Confucianism and Autocracy: professional elites in the founding of the Ming Dynasty
China -- Politics and government -- 1368-1644.
This work looks into the Chinese social system for clues to the origin of the Ming autocracy, focusing on the role of Confucian doctrines in the rise of the Ming. He examines the elite stratum within Chinese society and the community of men broadly competent in Confucian learning and specialists that served that polity.
University of California Press (Berkeley)
Conquerors and Confucians: aspects of political change in late Yüan China
Political transitions in late Yuan China.
This book explores the transitions in rulership in late Yuan China beginning with a break with the empire founded by Genghis Khan and ending with the Yuan’s diminished power over China proper and finally the collapse of the dynasty. Critical to this theme is the important role of Confucians who made their impact increasingly felt at the court during this period.
Me and Ming China: An Interview with John Dardess
Video - oral retrospective by John Dardess.
In this video, Professor Emeritus John Dardess relates how he came to focus on the study of Ming China, describes the strategies and resources employed in his research and outlines the primary themes of his works. This interview is part of the "Celebrating East Asian Studies Scholarship: an Interdisciplinary Showcase" exhibition held in the Watson Library Gallery, University of Kansas, February 16 - April 15, 2012.
Online exhibition: http://www.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/eas/
John Dardess, Professor Emeritus of History
John Dardess, Professor Emeritus of History, retired in 2002 after thirty-five years of teaching East Asian, Chinese, and Inner Asian history to students at KU. He is the author of six books and many articles on Yuan and Ming history. His latest is Ming China: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire, published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2011. He is currently working on a study of issues connected with Ming China's powerful sixteenth-century grand secretaries.
The Changelings: a classical Japanese court tale
Novel from the late Heian period set in the Imperial court.
Translation of: Torikaebaya monogatari. This late Heian period novel relates the story of a sister and a brother who are cross-gendered. The sister passes as a man and serves at the Imperial court as “Chūnagon (Middle Counselor)” and even marries a lady, Yon no Kimi. In this section (pages 44-45), Chūnagon’s friend Saishō consummates his love for Yon no Kimi, the woman with whom Chūnagon maintains a chaste marriage.
Willig, Rosette F., translated, with an introduction and notes.
Stanford University Press (Stanford, Calif.)
Translation of Towazugatari by Nakanoin Masatada no Musume. One of the oldest books in print by a woman, The Confessions of Lady Nijō is a memoir written by a high-spirited Japanese Imperial court concubine, covering the years 1271 to 1306. She tells many anecdotes about life at court and describes the love affairs she had with two men other than the Retired Emperor. The page shown describes the night Retired Emperor GoFukakusa forcefully consummated his marriage to the young Lady Nijō (pages 8-9).
Michael Baskett, Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies
Michael Baskett is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Film and Media Studies. His area of specialization is Film History with an emphasis on Japanese and East Asian film studies. He is author of The Attractive Empire: transnational film culture in Imperial Japan (University of Hawaii Press) 2008, and co-editor (with William Tsutsui) of The East Asian Olympiads 1934-2008 : building bodies and nations in Japan, Korea, and China (Global Oriental) 2008. Other publications include "Goodwill Hunting: Rediscovering and Remembering Manchuko in Japanese ‘Goodwill Films’,” in Crossed Histories: Manchuria in the Age of Empire, edited by Mariko A. Tamanoi, 120-149. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005; “Outposts of Empire: Representations of Southeast Asia in Japanese Film,” in Representing the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia: Personal Testimonies and Public Images in Indonesia, Japan, and the Netherlands, edited by Femco Faben, 143-156. Zwolle: Waanders Publishers, 1999.
Scenes from the illustrated hand scroll of The Tale of Genji
Maggie Childs, Associated Professor and Chair, EALC
I earned a B.A. at Gettysburg College in History in 1972, having started my study of Japanese at Middlebury Summer School in 1971 and attended Princeton University to study Japanese language, history, and literature and Chinese Art History as a visiting student for my senior year (1971-72). My first job was teaching English in Tokyo to businessmen. Then I worked in small Japanese owned businesses in New York City until I started an M.A. program at Columbia University, which I paid for with money I had saved from teaching English in Japan. I enjoyed the privilege of studying with Donald Keene there, but in 1976 I moved to the University of Pennsylvania for my Ph.D., since the Director of the Middlebury Summer Japanese School, Dr. Hiroshi Miyaji, invited me to study with Dr. Barbara Ruch, a specialist in medieval Japanese literature, with the financial support of a Japanese Language Teaching Assistantship. I earned my Ph.D. in 1983 and began my teaching career at Southern Illinois University. I was happy to come to K.U., where there is a much larger community of East Asian scholars, in 1987.