Telling my Humanities Story

Reflecting on 2021

As my first semester back to school comes to an end, I've taken the time to reflect on my learnings that I've encountered so far in 2021. My standard weekday routine consisted of waking up, getting dressed, going to work, start homework, find the motivation to workout, do some more homework, and then going onto bed and repeat the next day. Then on most weekends I usually had to hop on a plane and travel for work or family. Although I haven't had much of a social life this year -so far, I was able discover new things about myself in terms of mindset and new interests. And as I kept busy during this semester, I encountered a few readings with ideas that I will forever keep for the betterment of myself and my future. 

My Encountered Readings

Bresnan, Patrick S. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018. 

Book Cover
Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought
Patrick S. Bresnan

• Bresnan is a retired professor of history and philosophy. His book provides an extensive overview of Eastern Asian religions, traditions, and philosophies while making connections between their ancient origin and modern thought. The text primarily focuses on India, China, and Japan with a clear historical timeline as you read. I found this book rather interesting because it engages you with different ideas such as reincarnation, karma, self-awareness, yin and yang, and many more. The reading shares these ideas and connects it with other religions or traditions by explaining their interpretations with reason and historical stories. 

Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2011.

Book Cover
The Bhagavad Gita
Jack Hawley

• Hawley is a consultant and writer whose studied in India about spiritual energies within everyday life. His book is based during the 2nd century BCE, on a Hinduism Sanskrit scripture of a universal love song. He creates an enjoyable read with a clear interpretation of the story of Prince Arjuna, who is accompanied to war by an old 'friend' Krishna, to help guide him into the right path. I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for a new perspective outlook in life, as it is filled with poems and secrets of enlightenment to help one become successful in their own daily life. It will also teach you that the more you learn and evolve your knowledge, the more positive energy you will find around you. 

Rausch, Andrew J. Turning Points in Film History. Citadel, 2004.

Book Cover
Turning Points in Film History
Andrew J. Rausch

• Rausch is a film critic, author, and interviewer, as well as an actor, film producer, and screenwriter. His book presents significant points in film history that helped revolutionize the way movies and films are produced today. Providing historical facts based on film historians and filmmakers, while casing their ideas with an influential event that can be identified within today's modern films. This book was a required reading for my film history class this semester, and I found it enjoyable to read because it mentions countless inventors, such as Thomas Edison, who I had no idea made such a huge impact on what we know about movies. 

My Learnings of the Environment

During the mid to end of this semester, I was assigned a group project with a couple of my fellow classmates about a themed topic we've chosen at the beginning of this class. Our theme was How Should the Environment be treated? At first we were a little worried with there only being three of us, while other theme groups had multiples of maybe four, five, or six.. but that didn't stop us from wanting to produce the best PowerPoint we can. I've decided to take the initiative role and become our group's project manager and editor, while also assisting as graphics designer. My favorite part of the project was being able to collaborate my ideas and perspectives with my groupmates. At times there would be differences but being able to understand one another and have an open mind was the best part because isn't that what humanities is all about? Although I took a huge load this semester with a new job and being a full-time student, I was able to accomplish about 26 hours on this project between group meetings, individual work, and advising. 

Looking Back at Asian Humanities 320

For almost all my life my mom has always tried to encourage me to find a religion of my own, and be able to have someone (or something) I can talk to in times in need. When I first enrolled into this class, my expectation was to find a religion I can incorporate into my daily life while also being able to knockout another class requirement. As class started, I expected it to be an easy breeze. All I had to do was do the required readings and write the discussions posts or blog entries. My goal was to do just that while finding a religion for my personal use and complete the class with an A. Unfortunately I didn't accomplish any of those goals except one. I was able to find a religion I can use within my daily life.

What interested me most about the class was writing blog entries. I found writing blog entries to be such a fun way of expressing my learnings with photos and researching, while also having the opportunity to edit the appearance of my posts. It's something I wish we did more of rather than discussion posts and only once a chapter. One of my favorite takeaways from the class was learning the different interpretations of reincarnation between religions. Because death is the biggest question of humanity right? We're always wondering what happens exactly after death. And although I already knew the universal definition of reincarnation, I learned that Mahayana Buddhist have a different idea to it and they refer to it as samsara, the cycling of existence. 

