Sample Final

Choose ONE document from the following sources and write a response paper:

• Primary sources: texts that were written in the time period you are asked about;
• Secondary sources: texts written by later historians that explain the time period;
• Multimedia sources: typically artworks – cartoons, posters, paintings, videos – from the time period.

There is no suggested prompt, nor any length requirement for your responses. You are free to approach the source material in any way you see fit. You may also consult any external sources, such as your notes and the Internet (including generative AI), provided that you give proper citations.

Once you begin, you will have 120 minutes to complete the exam. Good luck!

Ledgers of Merits and Demerits

The ledgers of merit and demerit emerged as a popular form of morality book in China during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These ledgers contained lists of good and bad deeds, each assigned specific merit or demerit points. They provided users with the hope of divine rewards for those who could accumulate a significant number of merits.

So, how can one achieve merit in this life? In 1569, a Buddhist monk advised Yuan Huang to embrace the system of merits and demerits, suggesting that accumulating virtuous deeds could help him counteract a troubling prophecy he faced. Following this counsel, Yuan experienced notable successes: he was blessed with a son, passed the jinshi examination in 1585, and secured a prominent official position, first as a magistrate and later in the Board of War. Even after being unjustly dismissed from his role, Yuan remained convinced that success could be attained through the merits and demerits system.

By integrating the religious beliefs of the common people with the teachings of the Wang Yangming school, Yuan Huang crafted a philosophy that combined rigorous moral effort and self-discipline with a simple religious faith. Through his personal example and numerous publications, he connected his system to the aspirations of everyday people, particularly their desires for official rank through the civil service examination.

In the following excerpt, Yuan Huang (1533-1606), a distinguished Ming scholar and official, outlines a system that anyone can adopt.

Conduct for which one gains one hundred points of merit:

• Saving a person’s life
• Ensuring the fidelity of a woman
• Preventing someone from drowning a child or aborting a baby

Conduct for which one gains fifty points of merit:

• Maintaining the family lineage
• Adopting an orphan
• Burying a corpse no one cares for
• Adopting an orphan
• Preventing a person from abandoning a village [because of famine]

Conduct for which one gains thirty points of merit:

• Remonstrating with an evildoer to change his way
• Rectifying an injustice

Conduct for which one gains ten points of merit:

• Recommending a virtuous person for office
• Eliminating something harmful to the people

Conduct for which one gains five points of merit:

• Remonstrating with a litigant to withdraw a lawsuit
• Saving the life of a domestic animal

Conduct for which one gains one point of merit:

• Praising someone’s good deed
• Not joining in someone’s bad deed
• Remonstrating with someone from doing evil
• Curing someone’s illness
• Providing a meal to a hungry person
• Burying a dead domestic animal
• Saving the life of an insect or watery creature

For every one hundred coins one spends on the following, one gains 1 point of merit:

• Constructing a road or bridge; digging a waterway or well to benefit people; repairing or installing a sacred image, temple, shrine, or other sacred place for worship; giving assistance to the poor; donating tea, medicine, clothes, coffins, and so on
• Conduct that contributes to demerits is listed in terms generally opposite [to the meritorious deeds above].

Source: William Theodore De Bary and Richard John Lufrano, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600, 2nd ed., Introduction to Asian Civilizations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), p. 906-908

High-Level Indicators

• Links the system of merits and demerits to popular interpretations of Confucianism and Buddhism.
• Contextualizes the emergence of moral ledgers within the burgeoning publishing market of the Ming dynasty, highlighting how this system of moral accounting—tracking debits and credits for individual actions—aligned with societal commercialization.
• Investigates the valuation of moral actions while emphasizing the importance of family and lineage practices, particularly in relation to women and children.
• Explores the tension between virtuous actions that require monetary investment or offer rewards: How can we reconcile worldly ambitions with spiritual karma?
• Relates the practice of moral accounting to other forms of moral education in late imperial China, such as village schools.

Low-Level Indicators

• Offers limited insights into how morality books inform the daily lives of ordinary people, particularly regarding their pursuit of Confucian and Buddhist ideals.
• Neglects to address the socio-economic factors that contributed to the rise of popular morality books.
• Provides scant examination of the content of moral ledgers, especially regarding female morality, child education, and family honor.
• Does not acknowledge the contradictions inherent in virtuous actions that involve financial costs or rewards.
• Overly dismissive of the value of popular sources in understanding the practical application of Confucian and Buddhist beliefs.

