Confucius (Kongzi)
Set yourself an essay question and answer it in an essay of between 1,700 and 1,800 (including footnotes, but excluding bibliography). Your essay should include the following: 1. An introduction to the thinker and his works; 2. An explanation of the main strands of his thought; 3. A contextualization of your subject's thought against the background of the political situation of the Eastern Zhou. 4. Consideration of the sources that exist for reconstructing the thought of your chosen philosopher. See Loewe, Michael, ed. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China (Institute of East Asian Studies), University of California, 1993.
Feel free to home in on one aspect of the philosopher's thought for examination once you have briefly covered 1-4, or give a general survey.