Overall I found this class to be a very enjoyable learning experience that I will continue to take with me as I evolve as a human being in this world. 

Work Cited

Hoden, Vernerable, director. What Is The Difference Between Reincarnation and Rebirth? - Zen Buddhism. YouTube, Dharma Gate Zen, 7 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5WlEkFszw.

“Reincarnation.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/reincarnation.

Blogging Museum Visit: 6.9

A Visit to the National Museum of Asian Art

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

I recently virtually visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Asian Art that is physically located in Washington, D.C. This museum is made up of two combined galleries, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, whom are dedicated to preserving, exhibiting and interpreting all works of art. Both of these galleries combined hold more than 40,000 pieces of art dated from the Neolithic period and today. These objects are found to be originating from ancient East China, Japan, Korea, Southern Asia, and the Islamic world. 

The Museum's History 

Freer Gallery of Art

In 1905, collector and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, Charles Lang Freer, wrote to the Smithsonian Institution with an offer to donate his precious collection. At the time, the institution's main focus was natural history rather than its art, and as words of Freer's offer began to spread, a supporter and friend of the institution, President Theodore Roosevelt, believed his art collection could benefit our nation due to the intercultural relations between the United States and Eastern Asia at the time (Cohen, 8). Afterwards, Freer and Roosevelt worked closely together to develop the museum in hopes of Smithsonian to accept. In 1987, years after the establishment of Freer's Gallery, came the addition of the Sackler Gallery, by whom was another passionate Asian arts collector named Arthur M. Sackler. 

Asian Art from the 18th Century

After I made my rounds through their countless collections of Asian Art, I decided to acknowledge two pieces from the Edo Period (1600 - 1868): The Buddhist Temple Asakusa Kinryuzan and The Suruga District in Edo, both from Japanese landscape artist Utagawa Hiroshige.

As I began my researching process using JSTOR, I discovered Sherry Fowler's article "Japanese Temples and Shrines from Near and Far: Precinct Prints of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" by using the keywords: Edo Period, Buddhist Temple, and Kinryuzan, while narrowing down the results to only view sources of articles, books and research reports, which lead me to 10 search results. Fowler's main focus of the article was to inform her audience of the Western techniques that were adopted by Japanese art culture in eighteenth and nineteenth century, touching on the origin of the types of styles used and their historical background. 

Utagawa Hiroshige (1786 - 1864)

The Buddhist Temple Kinryuzan (1826 - 1869)
by Utagawa Hiroshige
Displayed by Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

The Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige specialized in colorful woodblock prints of landscapes. The root of his creative style was ukiyo or 'floating world', the term is used to describe Japan's urban lifestyle and culture during the Edo Period.

Hiroshige's The Buddhist Temple Asakusa Kinryuzan is held in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and is one of the most favorable sites to see. In this woodblock print we see a Buddhist temple with an active marketplace with many visitors, and due to the surrounding environment homed to blossomed cherry blossom trees, we can assume that this photograph takes place during spring. We also noticed that Hiroshige focuses on a group of Western men and a Chinese assistant in the front of the photo. 

In comparison to Hiroshige's work of the Buddhist temple and my research done using Fowler's article, I noticed that Hiroshige used a printed art style called keidaizu, a term that is translated as photos of the surrounding environment of shrine and temples. This art style is typically known to show buildings of prominent Buddhist temples and shrines within a landscape background. "The word keidai literally means 'within the boundary', in reference to the physical space of a religious institution" (Fowler, 1). From 1790 to 1830, religious goods were sold outside of temples and held up to twenty percent of a temple's income. Some of these goods included souvenirs, talismans, prayer beads and printed images, and "commonly offer[ed] pamphlets to visitors that included an illustrated guide map and pictures when administration fees [were] paid" (Fowler, 8). As I examined Hiroshige's art of a Buddhist temple, the group of Western men I mentioned before can no doubt be interpreted as visitors who are holding their pamphlets while being attended by a tour-guide.

The Suruga District in Edo (1858)
by Utagawa Hiroshige
Housed by Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Another one of Hiroshige's pieces named The Suruga District in Edo, is also being housed by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery but is currently not on display. In this woodblock print we see the Suruga District with a view of Mount Fuji in the background, including people underneath the shade covered in blue and green colored clothing. 