Ge Zhaoguang: What is China

Ge Zhaoguang is Professor, National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies and the Department of History at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. In this following excerpt from his 2018 book What is China, he examines the meaning of “China”.

Right now many people in China advocate this national learning. Some say that national learning is the Five Classics of Confucian learning; others say that national learning is what Hu Shi called the “study of the national past” (guo gu zhi xue); and still others say that because modern China includes a variety of national groups and has inherited the massive territories of the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China, then we should have a “greater national learning” (da guoxue). To discuss this issue, I need to turn once again to what “China” means, because we have to ask: As a special kind of (multi-)nation-state, can China also exist as a complete historical world or cultural world?

[…]

My view is as follows. I oppose narrow nationalism and statism, and, in my historical research, I work to go beyond ossified borders of the nation and state. I must also point out, however, that the state (guojia) (or dynasty [wangchao]) still has considerable power to shape culture.

[…] in East Asia no single religion extended beyond the borders of individual states and superseded the power of the emperor, conditions were lacking for free travel and exchange between different states, and there was no transnational community of intellectuals in East Asia. In East Asia the boundaries between greater and lesser, inner and outer, and us and them were quite clear, and the role of the state (or dynasty) was huge, to the point that it functioned to set boundaries between cultures and create identities. This situation was quite different from what was found in Europe, where people came and went between different countries, ruling families intermarried, and knowledge circulated back and forth. Europeans not only shared the Greek and Roman cultural traditions but also shared a world of faith, unified by the great power of religion, under which the pope enjoyed greater power than the secular power of the king. For these reasons, although I laud efforts to view China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the region of the East China Sea and South China Sea as a “mutually linked and entangled history,” and to study the area as a single region. […]

As a cultural world, “China” or the Middle Kingdom did not become static once it had formed, but gradually spread outward in all directions from its center in the regions of the Yellow River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. “Chinese culture” is not a single culture but is a community that formed as its core, Han culture, melded with many other cultures. We need to look at the problem in two ways, however. First, during the formation of the cultural worlds of the Qin and Han dynasties, the Song dynasty, and the Ming dynasty, these areas gradually formed the center and boundaries of Han Chinese culture. This was particularly the case during the Song and Ming dynasties, which gave rise to a very clear sense of (Han) “China” and an awareness of “foreign lands” (waiguo, that is, regions on the periphery), as well as the clear distinction of differences between Chinese (Hua) and foreign or “Barbarian” (Yi). Through the combined efforts of the Song and Ming courts and the gentry elites, these areas became relatively stable and solid, making the central regions of China (the so-called traditional eighteen provinces of China) protect this culture and gradually spread outward toward its periphery, forming a relatively distinct cultural world. Here we see that Han Chinese culture is the most important core of this culture. The Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic peoples, Mongolians, and Manchus, as well as the Japanese, Koreans, and Annamese were all influenced by this Han culture, and all Chinese dynasties, including the Liao, Jin, Yuan, and Qing treated Han culture as a legitimate and rational civilization through which to promote themselves and to establish their own political power.

Source: Zhaoguang Ge, What Is China?: Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History, trans. Michael Hill (Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018), p. 111-113.

High-Level Indicators

• Acknowledges Ge Zhaoguang’s definition of China as a nation-state rooted in a diverse imperial legacy.
• Analyzes the cultural development process, noting how Chinese culture gradually expanded outward, creating a relatively distinct cultural realm.
• Places Ge’s argument within the larger context of Chinese nation-building since the 19th century.
• Examines the author’s claim of Chinese exceptionalism against the backdrop of a rising, increasingly nationalistic China.
• Reflects on the interplay between scholarship and politics, highlighting the role of intellectuals in shaping discourse.

Low-Level Indicators

• Fails to engage with Ge Zhaoguang’s crucial argument that “Chinese culture” consists not of a singular culture, but rather a community formed by the integration of Han culture with various other cultures.
• Offers limited insights into the processes of cultural assimilation, expansion, and the conflicts between China proper and its neighboring regions.
• Neglects to address the contributions of intellectuals to nationalism and their personal perspectives.
• Dedicates excessive attention to moral judgment or indignation regarding national history and/or nationalism.
• Maintains an overly critical stance on the document’s intellectual significance and its potential value.

