Lectures: MWF 10:10-11:05am, 212 Houghton House
Office Hours: W 3:00-4:00pm, F 2:00-3:00pm, or by appointment, 208 Houghton House

In China and Japan, the natural landscape becomes a primary theme of artistic expression, and the cultivated garden is perceived as a related entity. This course will examine East Asian traditions of landscape painting, pictorial representations of gardens, and the historic gardens (often understood as microcosmic landscapes) of Suzhou and Kyoto. We will explore how these diverse works of art play upon the dichotomy between nature and artifice and consider their social, political and religious implications. Students will read landscape and garden texts from both cultures in translation, as well as selections from the secondary literature dealing with these themes. The course is cross-listed with Architectural Studies, Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, and Media and Society. It addresses Goals 5 (experience of a fine or performing art), 6 (an intellectually grounded foundation for the understanding of differences and inequalities of gender, race, and class) and 7 (knowledge of the multiplicity of world cultures).

Texts:
*Maggie Keswick, The Chinese Garden: History, Art and Architecture, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).
* Jiro Takei and Marc P. Keane, Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden, A Modern Translation of Japan's Gardening Classic (Boston, Rutland, Vt. and Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2001).
* Marc P. Keane, Japanese Garden Design (Rutland, Vt. and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1996).
* Diana Hacker, ed., A Pocket Style Manual, 3rd ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000).
* Sylvan Barnet, ed., A Short Guide to Writing about Art, 8th ed. (New York: Longman, 2004)—recommended for students new to art history.

Coursepack: Available from the Art Department. It includes:
* James C. Cahill, "Meanings and Functions in Chinese Landscape Painting" and "Afterword: The Functions of Early Landscape Painting," in Three Alternative Histories of Chinese Painting (Lawrence, Kans.: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1988), 37-69.
*Alexander C. Soper, “Early Chinese Landscape Painting,” Art Bulletin 23, no. 2 (June 1941): 141-64. (JSTOR)
* Ellen Johnston Laing, "Neo-Taoism and the 'Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove' in Chinese Painting," Artibus Asiae 36 (1974): 5-54. (JSTOR)
* Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, comp. and ed., "The Landscape Texts," chapter 4 of Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University Press, 1985), 141-190.
*Valérie Malenfer Ortiz, “The Poetic Structure of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Pictorial Dream Journey,” Art Bulletin 76, no. 2 (June 1994): 257-78. (JSTOR)
* Alexander C. Soper, “A Ninth Century Landscape Painting in the Japanese Imperial Palace and Some Chinese Parallels,” Artibus Asiae 29, no. 4 (1967): 335-50. (JSTOR)
* Karen L. Brock, "Yamatoe," in The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner (New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996), 17: 153-162.
* Yoshiaki Shimizu, "Seasons and Places in Yamato Landscape and Poetry," Ars Orientalis 12 (1981): 1-14.
* Alfreda Murck, “Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers by Wang Hung,” in Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliott Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at The Art Museum, Princeton University, ed. Wen C. Fong (Princeton: The Art Museum, 1984), 213-35.
* Joseph D. Parker, "Attaining Landscapes in the Mind: Nature Poetry and Painting in Gozan Zen," Monumenta Nipponica 52, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 235-57. (JSTOR)
* Shou-chien Shih, "The Mind Landscape of Hsieh Yu-yü," in Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliott Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at The Art Museum, Princeton University, ed. Wen C. Fong (Princeton: The Art Museum, 1984), 237-54.
* Richard Vinograd, "Family Properties: Personal Context and Cultural Pattern in Wang Meng's Pien Mountains of A.D. 1366," Ars Orientalis 13 (1982): 1-29.
* Zoen, "Illustrations for Designing Mountain, Water, and Hillside Field Landscapes," trans. David A. Slawson, in Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens: Design Principles, Aesthetic Values (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1987), 142-180.
* Richard Edwards, "Shen Chou and the Ming," chapter 2 of The World Around the Chinese Artist: Aspects of Realism in Chinese Painting (Ann Arbor: LSA Checkpoint, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan, 1987), 57-101.
* Robert E. Harrist, Jr., "Site Names and Their Meanings in the Garden of Solitary Enjoyment," Journal of Garden History 13, no. 4 (October-December 1993): 199-212.
* Richard M. Barnhart, “Yün Shou-p’ing and the Art of Flower Painting,” in Peach Blossom Spring: Gardens and Flowers in Chinese Paintings (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983), 81-91.
* Susan Nelson, "On through to the Beyond: The Peach Blossom Spring as Paradise," Archives of Asian Art 39 (1986): 23-47.
* Richard E. Strassberg, trans., Enlightening Remarks on Painting (Pasadena: Pacific Asia Museum, 1989), 61-91.
* James Cahill, “Hung-jen and Kung Hsien: Nature Transfigured,” in The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982), 147-83.
* Michio Fujioka, Kyoto Country Retreats: The Shugakuin and Katsura Palaces, trans. Bruce A. Coats (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983), 33-48.
* Yoshiho Yonezawa and Chu Yoshizawa, "Japanese Nanga Masters," chapter 2 of Japanese Painting in the Literati Style, trans. Betty Iverson Monroe (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1974), 41-75.
* Melinda Takeuchi, "'True' Views: Taiga's Shinkeizu and the Evolution of Literati Painting Theory in Japan," Journal of Asian Studies 48, no. 1 (Feb. 1989): 3-26. (JSTOR)


WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week 1.          Aug. 28-Sept. 1.  Introduction: meanings of landscapes and gardens.
Readings: The Chinese Garden 189-217; Cahill 1988.
Aug. 28.           Overview of course.
Aug. 30.           Metaphorical meanings of landscape elements.
Sept. 1.            Themes and functions of Chinese landscapes.

Week 2.          Sept. 4-8.  Daoism and early Chinese landscapes.
Readings: Soper 1941; Laing 1974; The Chinese Garden 85-101.
Sept. 4.            Han dynasty art.
Sept. 6.            Gu Kaizhi’s paintings.
Sept. 8.            The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.

Week 3.          Sept. 11-15.  Landscape texts and painting traditions in the Five Dynasties and Song periods.
Readings: Bush and Shih 1985; Ortiz 1994; The Chinese Garden 103-17.
Sept. 11.          Five Dynasties masters.
Sept. 13.          Northern Song masters; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Sept. 15.          Southern Song masters.

Week 4.          Sept. 18-22.  Kara-e and yamato-e in Japan.
Readings: Soper 1967; Brock 1996; Shimizu 1981.
Sept. 18.          Kara-e and early, Buddhist yamato-e; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Sept. 20.          Yamato-e in Heian narrative.
Sept. 22.          Edo period yamato-e and scenic spots.

Week 5.          Sept. 25-29. Chan and Zen landscape paintings.
Readings: Murck 1984; Parker 1977.
Sept. 25.          Huihong’s poems on the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Sept. 27.          Chan painters and the Eight Views.
Sept. 29.          Zen masters.

Week 6.          Oct. 2-6. Political implications of the Chinese scholar’s wilderness.
Readings: Shih 1984; Vinograd 1982.
Oct. 2.              Emulating ancient recluses.
Oct. 4.              The remote and barren landscape.
Oct. 6.              Library research session. Meet at the Reference Desk of the Library at 10:10am.
*Quiz this week*

 [Oct. 9, FALL RECESS]

Week 7.          Oct. 11-13.  Japanese garden texts.
Readings: Japanese Garden Design 115-57; Sakuteiki 1-8, 153-204; Zōen 1987.
Oct. 11.           Introduction to Japanese garden design elements.
Oct. 13.           Sakuteiki v. Zōen; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.

Week 8.          Oct. 16-20. Aristocratic and Zen gardens in Kyōto.
Readings: Japanese Garden Design 19-66.
Oct. 16.           Evidence of Heian period gardens.
Oct. 18.           Zen gardens: Saihoji, Ryōanji, Manpukuji; RESEARCH PAPER PROPOSAL DUE.
Oct. 20.           Daitokuji and its subtemples.

Week 9.          Oct. 23-27. Scholars’ gardens in Suzhou.
Readings: The Chinese Garden 24-37, 129-87.
Oct. 23.           Introduction to architectural elements and garden design in China; FILM: Ming Garden.
Oct. 25.           Lion Grove Garden and Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Oct. 27.           Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician

Week 10.        Oct. 30-Nov. 3. Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming and Ming paintings.
Readings: Edwards 1987; The Chinese Garden 118-24; Harrist 1993.
Oct. 30.           The Field of Stones: looking back to the past.
Nov. 1.            Real people and places in Shen Zhou’s landscapes; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Nov. 3.            Wen Zhengming and Ming paintings of famous gardens.

Week 11.        Nov. 6-10. Later Chinese gardens and responses to them.
Readings: The Chinese Garden 17-37, 57-83; Barnhart 1983.
Nov. 6.            Qing imperial gardens.
Nov. 8.            Qing bird-and-flower painting.
Nov. 10.          English gardens in the Chinese mode.
*Quiz this week*

Week 12.        Nov. 13-17.  Landscape themes in Ming and Qing painting.
Readings: Nelson 1986; Strassberg 1989; Cahill 1982.
Nov. 13.          Narrative of escape: Tao Yuanming’s “Peach Blossom Spring.”
Nov. 15.          Shitao’s landscapes; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Nov. 17.          Hongren and Gong Xian.

Week 13.        Nov. 20.  Warriors’ gardens in Kyōto: Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Chishakuin.
Readings: all relevant material on Bowdoin College’s The Japanese Garden website.

