Download or read book Heaven s Mandate and Man s Destiny in Early Medieval China written by Zongli Lu and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mandate of Heaven written by S J Marshall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mandate of Heaven was originally given to King Wen in the 11th century BC. King Wen is credited with founding the Zhou dynasty after he received the Mandate from Heaven to attack and overthrow the Shang dynasty. King Wen is also credited with creating the ancient oracle known as the Yijing or Book of Changes. This book validates King Wen's association with the Changes. It uncovers in the Changes a record of a total solar eclipse that was witnessed at King Wen's capital of Feng by his son King Wu, shortly after King Wen had died (before he had a chance to launch the full invasion). The sense of this eclipse as an actual event has been overlooked for three millennia. It provides an account of the events surrounding the conquest of the Shang and founding of the Zhou dynasty that has never been told. It shows how the earliest layer of the Book of Changes (the Zhouyi) has preserved a hidden history of the Conquest.
Download or read book The Talent of Shu written by J. Michael Farmer and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2008-06-05 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Talent of Shu reconstructs the intellectual world of early medieval Sichuan through a critical biography of Qiao Zhou, a noted classicist, historian, and official of Shu-Han. Countering conceptions of Sichuan as an intellectual backwater, author J. Michael Farmer provides an analytical narrative history of the significant intellectual and scholarly activity in the region during the late second through third centuries CE. Qiao Zhou stands as an apt figure to represent the intellectual world of third-century Sichuan. An heir to a long-standing regional intellectual tradition, he was trained in political prophesy, canonical studies, and ancient history, and in true Confucian fashion, employed these skills in the service of the state. While some of Qiao's scholarship, as well as his political engagement, was conservative, he also stands as an innovator in the fields of canonical and historical criticism and local history. As such, he embodies not only the scholarly tradition of Sichuan, but also the intellectual transitions of the age.
Download or read book Empowered Writing Exorcistic and Apotropaic Rituals in Medieval China written by Stephan Peter Bumbacher and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empowered writing explores the inherent powers of Chinese talismans, petitions, registers, and holy scriptures, presenting a systematic study of their exxorcistic and apotropaic properties. Using a vast arsenal of original sources, the book traces the unfolding and transformation of empowered writing from the Warring States period through the Six Dynasties, closely examining the different kinds of writing, their uses, and interpretation as well as relating uniquely Daoist features to imperial and Buddhist usages. The book is pathbreaking in its endeavor and stunning in its depth of analyis.
Download or read book Empresses and Consorts written by Shou Chen and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here rendered into English for the first time, these chapters provide important insights into the worlds of palace women and court politics, while revealing much about the lives of upper-class women in general at the close of the third century."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Purposes Means and Convictions in Daoism written by Florian C. Reiter and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2007 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purposes, Means and Convictions in Daoism. A Berlin Symposium (II)" contains twelve articles that represent contributions of international scholars who specialise in studies of religious Daoism. In 2005 they participated in a symposium with the same title that the Seminar fur Sinologie at Humboldt-University (Berlin) staged with the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG/Bonn). The two parts of the book, Historical and Ritual Traditions (I) and Varieties of Religious Activities and Functions (II), mirror the understanding of the basic themes as developed during the symposium and the ensuing discussions. The articles cover periods and developments from the beginning of the religious Daoism up to the late 19th century. The four Chinese contributions are accompanied by English summaries.
Download or read book A Work and Its Shapers The Most High Scripture of the Rectifying Methods of the Three Heavens in Early Medieval China written by Timothy Charles Swanger and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religions, following Max Müller, have often been seen by scholars in religious studies as uniform collections of beliefs and practices encoded in stable “sacred books” that direct the conduct of religious actors. These texts were the chief focus of academic students of religion through much of the 20th century, and this approach remains strong in the 21st. However, a growing chorus of dissidents has begun to focus on the lived experience of practitioners and the material objects that structure that experience, and some textual scholars have begun extending this materialist framework to the study of texts. This dissertation is a contribution in that vein from the field of Daoist studies. Now split between two separate texts, the Most High Scripture of the Rectifying Methods of the Three Heavens began as a 4th-century collection of apocalyptic predictions and apotropaic devices designed to deliver a select group of Chinese literati to the heavens of Highest Clarity. Later editors during the early medieval period (ca. 220-589 CE) took one of two paths: for their own reasons, they altered the Rectifying Methods to emphasize either the world’s end or its continuation. Detailed study of these alterations and their contexts shows how individuals and groups used and modified the Rectifying Methods in in ways that challenge the conventional relationship between religious text and religious actor.
