The Seminar is the core of the Eastern Classics Program. It is three semesters long and provides a dramatic deep dive into some of the most profound and profoundly beautiful texts of ancient China, India, and Japan.

Dive into 2,500 years of Chinese history in this class devoted to Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, where students ask questions such as: How can one event truly embody multiple perspectives? Can accounts of history be neutral? What is the responsibility of a historian? Is history the place where we can access the deepest understanding of what it means to be a human being?

Does one have a sacred duty? How does one grapple with ethical questions? What are the consequences of our actions? Students delve into the themes of the influential Sanskrit epic, The Mahābhārata, which narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succession between two groups of princely cousins.

Does beauty have moral power? What is the relationship between aesthetic sensibility and social mobility? Is there such a thing as too much beauty? How much is enough? Explore these questions and more in this class dedicated The Tale of Genji where Shikibu transports readers to Heian Period Japan and its unmatched aesthetic refinement and complex court life.

Language is a constitutive part of all thought. In the Eastern Classics program, students choose to study either Classical Chinese or Sanskrit to see the texts we read in translation in new, revealing light. The study of Classical Chinese allows students to understand how a largely pictorial language is at the heart of the thought of writers like Confucius ( 孔子), Zhuangzi (莊子),  and Lao Zi (老子).

Language is a constitutive part of all thought. In the Eastern Classics program, students choose to study either Classical Chinese or Sanskrit to see the texts we read in translation in new, revealing light. The study of Sanskrit, an extremely pure, inflected language, opens new vistas on the mysterious Vedic Hymns, the drama of the Mahabharata, and the beautiful, song-like plays of Kalidasa.

Shōbōgenzō, which translates as “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”, a collection of works from 13th century Japan by Eihei Dōgen, founder of Sōtō Zen. This work presents students with a collection of kōans that discuss parts of Buddhism that are not recorded directly in the sutras.

Students in this class embrace one of the two foundational epics of Hinduism(the other being the Mahābhārata). The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki explores the life of Rama, ideal man and incarnation of the great god Visnu, and has profoundly affected the literature, art, religions, and cultures of South and Southeast Asia from antiquity to the present. Filled with thrilling battles, flying monkeys, and ten-headed demons, the work, composed almost 3,000 years ago, recounts Prince Rama’s exile and his odyssey to recover his abducted wife, Sita, and establish a utopian kingdom.

The Blue Cliff Record is a collection of Chan Buddhist kōans compiled in the Song Dynasty, collected from various authors, and first presented in lectures by Yuanwu Keqi to his students in the 12th century. The name of the work comes from the Blue Cliff Cloister in Hunan, where Yuanwu originally did most of his work.

This class covers the history of an art form throughout the centuries, the key figures that have contributed to it, and how these pieces of art were influenced by artistic movements, their place in history, and the culture around them, as well as what makes them unique and differentiates them from landscape painting movements in other parts of the world.

Noh Theater and the writings of Zeami touches on the works of Zeami Motokiyo, a 14th-century playwright widely recognized as the greatest playwright of Japan’s classical Noh theater, as well as the subject of Noh theater in general, a unique and fascinating theatrical style with deep historical roots.

The Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law, sometimes called “The Gospel of Half Asia”, is one of the foundational texts of Mahayana Buddhism. First translated into Chinese in 460 CE, this text is considered one of the best sources for learning and understanding Buddha’s teachings.

Yoga Vasistha introduces one of the most influential syncretical texts of Hinduism, which combines elements of Vedanta, Yoga, Samkhya, Jainism, Pratyabhijña, and Mahayana Buddhism. This text, containing over 29,000 verses, discusses the nature of life, human suffering, the desire for and nature of liberation, metaphysical theories of existence, the creation of a spiritual life, and the role of meditation in such.