Lectures: MW 1:30–3:00pm, 212 Houghton House
Office hours: Tu 10:00–11:30am, F 1:15–2:45pm, 208 Houghton House; or by appointment

Course description:
How are the feminine and masculine represented in art? This seminar will consider the role of gender in Chinese painting, focusing on the Song and Yuan dynasties (spanning the tenth to fourteenth centuries). Topics will include the setting of figure paintings in gendered space, the coding of landscapes and bird-and-flower paintings as masculine or feminine, and ways that images of women (an often marginalized genre of Chinese art) help to construct ideas of both femininity and masculinity. Throughout, we will examine the differing roles of men and women as patrons, collectors, and painters. The course is cross-listed with Asian Studies and Women's Studies. It addresses two of the aspirational goals of the curriculum: a critical understanding of social inequalities (substantially) and a critical understanding of cultural difference (substantially).

Learning objectives:
Students in this class will hone their critical thinking, research, writing, and oral presentation skills. More conceptual learning objectives include understanding how paintings operate as historical artifacts that reveal current ideas on politics, religion, and society, as well as broader knowledge of the connections between Chinese art and literature and the roles of men and women in Chinese society in the middle imperial period.

Books:

• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993. (REQUIRED.)
• Lee, Hui-shu. Empresses, Art, and Agency in Song Dynasty China.Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010. (REQUIRED.)
• Bush, Susan, and Hsio-yen Shih, comp. and ed. Early Chinese Texts on Painting. 2nd ed. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. (REQUIRED. This book is essentially identical to the 1st edition, published in 1985 by Harvard University Press.)
• Watson, Burton, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. (REQUIRED.)
• Barnet, Sylvan, ed. A Short Guide to Writing about Art. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2015. (RECOMMENDED FOR STUDENTS NEW TO ART HISTORY.)

Weekly schedule (please note: schedule may be subject to minor changes):

Jan. 22 (W).     Overview of course.

Jan. 27 (M).     An outline of Song and Yuan history.

• Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 136–89.

Jan. 29 (W).     Setting the terms: Western and Chinese theories of gender.
*RESPONSE PAPER due*

• Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, “Introduction: The Expanding Discourse,” in The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (New York: IconEditions, 1992), 1–25.
• Lisa Raphals, “Yin and Yang,” in Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and Virtue in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), 139–68.

Feb. 3 (M).       Setting the terms: Western and Chinese theories of representation.
*RESPONSE PAPER due*

• M. H. Abrams, “Figurative Language,” “Imagery,” and “Motif and Theme,” in A Glossary of Literary Terms, 6th ed. (Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1993), 66–70, 86–87, 121.
• Martin J. Powers, “Discourses of Representation in Tenth and Eleventh Century China,” in The Art of Interpreting, ed. Susan C. Scott (University Park, Pa.: The Department of Art History, The Pennsylvania State University, 1995), 88–127.
• Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 2nd ed. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012), 203–5.

Feb. 5 (W).      How to give an effective art historical presentation.

Feb. 10 (M).     Male painters in the Song and Yuan.
*RESPONSE PAPER due*

• Wai-kam Ho, “Aspects of Chinese Painting from 1100 to 1350,” in Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and The Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980), xxv–xxx.
• Bush and Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 89–93, 100–103, 129–34, 156–58, 187–90, 196–201, 255–56.

Feb. 12 (W).    Female painters in the Song and Yuan: textual accounts and surviving works.

• Marsha Weidner, “Women in the History of Chinese Painting,” in Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists 1300-1912 (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1988), 12–29.
• James Robinson, catalogue entries 1 and 2, in Views from Jade Terrace, 66–70.

Feb. 17 (M). How to research Chinese art and write a longer research paper.

