Paper Topics

Your papers must be 2-3 pages with a style sheet attached.  They are worth 20 pts.  You should write all Chinese words and names in Pin Yin.

1. Take one passage or set of related passages from the Analects analyze it/them for meaning.  You must compare at least three different translations and offer your preferred reading of the passage or passages.  You will graded not only on your analysis but also your choice of passage(s).

Topic ideas:  write a paper on the Confucian concept of self, drawing all the primary and secondary readings together, including Hall & Ames, TH, chap. 2; write a paper on Confucius' favorite disciple Yen Yuan (Hui). You may want to check library reserve or general library holdings for books that make further reference to Yen Hui.

2. Take one passage or related passages from the Mencius analyze it/them for meaning.  You must compare at least three different translations and offer your preferred reading of the passage or passages. (Only D. C. Lau's translation [on library reserve] is complete; Muller's, Chan's, and van Norden's are incomplete.  Lau also has a very informative Introduction and a very useful index.) You will graded not only on your analysis but also your choice of passage(s).  You should write all Chinese words and names in Pin Yin.

Topic Ideas (go to the Reader Supplemental Page for your text here):  Compare and contrast Confucius and Mencius on one or two basic ideas; try your hand at interpreting the "flood-like" qi at 2a2; assess the two types of arguments that Mencius gives for his virtue sprouts; formulate a Mencian political philosophy; does the meaning of yi change in Mencius (5b7, 6a1-10, 7b31)?; Confucius as a sage (contrast 2a2 with 2b13) and Mencius' stature compared to him; write on one or two of the sage emperors Yao, Shun, and Yu; compare 4a4 and 7a35 with Analects 14.34; the role of Tian in Confucius and Mencius; assess Mencius' claim that father and son should not expect goodness from each other (4a18, 7a35 [the Blind Man is Shun's father]), compare it with Analects 13.18, and, if you have read it, Plato's Euthyphro; explain the four virtues and their founding in the family 4a27and 7B24; discuss the idea of "discretion" (quan) and its relation to Confucius' yi (4a17 and 7a26).

3. Take one chapter or related chapters from the Daodejing analyze it/them for meaning.  You must compare at least three different translations and offer your preferred reading of the passage or passages.  You will graded not only on your analysis but also your choice of passage(s).

4. Take one passage or related chapters from the Zhuangzi analyze it/them for meaning. Check for topic ideas at this site here. You must compare at least three different translations and offer your preferred reading of the passage or passages.  You will graded not only on your analysis but also your choice of passage(s).   You should write all Chinese words and names (except the names of 20th Century Chinese philosophers) in Pin Yin, or you will be marked down.  You will notice that topics about premodernism, modernism, and postmodernism and the different types of skepticism are study questions for your final, so do not choose paper topics in these areas.