Aims

The objective it to study the main aspects of the history of China and from a general standpoint to see the evolution of socio-political institutions, of the system of the state and of the Chinese civilisation. Seeing the importance of the influences on the history of Japan, Korea and of Vietnam, this course has to also briefly deal with the evolution of the 3 latter.

Main themes

The ex-cathedra course will follow the chronological development of the history of China since the first people set their houses till the republican revolution of the XXth century. For the historical part before writing, it is essential to show the historical knowledge based on the leads from archaeological excavations and the myths and legends written down in the subsequent records. These records emphasizes the fact that the people progressively adapt themselves to their environment and it also clearly shows the creation steps of the Chinese society. For the feudal period and the Chinese Empire Age, it is necessary to place the evolution of the Chinese history in the context of presence of absence of contacts between the Chinese people and the other people or civilisations. At the same time, the continuous aspects and the evolutionary aspects of the Chinese civilisation also need to be shown.

Content and teaching methods

The course tries to give the students an introduction to the history of the oldest civilisation still existing today. Emphasis will be put on the factors and consequences of the creation of the centralized state, of the continuous character of its institutions and of the persistence of the cultural characteristics.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisite : none.
Texts and books : Syllabus is available.

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