Download or read book Making Transcendents written by Robert Ford Campany and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2009-02-18 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honorable Mention, Joseph Levenson Prize (pre-1900 category), Association for Asian Studies By the middle of the third century B.C.E. in China there were individuals who sought to become transcendents (xian)—deathless, godlike beings endowed with supernormal powers. This quest for transcendence became a major form of religious expression and helped lay the foundation on which the first Daoist religion was built. Both xian and those who aspired to this exalted status in the centuries leading up to 350 C.E. have traditionally been portrayed as secretive and hermit-like figures. This groundbreaking study offers a very different view of xian-seekers in late classical and early medieval China. It suggests that transcendence did not involve a withdrawal from society but rather should be seen as a religious role situated among other social roles and conceived in contrast to them. Robert Campany argues that the much-discussed secrecy surrounding ascetic disciplines was actually one important way in which practitioners presented themselves to others. He contends, moreover, that many adepts were not socially isolated at all but were much sought after for their power to heal the sick, divine the future, and narrate their exotic experiences. The book moves from a description of the roles of xian and xian-seekers to an account of how individuals filled these roles, whether by their own agency or by others’—or, often, by both. Campany summarizes the repertoire of features that constituted xian roles and presents a detailed example of what analyses of those cultural repertoires look like. He charts the functions of a basic dialectic in the self-presentations of adepts and examines their narratives and relations with others, including family members and officials. Finally, he looks at hagiographies as attempts to persuade readers as to the identities and reputations of past individuals. His interpretation of these stories allows us to see how reputations were shaped and even co-opted—sometimes quite surprisingly—into the ranks of xian. Making Transcendents provides a nuanced discussion that draws on a sophisticated grasp of diverse theoretical sources while being thoroughly grounded in traditional Chinese hagiographical, historiographical, and scriptural texts. The picture it presents of the quest for transcendence as a social phenomenon in early medieval China is original and provocative, as is the paradigm it offers for understanding the roles of holy persons in other societies.
Download or read book Power of the Words written by Zongli Lü and published by Peter Lang Limited, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the sociopolitical role of the belief in chen prophecy in early medieval China. The chen prophecies discussed in this work are not confined to the traditional prophetic-apocryphal texts. Many contemporary prophecies emerged and circulated in association with current events; personal names, reign titles, poems, folk and children's rhymes, even rumor-rhymes were recognized as heavenly revelations. Although prophetic utterances were used as psychological weapons in politics, it would be wrong to regard chen prophecy as simply political propaganda. Chen prophecies were believed to be genuine prophetic messages at the time. Chen prophecy was an indispensable part of a symbolic ritual of legitimation of mandate-transfer. It was recognized as a coded revelation that derived its prophetic power from the primitive belief in the magic power of words. The emphasis on winning public acceptance may have been another source of its prophetic power. Social integration, legitimation of dynastic change, and the hopes for a better future in an age of tumult thus depended on the belief in the interaction between Heaven's mandate and man's destiny.
Download or read book The World of the Mind in Early Medieval Sichuan written by J. Michael Farmer and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dao Companion to Xuanxue Neo Daoism written by David Chai and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive volume surveys an important but neglected period of Chinese intellectual history: Xuanxue (Neo-Daoism). It provides a holistic approach to the philosophical and religious traits of this movement via the concepts of non-being, being, and oneness. Thinkers and texts on the periphery of Xuanxue are also examined to show readers that Xuanxue did not arise in a vacuum but is the result of a long and continuous evolution of ideas from pre-Qin Daoism. The 25 chapters of this work survey the major philosophical figures and arguments of Xuanxue, a movement from the Wei-Jin dynastic period (220-420 CE) of early-medieval China. It also examines texts and figures from the late-Han dynasty whose influence on Xuanxue has yet to be made explicitly clear. In order to fully capture the multifaceted nature of this movement, the contributors brilliantly highlight its more socially-oriented characteristics. Overall, this volume presents an unrivaled picture of this exciting period. It details a portrait of intellectual and cultural vitality that rivals, if not surpasses, what was achieved during the Warring States period. Readers of the Yijing, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi will feel right at home with the themes and arguments presented herein, while students and those coming to Xuanxue for the first time will acquire a wealth of knowledge.
Download or read book To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth written by Robert F. Campany and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-04-08 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late classical and early medieval China, ascetics strove to become transcendents--deathless beings with supernormal powers. Practitioners developed dietetic, alchemical, meditative, gymnastic, sexual, and medicinal disciplines (some of which are still practiced today) to perfect themselves and thus transcend death. Narratives of their achievements circulated widely. Ge Hong (283-343 c.e.) collected and preserved many of their stories in his Traditions of Divine Transcendents, affording us a window onto this extraordinary response to human mortality. Robert Ford Campany's groundbreaking and carefully researched text offers the first complete, critical translation and commentary for this important Chinese religious work, at the same time establishing a method for reconstructing lost texts from medieval China. Clear, exacting, and annotated, the translation comprises over a hundred lively, engaging narratives of individuals deemed to have fought death and won. Additionally, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth systematically introduces the Chinese quest for transcendence, illuminating a poorly understood tradition that was an important source of Daoist religion and a major social, cultural, and religious phenomenon in its own right.
