Faith, Myth, and Reason in Han China

Faith, Myth, and Reason in Han China PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872207561
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In his classic study of the cultural history of Han China, Michael Loewe uses both archaeological discoveries and written records to sketch the conceptual background of various artifacts of the Han period, and shows how ancient Chinese thought is as much informed by mythology as it is dependent on reason. Originally published as Chinese Ideas of Life and Death: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Period (202 BC-AD 220), this edition includes a new Preface that discusses relevant discoveries made since the first publication and an updated list of other works on relevant topics.

Faith, Myth, and Reason in Han China

Faith, Myth, and Reason in Han China PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872207561
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In his classic study of the cultural history of Han China, Michael Loewe uses both archaeological discoveries and written records to sketch the conceptual background of various artifacts of the Han period, and shows how ancient Chinese thought is as much informed by mythology as it is dependent on reason. Originally published as Chinese Ideas of Life and Death: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Period (202 BC-AD 220), this edition includes a new Preface that discusses relevant discoveries made since the first publication and an updated list of other works on relevant topics.

Chinese Ideas of Life and Death

Chinese Ideas of Life and Death PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429850816
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Many of the basic characteristics of Imperial China took shape during the Han period (202 BC-AD 220). This book, first published in 1982, is a key contribution to our understanding of China’s cultural history. It explains the conceptual background of many of the artefacts of China’s past, and calls on the written word of the philosopher, poet and historian, and on cultural treasures revealed by archaeologists.

Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China

Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521454667
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Chinese empires were established by force of arms, but sustained by religious rites and intellectual theory. The four centuries from 206 BC to AD 220 witnessed major changes in the state cults and the concepts of monarchy, while various techniques of divination were used to forecast the future or to solve immediate problems. Michael Loewe examines these changes and the links between religion and statecraft. While both mythology and the traditions nurtured by the learned affected the concept and practice of monarchy throughout the period, the political and social weaknesses of the last century of Han rule bring into question the success that was achieved by the imperial ideal. Nevertheless, that ideal and its institutions were of prime importance for the understanding of Han times and for the influence they exercised on China's later dynasties.

The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1, The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC-AD 220

The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1, The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC-AD 220 PDF Author: Denis Twitchett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521243278
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1032

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Book Description
This volume begins the historical coverage of The Cambridge History of China with the establishment of the Ch'in empire in 221 BC and ends with the abdication of the last Han emperor in AD 220. Spanning four centuries, this period witnessed major evolutionary changes in almost every aspect of China's development, being particularly notable for the emergence and growth of a centralized administration and imperial government. Leading historians from Asia, Europe, and America have contributed chapters that convey a realistic impression of significant political, economic, intellectual, religious, and social developments, and of the contacts that the Chinese made with other peoples at this time. As the book is intended for the general reader as well as the specialist, technical details are given in both Chinese terms and English equivalents. References lead to primary sources and their translations and to secondary writings in European languages as well as Chinese and Japanese.

Everyday Life in Early Imperial China During the Han Period, 202 BC-AD 220

Everyday Life in Early Imperial China During the Han Period, 202 BC-AD 220 PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872207585
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Considers the important aspects of life during the Han period, when the foundations were laid for the chief political, economic, cultural and social structures that would characterise imperial China.

Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece

Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece PDF Author: Lisa Raphals
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110729228X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
Divination was an important and distinctive aspect of religion in both ancient China and ancient Greece, and this book will provide the first systematic account and analysis of the two side by side. Who practised divination in these cultures and who consulted it? What kind of questions did they ask, and what methods were used to answer those questions? As well as these practical aspects, Lisa Raphals also examines divination as a subject of rhetorical and political narratives, and its role in the development of systematic philosophical and scientific inquiry. She explores too the important similarities, differences and synergies between Greek and Chinese divinatory systems, providing important comparative evidence to reassess Greek oracular divination.

The Men Who Governed Han China

The Men Who Governed Han China PDF Author: Michael Loewe
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047413369
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 682

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Book Description
How were prominent figures in the formative stages of China’s imperial government affected by changes in the theory and practice of government and its institutions? Calling on documentary evidence, some found only recently, Dr. Loewe examines local administration, the careers of officials, military organisation, the nobilities and kingdoms, the concepts of imperial sovereignty and the part played by the emperors. Special attention is paid to the anomalies in the historical records; tabulated lists of officials and other items summarise the evidence on which the chapters are based. Historical change and intellectual controversies are seen in the growth and decay of organs of administration, in the careers of individual men and women and the personal part that they played in shaping events.

