Final Exam

The topic I was given was about the madness of Roman emperor Nero. From the sources I found, I learned that Nero had called for the execution of his mother, Agrippina, and his adoptive brother. Nero was a tyrant during his reign of the Roman empire, exiling and executing all his enemies without discretion. He was also known for his extravegance, spending tax dollars for himself, in turn collapsing the Roman economy by creating a large deficit. One of the most famous events during his tenure as emperor was the Great Fire of Rome. Though he provided for displaced victims, some had speculated that he was responsible for the fire, so he used the Christians as a scapegoat. It is said that Nero was playing his lyre and singing songs as he watched Rome burn. Nero is known to be one of the earliest Roman emperors to systematically persecute the Christians.

I first started looking for a source in the library catalog, thinking that looking for one may take a longer time. I found a book entitled Reflections of Nero, by Jas Elsner and Jamie Masters, published by Chapel Hill and released in 1994.

My search on Academic Search Premiere, was much more strenuous. I used the terms "Nero" and "madness", but came up with no results. I tried to broaden my search a little bit more by typing in "Nero" and "Roman Emperor", but did not come up with important information on Nero personally. Alas, I resorted to just using "Nero" alone as a search term, and I sifted through my results. I did not find a whole article on Nero, but a review of a book about him, which described his extravegance and insanity. It was a book review by Trevelyn E. Jones for the School Library Journal .

I had a much easier time looking for a source on the World Wide Web. Using Google, I searched for "Nero", and found an article on "New Advent", a self-proclaimed Catholic encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10752c.htm). I believe this is a reliable source because Nero is somewhat a big part of early Christianity, being one of the first rulers to persecute Christians.

I did not know which disciplinary database to use, being that there is no specific database for ancient history.

Two complex questions I would like to ask is "Why did he use the Christians as the scapegoat for the Great Roman Fire and what reasons did he use?" and "Did Nero's artistic side (music) play a part in his popularity, given that he was poor in domestic and economic issues?"

Self-Assesment Essay

The course objective that stands out to me the most is how to formulate a research question. Before this course, I would stay within the one topic that a teacher would give for a research paper instead of expanding on that one topic. It was easy for me to learn to expand my research question, but before I did not think it was an important part of writing a paper.

Effective use of traditional and new library resources also helped me out greatly in this class. Learning to use the databases that the library offers would be helpful to me in the near future, being that I will be taking two history classes next quarter, and I believe I'll be doing a couple of research papers. The explanation of how the Library of Congress system works was also helpful in that I like to read, and understanding the way the books are organized would help me find books quickly.

Learning to "understand and apply principles of information ethics" was also an important part of this class. Learning to use the citation formats (MLA and APA) and what can or can not be used (copyrights, trademarks, etc.) was important to avoid academic dishonesty.

Being cautious on the websites used for research for research was also helpful. In high school, I would go straight to Google or some other popular search engine to look up information. I would then go right to the top results. I learned from this class that these popular search engines don't necessarily give the most reliable information. Checking the authority and reliability of a website is imperative in research, because putting the wrong information on a research paper would not have good results.

Research Log Entry 13

1. The topic discussed in the last class meeting was the two most popular formats to cite sources, the Modern Language Association format (MLA) and the American Psychological Association format (APA)

2. In the MLA format, if more than 3 authors contributed to the book, only three authors will be listed followed by "et. al". In the APA format, all authors are listed.

In the APA format, only the first word in the title is capitalized. In the MLA format, all important words are captialized.

Review

The first research tool I used was Academic Search Premier. I used this first because I am most familiar with this one. My high school also used the EBSCO host research database. There, I found an article on how modern technology affects "Confucian ethical values". The article was written by Robin R. Wang, titled : Globalizing the Heart of the Dragon: The Impact of Technology on Confucian Ethical Values. It appeared on the December 2002 edition of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy.

The second database I searched in was the Philosopher's Index. The reason why I went with this research database is because my topic deals with philosophy and with the philosophical teachings of Confucius. There, I found an article from the October 2004 issue of Philosophy East and West. The article was titled The Confucian Politics of Appearance--and Its Impact on Chinese Humor.

