Popular Religion and the Religious Beliefs of the Song Elite, 960-1276

Popular Religion and the Religious Beliefs of the Song Elite, 960-1276 PDF Author: Hsien-huei Liao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Popular Religion and the Religious Beliefs of the Song Elite, 960-1276

Popular Religion and the Religious Beliefs of the Song Elite, 960-1276 PDF Author: Hsien-huei Liao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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The Sinister Way

The Sinister Way PDF Author: Richard von Glahn
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520928776
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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The most striking feature of Wutong, the preeminent God of Wealth in late imperial China, was the deity's diabolical character. Wutong was perceived not as a heroic figure or paragon of noble qualities but rather as an embodiment of humanity's basest vices, greed and lust, a maleficent demon who preyed on the weak and vulnerable. In The Sinister Way, Richard von Glahn examines the emergence and evolution of the Wutong cult within the larger framework of the historical development of Chinese popular or vernacular religion—as opposed to institutional religions such as Buddhism or Daoism. Von Glahn's study, spanning three millennia, gives due recognition to the morally ambivalent and demonic aspects of divine power within the common Chinese religious culture.

Dry Spells

Dry Spells PDF Author: Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684174848
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Chinese officials put considerable effort into managing the fiscal and legal affairs of their jurisdictions, but they also devoted significant time and energy to performing religious rituals on behalf of the state. This groundbreaking study explores this underappreciated aspect of Chinese political life by investigating rainmaking activities organized or conducted by local officials in the Qing dynasty. Using a wide variety of primary sources, this study explains how and why state rainmaking became a prominent feature of the late imperial religious landscape. It also vividly describes the esoteric, spectacular, and occasionally grotesque techniques officials used to pray for rain. Charting the ways in which rainmaking performances were contested by local communities, this study argues that state rainmaking provided an important venue where the relationship between officials and their constituents was established and maintained. For this reason, the author concludes that official rainmaking was instrumental in constituting state power at the local level. This monograph addresses issues that are central to the study of late imperial Chinese society and culture, including the religious activities of Chinese officials, the nature of state orthodoxy, and the symbolic dimensions of local governance.

Civil Examinations and Meritocracy in Late Imperial China

Civil Examinations and Meritocracy in Late Imperial China PDF Author: Benjamin A. Elman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674726049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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During China's late imperial period (roughly 1400-1900 CE), men gathered by the millions every two or three years outside official examination compounds sprinkled across China. Only one percent of candidates would complete the academic regimen that would earn them a post in the administrative bureaucracy. Civil Examinations assesses the role of education, examination, and China's civil service in fostering the world's first professional class based on demonstrated knowledge and skill. Civil examinations were instituted in China in the seventh century CE, but in the Ming and Qing eras they were at the center of a complex social web that held together the intellectual, political, and economic life of imperial China. Local elites and the court sought to influence how the government regulated the classical curriculum and selected civil officials. As a guarantor of educational merit, examinations tied the dynasty to the privileged gentry and literati classes--both ideologically and institutionally. China eliminated its classical examination system in 1905. But this carefully balanced, constantly contested piece of social engineering, worked out over centuries, was an early harbinger of the meritocratic regime of college boards and other entrance exams that undergirds higher education in much of the world today.

China Review

China Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada

Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 916

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Dry Spells

Dry Spells PDF Author: Jeffrey P. Snyder-Reinke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Items - Social Science Research Council

Items - Social Science Research Council PDF Author: Social Science Research Council (U.S.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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American Doctoral Dissertations

American Doctoral Dissertations PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertation abstracts
Languages : en
Pages : 776

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Dissertation Abstracts International

Dissertation Abstracts International PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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