In the mid-eighteenth hundreds as woodblock print was advancing due to Western technology, artists such as Hiroshige were able to apply their art with smaller dimension and fine detail without losing any clarity. Although woodblocks were usually printed with monochrome black ink, with the occasional blue or brown, artist would "rely on sharp lines and dense texture instead of bright colors to impress viewers" (Fowler, 10). This use of Western technology helped artists to advance their workspace with a more scientific view of reality. Another method to entice their audience was to exaggerate their space with several perspectives. "Interest in new modes of viewing, including various types of optical devices that could enhance depth in two-dimensional pictures" (Fowler, 10). As we study the photo of the Suruga district, we notice Hiroshige added Mount Fuji in the background to give this two-dimensional photo more depth by making the view of the people appear closer to us. 

About Utagawa Hiroshige's Life

My Takeaways from the National Museum of Asian Art

After virtually touring the National Museum of Asian Art and reading the depths of Sherry Fowler's article, I discovered a new profound interest in exploring more museums that harvest around our world today. Museums provide an effective way of learning about our world's history with the bonus of experiencing the atmosphere of past cultures and environments. "As pictures of temples and shrines were treated like images of famous places, their association with the numinous nature of the sites and the devotional aspect of the pilgrimage experience grew ever more remote" (Fowler, 7). This shows that having museums within our communities can positively impact our environment by functioning similar to a hangout spot or a community center, which will bring more foot traffic into our cities, and in return of that foot traffic, means opportunity for more development that will then bring more families and people into our neighborhoods to revolutionize our environment to grow. 

Work Cited

Cohen, Warren I. “Art Collecting as International Relations: Chinese Art and American Culture.” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, vol. 1, no. 4, 1992, pp. 409–434. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23613355. Accessed 9 May 2021.

FOWLER, SHERRY. “VIEWS OF JAPANESE TEMPLES AND SHRINES FROM NEAR AND FAR: PRECINCT PRINTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 68, no. 2, 2008, pp. 247–285. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40599601. Accessed 9 May 2021.

Fthenakis, Lisa. “This Day in Freer History: May 5, 1906.” Smithsonian Magazine, 5 May 2021. 

Telling the Story of the Silk Road

The Highway to Trade

Buddhist adoption in Asia, through the Silk Road

Expansion of Early Buddhism

As we read Chapter 16 from Bresnan's Awakening: An Introduction of the History of Eastern Thought and watch The Silk Road: Where East Met West, we are introduced to the journey of Mahayana Buddhism and its evolution in China through the Silk Road. The Silk Road is connected all throughout China and other pars of the Eurasian continent, stretching from east to west and also south into India. The road helped trade move back and forth, also giving opportunity for "Buddhist ideas, Buddhist books, and even Buddhist monks to enter the flow and move wherever the Silk Road may take them" (Bresnan 377). One city that largely established Buddhism was Xian, "seen as the beginning of the Silk Road" (Silk, 7:43 - 7:46). But as time passed in China's capitol city Xian, so did the livelihood of Buddhist culture. 

Similar Statue of my family's

I find the history of expansion of Buddhist culture very interesting because growing up Chinese and Filipino American, I never really associated Buddhism to be originally practiced in India. My family would have Buddha statues sitting (in Lotus position) at the entrance of our door, and before we exit, we would have to rub his belly for good fortune. And being so young, I thought these practices were a main apart of my Chinese culture. I agree with Bresnan's comment, saying that Mahayana Buddhism making its way into China through the Silk Road and becoming strongly intergraded with its culture is "a very interesting intermediate step that most people in the modern world have never heard about" (Bresnan 377). Because I am one of those modern people, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. 

