CHLIT 3398 - Where Humans and the Spirits Meet: Reading Chinese Temple Inscriptions

(GHB) (HA-AS, HST-AS)

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Recommended prerequisite: at least 1 semester of any Chinese Literature course above 2213 or strong classical reading skills. Co-meets with CHLIT 5598.

R. McNeal.

The goal of the class is to introduce intermediate students of classical Chinese to the critical study and translation of Chinese temple inscriptions. Most of our inscriptions come from steles erected in rural temples, and do not fit easily into the rubrics of Daoism or Buddhism. Some include prayers and others are meditations on the dynamic interaction of local communities and powerful deities. (RL)