History 341: History of Modern China, 1800-1949

Time and Place: T-TH 9:30-10:45, Mosse Humanities Building 1651

Instructor: Professor Judd C. Kinzley
Office: 4121 Mosse Humanities Building
Office Hours: Tues, 2-4 and by appointment
Email: kinzley@wisc.edu

Objectives and Format

In order to understand the so-called “rise of China” in the last two decades, we must first
be able to situate it within a broader historical context. This course seeks to give students an
understanding of the political, economic, social, and cultural foundations of modern China. We
will begin with a focus on China in the late Qing dynasty era (1800-1911), continue through the
chaotic early years of the Republic (1911-1927) and the violence of the Anti-Japanese War
(1937-1945) and end with the ultimate ascendance of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist
Party to power in 1949. Equipped with this historical foundation, I hope that students will not
only be able to more clearly understand China’s relatively recent rise, but will also be able to
begin making educated predictions about China’s future.
The readings for the course are drawn from both primary and secondary source materials,
but I have tried to weight it more toward the former. The readings are intended to supplement
lectures as well as provide the foundational materials for the discussions. Students are not
required to complete all of the readings for a given class session, but will be responsible for all of
the readings prior to discussion sessions (marked in the course schedule below). The material in
readings will also be covered in the midterm and final exams.
This is a lecture course and the majority of the class sessions will consist of lectures
given by the instructor. In order to encourage active engagement with the readings, however,
there are five “discussion sessions” scattered throughout the semester. These sessions are an
opportunity for students to more directly engage with the material and with questions that
scholars of Chinese history continue to grapple with today. There are no right or wrong answers
in these sessions, but students are expected to draw upon course readings and lecture material.
Students must come prepared to participate in the discussion sessions as well as bring a prepared
short essay (2 pages) based on the readings. More information on the discussions will be
forthcoming prior to the first session.

Textbooks
-Peikai Cheng and Michael Lestz, The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1999)

-Henrietta Harrison, China: Inventing the Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)

- Lao She, Rickshaw Boy: A Novel (New York: Harper Perennial 2010, 1937)

All texts should be available in the University Bookstore and also on reserve. All additional
readings (marked with a star (*) are available in electronic format on learn@uw

Course Requirements

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1. Final exam: 35 percent. The final exam will be given on the last day of class (see course
schedule) and will draw on lectures, readings, and content from the discussion and debates. The final will
not be cumulative and will draw only on materials from the second half of the course.
2. Midterm exam: 35 percent. The midterm exam will be given in class and will draw on
both lectures and readings for the first half of the course.
3. Discussion Grade: 30 percent. The discussion grade is calculated as a combination of
the quality of participation during the discussion session, as well as their performance on the discussion
essay. The essay, which should be 3-4 pages, should be turned in following the discussion session. All
essays should have a thesis, as well as a beginning, middle and end. Grades will be assessed on the
quality of argument along with their use of sources to back up their arguments. Students will also be
graded on their participation in discussion sessions and the total grade for a given discussion will be the
combination of the posting and discussion grade. All students are responsible for having completed all
readings for the entire period leading up to the discussion session.

Weekly Schedule
[Readings marked with a * are available on Learn@UW. The pdf file name for the file is in
brackets before the page number. Please note that many files include multiple readings. Be sure
to check the page numbers!]

WEEK 1
Thu. Sept. 3: Course Introduction
-China: Inventing the Nation (11-49)

WEEK 2
Tues. Sept. 8: The Rise of the Qing Empire
- “Two Edicts Concerning the Wearing of the Hair Under Manchu Rule”, “The Siege of of
Jiangyin” in The Search for Modern China (32-39)
-“Shi Lang’s Memorial on the Capture of Taiwan”, “Express Memorial Describing the Great
Victory, 1683 in The Search for Modern China (48-51)
-“Glorifying the Origins of the Manchus, from an Account in the State Archive” in The Search
for Modern China (85-86)
* “’Horrid Beyond Description’: The Massacre of Yangzhou” in Voices from the Ming Qing
Cataclysm [Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm] (28-48)

Thurs. Sept. 10: Pressure on All Sides: Internal Problems and External
-China: Inventing the Nation (55-65)

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-“Lord Macartney’s Commission from Henry Dundas, 1792” , “Qianlong’s Rejection of
Macartney’s Demands: Two Edicts” , “The Conversion of Liang Fa: Good Works to Exhort the
Age, 1832” in The Search for Modern China (92-98), (103-109), (132 -136).
* “Letter to Prince Cheng Earnestly Discussing the Political Affairs of the Time”, “China’s
Population Problem”, “The Deterioration of Local Government”, “The Roots of Rebellion,” in
Sources of Chinese Tradition: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century [Sources of Chinese
Tradition Selections] (172-179)