The Ancient Trade Route

As we gain knowledge about the Silk Road, I noticed that the text only briefly introduces us at the beginning of the chapter while the video mainly focuses on the topic throughout. Each source started with the length of the route, describing it to be the source of trade and culture expansion. "Along its many miles, there was money to be made. But the people on the Silk Road not only bought and battered goods, they also exchanged ideas and techniques" (Silk, 1:47 - 1:58). Unlike the text, the video doesn't state which exact ideas and techniques were exchanged in the beginning, "Buddhism traveled far ahead, hitching a ride on that fascinating highway of trade, an extremely long caravan route that connected China with other parts of the Eurasian continent" (Bresnan 377). After the brief introduction of Buddhist travel, the text describes what they brought and exchanged on their journey. To further expand my knowledge of trade on the Silk Road, I watched this video from Crash Course History on YouTube:

The Influence of Cultures on Europe

One topic in particular that I found interesting was the influence of Eastern culture on European cities, such as Venice, Italy. As we know, the Silk Road carried on for many miles throughout different regions and exchanged not only goods, but cultures and their ideas and techniques. Near the beginning of the video Sam Willis, the video's main historian, mentioned that in 1844, Charles Dickens visited Venice and have a very strange feeling that it wasn't an European city, "but an oriental one that was troubled by the wild luxuriant fancies of the East" (Silk, 3:06 - 3:28). Meaning that Dickens found much of Venice's environment to be influenced by Eastern Asian culture and Muslim styled architecture. Safe to say that the influence of Eastern culture, most likely came from the stream of trade. As someone whose visited multiple cities in Italy, one including Venice, it never occurred to me before how different it was compared to maybe Rome or Naples. 

Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.

Downes, Richard. "The Silk Road: Where East Met West." BBC UK, performance by Sam Willis, Season 1, Episode 1. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021.

Kartapranata, Gunawan. Buddhist Adoption in Asia, Mahayana Buddhism First Entered China through the Silk Road. 31 Jan. 2014. 

The Story of Daoism and Confucianism

The Right "Way" or "Road" to Live

As I continued to read Chapters 13 and 14 of Bresnan's Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought, I encountered two influential non-Buddhist traditions native to Asia's eastern region, Confucianism and Daoism. Both of these traditions focus on one's self-improvement through discovering positive-negative (yin & yang) energies of the world's natural order for universal harmony. Although Confucianism and Daoism share some subtle qualities, they are not the same. Daoism was formed later after the lifetime of Confucius, and appears to be the "antithesis of Confucianism" (Bresnan 335). Daoism focuses more on balance and the natural forces of life, while Confucianism focuses more on social order and it's relation to the environment. 

Disruption in Our Universal Harmony

The Teaching of Confucius
Portrait by Wu Daozi
685 - 758 CE

Confucius said that human society had gotten out of harmony with the larger natural order that is it apart of. When we hear the term natural order, we think of a moral source driven by unspoken rules of the universe, but it is much more than a set of unspoken principles. Natural order comes from the balance between our environment and our human nature. From Confucius judgement, he saw men as apart of nature, and we as humans must not be in conflict with that natural order. He believed that "there is a right ordering of society that is natural to it, in the same way that there is a right ordering to all of the things of nature" (Bresnan 308). Confucius witnessed the imbalance of harmony between the evolution of human's society and it's part in the larger natural order. Meaning that human's selfish and evil acts are what corrupts the harmony within our universal nature. During Confucius's day, society was organized through rank and generation, which lead authority to be taken advantage of. He found living under leadership and Government, which is established for men to feel protected, felt more oppressive. In Confucius's eyes, the highest concern was reestablishing the ordering in society. And before we can reach "Confucianism's system promise to fashion a society that is harmonious, peaceful, and prosperous" (Bresnan 301), it must begin within family and applying the wisdom we learn and encounter with our present situations. Confucius's vision of a reestablished human society, will bring back the universal harmony within our larger natural order.

The Basic Forces of Nature

Yin&Yang Symbol

Have you ever heard the saying "opposites attract and complement each other"? You could compare this with the Philosophical Daoist concept of yin&yang, that "harmony is the result of the innerworkings of the basic forces of nature" (Bresnan 352). The term originally comes from the Chinese words for moon and sun. The black and feminine-side of the symbol Yin, is the passive force principle that maintains and regulates, in which is also characterized as the dark and negative side. The white and masculine-side of the symbol Yang, is the active force principle that initiates action, also characterized to be the light and positive side. One cannot exist without the other, they are the balance within the forces of nature. 

Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: an Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.

Daozi, Wu. The Teaching Confucius.

Mnmazur, Klem. Yin and Yang Symbol. 7 Dec. 2007.