Mar 28, 2024  
Course Catalog 2021-2022 
    
Course Catalog 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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EAST 390 - Big Government: A Legal and Cultural History of Bureaucracy in China

FC SSCI CD WADV
4 credits
When does government become too big? Imperial China saw the largest corps of officials in the world for the first nineteen centuries CE. Did Chinese administration represent a marvel of rationality, as 18th century European observers suggested? Or did it resemble popular depictions of hell, where rulers of the underworld were depicted behind desks overflowing with files. In this legal history course, we read broadly from exemplary scholarship, theories of law and society, and sources legal, literary and visual. Topics include: the birth of the file, moral legislation and illicit sex, the law of the underworld, and examination meritocracy and nightmare.
This course is cross-listed with HIST 420




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