ANOTHER GREAT LECTURE SERIES FROM THE PREMIER GCS

What did you like most about Foundations of Eastern Civilization?

So far i liked the in-depth and expansive look into the various Eastern Civilization

Who was your favorite character and why?

Empor Wu di. Joking this is not a book.

What about Professor Craig G. Benjamin’s performance did you like?

Put simply Professor Craig is well grounded and highly knowledgable about the Eastern civilization. However, i was impressed by his ability to connect events and critical fairly unbaised analysis.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Well you actually can. But i love taking my time to listen to audiobooks especially the ones i find interesting.

Any additional comments?

Brilliant work by The Great Courses Series. Only if the Great Courses Had its own University they would produced the most critically and open students yet.

Professor Criag has opened me up to understanding more about the East and their role in global community.

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3 people found this helpful

China! China! China!

What did you like best about this story?

It paints a really good portrait of the Sinosphere, with China as the Sun and the other countries floating around it, each definitely their own country, but inexorably drawn in towards China's cultural mass.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, the description of imperial Beijing as a cosmopolitan hub was really well done.

Any additional comments?

The book has a great flow.

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2 people found this helpful

Overall good but details need checking

What did you like best about Foundations of Eastern Civilization? What did you like least?

The course covers the history of Asia from pre-history to modern day, with an emphasis on the part before 16th/17th century. Probably because of the emphasis on foundation of the course. On a grand scale, the relatively isolated Asia and subsequent exchange of ideas and trade within Asia and with west are well established and told. So it's good for a general introduction to East Asian history, particularly China, Korea and Japan. The pronunciation is certainly awkward for a non-Chinese/Korean/Japanese speaker, but he tried, and mostly succeeded.
However, the small nuisances and details in regard to a particular character or place or name are often wrong. For example, it's common to refer to an emperor by his reign name or posthumous title or real name. But to mistake one's reign name for his real name is a bit too much. Same goes saying the last emperor of Sui dynasty declared himself "Yang Di (the flaming emperor)". Firstly, that's a posthumous title, no one declares themselves that title. Secondly, even if someone did, he wouldn't have picked that name. Because, although in common language, "Yang" means flaming, in posthumous title, it means "deviation from justice, not fulfil one's duty", simply not a positive title. You only ever see the last or second to last emperor of a dynasty to have that title. It especially annoyed me because he had to repeat this wrong understanding several times along the way. Similarly, Japan's "tent government" doesn't mean it's meant to be temporary. Tent government is not an accurate translation in the first place, too literal. The head of "tent government" Shokan, in fact means General or high command. Tent was his headquarters when he was out fighting. It's where his advisors, high ranking officers gathered discussing strategy and made decisions. So when a general claimed power, his government was called "tent government".

Would you recommend Foundations of Eastern Civilization to your friends? Why or why not?

For a friend who doesn't know anything of eastern culture, I would recommend it for it gives enough contents and links with western countries to be easily understandable. For someone who knows eastern culture or want to go a bit amateur professional on the subject, I wouldn't because it contains a lot of mistakes to make further research hard and confusing.

Which character – as performed by Professor Craig G. Benjamin – was your favourite?

Not applicable in this case

Did Foundations of Eastern Civilization inspire you to do anything?

Check and re-check something I knew but got confused by his mistakes. Got me interested in Korean history though.

Any additional comments?

Got to admit, these details I picked up on probably don't matter on a grand scale. And a non-Chinese/Korean/Japanese speaker is hardly going to remember any awkwardly pronounced names after listening. Just bear in mind these kind of nuisances mentioned in the course aren't entirely accurate.

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7 people found this helpful

History of China

The lecturer is an obvious fan of all thing Chinese and the course is prejudiced in this respect. The limited time provided for all the civilisations is skewed. It felt like Japan, Korea, Vietnam were afterthoughts and only mentioned in respect to their relationship with China. It would have been more valuable if all the civilisations were discussed as integrated histories in a chronological order.The lecturer had the habit of wasting time during lectures to explain what was coming up in future lectures rather than continuing with the lecture he was teaching.

Overall this should be touted as A brief history of China rather than whole of eastern civilisation. Does provide basic overview of China but found it hard to finish the course due to the affectations of the lecturer.

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