Download or read book The Magnitude of Ming written by Christopher Lupke and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-01-31 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few ideas in Chinese discourse are as ubiquitous as ming, variously understood as “command,” “allotted lifespan,” “fate,” or “life.” In the earliest days of Chinese writing, ming was already present, invoked in divinations and etched into ancient bronzes; it has continued to inscribe itself down to the twenty-first century in literature and film. This volume assembles twelve essays by some of the most eminent scholars currently working in Chinese studies to produce the first comprehensive study in English of ming’s broad web of meanings. The essays span the history of Chinese civilization and represent disciplines as varied as religion, philosophy, anthropology, literary studies, history, and sociology. Cross-cultural comparisons between ancient Chinese views of ming and Western conceptions of moira and fatum are discussed, providing a specific point of departure for contrasting the structure of attitudes between the two civilizations. Ming is central to debates on the legitimacy of rulership and is the crucial variable in Daoist manuals for prolonging one’s life. It has preoccupied the philosopher and the poet and weighed on the minds of commoners throughout imperial China. Ming was the subject of the great critic Jin Shengtan’s last major literary work and drove the narrative of such classic novels as The Investiture of the Gods and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Confucius, Mencius, and most other great thinkers of the classical age, as well as those in ages to come, had much to say on the subject. It has only been eschewed in contemporary Chinese philosophy, but even its effacement there has ironically turned it into a sort of absent cause. Contributors: Stephen Bokenkamp, Zong-qi Cai, Robert Campany, Woei Lien Chong, Deirdre Sabina Knight, Christopher Lupke, Mu-chou Poo, Michael Puett, Lisa Raphals, P. Steven Sangren, David Schaberg, Patricia Sieber.
Download or read book Fate and Prognostication in the Chinese Literary Imagination written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays collected in Fate and Prognostication in the Chinese Literary Imagination deal with the issues hidden in the Chinese conception of fate as represented in literary texts and films, with a focus placed on human efforts to solve the riddles of fate prediction.
Download or read book The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code written by Jiang Yonglin and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation and social agenda for China. Zhu, emperor during the Ming’s Hongwu reign period, launched a series of social programs to rebuild the empire and define Chinese cultural identity. To promote its reform programs, the Ming imperial court issued a series of legal documents, culminating in The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu), which supported China’s legal system until the Ming was overthrown and also served as the basis of the legal code of the following dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin’s translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs? Jiang addresses these questions by examining the transformative role of the Code in educating the people about the Mandate of Heaven. The Code served as a cosmic instrument and moral textbook to ensure “all under Heaven” were aligned with the cosmic order. By promoting, regulating, and prohibiting categories of ritual behavior, the intent of the Code was to provide spiritual guidance to Chinese subjects, as well as to acquire political legitimacy. The Code also obligated officials to obey the supreme authority of the emperor, to observe filial behavior toward parents, to care for the welfare of the masses, and to maintain harmonious relationships with deities. This set of regulations made officials the representatives of the Son of Heaven in mediating between the spiritual and mundane worlds and in governing the human realm. This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power. Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envisioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the “modern” compartmentalized worldview. In serving as a cosmic instrument to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious effort to educate the masses and transform society.
Download or read book The Traditional Chinese State in Ming Times 1368 1644 written by Charles O. Hucker and published by Tuscon, U. of Arizona P. This book was released on 1961 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Coping with the Future written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia offers insights into various techniques of divination, their evolution, and their assessment. The contributions cover the period from the earliest documents on East Asian mantic arts to their appearance in the present time. The volume reflects the pervasive manifestations of divination in literature, religious and political life, and their relevance for society and individuals. Special emphasis is placed on cross-cultural influences and attempts to find theoretical foundations for divinatory practices. This edited volume is an initiative to study the phenomena of divination across East Asian cultures and beyond. It is also one of the first attempts to theorize divinatory practices through East Asian traditions.
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.
