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Today, as East Asia gradually recovers its erstwhile traditional position as the economical centre of the world, the understanding of the established regional paradigms in politics, social and religious life becomes a more important task than ever before. The aim of this course is to give a primary source-based understanding of East Asia’s regional traditions, with an added emphasis upon their concrete socio-political modes of functioning and their mutual interactions. Students will be given a thorough survey of the socio-political conditions of the Zhou time (ca. 1040-256 B.C.E.), and assigned the reading of the main materials of the Confucian tradition, formed at that period and which have since continuously influenced the region up to the present day. They will have to understand, through the reading of the excerpts from Moist, Legalist and Taoist texts, the atmosphere of intellectual competition and exchange, which shaped the Confucian tradition of the pre-Qin times, while the reading of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E – 220 C.E.) texts by Dong Zhongshu, Ban Gu, Sima Qian and other authors provides understanding of the ways the “Imperial Confucianism”, the dominant discourse of power of the subsequent epochs, was formed. Then, the regional Buddhist traditions will be studied through comprehending both the basic devotional and philosophical texts and the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese commentaries to them. In the same way, the course will include both the main Song Dynasty (960-1279) Neo-Confucian and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Wang Yangming school texts, and the commentarial literature from Korea and Japan. All source reading will be provided in English.
The students are expected to put their research into the regional perspective, even if they focus primarily on one country only.
Students who are admitted to study programmes or individual courses at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for by registering a study plan in StudentWeb.
International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.
Admission to the MA degree program
The course requires good knowledge of English. The course may be specially recommended for those, who have previously taken a 40-credits group in East Asian Studies.
10 credits against EAST1504 - East Asia: Great traditions.
The course consists of 7 lectures and 4 seminars. The students’ written work is an integrated part of the course. The students alternate between writing their own semester assignment (term paper) and commenting upon other students’ semester assignments.
Compulsory assignments: A first draft of the semester assignment is to be submitted halfway through the semester. Oral and written assignments are given, with the aim of regularly checking the mastery of the obligatory reading by the students. Fronter may be used in this course.
Teaching takes place throughout the semester.
Students are to present an essay (semesteroppgave: 8-10 normal pages) on a topic chosen in cooperation with the teacher, closely connected to the content of the course. The topic is chosen at the beginning of the semester, and a draft sketch of the essay is presented to the teacher two months later for preliminary evaluation. The submission of the draft sketch and the fulfilment of the teacher’s assignments related to the additional reading are prerequisites for being allowed to take the exam.
The student must hand in an Obligatory statement regarding cheating along with the term paper.
The assessment is integrated in the course lessons and it is therefore not possible to sit for the exam unless the student is registered for the teaching component of the course.
Students are expected to use English for their oral and written presentations and exam essays (semesteroppgave)
Course grades are awarded on a descending scale using alphabetic grades from A to E for passes and F for fail.
An external auditor regularly evaluates the academic quality of the course, including the form of exam used on the course.
A student may appeal against an awarded grade and/or file a formal complaint about exam procedures.
Students who due to illness or other valid reason of absence were unable to sit for their final exams may apply for participation in make-up exams. Make-up exams are arranged either later in the same semester or early in the semester following the exam in question. Documentation of valid reasons for absence from the regular exam must be submitted upon application to participate in make-up exams.
Students who have failed an exam and students who wish to re-take an exam to achieve a better grade may not participate in make-up exams, but must re-take the exam when it is regularly scheduled.
A student can sit for this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do this in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit for the exam.
Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. As a student at the University of Oslo you will therefore be asked to participate in various types of evaluation of our courses, facilities and services. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, in-depth evaluation of this course, a so called "periodic evaluation".
The course is a part of MA program in East Asian studies and may be chosen by the students taking other MA programs.
More information about Master's Degree
Visiting address:
P.A. Munchs hus level 4
Postal address:
PO Box 1010 Blindern
N-0315 Oslo
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