THE AXIAL AGE OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN WORLD HISTORY

• China and the "Axial Age"

CONFUCIANISM

• The Confucian Tradition
• Confucian Teaching

CHINESE POETRY: ORIGINS OF A LITERARY TRADITION

THE BOOK OF SONGS

• The Book of Songs and China’s Literary Tradition
• Legends of the Zhou and the Nature of Chinese Society
• The Han Dynasty Codification
• "The Great Preface" and Five Notions about Poetry
• Individual Voices in the Book of Songs

WANG CAN (177-217 CE)

• Wang Can and the Poetry of Scholar-Officials During the Han
• Poetry of Retreat at the Fall of the Han

TAO QIAN (365-427 CE)

• Tao Qian and the Tradition of Retreat
• Prelude to Tang Poetry: Poetry of the Zhou and Han

TANG POETRY

• Introduction to Tang Poetry
• Great Tang Poets: Du Fu (721-770)
• Great Tang Poets: Li Bo (701-762)
• Great Tang Poets: Wang Wei (699-761)

CLASSICAL JAPAN

• Introduction to Classical Japan
• The Tale of Genji

MEDIEVAL JAPAN

• Introduction to Medieval Japan
• An Account of My Hut, by Chômei
• Kenkô’s Essays in Idleness and Japanese Aesthetics
• Noh Drama

TOKUGAWA JAPAN

• Introduction to Tokugawa Japan
• Bashô (1644-1694): Master of the Haikai and Haiku Forms
• Bashô's Narrow Road to the Deep North
• Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725): Samurai Playwright
• Saikaku (1642-1693): The Comic Novelist

THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN JAPAN

• The Emperor
• The Prime Minister
• The Japanese Bureaucracy
• The Japanese Diet (Parliament)
• Interest Groups in Japanese Politics
• Japan's Election Laws
• Japan's Electoral System (1925-1994)

CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: SOCIETY AND CULTURE

• Urban & Rural Life
• The Japanese Family
• Education & Work
• Japanese Society
• Popular Culture
• Religions