Feb. 19 (W).     Male patrons of the arts: Song dynasty emperors.
*PRESENTATIONS*

• Bush and Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 134–38.
• Maggie Bickford, “Emperor Huizong and the Aesthetic of Agency,” Archives of Asian Art 53 (2002–2003): 71–104. <JSTOR>
• Julia Murray, “Sung Kao-tsung as Artist and Patron: The Theme of Dynastic Revival,” in Artists and Patrons: Some Social and Economic Aspects of Chinese Painting, ed. Chu-tsing Li (Lawrence, Kans.: Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas; Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1989), 27–36.
• Hui-shu Lee, Empresses, Art, and Agency in Song Dynasty China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010),  169–92.

Feb. 24 (M).    Female patrons of the arts: Song dynasty empresses.
*PRESENTATIONS*

• Lee, Empresses, Art, and Agency, 118–69, 192–238.

Feb. 26 (W).    Female collectors in the Song: two case studies.
*PRESENTATIONS* 

• Stephen Owen, “The Snares of Memory,” Chapter 5 of Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in Classical Chinese Literature (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), 80–98.
• Shen C. Y. Fu, “Princess Sengge Ragi: Collector of Painting and Calligraphy,” trans. Marsha Weidner, in Flowering in the Shadows: Women in the History of Chinese and Japanese Painting, ed. Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990), 55–80.

Mar. 2 (M).      Male collectors in the Song and Yuan.

• Bush and Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 98–100, 184–86, 191–96, 233–40, 256–62.
• Ankeney Weitz, “Art and Politics at the Mongol Court of China: Tugh Temür’s Collection of Chinese Paintings,” Artibus Asiae 64, no. 2 (2004): 243–80. <JSTOR>

Mar. 4 (W).      Gendered space in the Song.
*RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL due*

• Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 21–44.
• Raphals, “Nei-wai: Distinctions between Men and Women,” in Sharing the Light, 195–213.
• Irene S. Leung, “Romancing Captivity on the Frontier: The Cai Yan Story as Case Study,” chapter 2 of “The Frontier Imaginary in the Song Dynasty (960–1279): Revisiting Cai Yan’s Barbarian Captivity and Return” (Ph.D. diss., The University of Michigan, 2001), 57–97.

Mar. 9 (M).      Men on the road: landscape paintings and river scenes in the Song and Yuan.

• Bush and Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 120–22, 141–56, 162–70.
• Richard Barnhart, “Figures in Landscape,” Archives of Asian Art 42 (1989): 62–70. <JSTOR>
• Peter C. Sturman, “The Donkey Rider as Icon: Li Cheng and Early Chinese Landscape Painting,” Artibus Asiae 55, no. 1/2 (1995): 43–97. <JSTOR>

Mar. 11 (W).    Reclusion and homosociality: landscapes of scholars in the Song.

• Burton Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984),  129–31, 134–36.
• Hans H. Frankel, “Man in His Relations with Other Men,” Chapter 3 of The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), 33–40.
• Jerome Silbergeld, “Back to the Red Cliff: Reflections on the Narrative Mode in Early Literati Landscape Painting,” Ars Orientalis 25 (1995): 19–38. <JSTOR>

[Mar. 14–22, Spring Break]

Mar. 23 (M).    Reclusion and homosociality: landscapes of scholars in the Yuan.

• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 142–43.
• Burton Watson, “The Poetry of Reclusion,” Chapter 5 of Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century, with Translations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), 68–89.
• Bush and Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 262–70.

Mar. 25 (W).    Gender and images of nature.
*RESEARCH WORKSHEETS due*

• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 19, 21, 54–66.
• Bush and Shih, comp. and ed., Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 125–29, 272–88.
• Robert E. Harrist, Jr., “Ch’ien Hsüan’s Pear Blossoms: The Tradition of Flower Painting and Poetry from Sung to Yüan,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 22 (1987): 53–70. <JSTOR>
• Lee, Empresses, Art, and Agency, 140–46.

Mar. 30 (M).    The history of gendered work in China.

• Ebrey, The Inner Quarters, 130–51.
• Francesca Bray, “Fabrics of Power: The Canonical Meaning of Women’s Work,” in Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1997), 183–205.

