Mythical Histories in China and Japan

History 360¥¥Spring 2005 Prof. Thomas Wilson

Office: KJ 128; Office hours: T 2-3:30 Class time: Mon. 1-4:00¥¥Room: KJ 107

Since myth is usually construed as a form of fabrication and history is typically understood as a record of facts, the term Òmythical historiesÓ may seem like an oxymoron. The term recognizes, however, the most pervasive ÒfactÓ about history: that the past and the written record of it is used to explain, justify, or critique the state of things in the historianÕs (or readerÕs) own time. Such uses of the past are rarely innocent; history is rarely written and read without motives that are external to the historical facts themselves. The pervasive use of history in this way is to ÒmythologizeÓ the past. This does not mean that we can only write and read history tendentiously. Nor does it mean that we, as readers of history, should reject historical accounts as merely biased renderings of objective historical truths. To the contrary, this poses an interesting challenge for us to read histories from a variety of perspectives in order to uncover the manifold ways that the past continually resonates in the present: in the present of the writers of history as well as the readers of it.

1. Introduction (1/17)

2. Myth & History (1/24)

Stefan Tanaka, JapanÕs Orient: Rendering Pasts into History, 1-103

* prŽcis (2 pp., or approx. 600 words; send to me as an email attachment by 10:00 AM)

Further Readings:

Gabrielle Spiegel, ÒGenealogy: Form and Function in Medieval Historical Narrative,Ó History and Theory 22 (Feb. 1983) 1: 43-53 (JSTOR)

3. Origins: China (1/31)

ÒSheng minÓ 生民, Book of Odes, 198-202 (Bernhard Kalgren trans.)

ÒThe Chou Book,Ó The Grand ScribeÕs Records (aka Record of the Historian), 55-86

K.C. Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual, 9-55

Conrad Schirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations, 4-26

Further Readings:

Wu Hung, ÒAncient Sovereigns,Ó The Wu-liang Shrine, 244-52

Richard Strassberg, A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas

4. Origins: Japan (2/7)

Record of Ancient Matters (Kojiki 故事記), 37-92

Chronicles of Japan (Nihonshugi 日本書記), 1-63

Sources of Japanese Tradition, 12-33

Conrad Schirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations, 130-154

Further Readings:

Robinson, G. W. ÒEarly Japanese Chronicles: The Six National Histories,Ó Historians of China and Japan, 213-228

Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An Introduction

5. The Sovereign (2/14)

China: Son of Heaven 天子, Mandate of Heaven 天命, Legitimate Succession 正統

Yang Wei-chen (1296-1370), ÒPolemics on Legitimate Succession,Ó 51-72

Richard L. Davis, ÒHistoriography as Politics in Yang Wei-chenÕs ÔPolemics on Legitimate SuccessionÕ,Ó 33-51

* prŽcis

Chan Hok-lam, Legitimation in Imperial China: Discussions Under the Jurchen Chin Dynasty (1115-1234), 3-48

Japan: Divine Emperor 天皇

Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293-1354), A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns 神皇正統記, 1-41, 49-129

Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), ÒThe Way of the Gods,Ó Monumenta Nipponica 46.1: 21-41

Further Readings:

Hashimoto Mitsuru, ÒChih: Yanagita KunioÕs ÔJapan,ÕÓ Mirror of Modernity

Partha Chaterjee, ÒWhose Imagined Community?,Ó The Nation and Its Fragments, 3-13

9. State & Nation (3/28)

Carol Gluck, JapanÕs Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period, 3-101

James Ketelaar, Of Heretics and Martyrs, 3-135

Julia Thomas, ÒNaturalizing Nationhood: Ideology and Practice in Early Twentieth-Century Japan,Ó JapanÕs Competing Modernities, 114-32

It Kimio, ÒThe Invention of Wa and the Transformation of the Image of Prince Shtoku in Modern Japan,Ó Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan

Kevin Doak, ÒCulture, Ethnicity, and the State in Early Twentieth-Century Japan,Ó JapanÕs Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930, 181-205

Further Readings:

Theresa M. Grew, Construction of Ethnicity and Minorities in Japan: An Examination of Nation-building and the Japanese Myth of Homogeneity

Dipesh Chakrabarty, ÒAfterword: Revisiting the Tradition/Modernity Binary,Ó Mirror of Modernity

10. Colonialism & Empire (4/4)

Louise Young, ÒColonizing Manchuria: The Making of an Imperial Myth,Ó Mirror of Modernity

Takashi Yoshida, ÒA Battle Over History: The Nanjing Massacre in Japan,Ó The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography, ed. Joshua Fogel

Tomiyama Ichir, ÒColonialism and the Sciences of the Tropical Zone: The Academic Analysis of Difference in Ôthe Island Peoples,ÕÓ positions 3 (Fall 1995) 2: 367-391

Daqing Yang, ÒThe Challenges of the Nanjing Massacre: Reflections on Historical Inquiry,Ó The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography, ed. Joshua Fogel