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Hocbigg - Asian Studies

Path to a free self-taught education in Asian Studies!

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Introduction

Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the societies, intellectual traditions, material cultures, and political systems of the Asian continent and its adjacent maritime worlds, focusing primarily on East, South, and Southeast Asia. Rather than isolating individual nations or viewing them through secondary European frameworks, the discipline examines both the distinct civilizational lineages of these regions and the trans-regional networks of commerce, faith, and statecraft that connected them across millennia. Engaging with Asian Studies is fundamental to understanding more than half of the global population, several of the world's most enduring philosophical systems, and the economic and political forces reshaping contemporary global affairs.

This curriculum is intended for independent learners starting from scratch. No background in Asian history or regional languages is assumed or required. All assigned texts and documentary anthologies are available in English translation, and resources have been selected for clarity, pedagogical coherence, and academic rigor without relying on classroom-bound instruction.

How to Navigate This Curriculum

The curriculum is structured to take you from physical and environmental realities through premodern civilizational baselines, cross-regional cultural traditions, and finally into the modern political era:

Beyond The Core

This curriculum focuses strictly on the foundational knowledge shared across the discipline. It deliberately omits intensive regional language acquisition, narrow sub-regional histories, and hyper-specialized contemporary policy debates, all of which require this broader foundational context first.

Once you have worked through these core subjects, you can branch out into specialized regional or thematic tracks in Advanced Topics, explore broader source literature in Readings, or supplement your studies with extended lecture series in Courses.

Communities

Curriculum

Geographical and Environmental Foundations

This subject explores how physical terrain, river drainage basins, and seasonal monsoon patterns historically structured agrarian production, settlement density, and regional boundaries across Asia.

World Regional Geography: South Asia (Social Sci LibreTexts/Caitlin Finlayson) - Read this open-access chapter alongside the East and Southeast Asia module for a swift, free spatial introduction to the subcontinent's monsoonal patterns, mountain barriers, and river drainage basins.

World Regional Geography: East and Southeast Asia (Social Sci LibreTexts/Caitlin Finlayson) - A companion chapter to the South Asia module, establishing how seasonal weather systems, archipelagic geography, and major river deltas shaped settlement patterns across East and Southeast Asia.

A History of Asia (Routledge/Rhoads Murphey & Kristin Stapleton) - A comprehensive foundational textbook to read after the LibreTexts chapters, demonstrating how the physical environments of monsoon Asia structured agrarian settlement and early state formation.

Macro-Histories & Trans-Eurasian Connectivity

This subject examines the overland and maritime trade networks that connected Asian societies with one another and Afro-Eurasia through commerce, cultural diffusion, and religious transmission.

The Silk Roads (Smarthistory/Dr. Eiren Shea) - A free, illustrated introductory chapter serving as an accessible visual entry point to the oasis networks, artistic exchanges, and trade routes of Central and East Asia.

The Silk Road: A New History (Oxford University Press/Valerie Hansen) - The core text on overland Eurasian exchange, which pairs with Shea's visual overview by examining excavated documents to demonstrate how oasis communities functioned.

The Indian Ocean in World History (Routledge/Milo Kearney) - Read this alongside Hansen to balance overland routes with the maritime trading networks that connected the Persian Gulf, India, and Southeast Asia.

Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (Oxford University Press/Jerry H. Bentley) - Provides the overarching theoretical framework that synthesizes Hansen and Kearney, examining how cross-cultural conversion, trade diplomacy, and imperial expansion operated across pre-modern Eurasia.

East Asian Civilizations: China, Japan, and Korea

This subject surveys the political institutions, social systems, and cultural developments that defined China, Japan, and Korea from antiquity through the early modern era.

A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press/Charles Holcombe) - The primary single-volume survey option, ideal for learners seeking a concise, tightly integrated comparative history of China, Japan, and Korea.

East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History (Cengage Learning/Patricia Buckley Ebrey & Anne Walthall) - An alternative survey to Holcombe, offering richer coverage of social customs, material life, gender dynamics, and primary-source documents.

ChinaX: China's Past, Present and Future (Harvard University/Peter K. Bol & William C. Kirby) - A free audit-mode video lecture series that complements either textbook choice by providing visual lectures, historical maps, and discussions of major dynastic transitions.

