Download or read book Chinese Calligraphy and Early Buddhist Manuscripts written by Chung-hui Tsui and published by Indica Et Buddhica. This book was released on 2020-10-31 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract The earliest extant Chinese Buddhist manuscript the Buddhasaṅgīti-sūtra was excavated at Toyuq in Turfan. It is dated the 6th year of the Yuankang era (296 CE) during the Western Jin Dynasty (266-316 CE). This sūtra is a copy by Zhu Fashou, one of Dharmarakṣa's monk disciples, a distinctive scribe on the translation team. Both historical documentation and archæological findings of the period when Buddhism was initially transmitted into China demonstrate that the copying of Buddhist texts by monk scribes from Central Asia played a key role. The work of these scribes also enhanced the creation of diverse and vigorous calligraphic styles from the 3rd to 5th centuries. However, before the 20th century, early Buddhist scribes or foreign scribes were little known in the history of Chinese calligraphy, or in official records. The discovery of the Dunhuang and Turfan manuscripts in the early 20th century provided scholars with new material with which to examine early Buddhist scribal culture. This monograph considers the culture of early sacred writing, and the role of early Buddhist scribes, scribal workshops, scriptural calligraphy, and the expertise of these early scribes, for the history of Chinese calligraphers and calligraphy.
Download or read book Protecting the Dharma through Calligraphy in Tang China written by Pietro De Laurentis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the earliest and finest collated inscription in the history of Chinese calligraphy, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu 集王聖教序 (Preface to the Sacred Teaching Scriptures Translated by Xuanzang in Wang Xizhi’s Collated Characters), which was erected on January 1, 673. The stele records the two texts written by the Tang emperors Taizong (599–649) and Gaozong (628–683) in honor of the monk Xuanzang (d. 664) and the Buddhist scripture Xin jing (Heart Sutra), collated in the semi-cursive characters of the great master of Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi (303–361). It is thus a Buddhist inscription that combines Buddhist authority, political power, and artistic charm in one single monument. The present book reconstructs the multifaceted context in which the stele was devised, aiming at highlighting the specific role calligraphy played in the propagation and protection of Buddhism in medieval China.
Download or read book The History and Cultural Heritage of Chinese Calligraphy Printing and Library Work written by Susan M. Allen and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2010-03-26 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In China the tradition of a book society is longer than anywhere else in the world. Chinese paper making, calligraphy and woodblock printing date from very early ages, but have for a very long time remained almost unknown to the Western world. At the IFLA satellite meeting “Chinese Written and Printed Cultural Heritage and Library Work” in Hangzhou in 2006 the richness of present day book historical research and library activities in China has been presented by more than sixty papers. This fine selection reflects the width and depth of this extremely important and immense Chinese heritage.
Download or read book Protecting the Dharma Through Calligraphy in Tang China written by Pietro De Laurentis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a study of the earliest and finest collated inscription in the history of Chinese calligraphy, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu (Preface to the Sacred Teaching Scriptures Translated by Xuanzang in Wang Xizhi's Collated Characters), which was erected on January 1, 673. The stele records the two texts written by the Tang emperors Taizong (599-649) and Gaozong (628-683) in honor of the monk Xuanzang (d. 664) and the Buddhist scripture Xin jing (Heart Sutra), collated in the semi-cursive characters of the great master of Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi (303-361). It is thus a Buddhist inscription that combines Buddhist authority, political power, and artistic charm in one single monument. The present book reconstructs the multifaceted context in which the stele was devised, aiming at highlighting the specific role calligraphy played in the propagation and protection of Buddhism in medieval China"--
Download or read book The Four Treasures written by Wei Zhang and published by LONG RIVER PRESS. This book was released on 2004 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A look inside the artistic treasures of a Chinese scholar's studio.
Download or read book Chinese Script written by Thomas O. Höllmann and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brisk and accessible history, sinologist Thomas O. Höllmann explains the development of the Chinese writing system and its importance in literature, religion, art, and other aspects of culture. Spanning the earliest epigraphs and oracle bones to writing and texting on computers and mobile phones today, Chinese Script is a wide-ranging and versatile introduction to the complexity and beauty of written text and calligraphy in the Chinese world. Höllmann delves into the origins of Chinese script and its social and political meanings across millennia of history. He recounts the social history of the writing system; written and printed texts; and the use of writing materials such as paper, silk, ink, brush, and printing techniques. The book sheds light on the changing role of literacy and education; the politics of orthographic reform; and the relationship of Chinese writing to non-Han Chinese languages and cultures. Höllmann explains the inherent complexity of Chinese script, demonstrating why written Chinese expresses meaning differently than oral language and the subtleties of the relationship between spoken word and written text. He explores calligraphy as an art, the early letter press, and other ways of visually representing Chinese languages. Chinese Script also provides handy illustrations of the concepts discussed, showing how ideographs function and ways to decipher them visually.
