Women in Daoism

Women in Daoism PDF Author: Catherine Despeux
Publisher: Three Pine Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Women in Daoism' outlines the status and roles of women in the Daoist tradition from its inception to the present day. It describes the historical development and role of Daoist women in Chinese society, focusing on the different ideals women stood for as much as on the religious practices they cultivated.--Cover.

Women in Daoism

Women in Daoism PDF Author: Catherine Despeux
Publisher: Three Pine Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Women in Daoism' outlines the status and roles of women in the Daoist tradition from its inception to the present day. It describes the historical development and role of Daoist women in Chinese society, focusing on the different ideals women stood for as much as on the religious practices they cultivated.--Cover.

Gender, Power, and Talent

Gender, Power, and Talent PDF Author: Jinhua Jia
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
During the Tang dynasty (618–907), changes in political policies, the religious landscape, and gender relations opened the possibility for Daoist women to play an unprecedented role in religious and public life. Women, from imperial princesses to the daughters of commoner families, could be ordained as Daoist priestesses and become religious leaders, teachers, and practitioners in their own right. Some achieved remarkable accomplishments: one wrote and transmitted texts on meditation and inner cultivation; another, a physician, authored a treatise on therapeutic methods, medical theory, and longevity techniques. Priestess-poets composed major works, and talented priestess-artists produced stunning calligraphy. In Gender, Power, and Talent, Jinhua Jia draws on a wealth of previously untapped sources to explain how Daoist priestesses distinguished themselves as a distinct gendered religious and social group. She describes the life journey of priestesses from palace women to abbesses and ordinary practitioners, touching on their varied reasons for entering the Daoist orders, the role of social and religious institutions, forms of spiritual experience, and the relationships between gendered identities and cultural representations. Jia takes the reader inside convents and cloisters, demonstrating how they functioned both as a female space for self-determination and as a public platform for both religious and social spheres. The first comprehensive study of the lives and roles of Daoist priestesses in Tang China, Gender, Power, and Talent restores women to the landscape of Chinese religion and literature and proposes new methodologies for the growing field of gender and religion.

Daoism in China

Daoism in China PDF Author: Yi'e Wang
Publisher: 五洲传播出版社
ISBN: 9787508505985
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
This book provides a systemic introduction of Daoism in China. Subjects includes the spirituality in early China, establishment and lineage of the celestial masters, Daoist deities, temples, and sacred places, the influence of Daoism in culture and customs. With black and white photographs, including shrines, temples, and deities.

Daoism Handbook

Daoism Handbook PDF Author: Livia Kohn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Taoism
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description


Immortal Sisters

Immortal Sisters PDF Author: Thomas Cleary
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1556432224
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
Immortal Sisters presents life stories and teachings of distinguished female Taoist adepts who lived from the third to twelfth centuries. Among them is the poet and mystic Sun Bu-er, who passed into folklore as one of the famous Seven Immortals and appears as a character in countless popular novels of China. These accomplished women, renowned in their own day and in history, represent a uniquely female heritage of spiritual mastery. Through poems, stories, teachings, and commentaries, Immortal Sisters sheds light on the spiritual methods taught and practiced by these women and illustrates the importance of the feminine in Taoism.

The World of Thought in Ancient China

The World of Thought in Ancient China PDF Author: Benjamin Isadore Schwartz
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674043316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 503

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Book Description
The center of this prodigious work of scholarship is a fresh examination of the range of Chinese culture thought during the formative period of Chinese culture. Benjamin Schwartz looks at the surviving texts of this period with a particular focus on the range of diversity to be found in them. While emphasizing the problematic and complex nature of this thought he also considers views which stress the unity of Chinese culture. Attention is accorded to pre-Confucian texts, to the evolution of early Confucianism, to Mo-Tzu, to the Taoists the legalists, the Ying-Yang school, the five classics as well as to intellectual issues which cut across the conventional classification of schools. The main focus is on the high cultural texts, but Mr. Schwartz also explores the question of the relationship of these texts to the vast realm of popular culture.

Confucianism and Women

Confucianism and Women PDF Author: Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791481794
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Confucianism and Women argues that Confucian philosophy—often criticized as misogynistic and patriarchal—is not inherently sexist. Although historically bound up with oppressive practices, Confucianism contains much that can promote an ethic of gender parity. Attacks on Confucianism for gender oppression have marked China's modern period, beginning with the May Fourth Movement of 1919 and reaching prominence during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. The West has also readily characterized Confucianism as a foundation of Chinese women's oppression. Author Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee challenges readers to consider the culture within which Confucianism has functioned and to explore what Confucian thought might mean for women and feminism. She begins the work by clarifying the intellectual tradition of Confucianism and discussing the importance of the Confucian cultural categories yin-yang and nei-wai (inner-outer) for gender ethics. In addition, the Chinese tradition of biographies of virtuous women and books of instruction by and for women is shown to provide a Confucian construction of gender. Practices such as widow chastity, footbinding, and concubinage are discussed in light of Confucian ethics and Chinese history. Ultimately, Rosenlee lays a foundation for a future construction of Confucian feminism as an alternative ethical ground for women's liberation.

The Tao of Women

The Tao of Women PDF Author: Pamela K. Metz
Publisher: Green Dragon Books
ISBN: 0893346810
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
For centuries women have remained quiet, suppressed by society. Yet in their silence a singing can be heard, celebrating their truths. In The Tao of Women, female voices speak out. Finally, the wisdom of Taoist philosophy is linked with the deep and mysterious wisdom of women. The Tao of Women captures and presents the power and wisdom generated by centuries of women's lives with the hope that this wisdom will not be lost. These brief and poignant meditations amplify the voices of our grandmothers and their mothers before them, they illuminate the connections over time and space and culture, allowing us to understand the women who came before and the daughters who will follow. In 1950, a secret language was discovered near Hunan Province, China. It was not until 1982 that anyone collected and translated this secret "women's script." Known as Nu Shu, this ancient language was developed and used by women to communicate with each other when their society would not allow them to learn to read and write. For the first time in America, 81 original Nu Shu illustrations and their translations can be seen in The Tao of Women.

Taoism

Taoism PDF Author: Russell Kirkland
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415263214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Presents volume thirteen of a fourteen-volume series on World Religions exploring the origins of Taoism in China, its central beliefs and restoration under China's religious freedom clause, rituals, sacred sites, and more.

Gendering Chinese Religion

Gendering Chinese Religion PDF Author: Jinhua Jia
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438453078
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
A gender-critical consideration of women and religion in Chinese traditions from medieval to modern times. Gendering Chinese Religion marks the emergence of a subfield on women, gender, and religion in China studies. Ranging from the medieval period to the present day, this volume departs from the conventional and often male-centered categorization of Chinese religions into Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and popular religion. It makes two compelling arguments. First, Chinese women have deployed specific religious ideas and rituals to empower themselves in various social contexts. Second, gendered perceptions and representations of Chinese religions have been indispensable to the historical and contemporary construction of social and political power. The contributors use innovative ways of discovering and applying a rich variety of sources, many previously ignored by scholars. While each of the chapters in this interdisciplinary work represents a distinct perspective, together they form a coherent dialogue about the historical importance, intellectual possibilities, and methodological protocols of this new subfield.