In this module we will explore the ideas and lives of East Asians who offered stark new visions of social and political order or creatively reconfigured and redeployed ideas from the rich philosophical and religious traditions of the region. We will move beyond some of the best known political figures of East Asian history and learn about a broad cast of interesting characters. We’ll learn about He Zhen, who believed that world revolution could not find success without first crushing the tyrannical rule of men. We’ll meet a retired warlord Yan Xishan, who wanted to create a “Cosmopolitan International,” that could destroy the twin evils of capitalism and communism and recreate something similar to China’s imperial examination system to build a global meritocratic order of sages. We’ll read about Onisaburo Deguchi, who saw himself as the messianic figure of Maitreya Buddha come to reorder the world and explore the career of the leader of a peasant uprising, Ch’oe Che-u, whose synthesis of teachings was to teach the world how reconnect to the ultimate reality of the universe. Our goal is to better understand how the intellectual history of the region allowed ideas and traditions to weave together and evolve across the past hundred and fifty years or so.
A PDF of the module handbook for the module can be downloaded here here via its github repository where changes will be made as the module evolves in the future:
MO3354 Rethinking the World in East Asia 1850s-1990s – Handbook