Assignment: Classical Chinese Culture and Literature
Write a fictional biography, in the style of Ssu-ma Ch'ien, of a literate, important person living through some of the important events of around 160-240 C.E., or some reasonable length of time therein. Although your subject is fictional, details should be believable and accurate, and should reflect social and historical realities of the times. By this, I refer to details about your subject's family background, official career path, relations with others, involvement in contemporary political affairs, and philosophical orientation. Many of the names in your biography-your subject's excepted-will be names of actual people. The tone and style should be similar to Ssu-ma Ch'ien's: your biography should have a point, should reflect some of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's philosophy of time, history, and the meaning of life, and it should be lively and well-plotted. As you know, many biographies contain samples of the subjects' writings. You are encouraged to do this, providing fu, letters, poems or prose pieces in the style of your subject's contemporaries, reflecting contemporary concerns. Remember. too, that Ssu-ma Ch'ien wrote on the "moral" of his subjects' lives. Your biography should have evidence of this, in a forward or afterword (as in Ssu-ma Ch'ien), or incorporated into the text.
Your essay should reflect a thorough understanding of late Han society, political structure, literature, and thought, based on Gernet, the material in the reader (especially the chapter on the fall of the Han) up through the reading assigned for the March 3 lecture, and on lecture content. Your essay will be evaluated on the success with which you:
1. Demonstrate your understanding of the political, social, intellectual, and literary history of the late Han. Density of historical detail is a plus. And make sure you write on this and not another period.
2. Master the historian's voice and point of view.
Papers should be typed, double-spaced, in dark ink, and should be proofread well. Absolute maximum length is 2000 words. 1500 would be more appropriate.
Attachment:- Some-Hints-and-Reminders.rar