Download or read book Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy Spanning Two Thousand Years written by Shigemi Komatsu and published by Prestel Publishing. This book was released on 1989 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Oxford Bibliographies written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of Chinese Calligraphy written by Youhe Zeng and published by Chinese University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese calligraphy has been an independent visual art form for thousands of years. Its wonderful aesthetics has inspired the art of Chinese painting since the second century B.C. Before pen and pencil were introduced to China, millions practiced the art of writing in ink. In the twentieth century, the art of calligraphy has not only fascinated modern Chinese who are part of this continuous tradition, but has also captured the interest and imagination of the world. This is the first proper history of Chinese calligraphy in English.
Download or read book Ritualized Writing written by Bryan D. Lowe and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritualized Writing takes readers into the fascinating world of Japanese Buddhist manuscript cultures. Using archival sources that have received scant attention in English, primarily documents from an eighth-century Japanese scriptorium and colophons from sutra manuscripts, Bryan D. Lowe uncovers the ways in which the transcription of Buddhist scripture was a highly ritualized endeavor. He takes a ground-level approach by emphasizing the activities and beliefs of a wide range of individuals, including scribes, provincial patrons, and royals, to reassess the meaning of scripture and reevaluate scholarly narratives of Japanese Buddhist history. Copying scripture is a central Buddhist practice and one that thrived in East Asia. Despite this, there are no other books dedicated to the topic. This work demonstrates that patrons and scribes treated sutras differently from other modes of writing. Scribes purified their bodies prior to transcription. Patrons held dedicatory ceremonies on days of abstinence, when prayers were pronounced and sutras were recited. Transcribing sutras helped scribes and patrons alike realize this- and other-worldly ambitions and cultivate themselves in accord with Buddhist norms. Sutra copying thus functioned as a form of ritualized writing, a strategic practice that set apart scripture as uniquely efficacious and venerable. Lowe employs this notion of ritualized writing to challenge historical narratives about ancient Japan (late seventh through early ninth centuries), a period when sutra copying flourished. He contends that Buddhist practice fulfilled a variety of social, political, and spiritual roles beyond ideological justification. Moreover, he demonstrates the inadequacy of state-folk dichotomies for understanding the social groups, institutions, and individual beliefs and practices of ancient Japanese Buddhism, highlighting instead common organizations across social class and using models that reveal shared concerns among believers from diverse social backgrounds. Ritualized Writing makes broader contributions to the study of ritual and scripture by introducing the notion of scriptural cultures, an analytic tool that denotes a series of dynamic relationships and practices involving texts that have been strategically set apart or ritualized. Scripture, Lowe concludes, is at once a category created by humans and a body of texts that transforms individuals and social organizations who come into contact with it.
Download or read book Calligraphy and the East Asian Book written by Frederick W. Mote and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 1989 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time the Gutenberg Bible appeared in Germany in 1456, printing had already been known in the East for some five hundred years. The Chinese had made movable type from ceramic and from wood in the eleventh century, and the Koreans developed the technique of casting type in bronze, iron, and various alloys. In East Asia, this revolutionary technology was intimately connected with the art of calligraphy, which reached supreme aesthetic heights espeically in China. It is this aspect of East Asian printing that gives it an impressive place in the history of art. [This book] carefully examines the influence of the different styles of calligraphy on the making of books both before and after the advent of printing. First exploring early forms of writing such as inscriptions on bone, bamboo strips, and bronzes, the authors go on to trace the historic stages of bookmaking, from handwritten scrolls on silk and paper to block-printed books and, finally, the products of early modern times, printined with movable metal type. Illustrated with photographs of one hundred and twenty-nine items selected for exhibition at the Art Museum, Princeton University, this book is also a catalogue of treasures from the University's Gest Library, a collection of almost half a million rare and valuable volumes in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other languages.-- Book Jacket.
Download or read book Buddhist Manuscript Cultures written by Stephen C. Berkwitz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-01-13 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhist Manuscript Cultures explores how religious and cultural practices in premodern Asia were shaped by literary and artistic traditions as well as by Buddhist material culture. This study of Buddhist texts focuses on the significance of their material forms rather than their doctrinal contents, and examines how and why they were made. Contributions are by reputed scholars in Buddhist Studies and represent diverse disciplinary approaches from religious studies, art history, anthropology, and history.
Download or read book The History of the Book in South Asia written by Francesca Orsini and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The History of the Book in South Asia covers not only the various modern states that make up South Asia today but also a multitude of languages and scripts. For centuries it was manuscripts that dominated book production and circulation, and printing technology only began to make an impact in the late eighteenth century. Print flourished in the colonial period and in particular lithographic printing proved particularly popular in South Asia both because it was economical and because it enabled multi-script printing. There are now vibrant publishing cultures in the nation states of South Asia, and the essays in this volume cover the whole range from palm-leaf manuscripts to contemporary print culture.