WEEK 3
Tues. Sept. 15: Myth v. Reality: The Opium War
- “Memorials, Edicts and Laws on Opium” and “Lord Palmerston’s Declaration of War, February
20, 1840” in Search for Modern China (110-123)
* “Letter to the English Ruler”, “Letter to Wu Zixu on the Need for Western Guns and Ships” in
Sources of Chinese Tradition vol. 2 [Sources of Chinese Tradition Selections] (201-206)

Thurs. Sept. 17: Rebellion: Taiping, and other Rebellions

- “Precepts and Odes Published by Hong Xiuquan in 1852 and 1853: ‘The Ten Commandments’
and ‘The Ode for Youth”, “Zeng Guofan: A Proclamation Against the Bandits of Guangdong and
Guangxi, 1854” in The Search for Modern China (139-149)
*Jonathan Spence. God’s Chinese Son: the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New
York: W.W. Norton, 1996: [God’s Chinese Selections] Chapter: 1, 2 (3-22), 5 (51-65)
* “The Book of Heavenly Commandments” and “A Primer in Verse” in The Sources of Chinese
Tradition [Sources of Chinese Tradition Selections] (218-223)

WEEK 4
Tues. Sept. 22: The Treaty Port System and the Restoration
- “Zongli Yamen Document on the Unequal Treaties, 1878”, “Zhang Zhidong’s Memorial on the
Ili Crisis, 1880” in The Search for Modern China (157-159)
-China: Inventing the Nation (65-76)
* “Preface to Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Countries” in Sources of Chinese Tradition:
(209-212) and “Feng Guifen: on the Manufacture of Foreign Weapons”, “On the Adoption of
Western Learning”, “Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang: On Sending Young Men Abroad to Study”,
“Xue Fucheng: On Reform”, “Zhang Zhidong: Exhortation to Learn” in Sources of Chinese
Tradition: [Sources of Chinese Tradition Selections] (235-249)

Thurs. Sept. 24: DISCUSSION #1: Prompt: The Qing Court v. the West:
Who should be blamed for the decline of the Qing?

WEEK 5
Tues. Sept. 29: Reformers v. Nativists: Boxers and the Hundred Days
-China: Inventing the Nation (77-86)
- “Boxer Memoirs: Oral Accounts of the Boxer Rebellion” in The Search for Modern China (184-
189)
* “The Court and the Emperor”, “The Conservative Opposition” in Teng, China’s
Response to the West: [Teng and Fairbank Selections] (175-186).

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Thurs. Oct. 1: Han Racial Nationalism and the Assertion of Manchu Supremacy
- Inventing the Nation, 88-111
- “Zou Rong on Revolution”; “Tongmenghui Revolutionary Proclamation” in The Search for
Modern China (197-206)
* “The Revolutionary Movement” in Schoppa, ed. Twentieth Century China: A History in
Documents [Schoppa Revolutionary Movement] (20-26)

WEEK 6
Tues. Oct. 3: Away from the Eyes of the Court: Treaty Ports and New Civil
Institutions
- Inventing the Nation, 111-118
* “Wang Tao on Reform” (250-254), “Liang Qichao and the New Press” Sources of Chinese
Tradition [Sources of Chinese Tradition selections] (298-302)

Thurs. Oct. 8: DISCUSSION #2:

Prompt: Race and the Qing: Are the Manchus Chinese? What does it mean to be
Chinese?

WEEK 7
Tues. Oct. 13: Revolution and the Founding of the Republic
- Inventing the Nation: (118-149)
- “Feng Yuxiang: From My Life” in The Search for Modern China (194-197)
- “Press Coverage of the Wuchang Uprising, 1911”, “The Manchu Abdication Edict” in The
Search for Modern China (206-213)
- Start Rickshaw Boy

Thurs. Oct. 15: Warlordism and China’s Failure

-“Yuan Pledges Allegiance to the Republic” in The Search for Modern China (216)
- Inventing the Nation (150-166)
- “Japan’s Twenty-One Demands,” in The Search for Modern China (216-220)
- “Feng Yuxiang: Praising the Lord”; “Zhang Zongchang: With Pleasure Rife” in The Search for
Modern China (228-232)

WEEK 8
Tues. Oct. 20: MIDTERM

Thurs. Oct. 22: Film Screening: China in Revolution

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WEEK 9
Tues. Oct 27: Intellectual and Cultural Responses to China’s Weakness
-Inventing the Nation (169-184)
- Finish Rickshaw Boy
*Lu Xun, “Diary of a Madman” in Diary of a Madman and Other Stories [Madman’s Diary] (29-
42)
* Chen Tu-hsiu (Chen Duxiu), “A Call to Youth” , Li Ta-chao, “The Victory of Bolshevism,” in
Teng and Fairbank, China’s Response to the West, [Teng and Fairbank Selections] (240-246)
(246-249)

Thurs. Oct. 29: A New Revolution and a New China

- Inventing the Nation (184-206)
- “Sun Yatsen Opens the Whampoa Academy” in The Search for Modern China (252-257)
- “Purging the CCP: Three Documents” in The Search for Modern China (263-266)
-”Law in the Nanjing Decade” in Search for Modern China (270-277)
- “Three Accounts of the New Life Movement” in Search for Modern China (294-304)
- “Politics of Power: General von Falkenhausen’s Advice to Chiang Kaishek, 1936” in Search for
Modern China (286-289)

WEEK 10
Tues. November 3: DISCUSSION #3: Be prepared to talk about
Rickshaw Boy
Prompt: The Failure of the Revolution: To what do you attribute the weakness of the
early Chinese Republic? And what could the early leaders of the Republic (men like
Sun Yatsen) done to create a stronger China?

