H.I.P.P Sourcing Documents
Steps for the students: 1. Read the documents very carefully. 2. Answer the question: Why was THIS person producing THIS piece of information at THIS time or in this manner? Or use SOAPSTONE.
S - Who is the Speaker/Source? H Home - country of origin, national or ethnic identity O Occupation or profession G Gender W Worldview values as reflecting religious, philosophical, or other cultural ideals A Age R Real Knowledge that is what are the limitations of the speaker what could they know or not know T Theoretical Ideals - political, economic, or other social / intellectual values S Social Status, including class, caste, wealth and education
O - A - P - S O - What is the Occasion? A - What is the Intended Audience? P - What is the Purpose? S - What is the Subject? NOT for POV itself, but to support POV claims or to help answer the question.
TONE What is the tone of the document? Consider the SHOCK AND AWE approach. Is the speaker or message: S Sad or wistful? H Haughty or condescending or insensitive? O Obsessed or fanatical or just committed? C Cruel or antagonistic or ruthless? K Knowledgeable or arrogant or uncertain? A Amused or tolerant or unsympathetic? N Negative or defensive or judgmental? D Deferential or respectful? A Annoyed or outraged or disgusted? W Worried or panic stricken? E Excited or guilty or ashamed?
Other Hints for Students 1. Identify unusual or loaded words, phrases in the text. 2. List standard or expected alternatives that would carry the same meaning. 3. What are the differences between the alternative and original words (social, cultural)? 4. Ask why didn t use alternative words?
POV No-Nos Identifying the POV, is just the beginning. Expressing it appropriately is the next part. Watch out! Simply repeating the attribution will not get you any points for POV; nor will claiming bias without justification. Poor defenses of your POV is not enough either, like stating: The author is biased because he is British. Avoid trying to cast aspersions on the source. This kind of POV attempt, This information is biased/wrong because the author is ignorant rarely gets the POV point. All sources can tell you something, no matter what you think about the author.
Ideal POV Statements The author might write /use tone/etc. because. SOAPSTONE! Text Why or rather what connects them?
Source: Emperor Tang Wu, Edict on Buddhism, 845 C.E. Now if even one man fails to work the fields, someone must go hungry; if one woman does not tend her silkworms, someone will go cold. At present there are an inesmmable number of monks and nuns in the empire, all of them waimng for the farmers to feed them and the silkworms to clothe them while the Buddhist public temples and private chapels have reached boundless numbers, sufficient to outshine the imperial palace itself. Having thoroughly examined all earlier reports and consulted public opinion on all sides, there no longer remains the slightest doubt in Our mind that this evil should be eradicated.
What informa<on did you acquire from this document? There were a lot of Buddhist monks and nuns, and they were not working for agricultural output. These Buddhist monks were relying on public assistance for food and clothing. Emperor Wu saw this pracmce of Buddhist monks not working for their own keep as an evil that should be done away with.
Historical Context? Tang Dynasty established the equal-field system. This alloted agricultural land to families in an equitable fashion. This was to avoid the problems of the Han Dynasty where large plots of land ended up in the hands of a few, creamng huge social problems. During the second half of the Tang Dynasty, large parcels of land fell out of the system into the hands of Buddhist monasteries. Emperor Wu wanted to correct this.
Intended Audience? The intended audience of this edict was to the general populamon of the Tang Dynasty, to jusmfy his acmon of trying to eradicate the Buddhist monks and nuns. However, a second audience could be to the administrators within the Tang bureaucracy as orders to have them take acmon against the monks and nuns.
Point of View? Emperor Wu saw the Buddhist monks and nuns as a burden to society. He saw them as evil and wanted to do away with them because they didn t produce food or clothing for themselves.
Purpose? The growing Chinese populamon put a strain on the economic welfare of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Wu saw that large plots of land were falling out of the equal field system and into the hands of the Buddhist monks and nuns. To address this strain, and provide greater economic stability to the populamon at large, he wanted to get rid of these monks and nuns. That way he could give more land to people for agriculture producmon, and not have these monks and nuns as a social welfare burden to them.
How does this affect the content? This helps explain why government persecumon broke out against Buddhist monks during the second part of the Tang Dynasty.