Download or read book Words and Images written by Alfreda Murck and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 1991 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May of 1985, an international symposium was held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in honor of John M. Crawford, Jr., whose gifts of Chinese calligraphy and painting have constituted a significant addition to the Museum's holdings. Over a three-day period, senior scholars from China, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the United States expressed a wide range of perspectives on an issue central to the history of Chinese visual aesthetics: the relationships between poetry, calligraphy, and painting. The practice of integrating the three art forms-known as san-chiieh, or the three perfections-in one work of art emerged during the Sung and Yuan dynasties largely in the context of literati culture, and it has stimulated lively critical discussion ever since. This publication contains twenty-three essays based on the papers presented at the Crawford symposium. Grouped by subject matter in a roughly chronological order, these essays reflect research on topics spanning two millennia of Chinese history. The result is an interdisciplinary exploration of the complex set of relationships between words and images by art historians, literary historians, and scholars of calligraphy. Their findings provide us with a new level of understanding of this rich and complicated subject and suggest further directions for the study of Chinese art history. The essays are accompanied by 255 illustrations, some of which reproduce works rarely published. Chinese characters have been provided throughout the text for artists names, terms, titles of works of art and literature, and important historical figures, as well as for excerpts of selected poetry and prose. A chronology, also containing Chinese characters, and an extensive index contribute to making this book illuminating and invaluable to both the specialist and the layman.
Download or read book Huai su and the Beginnings of Wild Cursive Script in Chinese Calligraphy written by Adele Schlombs and published by Franz Steiner Verlag. This book was released on 1998 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Der M�nchskalligraph Huai-su (ca. 725-ca. 782) gilt als einer der Begruender der "Wilden Konzeptschrift" (k'uang-ts'ao), die den exzentrischen Stil innerhalb der chinesischen Kalligraphiegeschichte pr�gte und zur Herausbildung einer vom klassischen Ideal der Wang-Schule abweichenden Traditionslinie fuehrte. Die vorliegende Studie gibt erstmals Einblick in die Prim�rquellen: neben Briefen und anderen Zeugnissen des Huai-su zahlreiche Lobgedichte von Beamten und Gelehrten. Alles deutet darauf hin, da� es sich bei seinem Hauptwerk, der sog. Autobiographie, um ein Empfehlungsschreiben in eigener Sache handelt. Neben einer annotierten �bersetzung der Autobiographie und s�mtlicher Kollophone, die einen �berblick ueber das Schicksal der Querrolle im Laufe der Jahrhunderte vermitteln, bietet die Studie eine Untersuchung der �sthetischen Kriterien, welche die chinesische Kunsttheorie zur Beurteilung der "wilden Konzeptschrift" entwickelte, und stellt neue Methoden der formalen Analyse vor. Die Frage der Authentizit�t der im Palastmuseum Taipei befindlichen Querrolle wird eingehend geprueft; der Beweis, da� es sich nicht um ein Original aus der Hand des Huai-su, sondern um eine dem Original sehr nahe gepauste Kopie des 12.-13. Jhs. handelt, wird erbracht. Auch die uebrigen, seinem Oeuvre zugerechneten Werke werden vorgestellt und einer kritischen Analyse unterzogen.
Download or read book Fu Shan s World written by Qianshen Bai and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For 1,300 years, Chinese calligraphy was based on the elegant art of Wang Xizhi (A.D. 303–361). But the seventeenth-century emergence of a style modeled on the rough, broken epigraphs of ancient bronzes and stone artifacts brought a revolution in calligraphic taste. By the eighteenth century, this led to the formation of the stele school of calligraphy, which continues to shape Chinese calligraphy today.A dominant force in this school was the eminent calligrapher and art theorist Fu Shan (1607–1685). Because his work spans the late Ming–early Qing divide, it is an ideal prism through which to view the transformation in calligraphy.Rather than seek a single explanation for the change in calligraphic taste, the author demonstrates and analyzes the heterogeneity of the cultural, social, and political processes behind it. Among other subjects, the book covers the late Ming interaction between high and low culture; the role of publishing; the Ming loyalist response to the Qing; and early Qing changes in intellectual discourse. In addition to the usual approach of art historians, it adopts the theoretical perspectives of such fields as material culture, print culture, and social and intellectual history."
Download or read book Writing Travel in Central Asian History written by Nile Green and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, travelers have made Central Asia known to the wider world through their writings. In this volume, scholars employ these little-known texts in a wide range of Asian and European languages to trace how Central Asia was gradually absorbed into global affairs. The representations of the region brought home to China and Japan, India and Persia, Russia and Great Britain, provide valuable evidence that helps map earlier periods of globalization and cultural interaction.