Apr. 1 (W).      Literary and artistic representations of gendered work.

• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 176, 245–46, 299–300, 304–6, 319.
• Roslyn Lee Hammers, Pictures of Tilling and Weaving: Art, Labor, and Technology in Song and Yuan China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011), 9–40.

Apr. 6 (M).      Women’s lives in textual sources.

• Ebrey, The Inner Quarters, 114–30, 152–87.
• Julia Ching, “Sung Philosophers on Women,” Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies 42 (1994): 259–74.
• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 82–92, 102–3, 107–8, 112–13, 160, 171, 190, 215–16, 224, 226, 228–29, 281, 320, 341, 365, 371.

Apr. 8 (W).      Representations of female virtue in Song dynasty art.
*ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY due*

• Julia K. Murray, “Didactic Art for Women: The Ladies’ Classic of Filial Piety,” in Flowering in the Shadows: Women in the History of Chinese and Japanese Painting, ed. Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990), 27–53.
• Lee, Empresses, Art, and Agency, 106–8, 118–28, 149–59.
• Ellen Johnston Laing, “Auspicious Images of Children in China: Ninth to Thirteenth Century.” Orientations 27, no. 1 (January 1996): 47–52.

Apr. 13 (M).    Transgression and femininity: the history of female entertainers in the Song.

• Ebrey, The Inner Quarters, 217–54.
• Marsha L. Wagner, “Popular Tz’u Poetry in the Entertainment Quarters after 755,” Chapter 4 of The Lotus Boat: The Origins of Chinese “Tz’u” Poetry in T’ang Popular Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), 79–103.

Apr. 15 (W).    Representing transgression: female entertainers in art and literature.

• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 193–94, 249–52, 279.
• Lara C. W. Blanchard, “A Scholar in the Company of Female Entertainers: Changing Notions of Integrity in Song to Ming Dynasty Painting,” nan nü: Men, Women and Gender in China 9, no. 2 (2007): 189–246 (especially 219–31).
• Paul Rouzer, “Honor among the Roués,” in Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001), 249–83.

Apr. 20 (M).    Loneliness and femininity: abandoned women.

• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 77–78, 176, 358–59, 360–61, 363.
• Ellen Johnston Laing, “Chinese Palace-Style Poetry and the Depiction of A Palace Beauty,” Art Bulletin 72, no. 1 (March 1990): 284–95. <JSTOR>
• Anne M. Birrell, “The Dusty Mirror: Courtly Portraits of Woman in Southern Dynasties Love Poetry,” in Expressions of Self in Chinese Literature, ed. Robert E. Hegel and Richard C. Hessney (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), 33–69.

Apr. 22 (W).    The immortal figure.

• Watson, ed. and trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 49–52, 116–21.
• Hsio-yen Shih, “Poetry Illustration and the Works of Ku K’ai-chih,” in The Translation of Art: Essays on Chinese Painting and Poetry, ed. James C. Y. Watt (Hong Kong: Centre for Translation Projects, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1976), 6–29.
• Susan E. Nelson, “Tao Yuanming’s Sashes: Or, The Gendering of Immortality,” Ars Orientalis 29 (1999): 1–27. <JSTOR>
• Lee, Empresses, Art, and Agency, 109–17.

Apr. 27 (M).    Writing workshop.
*RESEARCH PAPER DRAFT due*

Apr. 29 (W).    RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS.

May 4 (M).      RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS.

May 10 (Sun.). RESEARCH PAPER due, 4:30pm.

Communications:
I am happy to meet with you outside of class during my office hours (see top of syllabus), or at another time that is convenient for you, in 208 Houghton House. The best way to reach me to set up an appointment is by e-mail (blanchard@hws.edu), but please note that I might not check my e-mail before 9:00am or after 4:30pm. If I need to contact students, I generally will do so via HWS e-mail and through Announcements on Canvas (see Websites below). You should develop the habit of checking both on a regular basis (I recommend doing so daily).

