To collect information about China’s past, present, and future Harvard University is offering this free online course ‘The Political and Intellectual Foundations of China’. This is a self paced six week course. This MOOC will be offered in English with limited video subtitles in Chinese. The information will be extracted through history, geography, philosophies, literature, politics, economy, art, and ecology.

Course Details In Brief

Level: Introductory
Length: 6 weeks
Effort:  1.5 – 3.5 hours/week
Subject: English
Institution: Harvard University with edX
Languages: English
Price: Free
Certificate Available: Yes
Session: Self-Paced

Why Choose Harvard University MOOC? 

Harvard University’s MOOC highlights your new skills and knowledge with a verified certificate. Use this valuable credential to cash a professional opportunity. Harvard University is contributes its best in quality teaching, learning, and research, and to has generated various developing leaders in many disciplines who made a difference globally. Harvard faculty are engaged with teaching and research to push the boundaries of human knowledge. The University has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard offers free online courses in multiple subjects.

Course Introduction 

Modern China presents a dual image: a society transforming itself through economic development and infrastructure investment that aspires to global leadership; and the world’s largest and oldest bureaucratic state, with multiple traditions in its cultural, economic, and political life. The modern society and state that is emerging in China bears the indelible imprint of China’s historical experience, of its patterns of philosophy and religion, and of its social and political thought. These themes are discussed in order to understand China in the twenty-­first century and as a great world civilization that developed along along lines different from those of the Mediterranean.

ChinaX introduces new features to make the riches of Harvard’s visual collections and the expertise of its faculty more accessible to learners worldwide. We will engage intellectual and religious trends, material and political culture, the local diversity and the national unity, art and literature, and China’s economic and political transformation— past, present and future.

This is the first of ten ChinaX “Mini-­Courses” that collectively span over 6,000 years of history. Each mini-­course consists of 4 to 8 weekly “modules,” each with videos, readings, interactive engagements, assessments, and discussion forums. 

 You Will Learn

By the end of the course, you will have knowledge of
-An understanding of some of the big picture issues in China’s history from political, geographic, and cultural perspectives.
-The beginning of history in archaeology and in myth.
-Legitimating the imposition of political authority and justifying rebellion against authority.
-The blossoming of Chinese thought: from Confucius in the sixth century BC to the Legalists of the third.
-Historical methods for explaining how complex civilizations are formed.
-The analysis of texts (in translation) and artifacts.
-Methods for the analysis of philosophical and political arguments.
-Methods of critical reading to modern scholarship.
-To develop your own approaches to history and gain a critical appreciation of China’s literary, philosophical, political and cultural resources.
-To express ideas more clearly and confidently through the discussion forums and to think more analytically and critically through the study of primary and secondary sources.

For detailed information go through HarvardX.