[Nov. 22-24, THANKSGIVING RECESS]

Week 14.        Nov. 27-Dec. 1. Imperial gardens of Kyōto.
Readings: Fujioka 1983; Japanese Garden Design 99-112.
Nov. 27.          Katsura Imperial Villa; RESPONSE PAPER DUE.
Nov. 29.          Shugakuin Imperial Villa.
Dec. 1.             Imperial Palace, Kyōto.

Week 15.        Dec. 4-8.  Japanese literati landscapes.
Readings: Yonezawa and Yoshizawa 1974; Takeuchi 1989.
Dec. 4.              Ike (no) Taiga.
Dec. 6.              Yosa Buson.
Dec. 8.             *Presentation of creative projects.*
*Quiz this week*

Finals Week.  Dec. 15.  Research papers due.

Course Requirements
1. Class Participation (15%). This includes regular and punctual attendance (see attendance policy) and participating in discussions in class or on the Blackboard discussion board. I grade participation on a daily basis, as follows: A for speaking up in class or on the discussion board (even to ask a question or to answer one of my questions incorrectly), B for showing up to class but not speaking, C for not paying attention or coming in late, 0 for not coming to class at all.

2. Quizzes (15%). Quizzes are available for one week on Blackboard, and missed quizzes cannot be made up.

3. Response papers (20%). Throughout the semester you will write eight one-page papers responding to some of the readings. More details to follow.

4. Creative project (25%), due Friday, Dec. 8. This will be a group project meant to help you better understand the meanings of landscapes or gardens. More details to follow.

5. Research paper (25%), due Friday, Dec. 15, 7:00pm. This is to be a longer research paper (roughly 10-15 pages) on a landscape or garden topic in East Asian art. More details to follow.

Office Hours
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.

Attendance Policy
I consider attendance at lectures to be mandatory. That said, if you have a reasonable excuse for missing a class (illness, religious holiday, etc.), I expect you to notify me as soon as possible—preferably in advance—and to turn in an essay on the topics covered on the day of your absence, within a week. Not doing so will give you a 0 for participation for that day. If you are absent four times or more, you should be prepared for me to notify the Deans about your performance. I will be taking attendance daily. NOTE: leaving early for or returning late from Fall Recess or Thanksgiving does not count as an excused absence.

Format for Written Work
One of the things you will learn in an art history class is the importance of presentation. This applies to your written work as well:

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. Staple your work.
6. Put your name on every page, and the due date on the first page.
7. Please check that your spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct--these are crucial to effective communication of your ideas. I will lower your grade if you have excessive errors. A Pocket Style Manual has helpful chapters titled "Clarity," "Grammar," "Punctuation," and "Mechanics." Read them.
8. If you cite another source, you may use either parenthetical references or footnotes. (See A Note about Cheating and Plagiarism below.) Make sure that you follow one of the documentation styles explained in A Pocket Style Manual (MLA, APA or Chicago-Style).
9. Include pictures with captions if appropriate (and please attach them to a clean sheet of paper-do not give me loose postcards, illustrations torn from magazines, or copies of the books you found the pictures in. Black-and-white photocopies are okay).

A Note about Cheating and Plagiarism
I will not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty. Not only does it destroy 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 on a test or 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.

Now, just in case you are not clear about what plagiarism is: plagiarism is the use of someone else's words or ideas without giving that person credit. In application, this means that in your writing assignments, 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, you don't need the quotation marks but you do still need the parenthetical reference or footnote. 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
PLEASE NOTE:  I mark down one-third of a grade (for example, from A to A-) for each calendar day that a paper is late. I also mark down one-third of a grade for every ten mechanical errors (except on the first assignment to be turned in); notice what kinds of mistakes you tend to make on that first assignment, and try not to repeat them.

The research paper and creative projects will receive a letter grade. Response papers and discussions will not receive a letter grade, but a check-plus, check, or check-minus. Make-up written assignments, which count as part of your participation grade, will receive a check or a check-minus. 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.

Assignments are due during the class period on the due date. You may bring your assignments to class or send them to me via e-mail before class (not during, and not after!). Again, I mark down for lateness. If you think you will need an extension, you should talk to me as early as possible. If you have trouble printing out your paper, you should use the e-mail option instead.

A Note about the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
Hobart and William Smith Colleges encourage you to seek the academic collaboration available to you to demonstrate your best work. Students who would like to enhance their study skills or writing skills or have any academic inquiries can contact the CTL. If you are a student with an identified disability and you would like to receive accommodations, please provide me with the notification form from the CTL at the start of the semester, so that I can best accommodate your needs (students with disabilities have to register at the Center). CTL staff encourages every student to stop by Harris Hall to learn what is available to you at this academic resource. Please contact the CTL at x3351 to make an appointment or stop by the second floor of Harris Hall (on South Main, next to Merritt Hall) to meet with Center Staff.

Website
There are two websites for this course: one at my homepage; and one at Blackboard. This syllabus, paper and project assignments and links to online resources for Chinese and Japanese landscapes and gardens can be found at both. The Blackboard site also has a course calendar, daily handouts, a discussion board, an online gradebook and an image library.