Attendance policy:
I expect you to attend class regularly. Asian art history is a challenging subject; don’t make it impossible by skipping class! If, however, you need to miss a class (for reasons including celebration of your religion, athletic participation, a field trip for a different course, or illness), I expect you to notify me as soon as possible and to turn in a one- to two-page essay on the topics covered on the day of your absence, within a week of your return to class. Not doing so will directly impact your participation grade. If you are absent three times or more, I will contact the Deans about your performance.

Course requirements:

1.         Class participation (25%). This includes regular and punctual attendance and participating in discussions in class or on the Canvas discussion board. I grade participation on a daily basis, as follows: check-plus-plus (95) for thoughtful commentary in class or on the discussion board that is analytical in nature or synthesizes material from readings and/or other classes; check-plus (85) for speaking up in class or on the discussion board on a topic relevant to the course material (even to ask a question or to answer one of my questions incorrectly); check (75) for showing up to class but not speaking; check-minus (65) for not paying attention, coming in late, or being disruptive or disrespectful; zero (0) for not coming to class at all (but see the Attendance policy, above, for how to make up for missing class).

2.         Response papers (25%).  Throughout the semester you will write several two- to three-page papers responding to some of the readings. More details to follow.

3.         Presentation (10%), TBA, Feb. 19–26.  This will be a short presentation focusing on gender and patronage or gender and collecting. More details to follow.

4.         Research project (40%), Mar. 4–May 10.  This includes a research proposal, research worksheets, annotated bibliography, paper draft (totaling 15% of your course grade), research presentation (10 minutes, worth 10% of your course grade), and a longer research paper (roughly 10–15 pages, worth 15% of your course grade) on a topic concerning gender in Chinese painting between 960 and 1368. More details to follow.

Format for written work:
Please follow these guidelines when you write your papers.

1. Type all work in a 12-point font.
2. Double-space.
3. Leave one-inch margins on all sides.
4. Number your pages.
5. Put your name and the date on the first page.
6. Check that your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct—these are crucial to effective communication of your ideas. Your grade will drop if you have excessive errors.
7. If you cite another source, you must use a.) parenthetical references or footnotes, and
   b.) a list of works cited, as explained in The Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html), the documentation style typically used by art historians. (See A note about cheating and plagiarism below.)
8. Include pictures (with captions) of works of art that you discuss.

You can submit written work via Canvas. Please upload a Microsoft Word document (.doc, .docx) or a Portable Document Format file (.pdf): these are the only formats that Canvas will accept. Alternatively, you can turn in a stapled hard copy to me during the class period. PLEASE NOTE: I do not accept papers via e-mail.

A note about cheating and plagiarism:
I will not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty. It destroys the trust that I have in you to do your best, it is unfair to the other students, and obviously you will not learn anything if you resort to cheating. If I find that you have cheated or plagiarized on a written assignment, you will receive a zero for the assignment and I will contact the Deans and/or the Committee on Standards about your case. If a case goes to the Committee on Standards, I follow the Committee's recommendation; if it also finds evidence of cheating or plagiarism, the recommendation is usually failure of the course at a minimum.

In accordance with the Colleges’ Academic Policies (http://www.hws.edu/catalogue/policies.aspx) and the Handbook of Community Standards (http://www.hws.edu/studentlife/pdf/community_standards.pdf), pp. 11, 25–28, I define cheating as giving or receiving assistance on any assignment for this course, including all papers, except as directly authorized by me. The Colleges define plagiarism as “the presentation or reproduction of ideas, words, or statements of another person as one’s own, without due acknowledgment.” In application, this means that in any written assignment, you need to cite your sources. When quoting directly from a text—say, five words or more in succession—you need to put those words in quotation marks and include a parenthetical reference or footnote citing the source. When rewriting a passage from a text in your own words, or including information from a text in your paper, you don’t need the quotation marks but you do still need the parenthetical reference or footnote. In addition, all sources that you cite need to be included in a list of works cited at the end of the assignment. If you don’t understand exactly what constitutes plagiarism, or how to use parenthetical references or footnotes, please ask me. I would prefer to explain what it is and how to avoid it before it happens rather than after.