South Asian Civilizations: The Indian Subcontinent

This subject covers the political, social, and cultural evolution of the Indian subcontinent from the Indus Valley Civilization through the Mughal Empire and the modern era.

History of Indian Civilization (UCLA/Vinay Lal) - A complete university video lecture series serving as the central audiovisual spine across early, medieval, and colonial Indian history.

The Wonder That Was India (Internet Archive/A.L. Basham) - A freely accessible classic study to consult alongside Lal's lectures for cultural, administrative, and religious context on pre-Mughal India.

Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (Routledge/Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal) - A primary modern-era survey option that interprets the subcontinent as an interconnected regional whole from the Mughal decline through independence and partition.

A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge University Press/Barbara D. Metcalf & Thomas R. Metcalf) - An alternative modern history to Bose and Jalal, focusing more tightly on the institutional architecture of British colonial rule and the development of modern Indian political identities.

Southeast Asian Civilizations: Mainland and Island Worlds

This subject investigates the distinct state formations, ecological adaptations, and cultural dynamics of mainland river valleys and maritime archipelagic kingdoms across Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia in World History (Oxford University Press/Craig A. Lockard) - A concise and accessible introductory primer that places mainland and insular Southeast Asian societies within broad global networks of trade and religion.

A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads (Wiley-Blackwell/Anthony Reid) - A more detailed, comprehensive alternative to Lockard, providing an exhaustive historical survey of state-building, commerce, and social change across both island and mainland Southeast Asia.

Indian Philosophical & Religious Traditions

This subject introduces the foundational texts, metaphysical concepts, and ethical frameworks of early South Asian thought, focusing on the Vedic tradition, the Upanishads, and classical philosophical systems.

Asian Philosophies (Routledge/John M. Koller) - Read the South Asian chapters of this textbook first to acquire the foundational vocabulary and core doctrines of the Vedic hymns, Upanishads, and orthodox Hindu schools.

Classical Indian Philosophy (History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps/Peter Adamson & Jonardon Ganeri) - A free, structured podcast series that serves as an engaging audio companion to Koller, breaking down philosophical debates on epistemology, selfhood, and liberation.

Sources of Indian Tradition, Volume 1: From the Beginning to 1800 (Columbia University Press/Ainslie T. Embree, ed.) - The essential primary documentary reader to use alongside the introductory surveys, providing translated excerpts from classical Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pali texts.

The Bhagavad Gita (Internet Archive/trans. Eknath Easwaran) - The central standalone primary scripture to read in its entirety after mastering the introductory frameworks, synthesizing Hindu paths of devotion, action, and metaphysical knowledge.

Chinese Philosophical & Religious Traditions

This subject examines the intellectual debates of early China, centering on the ethical, social, and political philosophies of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.

Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Hackett Publishing/Bryan W. Van Norden) - The most accessible introductory textbook for beginners, mapping the core arguments, debates, and ethical distinctions among Kongzi, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Mengzi, and Han Feizi.

The Art of Chinese Philosophy: Eight Classical Thinkers (Princeton University Press/Paul R. Goldin) - An alternative introductory text to Van Norden, recommended for learners seeking a closer philological analysis of textual nuances and philosophical consistency.

Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 1: From Earliest Times to 1600 (Columbia University Press/Wm. Theodore de Bary & Irene Bloom, eds.) - The primary source anthology to study sequentially alongside either Van Norden or Goldin, featuring direct translations of classical philosophical treatises.

China's Political and Intellectual Foundations: From Sage Kings to Confucius (Harvard University/Peter K. Bol & William C. Kirby) - An audit-mode online course providing historical and archaeological background that anchors early philosophical debates within the realities of statecraft.

Buddhist Traditions Across Asia

This subject traces the origins of Buddhist thought in India and its historical development, doctrinal branching, and monastic adaptation across South, Central, East, and Southeast Asia.

What the Buddha Taught (Internet Archive/Walpola Rahula) - Start with this concise, freely accessible classic to establish an authoritative doctrinal baseline on the Four Noble Truths, Dependent Origination, and Non-Self.

An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (Cambridge University Press/Peter Harvey) - The comprehensive core textbook to read after Rahula, detailing the historical expansion and doctrinal evolution of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions across Asia.