Thurs. Nov. 5: Into the Wilderness: The CCP

- “Communist Survival: the Tale of Luding Bridge” in Search for Modern China (290-294)
“A Nation Emigrates” , “the Heroes of Tatu”, “Across the Grasslands” in Edgar Snow, Red Star
Over China (190-206)
* Mao Zedong, “Mao’s Revolutionary Doctrine” in Sources of Chinese Tradition [Sources of
Chinese Tradition selections] (406-412)

WEEK 11
Tues. Nov. 10: Japanese Aggression and the Outbreak of the War
-Inventing the Nation (207-215)
-“The Mukden Incident and Manchukuo” in Search for Modern China (277-286)
-“The Students Demonstrate, December 16, 1935”, “Xi’an 1936: the Generals’ Demands and
Chiang Kai-shek’s Reply”, in Search for Modern China (304-313)
-Inventing the Nation (215-224)-
- “The Rape of Nanjing,” Search for Modern China (324-330)

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* Diana Lary, “A Ravaged Place” in Scars of War: the Impact of Warfare on Modern
China [Scars of War] (98-116)

Thurs. Nov. 12: Film: Nanjing: Memory and Oblivion

* “Battle Lines in China”; “ I wanted to Build a Greater East Asia”, in Japan at War: An Oral
History, [Japan at War 1] 29-44, 50-55
* “Introduction” in Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World
War II (New York: BasicBooks) 1997, [Rape of Nanking Intro] 3-16

WEEK 12
Tues. Nov. 17: DISCUSSION #4
Prompt: China v. Japan: Was the war inevitable? What could have been done to avoid the
calamity of 1937?

Thurs. Nov. 19: Resistance v. Collaboration

-“Wang Jingwei : On Collaboration” in Search for Modern China (330-333)
* “Generalissimo Jiang on National Identity” in Chinese Civilization: a Sourcebook, [CKS on
National Identity] 401-404
* “Considering Collaboration” in Timothy Brook Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local
Elites in Wartime China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) 2005, [Collaboration intro]
1-31

WEEK 13
Tues. Nov. 24: Free China and the Alliance with the US
* Chiang Kaishek, China’s Destiny, [China’s Destiny] Chapter 1 (29-43), Chapter 2 (excerpt: 44-
50)
* “Chungking, a Point in Time” in White and Jacoby eds Thunder Out of China, [Thunder Out of
China, Chungking] 3-19
* Li Danke, Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China [Women in Wartime China] (88-93)
* Jay Taylor, The Generalissimo, selection [Generalissimo excerpt](194-244)

Thurs. Nov. 26: Holiday

WEEK 14
Tues. Dec. 1 – Disillusionment and the Question of Communism
- “Liu Shaoqi: How to be a Good Communist” in Search for Modern China (333-335)
* China White Paper, August 1949 [China White Paper] (26-37)
* “Doomed Men, The Chinese Army” in Thunder out of China, [Thunder out of China Doomed
Men] (132-141)
* Mao Dun, “Frustration” in Spring Silkworms [Frustration] (242-257)

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* “First Formal Impression of the North Shensi Communist Base” and “Desirability of
American Military Aid to the Communist Armies” in Lost Chance in China: the World
War II Dispatches of John S. Service [Service Docs] (178-182, 322-326)

Thurs. Dec. 3: DISCUSSION #5

Prompt: The War of Resistance to Cold War: How could the Chinese Civil War been
avoided? Who should we blame for China’s descent into war?

WEEK 15
Tues. Dec. 8: The End of One War and the Beginning of Another
- Inventing the Nation (selection)
- “Wen Yiduo: The Poet’s Farewell” in Search for Modern China (336-338)
- “General Marshall: the Mediator’s View” in Search for Modern China (338-342)

Thurs. Dec. 10: Mao, the Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Nationalists
- “Mao Takes Charge” in The Search for Modern China (344-349)
- “Democratic Dictatorship” in The Search for Modern China (350-351)
- Inventing the Nation (226-230)
*Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War, excerpt Chapter 1 [Mao’s China and the Cold War
selection] (22-48)
* “Mao Zedong: ‘Leaning to One Side’”; “Mao Zedong: ‘Stalin is Our Commander’” , “Guo
Moruo: Ode to Stalin – ‘Long Live Stalin’ on his Seventieth Birthday” in Sources of Chinese
Tradition (452-455) [Sources of Chinese Tradition, selections]

Tues. Dec. 15: FINAL EXAM