Grading:
Presentations and the research project assignments will receive numerical grades. Class participation, discussion, and response papers will receive a check-plus-plus (95), check-plus (85), check (75), check-minus (65), or zero (0). If you are unsatisfied with a grade, please prepare a written statement explaining what grade you think you should have received and why, and submit it to me along with the assignment for review.

I mark down three points for each calendar day that an assignment is late. If you think you will need an extension, you should talk to me as early as possible.

My grading scale is as follows:

A note about the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL):
At Hobart and William Smith Colleges, we encourage you to learn collaboratively and to seek the resources that will enable you to succeed. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is one of those resources: CTL programs and staff help you engage with your learning, accomplish the tasks before you, enhance your thinking and skills, and empower you to do your best. Resources at CTL are many: Teaching Fellows provide content support in eleven departments, Study Mentors help you manage your time and responsibilities, Writing Fellows help you think well on paper, and professional staff help you assess academic needs.

I encourage you to explore these and other CTL resources designed to encourage your very best work. You can talk with me about these resources, visit the CTL office on the 2nd floor of the library to discuss options with the staff, or visit the CTL website at http://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/index.aspx.

The CTL resource that will be most essential in enhancing learning in this course is the Writing Fellows program. Writing Fellows help students develop their writing by providing feedback on essay drafts, offering strategies for the writing process, and enhancing students’ understanding of what good college writing means. In this class, Writing Fellow assistance with our research paper will be extremely helpful to you, and I suggest that you make an appointment via StudyHub on the CTL website by Monday, Apr. 13 to begin work on it.

Disability accommodations:
If you are a student with a disability for which you may need accommodations, you should self-identify, provide appropriate documentation of your disability, and register for services with Disability Services at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Disability-related accommodations and services generally will not be provided until the registration and documentation process is complete. The guidelines for documenting disabilities can be found at the following website: http://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/disability_services.aspx

Please direct questions about this process or Disability Services at HWS to Christen Davis, Coordinator of Disability Services, at ctl@hws.edu or x3351.

Websites:
There are two websites for this course: one at my homepage, http://people.hws.edu/blanchard/ARTH3403/; and one at Canvas, https://canvas.hws.edu/. This syllabus, paper and project assignments, and links to online resources for Asian art can be found at both. The Canvas site also has a course calendar, daily handouts, discussions, and an online gradebook; I plan to post presentations there as well.

To use Canvas, log in with your campus username and password. Once you have logged in, you should see, at the left of the screen, a link for Courses you are enrolled in, as well as links for your Account, Dashboard, Calendar, Inbox, Commons, and Help.

It is essential for you to get in the habit of logging into Canvas regularly, as one way I will communicate with the class is via Canvas announcements, and I will post assignments and other course materials there. If you click on the Account link and then on Settings, you can set up Canvas to notify your e-mail or your cell phone about recent activity. I strongly recommend that you set Canvas to send you notifications of announcements ASAP.

For further assistance with Canvas, click on the Help link at the bottom left, and then on “Canvas Resources for Students.” You should look for the relatively short Quick Reference Guides (https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/canvas-guide/getting-started/pages/student), the more thorough Canvas Student Guide (https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10701), and—for visually oriented people—the Video Guide (https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/video-guide). Alternatively, contact the Help Desk of Instructional Technology at x4357 or helpdesk@hws.edu. The Help Desk is located in the Library on the first floor in the Rosensweig Learning Commons and is staffed by students as follows: until 1:00am Sunday through Thursday, and until 11:00pm on Friday and Saturday.