Repeating the instructions given in the "Guidelines for Term Papers":  Your paper should be focused in a manner you have designed yourself, and you have a good deal of latitude in deciding the scope which its content will encompass.  The subjects suggested at the end of this hand-out are by no means exclusive and are meant only to provoke your imagination; each of them is stated in "topic" form and must be focused much more narrowly onto a specific problem.  Also, most of these suggestions pose "what"-type questions; having answered that question through your initial reading, you should go on to analyze the underlying "why."  Of course, you are also free to ignore these suggestions and instead develop a focus completely of your own choosing.
 

1. Of what interest to historians are the legends of ancient China?
2. What was the influence of such factors as the written language or geophysical setting on the development of Chinese society?
3. What differences are there in the way a Zhou period Confucianist or a Taoist might understand "the Dao?"
4. Compare and contrast the contexts and methods in which Confucian thinkers of the Zhou and Han periods addressed themselves to the problem of "good government."
5. How effective was the framework of inter-state relations during the Eastern Zhou?
6. What criticism might Confucius and/or Mencius have of Dong Zhong-shu's Confucianism?
7. What tensions or contradictions might there be in adopting Confucianism as a state orthodoxy?  How were these tensions resolved in actual practice?
8. Compare the views on human nature and their political implications presented by any of the following:  Mencius, Xunzi, Taoists, Legalists, Buddhists.
9. On what points did the Confucian and Mohist schools differ?
10. How do the works of Laozi and Zhuangzi compare with the commentaries on those works cited in Chan's Source Book?
11. What were the differences between the Confucianists' and Legalists' goals and techniques of government?
12. What was the proper relationship of the Confucian "gentleman" to society?
13. To what extent might classical Confucianism be described as élitist or egalitarian?
14. How well did Legalism survive the fall of Qin?
15. Could Confucianism be considered a "religion?"
16. What attitudes toward the masses can be discerned in Zhou period thinkers?
17. What (dis)advantages did "State Confucianism" offer to the emperor?  the literati?  the masses?
18. To what extent does the Han mark a new stage in the theory and practice of Chinese government?
19. Was the Six Dynasties period more a danger or an opportunity for the "imperial ideal?"
20. What factors influenced the development of the various types of Taoism?  Of the different schools of Confucianism?
21. In what ways has China handled the problem of national defense?
22. What role have popular disturbances/uprisings played in China's political evolution?
23. How effective a transition did the Sui provide out of post-Han disorder?
24. What attractions did Buddhism offer to post-Han China?
25. Did Buddhism bring about a discernible change in China, or vice-versa?
26. What problems are encountered in defining or describing the "scholar-official" (or "literati") class?
27. How did centrifugal and centripetal forces (the "problem of regionalism") balance in early and late Tang China?
28. Were changes in Tang economy adequately reflected in institutional changes?
29. What kind of counter-challenge could Confucianism offer to Buddhism?
30. How did Tang poetry develop and reflect its social milieu?
31. What methods and goals were involved in designing a "merit" bureaucracy?
32. How much impact did various "barbarian" invasions/contacts have on Chinese culture?
33. What were the limits of flexibility of the Chinese governmental or philosophical systems?
34. What factors have influenced the degree of social mobility in China?
35. How has the balance between civilian and military power evolved in China?
36. What æsthetic principles underlay the arts of the Song period?
37. What facets of Chinese civilization have been borrowed by China's neighbors?  What adaptations were made in the process?
38. What impact have improvements in agriculture (such as the introduction of early-ripening rice) had on China's development?
39. What have been the implications of state patronage of the arts?
40. How responsive was the imperial governmental system to reform movements?
41. In the Confucian value system, what constituted a "legitimate" government?
42. What has been the relationship between religious movements and the political order?
43. What was significant about Sino-Mongol accommodation during the Yuan period?
44. How effectively did the Censorate carry out its prescribed role?
45. By the end of the Ming period, how did the Confucianism prevailing at that time compare to the Confucianism of earlier periods?
46. What conditions facilitated the rise of eunuch power in the late Ming? What challenges or responses could the traditional socio-political system offer to the eunuchs?How far did the early Qing rulers go in embodying the role of the ideal emperor?
47. To what extent did mid-Qing literary activity (broadly understood) serve the interests of the state?
48. What roles did the scholar-official class play? Were these roles always mutually compatible?
49. Did the conditions of the Chinese peasantry improve or worsen under the Qing? Why? How uniform were these changes throughout the country?
50. How well did Qing commercial policy correspond to traditional Confucian attitudes toward merchants? To the realities of China's economy?
51. How effectively did the examination system function under the Qing?
52. How did Chinese intellectuals react to the Manchu conquest?
53. How effectively could traditional China and the early European traders accommodate each other's interests?
54. What could / did the Jesuits teach China? What could / did China teach "Enlightened" Europe?
55. What factors have governed "technology transfer" between China and other parts of the world?
56. What problems and / or advantages arose from the Qing incorporation of non-Han populations into the Chinese empire?