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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Oriental religions > General
"Finding Wisdom in East Asian Classics" is an essential,
all-access guide to the core texts of East Asian civilization and
culture. Essays address frequently read, foundational texts in
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, as well as early modern
fictional classics and nonfiction works of the seventeenth century.
Building strong links between these writings and the critical
traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, this volume shows
the vital role of the classics in the shaping of Asian history and
in the development of the humanities at large.
Wm. Theodore de Bary focuses on texts that have survived for
centuries, if not millennia, through avid questioning and
contestation. Recognized as perennial reflections on life and
society, these works represent diverse historical periods and
cultures and include the "Analects of Confucius," "Mencius,"
"Laozi," "Xunxi," the "Lotus Sutra," Tang poetry, the "Pillow
Book," "The Tale of Genji," and the writings of Chikamatsu and
Kaibara Ekken. Contributors explain the core and most commonly
understood aspects of these works and how they operate within their
traditions. They trace their reach and reinvention throughout
history and their ongoing relevance in modern life.
With fresh interpretations of familiar readings, these essays
inspire renewed appreciation and examination. In the case of some
classics open to multiple interpretations, de Bary chooses two
complementary essays from different contributors. Expanding on
debates concerning the challenges of teaching classics in the
twenty-first century, several pieces speak to the value of Asia in
the core curriculum. Indispensable for early scholarship on Asia
and the evolution of global civilization, "Finding Wisdom in East
Asian Classics" helps one master the major texts of human
thought.
The Zhuangzi is a deliciously protean text: it is concerned not
only with personal realization, but also (albeit incidentally) with
social and political order. In many ways the Zhuangzi established a
unique literary and philosophical genre of its own, and while
clearly the work of many hands, it is one of the finest pieces
ofliterature in the classical Chinese corpus. It employs every
trope and literary device available to set off rhetorically charged
flashes of insight into the most unrestrained way to live one's
life, free from oppressive, conventional judgments and values. The
essays presented here constitute an attempt by a distinguished
community of international scholars to provide a variety of
exegeses of one of the Zhuangzi's most frequently rehearsed
anecdotes, often referred to as "the Happy Fish debate." The
editors have brought together essays from the broadest possible
compass of scholarship, offering interpretations that range from
formal logic to alternative epistemologies to transcendental
mysticism. Many were commissioned by the editors and appear for the
first time. Some of them have been available in other
languages-Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish-and were translated
especially for this anthology. And several older essays were chosen
for the quality and variety of their arguments, formulated over
years of engagement by their authors. All, however, demonstrate
that the Zhuangzi as a text and as a philosophy is never one thing;
indeed, it has always been and continues to be, many different
things to many different people.
How can people living in one of the poorest countries in the world
be among the most charitable? In this book, Hiroko Kawanami
examines the culture of giving in Myanmar, and explores the pivotal
role that Buddhist monastic members occupy in creating a platform
for civil society. Despite having at one time been listed as one of
the poorest countries in the world in GNP terms, Myanmar has topped
a global generosity list for the past four years with more than 90
percent of the population engaged in 'giving' activities. This book
explores the close relationship that Buddhists share with the
monastic community in Myanmar, extending observations of this
relationship into an understanding of wider Buddhist cultures. It
then examines how deeply the reciprocal transactions of giving and
receiving in society - or interdependent living - are implicated in
the Buddhist faith. The Culture of Giving in Myanmar fills a gap in
research on Buddhist offerings in Myanmar, and is an important
contribution to the growing field of Myanmar studies and
anthropology of Buddhism.
Eastern Approaches to Western Film: Asian Aesthetics and Reception
in Cinema offers a renewed critical outlook on Western classic film
directly from the pantheon of European and American masters,
including Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas, Robert Bresson, Carl
Dreyer, Jean-Pierre Melville, John Ford, Leo McCarey, Sam
Peckinpah, and Orson Welles. The book contributes an "Eastern
Approach" into the critical studies of Western films by
reappraising selected films of these masters, matching and
comparing their visions, themes, and ideas with the philosophical
and paradigmatic principles of the East. It traces Eastern
inscriptions and signs embedded within these films as well as their
social lifestyle values and other concepts that are also inherently
Eastern. As such, the book represents an effort to reformulate
established discourses on Western cinema that are overwhelmingly
Eurocentric. Although it seeks to inject an alternative
perspective, the ultimate aim is to reach a balance of East and
West. By focusing on Eastern aesthetic and philosophical influences
in Western films, the book suggests that there is a much more
thorough integration of East and West than previously thought or
imagined.
This book draws attention to a striking aspect of contemporary
Japanese culture: the prevalence of discussions and representations
of "spirits" (tama or tamashii). Ancestor cults have played a
central role in Japanese culture and religion for many centuries;
in recent decades, however, other phenomena have expanded and
diversified the realm of Japanese animism. For example, many manga,
anime, TV shows, literature, and art works deal with spirits,
ghosts, or with an invisible dimension of reality. International
contributors ask to what extent these are cultural forms created by
the media for consumption, rather than manifestations of
"traditional" ancestral spirituality in their adaptations to
contemporary society. Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan
considers the modes of representations and the possible cultural
meanings of spirits, as well as the metaphysical implications of
contemporary Japanese ideas about spirits. The chapters offer
analyses of specific cases of "animistic attitudes" in which the
presence of spirits and spiritual forces is alleged, and attempt to
trace cultural genealogies of those attitudes. In particular, they
present various modes of representation of spirits (in contemporary
art, architecture, visual culture, cinema, literature, diffuse
spirituality) while at the same time addressing their underlying
intellectual and religious assumptions.
"Precious volumes," or "pao-chuan," were produced by popular
sects in the Ming and early Qing dynasties. These scriptures were
believed to have been divinely revealed to sect leaders and contain
teachings and ritual instructions that provide valuable information
about a lively and widespread religious tradition outside
mainstream Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Largely neglected
until now, they testify to the imagination and devotion of popular
religious leaders. This book, the most detailed and comprehensive
study of "pao-chuan" in any language, studies 34 early examples of
this literature in order to understand the origins and development
of this textual tradition. Although the work focuses on content and
structure, it also treats the social context of these works as well
as their transmission and ritual use.
Definition is an important scientific and philosophical method. In
all kinds of scientific and philosophical inquiries definition is
provided to make clear the characteristics of the things under
investigation. Definition in this sense, sometimes called real
definition, should state the essence of the thing defined,
according to Aristotle. In another (currently popular) sense,
sometimes called nominal definition, definition explicates the
meaning of a term already in use in an ordinary language or the
scientific discourse or specifies the meaning of a new term
introduced in an ordinary language of the scientific discourse.
Definition combines the purposes of both real and nominal
definition and is promoted by the Nyaya philosophers of India.
Another important method of science and philosophy is induction. In
a narrow sense induction is a method of generalization to all cases
from the observation of particular cases. In a broad sense
induction is a method for reasoning from some observed fact to a
different fact not involved in the former. We understand induction
in the broad sense though more often we shall actually be concerned
with induction in the narrow sense. How can our limited experience
of nature provide the rational basis for making knowlege claims
about unobserved phenomena?
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