Painting by Liu Rushi

A saying prevalent among gentry scholars in Late Imperial China suggested that “a woman is virtuous only if she is untalented.” However, Ming and Qing painters also celebrated women’s inner beauty by portraying them as talented and intelligent. In their artworks, women are frequently depicted engaging in activities such as reading, writing, painting, reciting poetry, playing the pan flute, or strumming the guzheng, a traditional Chinese zither.

During this era, artists also painted real-life women, including renowned courtesans, who became prominent subjects in court lady paintings. This shift indicates a growing secularization of artistic themes and a newfound admiration for women with talents. As a result, a community of female artists emerged, composed of both noblewomen and courtesans, who contributed significantly to the genre of court lady paintings.

In this section, you will explore a painting by Liu Rushi (1618–1664), a courtesan celebrated as one of the Eight Great Beauties of Qinhuai in Nanjing. Her fame stemmed not only from her high-profile romances with influential literati but also from her dramatic life experiences. Liu was a published poet by the age of 17, and by 25, she had released four collections of her work and gained recognition as a talented painter. One of her notable poems, “A Walk in the Rain on Broken Bridge,” includes the poignant lines: “If a courtesan’s life is destined to be a cold, blustery dream / Wind and rain, please be kind and wrap me in warmth.”

These accomplishments are particularly remarkable considering Liu was sold as a concubine at just 13 years old during the tumultuous final years of the Ming dynasty.

Source: https://asia-archive.si.edu/object/F1993.6a-o/

Title: On the Landscape and Figures Album, Volume Six Late Ming and Early Qing

Liu Rushi

Five-character Regulated Verse

Cool breezes scatter the shadows of the green wutong tree,

As I play the zither at dusk every evening.

Quietly, I absorb the waters of a thousand ravines,

Sitting to send off the clouds across the creek.

Heavenly music forms a dream of immortals,

While autumn sounds bring down a flock of wild geese.

In the elegant chamber, the gentle wind is fine,

Fragrance wafts from the lotus silk skirt.

題山水人物圖冊 其六

明末清初 · 柳是

五言律詩

涼散碧梧影，橫琴每夕昏。

静涵千涧水，坐送隔溪云。

仙樂鈞天夢，秋聲落雁群。

綺寮風細細，香沁藕絲裙。

High-Level Indicators

• Provides an in-depth analysis of the poem and painting: The central figure is a solitary woman at her hearth, completely alone. She gazes at the water with hills in the background, playing the zither for her own enjoyment, subtly connecting with her surroundings.
• Explores Chinese landscape painting as a significant genre: For literati elites, reflections on mountains, rivers, and clouds served as vital sources of inspiration and philosophical contemplation.
• Examines how Liu Rushi challenges gender norms by portraying a woman, rather than a man, as the zither player. Through her music, she forges a connection not only with her inner self but also with the essence of nature—an aspiration traditionally pursued by male elites.
• Connects the spiritual landscapes depicted in the poem and painting to the domestic, social, and public lives of women.
• Investigates the valorization of “talented women” in late imperial China and how female education was framed within a gendered hierarchy.
• Disaggregates women’s experiences by considering factors such as age, class, and social status, including courtesans, concubines, and wives.
• Explores how women created rich cultural expressions and meaningful lives despite the constraints imposed by a patriarchal Confucian society.

Low-Level Indicators

• Offers limited analysis of various motifs—such as trees, geese, lotus, and the zither—and their ability to evoke a poetic mood while embodying spiritual and moral qualities typically associated with male scholar-officials.
• Primarily summarizes the poem and describes the painting, lacking insight into the social, emotional, and intellectual experiences of women within the complexities of ideology, practice, and self-perception.
• Neglects to compare Liu Rushi with women from different social and class backgrounds in late imperial China.
• Provides minimal commentary on the rise of “talented women” and their efforts to gain literacy and carve out new freedoms within the male hierarchy during the economic transitions of Ming China.
• Presents a largely pessimistic perspective on women’s status in late imperial China.