Download or read book China Promise Or Threat written by Horst J. Helle and published by Studies in Critical Social Science. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insightful socio-cultural analysis of the differences in Chinese and Western relationships to the public and the private spheres.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics written by Chu-Ren Huang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-11 with total page 963 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics is written for those wanting to acquire comprehensive knowledge of China, the diaspora and the Sino-sphere communities through Chinese language. It examines how Chinese language is used in different contexts, and how the use of Chinese language affects culture, society, expression of self and persuasion of others; as well as how neurophysiological aspects of language disorder affect how we function and how the advance of technology changes the way the Chinese language is used and perceived. The Handbook concentrates on the cultural, societal and communicative characteristics of the Chinese language environment. Focusing on language use in action, in context and in vivo, this book intends to lay empirical grounds for collaboration and synergy among different fields.
Download or read book Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China written by Alan K. L. Chan and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2010-08-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring a time of profound change, this book details the intellectual ferment after the fall of the Han dynasty. Questions about "heaven" and the affairs of the world that had seemed resolved by Han Confucianism resurfaced and demanded reconsideration. New currents in philosophy, religion, and intellectual life emerged to leave an indelible mark on the subsequent development of Chinese thought and culture. This period saw the rise of xuanxue ("dark learning" or "learning of the mysterious Dao"), the establishment of religious Daoism, and the rise of Buddhism. In examining the key ideas of xuanxue and focusing on its main proponents, the contributors to this volume call into question the often-presumed monolithic identity of this broad philosophical front. The volume also highlights the richness and complexity of religion in China during this period, examining the relationship between the Way of the Celestial Master and local, popular religious beliefs and practices, and discussing the relationship between religious Daoism and Buddhism.
Download or read book Picturing Heaven in Early China written by Lillian Lan-ying Tseng and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tian, or Heaven, had multiple meanings in early China. It had been used since the Western Zhou to indicate both the sky and the highest god, and later came to be regarded as a force driving the movement of the cosmos and as a home to deities and imaginary animals. By the Han dynasty, which saw an outpouring of visual materials depicting Heaven, the concept of Heaven encompassed an immortal realm to which humans could ascend after death. Using excavated materials, Lillian Tseng shows how Han artisans transformed various notions of Heaven—as the mandate, the fantasy, and the sky—into pictorial entities. The Han Heaven was not indicated by what the artisans looked at, but rather was suggested by what they looked into. Artisans attained the visibility of Heaven by appropriating and modifying related knowledge of cosmology, mythology, astronomy. Thus the depiction of Heaven in Han China reflected an interface of image and knowledge. By examining Heaven as depicted in ritual buildings, on household utensils, and in the embellishments of funerary settings, Tseng maintains that visibility can hold up a mirror to visuality; Heaven was culturally constructed and should be culturally reconstructed.
Download or read book Selfless Offspring written by Keith N. Knapp and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-09-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both Western and Chinese intellectuals have long derided filial piety tales as an absurd and grotesque variety of children’s literature. Selfless Offspring offers a fresh perspective on the genre, revealing the rich historical worth of these stories by examining them in their original context: the tumultuous and politically fragmented early medieval era (A.D. 100–600). At a time when no Confucian virtue was more prized than filial piety, adults were moved and inspired by tales of filial children. The emotional impact of even the most outlandish actions portrayed in the stories was profound, a measure of the directness with which they spoke to major concerns of the early medieval Chinese elite. In a period of weak central government and powerful local clans, the key to preserving a household’s privileged status was maintaining a cohesive extended family. Keith Knapp begins this far-ranging and persuasive study by describing two related historical trends that account for the narrative’s popularity: the growth of extended families and the rapid incursion of Confucianism among China’s learned elite. Extended families were better at maintaining their status and power, so patriarchs found it expedient to embrace Confucianism to keep their large, fragile households intact. Knapp then focuses on the filial piety stories themselves—their structure, historicity, origin, function, and transmission—and argues that most stem from the oral culture of these elite extended families. After examining collections of filial piety tales, known as Accounts of Filial Children, he shifts from text to motif, exploring the most common theme: the "reverent care" and mourning of parents. In the final chapter, Knapp looks at the relative burden that filiality placed on men and women and concludes that, although women largely performed the same filial acts as men, they had to go to greater extremes to prove their sincerity.
