Instructions for Response Papers.

From time to time throughout the semester I will be assigning short response papers, basically a one-page response to one of the assigned readings.

What I will be looking for in these papers is:

1. evidence that you read the text: a brief summary of what the text is about, with some attention to who wrote it and why.
2. evidence that you thought about the text in relation to the art we are looking at in class that week.
3. good writing.

Within these parameters, you can go in any direction you want with these papers. If the text makes you think about religious practice or the politics of the time or contemporary Asian society, please write about it. I am hoping that these papers will stimulate your thinking about different interpretations of landscape and that this will deepen your understanding of East Asian art.

Please refer to the notes in your syllabus about appropriate formats for written work and about plagiarism. (Yes, plagiarism even matters here: if you quote from the text in your paper, please use a parenthetical reference.) If you have further questions about writing response papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website.

Assignments.

1. Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, ed. and trans., "The Landscape Texts," due Wednesday 13 September.

2. Poems in Alexander C. Soper, “A Ninth Century Landscape Painting in the Japanese Imperial Palace and Some Chinese Parallels,” due Monday 18 September.

3. Huihong's poems in Alfreda Murck, “Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers by Wang Hung,” due Monday 25 September.

4. Comparison of Sakuteiki and Zōen, “Illustrations for Designing Mountain, Water, and Hillside Field Landscapes,” due Wednesday 13 October.

5. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ming Garden, due Wednesday 25 October.

6. Shen Zhou, "Night Vigil," in Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones, due Wednesday 1 November.

7. Shitao, "Enlightening Remarks on Painting," trans. Richard Strassberg, 61-91, due Wednesday 15 November.

8. Michio Fujioka, Kyoto Country Retreats: The Shugakuin and Katsura Palaces, 33-48, due Monday 27 November.