Download or read book The Records of Ming Scholars written by Zongxi Huang and published by Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Living Karma written by Beverley Foulks McGuire and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ouyi Zhixu (1599Ð1655) was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk who, contrary to his contemporaries, believed karma could be changed. Through vows, divination, repentance rituals, and ascetic acts such as burning and blood writing, he sought to alter what others understood as inevitable and inescapable. Drawing attention to OuyiÕs unique reshaping of religious practice, Living Karma reasserts the significance of an overlooked individual in the modern development of Chinese Buddhism. While Buddhist studies scholarship tends to privilege textual analysis, Living Karma promotes a balanced study of ritual practice and writing, treating OuyiÕs texts as ritual objects and his reading and writing as religious acts. Each chapter addresses a specific religious practiceÑwriting, divination, repentance, vows, and bodily ritualsÑoffering first a diachronic overview of each practice within the history of Chinese Buddhism and then a synchronic analysis of each phenomenon through close readings of OuyiÕs work. The book sheds much-needed light on this little-known figure and his representation of karma, which proved to be a seminal innovation in the religious thought of late imperial China.
Download or read book The Ming Maritime Trade Policy in Transition 1368 to 1567 written by Kangying Li and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2010 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ming maritime policy in transition, 1368-1567" is an unprecedented structural approach to one of the most puzzling phenomena in Chinese early modern history: the maritime trade prohibition from 1368 to 1567. This policy deliberately interdicted its own people from sailing abroad and prevented foreigners from entering China unless they were part of an official tribute mission. Other than treating this phenomenon as an isolated trade policy or defense strategy the author analyzes the policy against the general Chinese historical background from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. He approaches the policy as a superstructure established on the foundation of a compatible ideology, the social context, economic institutions and the political power landscape. The 200 years long process of the policy in transition is hence investigated as a 200 years course that witnessed the general transformation of the Ming ideological, social, economic and political structures. It is the historical undercurrent rather than spindrift that appeals to this book's historiography; it is a comprehensive study of the two particular centuries of the Ming society, of which the developments and characteristics have amazed not only historians.
Download or read book The Quest for Ecstatic Morality in Early China written by Kenneth W. Holloway and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the missing link between what came to be called Confucianism and Daoism.
Download or read book The Treasury of Science written by Friedrich Schoedler and published by . This book was released on 1872 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Routledge Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Culture written by Sin-wai Chan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Culture offers an in-depth discussion of cultural aspects of China from the ancient period to the pre-modern era, lasting over 5,000 years, comprised of 7,000 word pieces by more than 20 world-leading academics and experts. Addressing areas such as China studies, cultural studies, cultural management, and more specific areas – such as religion, opera, Chinese painting, Chinese calligraphy, material culture, performing arts, and visual arts – this encyclopedia covers all major aspects of traditional Chinese culture. The volume is intended to be a detailed reference for graduate students on a variety of courses, and also for undergraduate students on survey courses to Chinese culture.
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 The Drunken Man s Talk written by and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of short stories, anecdotes, and poems was likely compiled during the 13th century. Tales of romantic love—including courtship, marriage, and illicit affairs—unify the collection and make it an essential primary source for literary and social history, since official Chinese history sources did not usually discuss family conflict or sexual matters. This volume, the first complete translation of The Drunken Man’s Talk (Xinbian zuiweng tanlu) in any language, includes an introduction that explores the literary significance of the work as well as annotations explaining the symbolism and allusions found in the stories.
Download or read book Yao Ming written by Chunfei Xiao and published by LONG RIVER PRESS. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NBA phenom Yao Ming's early years in China.
Download or read book The Vulnerability of Integrity in Early Confucian Thought written by Michael David Kaulana Ing and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the necessity, and even value, of vulnerability in human experience. In it, Michael Ing brings early Chinese texts into dialogue with questions about the ways in which meaningful things are vulnerable to powers beyond our control; and more specifically, how relationships with meaningful others might compel tragic actions.
Download or read book The Politics of Crisis Management in China written by Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-11-14 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the ways in which the Chinese government and military responded to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province. It adopts a comparative and historical perspective in studying the responses of the Chinese government in the first critical 72 hours, the mobilization of the People’s Liberation Army and its difficulties, the assertive and important role of the non-governmental groups which established a partnership with the state in the rescue operations, and the process and politics of reconstruction. The book is rich in materials, including comparative case studies of the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Myanmar, and the contrasts with the Japanese earthquake tsunami in 2011. Researchers, government officials, policy analysts, seismic specialists, journalists and students will find this book extremely useful, conceptually insightful and practically policy-relevant.