Buddhism Through Its Scriptures (Harvard Online/Charles Hallisey) - An audit-mode interactive MOOC that complements Harvey by teaching how canonical texts are used, interpreted, and embodied in lived practice.

Islamic Traditions Across Asia

This subject explores the transmission, vernacularization, and institutional life of Islam across South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia from the seventh century to the modern period.

Islam and Asia: A History (Cambridge University Press/Chiara Formichi) - The primary survey textbook for this subject, de-centering Middle East-centric perspectives to show how Islam became organically woven into the political, artistic, and social fabric of South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia.

Islam in South Asia: A Short History (Brill/Jamal Malik) - A complementary regional study to Formichi, offering deeper focus on the institutional development of sultanates, Sufi orders, and Muslim communal identity on the Indian subcontinent.

Classical and Premodern Asian Literatures

This subject surveys the major epic poems, dramatic works, and narrative prose of classical Asia, analyzing their aesthetic conventions, narrative structures, and cultural contexts.

Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective (Routledge/Barbara Stoler Miller, ed.) - The overarching analytical guide for this subject, offering interpretive essays that contextualize major Indian, Chinese, and Japanese literary classics.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Volumes A–C (W. W. Norton/Martin Puchner et al., eds.) - Provides the translated literary primary texts analyzed in Miller's companion, including Sanskrit epics, classical Chinese lyric poetry, and Japanese narrative prose.

The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (Columbia University Press/Victor H. Mair, ed.) - A complementary regional anthology that builds upon the Norton selections with expanded translations of classical poetry, vernacular fiction, and traditional Chinese drama.

Visual Culture, Material Culture, and Architecture

This subject surveys Asian artistic production, monument building, and sacred spaces, examining how religious beliefs, political power, and material trade were visually expressed.

Asian Art (Pearson/Dorinda Neave, Lara Blanchard, & Marika Sardar) - The central comprehensive survey textbook, introducing beginners to the painting, sculpture, ritual objects, and architectural monuments of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

Indian Art (Oxford University Press/Partha Mitter) - A complementary monograph to Neave et al., providing a focused historical exploration of Buddhist rock-cut architecture, Hindu temple sculpture, and Mughal painting.

The Arts of China (University of California Press/Michael Sullivan) - A complementary regional survey to read alongside Neave et al. for deeper immersion into Chinese bronze casting, calligraphy, ceramics, and monumental landscape painting.

Imperialism, Anti-Colonialism, and Decolonization

This subject analyzes the impact of European, American, and Japanese imperialism on Asian societies, alongside the intellectual, social, and military movements that fueled decolonization.

From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia (Picador/Pankaj Mishra) - The central pan-Asian narrative to read first, tracing how prominent Asian intellectuals and political leaders formulated anti-imperialist critiques and remade regional identities.

Modern China: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press/Rana Mitter) - A concise complementary primer focusing specifically on China's turbulent transition from the Qing collapse and foreign encroachment to revolutionary nationalism.

The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History (University of Hawaii Press/Norman G. Owen, ed.) - A comprehensive regional companion to Mishra, detailing how diverse colonial regimes transformed Southeast Asian societies and sparked anti-colonial resistance.

Sources of Indian Traditions, Volume 2: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (Columbia University Press/Rachel Fell McDermott et al., eds.) - A primary source documentary anthology providing the translated writings and speeches of key anti-colonial figures across modern South Asia.

Contemporary Asian Politics and Political Economy

This subject examines contemporary Asian state systems, developmental economic models, and the multilateral institutions shaping modern regional geopolitics.

International Relations of Asia (Rowman & Littlefield/David Shambaugh, ed.) - The primary core textbook for regional politics, analyzing great-power dynamics, security architectures, and diplomatic multilateralism across East, Southeast, and South Asia.

The Political Economy of East Asia: Wealth and Power (Edward Elgar Publishing/Ming Wan) - Complements Shambaugh by focusing on the economic foundations of Asian power, including developmental state models, global production networks, and regional trade integration.

Southeast Asia in the New International Era (Routledge/Robert Dayley) - A focused companion text examining the domestic political regimes of Southeast Asian nations and the institutional mechanics of ASEAN.