I used Wikipedia as a launching pad to find my source from the web. I searched for the article on Confucianism, and clicked on one of the sources cited, which led me to a website from UC Berekely, comparing Legalism with Confucianism, two different philosophies that were used as legal theories in Ancient China.

From The Library Catalog, I found Confucianism for the modern world written by Hahm Chaihark. I have yet to check out this book, but judging from the title, i believe it is very relevant to my topic.

For every search, I used the term Confucianism, but also always tried to inclued others such as "government" and "ancient/modern china".

I learned about the most basic things Confucius taught, such as the Analects. I also learned about the legal theory of Legalism, which was more towards an "eye for an eye" type of philosophy, whereas Confucianism taught modesty.

Two things that I would like to know to further my research would be "How did the influence of Confucianism on China affect other Asian countries", and "Why was Confucianism outlawed during Mao Zedong's rule when communism and confucianism has a few essential similarities?"

Research Log Entry 12

Reference Stacks:

Routledge Curzon encyclopedia of Confucianism London ; New York : RoutledgeCurzon, 2003; BL1852 .C65 2003

Book Stacks:

Confucianism : origins, beliefs, practices, holy texts, sacred places
Oldstone-Moore, Jennifer, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002, BL1853 .O44 2002

3. a) I only had to use the search term "Confucianism", because the topic is somewhat a popular subject.

b) I encountered no problems

c) the search was very effective already.

Research Log Entry 11

1. What was discussed last Friday was the catalog system the CSUEB library uses, which is the Library of Congress Catalog.


2. words can be found in a broad range of material. subject headings are for specific topics. for example, fish is a word that can be used as a search term. marine conservation is a subject heading.

3. Using words, or keywords, will help you find much more results. Using subject headings are useful when researching for a much more specific topic.

note: sorry for the late blog post, again.

Research Log Entry 10

1. Confucianism is a philosophy that focuses on self-discipline and morality that had an impact on the government of Ancient China and on the culture of Modern China.



2. Confucius, Qin Dynasty ban on Confucianism, The Analects of Confucius, legalization of Confucianism in the Han Dynsaty, Neo-Confucianism, Zhu Xi, Acceptance of Confucianism in Korea and Japan.



3. a) I found out more about how the Han Dynasty used Confucianism in their way of governing. I did not hit a dead-end anywhere. I believe Confucianism is a very popular subject in philosophy, therefore many scholarly journals write about it.



b) there were various footnotes in the first article I found instead of a whole bibliography. here are a few examples...



(n1) See Yü Ying-shih, "Zhang Shizhai Yü Ke Lingwu de lishi sixiang: zhongxi lishi zhexue de yidian bijiao" (The Ideas of History of Zhang Xuecheng and R. G. Collingwood) in his Lun Dai Zhen Yü Zhang Xuecheng (On Dai Zhen and Zhang Xuecheng) (Hong Kong: Longmen shudian, 1976), pp. 197-242, especially his conclusion on pp. 225-232. Yü's discussion of historicism here emphasizes only one aspect of its legacy, namely, its interest in resting historical study on philological analysis of sources, which is probably how Collingwood understood it. His more balanced discussion of historicism is in his preface to Lishi Yü sixiang (History and Ideas) (Taipei: Lianjing, 1976), pp. 1-14. For understanding historicism and its different legacies, see Georg Iggers, "The Image of Ranke in American and German Historical Thought," History and Theory, vol. 2 (1962), pp. 17-40; and idem, "Historicism: The History and Meaning of the Term," The Journal of the History of Ideas 56 (January, 1995): 129-152.


(n2) Although different in focus, my study was inspired by R. Bin Wong and Kenneth Pomeranz in their comparative studies of East Asia and Europe. I share with them the same concern over the limitations of European models in the study of non-European history and attempt here to compare Europe to East Asia, rather than the other way around as most comparative studies have attempted previously. See R. Bin Wong's China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997); and Kenneth Pomeranze's The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000).


(n3) Benjamin A. Elman, "The Historicization of Classical Learning in Ming-Ch'ing China," in Q. Edward Wang and Georg G. Iggers, eds., Turning Points in Historiography: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2002), pp. 101-146; and Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1984).

C) I believe adding more search terms can help me find more articles. There was an article I came across that used Confucianism in the perspective of the medicinal world. I may want to look for more articles that put Confucianism in different perspectives.