Land Without Ghosts

Land Without Ghosts PDF Author: R. David Arkush
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520084247
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
"At last we have a wonderful book which makes us privy to these Chinese images of the West and lets us see how they were formed and how they changed over the last century and a half."—Orville Schell, author of Discos and Democracy

Land Without Ghosts

Land Without Ghosts PDF Author: R. David Arkush
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520084247
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
"At last we have a wonderful book which makes us privy to these Chinese images of the West and lets us see how they were formed and how they changed over the last century and a half."—Orville Schell, author of Discos and Democracy

Superfluous Things

Superfluous Things PDF Author: Craig Clunas
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824828202
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Now in paperback This outstanding and original book, presented here with a new preface, examines the history of material culture in early modern China. Craig Clunas analyzes “superfluous things”—the paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, carved jade, and other objects owned by the elites of Ming China—and describes contemporary attitudes to them. He informs his discussions with reference to both socio-cultural theory and current debates on eighteenth-century England concerning luxury, conspicuous consumption, and the growth of the consumer society.

Historical Dictionary of Taoism

Historical Dictionary of Taoism PDF Author: Julian F. Pas
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810866374
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
This reference book on Taoism, one of the major spiritual traditions of China, includes in its coverage both Taoist philosophy and Taoist religion. An introduction provides overall insight into Taoist development through the ages, while the dictionary itself is comprised of 275 entries that define Taoist concepts, scriptures, deities, practices, and personalities. Includes an extensive bibliography.

Images of the Immortal

Images of the Immortal PDF Author: Paul R. Katz
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824862902
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
The Palace of Eternal Joy (Yongle gong) is a mammoth cult site dedicated to one of late imperial China’s most popular deities, Lu Dongbin. In one of the first book-length studies of a Chinese sacred site, Paul Katz focuses on the Palace’s role in the development of Lu's legend. This highly innovative approach takes into account the various "histories" of the Palace presented in different texts and surpasses previous scholarship by stressing the ways in which the site both reflected and produced cultural diversity. Katz breaks new ground by analyzing the texts in terms of the textuality--the processes by which they were produced, transmitted, and understood. The study begins with a detailed description of the Palace of Eternal Joy and a brief account of its history. The reader is then introduced to the cult of Lu Dongbin. Special consideration is given to various hagiographical traditions, particularly those that influenced the growth of his cult at Yongle. Throughout late imperial China, a growing number of worshipers (among them scholar-officials, Taoist priests, artisans, and dramatists) created an ever-burgeoning variety of images of Lu, ranging from a patron god of ink-makers and prostitutes to a member of that powerful yet rambunctious group of spirits known as the Eight Immortals. In this context, the author explores the Perfect Realization Taoist movement's adoption of Lu's cult during the Jin and Yuan dynasties and highlight the social and religious factors that led to Lu's immense popularity in north China during the late imperial era. Katz next looks at the four type of inscriptions found at the Palace (commemorative, official, hagiographical, and poetic) and identifies the Palace patrons who worshiped there and contributed to its growth. In the description and analysis of the Palace murals that follow, he divides these works into two types: those painted to provide a setting for, and even an object of, Taoist rituals performed at the Palace; and those used to instruct Perfect Realization Taoists and perhaps pilgrims. The final section traces the reception of the Palace texts among the people of Yongle and its environs. Here Katz examines the ways in which patrons tried to impose their representations of the Palace’s history and the cult of Lu Dongbin on other members of the community and assesses the extent to which these efforts succeeded. Images of the Immortal is richly informed by a wide reading in social, cultural, and literary theory as well as a thorough awareness of previous work in comparative and Chinese religion. Scholars of Taoism, Chinese popular religion, and art history will find it especially rewarding for its thought-provoking reinterpretation of an important religious figure and his cult.

The Pattern of the Chinese Past

The Pattern of the Chinese Past PDF Author: Mark Elvin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804708760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
A satisfactory comprehensive history of the social and economic development of pre-modern China, the largest country in the world in terms of population, and with a documentary record covering three millennia, is still far from possible. The present work is only an attempt to disengage the major themes that seem to be of relevance to our understanding of China today. In particular, this volume studies three questions. Why did the Chinese Empire stay together when the Roman Empire, and every other empire of antiquity of the middle ages, ultimately collapsed? What were the causes of the medieval revolution which made the Chinese economy after about 1100 the most advanced in the world? And why did China after about 1350 fail to maintain her earlier pace of technological advance while still, in many respects, advancing economically? The three sections of the book deal with these problems in turn but the division of a subject matter is to some extent only one of convenience. These topics are so interrelated that, in the last analysis, none of them can be considered in isolation from the others.

Teachers of the Inner Chambers

Teachers of the Inner Chambers PDF Author: Dorothy Ko
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804723596
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
This pathbreaking work argues that literate gentry women in 17th-century Jiangnan, far from being oppressed or silenced, created a rich culture and meaningful existence within the constraints of the Confucian system. Momentous socioeconomic and intellectual changes in 17th-century Jiangnan provided the stimulus for the flowering of women's culture. The most salient of these changes included a flourishing of commercial publishing, the rise of a reading public, a new emphasis on emotions, the promotion of women's education, and, more generally, the emergence of new definitions of womanhood. The author reconstructs the social, emotional and intellectual worlds of 17th-century women, and in doing so provides a new way to conceptualize China's past, one offering a more realistic and complete understanding of the values of Chinese culture and the functioning of Chinese society.

Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945

Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945 PDF Author:
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804766525
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Why do peasants rebel? In particular, why do some peasants rebel and not others? Starting from the fact that only in certain geographical areas does rebellion seem to recur persistently, the author examines three notable rebel movements in one such area in China: Huaipei, a region of poor soil and unstable weather bounded by the Huai and Yellow (Huang He) rivers. The Nien rebels of the 1850s and 1860s and the Red Spear Society of the Republican era are described as representing traditional forms of violent competition for scarce economic resources. The Nien were essentially "predatory," using violence as a way of obtaining food and other necessities; the Red Spears essentially "protective," concerned to defend peasant homes and property against bandits, warlord armies, and state efforts at taxation. The communist movement of the 1930s and 1940s, by contrast, looked beyond these traditional patterns to a national social revolution that would render local rebellions unnecessary. The author throws new light on the role of secret societies in peasant protest, and offers a new interpretation of the relationship between rebellion and revolution.

Self and Society in Ming Thought

Self and Society in Ming Thought PDF Author: William Theodore De Bary
Publisher: ACLS History E-Book Project
ISBN: 9781597405935
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America

A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America PDF Author: Jan Willem Jong
Publisher: Kosei Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
This book contains indispensable information concerning the history of Buddhist studies in Europe and the United States and presents the readers with a survey that ranges from 300 b.c. up to modern times. This is an essential reference work for students of Buddhism, who not only will benefit from the overview it gives of previous scholarly work, but also may find in it indicators of the paths their own future research might take. Includes an extensive and detailed bibliography and two indices.

The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire

The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire PDF Author: Malcolm Drew Donalson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780889466845
Category : Rome
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description