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Dibs Fall 2026

ASIAN 40

Foundations of East Asia: Philosophical and Literary Traditions

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Orientation of foundational philosophical and literary texts in the classical Chinese or Sinitic/East Asian tradition. Shared by modern China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, these texts provide the rhetorical, intellectual, and ethical framework for premodern cultural tradition; and also serve as political, aesthetic, and moral anchors for contemporary media, art, and social discourse. Reading of classical texts from the pre-Qin Chinese received tradition (Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism). Exploration of the religious canon of Mahayana Buddhism. Engagement with classical literary works representing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese traditions. Students relate the philosophical and literary works to their own lived experiences. P/NP or letter grading.

Course statistics

Predicted GPA
3.79
n = 38 · 1 term · ± 0.077
A range
84%
of letter grades
Taken P/NP
3%
100% of those passed
D / F / W
0.0%
incl. withdrawals

Sections in Fall 2026

Sections offered, with live enrollment and predicted GPA
Section Status Enrolled Seat risk Meets Instructor Predicted GPA
Lec 1 Closed
99 of 99
100% full
 fills TR 9:30am-10:45am Duthie, N.N.
3.79n=38 · course average

Enrollment history

Final enrollment per term, averaged across that term's sections. Four years deep, summer excluded. Per-section live curves are on each section page.

  • 3925W
Enrolment by term: 25W 39
Peak 39 Most recent 39 in 25W 1 term on record

Grade distribution

  • A+ 1 · 2.6%
  • A 27 · 69.2%
  • A- 4 · 10.3%
  • B+ 4 · 10.3%
  • B 2 · 5.1%
  • P 1 · 2.6%

Grey bars are non-letter outcomes — P/NP, S/U, incompletes. They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.

By instructor

Instructor Predicted Raw n Terms A range
WANG, SIXIANG 3.83 3.84 38 1 84%

“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department — so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.

By term