your submission.

• Please write 6–7 pages for each response, except for Prompt 1. If you select Prompt 1, you must write 8–10 pages.

• Use standard formatting with:

– Double spacing,

– 11 or 12 point font (Times, Helvetica, Calibri, etc.),

– 1 inch margins,

– No more than 1 inch of space dedicated to title and header,

– No extraneous space between paragraphs or headers.

• Please include the number of the prompt you are responding to.

• Cite lecture and class readings where appropriate;

– Include a bibliography and in-text citations,

– You may use any standard citation style, (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.),

– Please do not use outside sources,

– Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

• Please do not include pictures, charts, or figures in your responses. Please do not copy / paste lecture notes into the text of your response.

• Please stay on topic.

• You must turn your exam in by the deadline to receive full credit. Any late exams (even by 1 minute late) will incur a penalty.

– Papers will be penalized by 13 of a letter grade for each day late (e.g., A– −→ B+, etc.). – The system will not accept late submissions. If you need to turn your paper in after the deadline,

please email a .pdf copy to mseese@ucsd.edu.

Prompts

Choose and respond to one of the prompts below.

1. Explain the paradox of proper order and illustrate it with the work of the district magistrate. (8-10 pages, source: lectures)

2. Explain the core concepts of East Asian thought. (6-7 pages, sources: Yao and lectures)

3. Explain the Analects used in the lectures and the illustrated Analects. (6-7 page, sources: lectures, Illustrated Analects)

4. Explain the problem of elite regulation. (6-7 pages, sources: lectures, de Bary, Yao)

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mailto:mseese@ucd.edu