Chang'an 26 BCE

Chang'an 26 BCE PDF Author: Michael Nylan
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295806419
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
During the last two centuries BCE, the Western Han capital of Chang'an, near today's Xi'an in northwest China, outshone Augustan Rome in several ways while administering comparable numbers of imperial subjects and equally vast territories. At its grandest, during the last fifty years or so before the collapse of the dynasty in 9 CE, Chang�an boasted imperial libraries with thousands of documents on bamboo and silk in a city nearly three times the size of Rome and nearly four times larger than Alexandria. Many reforms instituted in this capital in ate Western Han substantially shaped not only the institutions of the Eastern Han (25�220 CE) but also the rest of imperial China until 1911. Although thousands of studies document imperial Rome�s glory, until now no book-length work in a Western language has been devoted to Han Chang�an, the reign of Emperor Chengdi (whose accomplishments rival those of Augustus and Hadrian), or the city's impressive library project (26-6 BCE), which ultimately produced the first state-sponsored versions of many of the classics and masterworks that we hold in our hands today. Chang�an 26 BCE addresses this deficiency, using as a focal point the reign of Emperor Chengdi (r. 33�7 bce), specifically the year in which the imperial library project began. This in-depth survey by some of the world�s best scholars, Chinese and Western, explores the built environment, sociopolitical transformations, and leading figures of Chang�an, making a strong case for the revision of historical assumptions about the two Han dynasties. A multidisciplinary volume representing a wealth of scholarly perspectives, the book draws on the established historical record and recent archaeological discoveries of thousands of tombs, building foundations, and remnants of walls and gates from Chang�an and its surrounding area.

Balthasar in Light of Early Confucianism

Balthasar in Light of Early Confucianism PDF Author: Joshua R. Brown
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268107114
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In this original study, Joshua Brown seeks to demonstrate the fruitfulness of Chinese philosophy for Christian theology by using Confucianism to reread, reassess, and ultimately expand the Christology of the twentieth-century Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Taking up the critically important Confucian idea of xiao (filial piety), Brown argues that this concept can be used to engage anew Balthasar’s treatment of the doctrine of Christ’s filial obedience, thus leading us to new Christological insights. To this end, Brown first offers in-depth studies of the early Confucian idea of xiao and of Balthasar’s Christology on their own terms and in their own contexts. He then proposes that Confucianism affirms certain aspects of Balthasar’s insights into Christ’s filial obedience. Brown also shows how the Confucian understanding of xiao provides reasons to criticize some of Balthasar’s controversial claims, such as his account of intra-Trinitarian obedience. Ultimately, by rereading Balthasar’s Christology through the lens of xiao, Balthasar in Light of Early Confucianism employs Confucian and Balthasarian resources to push the Christological conversation forward. Students and scholars of systematic theology, theologically educated readers interested in the encounter between Christianity and Chinese culture, and comparative theologians will all want to read this exceptional book.

Aquinas and the Early Chinese Masters

Aquinas and the Early Chinese Masters PDF Author: Joshua Brown
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813238943
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Aquinas and the Early Chinese Masters lays intellectual foundations for the integration of Chinese philosophy into Catholic theology. Although Catholic theology in Chinese contexts has drawn upon Chinese philosophical concepts, few have attempted to develop a rigorous, systematic approach to testing what in the Chinese philosophical traditions can be fruitful or unfruitful for Catholic theological expression. This book attempts to model such an approach by engaging classical Chinese philosophy with the mind and spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas, who read Aristotle and other pagan philosophers with both charitable appreciation and a firm, critical eye. It applies this Thomistic lens through concrete comparative engagements with three main representatives of early Chinese philosophy: Mencius (Mengzi), Xunzi, and Mozi. In each chapter, the book presents Aquinas' thought as an evaluative frame for perceiving how Chinese philosophical commitments and concepts do or do not seem fit for adoption into Catholic theological science. Following the general structure of the Summa theologiae, the book is comprised of six chapters touching on the doctrine of God, morality, and Christology. The first two chapters engage Confucian master Mengzi's notion of Heaven (Tian), and then the Mohist doctrine of Heaven's Will (Tian zhi). Chapter three provides a Thomistic assessment of the two main positions in the classical Confucian debate on the goodness of man's moral nature (renxing). Chapter four compares Aquinas' account of charity and Mozi's doctrine of "universal love" (jian ai). Chapter 5 offers a Thomistic assessment of the possibility of understanding Christ in terms of Xunzi's "sage" (shengren). Finally, Chapter 6 explores Christ as a moral teacher by putting Aquinas' reading of Matt 8:21-22 into conversation with Confucian ethics of filial virtue.