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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Oriental religions
With extensive research and creative interpretations, Dasan's Noneo
gogeum ju (Old and New Commentaries of the Analects) has been
evaluated in the academia of Korean Studies as a crystallization of
his studies on the Confucian classics. Dasan (Jeong Yak-yong:
1762-1836) attempted through this book to synthesize and overcome
the lengthy scholarly tradition of the classical studies of the
Analects, leading it not only to represent one of the greatest
achievements of Korean Confucianism but also demonstrate an
innovative prospect for the progress of Confucian philosophy,
positioning it as one of the ground-breaking works in all Confucian
legacies in East Asia. Originally consisting of forty volumes in
traditional book binding, his Noneo gogeum ju contains one hundred
and seventy-five new interpretations on the Analects, hundreds of
arguments about the original meanings of the Analects commentaries,
hundreds of references to the scholarly works of the Analects,
thousands of supportive quotations from various East Asian classics
for the author's arguments, and hundreds of philological
discussions. This book is the second volume of an English
translation of Noneo gogeum ju with the translator's comments on
the innovative ideas and interpretations of Dasan on the Analects.
This study examines how political and legal disputes regarding the
performance of death rituals contributed to an 11th-century revival
of Confucianism in Northern Song China. Under Emperor Renzong (r.
1022-1063), court officials came to a consensus that the Confucian
tradition was the sole legitimate source for imperial rituals, and
thus put an end to the controversial civil program of honoring the
royal ancestors with the Daoist liturgy. New legislation on the
legal obligation of civil officers to observe the three-year period
of mourning gave rise to frequent allegations of ritual violation,
which in turn necessitated further studies of the classical ritual
texts, the passing of additional laws, and the writing of new
ritual manuals. Amid fierce factional divisions, a group of
scholar-officials led by Sima Guang envisioned a statecraft that
would lend more power to the bureaucracy, and provoked a series of
political disputes with their criticism of the emperor's ritual
violations. This group advocated the moral reformation of society.
They believed in the canonical rituals' capacity to bring
hierarchical social order, and waged campaigns against Buddhist and
Daoist rituals, challenging their alleged capacity to ensure the
well-being of the deceased in the world -beyond. Despite their
efforts, funerary and burial practices would continue to be sites
of contestation between ritual agents and their differing notions
about life after death as well as for ritual preferences linked to
their social status, political visions, and religious belief.
In a society that has seen epochal change over a few generations,
what remains to hold people together and offer them a sense of
continuity and meaning? In Songs for Dead Parents, Erik Mueggler
shows how in contemporary China death and the practices surrounding
it have become central to maintaining a connection with the world
of ancestors, ghosts, and spirits that socialism explicitly
disavowed. Drawing on more than twenty years of fieldwork in a
mountain community in Yunnan Province, Songs for Dead Parents shows
how people view the dead as both material and immaterial, as
effigies replace corpses, tombstones replace effigies, and texts
eventually replace tombstones in a long process of disentangling
the dead from the shared world of matter and memory. It is through
these processes that people envision the cosmological underpinnings
of the world and assess the social relations that make up their
community. Thus, state interventions aimed at reforming death
practices have been deeply consequential, and Mueggler traces the
transformations they have wrought and their lasting effects.
Tying together cultural history, legal history, and institutional
economics, The Laws and Economics of Confucianism: Kinship and
Property in Preindustrial China and England offers a novel argument
as to why Chinese and English preindustrial economic development
went down different paths. The dominance of Neo-Confucian social
hierarchies in Late Imperial and Republican China, under which
advanced age and generational seniority were the primary
determinants of sociopolitical status, allowed many poor but senior
individuals to possess status and political authority highly
disproportionate to their wealth. In comparison, landed wealth was
a fairly strict prerequisite for high status and authority in the
far more 'individualist' society of early modern England,
essentially excluding low-income individuals from secular positions
of prestige and leadership. Zhang argues that this social
difference had major consequences for property institutions and
agricultural production.
This book examines the ways in which Confucian political culture
operates in contemporary Chinese politics and influences its
development. The author argues that the authoritarian political
culture performs functions similar to the democratic political
culture, drawing on a wide range of data-surveys, interviews,
archives, Public Hearing Meeting records, and the Party Congress
Reports of the Chinese Communist Party-to substantiate and
illustrate these arguments. In an authoritarian political system,
the "legitimating values" of the authoritarian political culture
persuade the public of their government's legitimacy and the
"engaging values" equip individuals with a set of cultural
dispositions, resources, and skills to acquire political resources
and services from the state. In the context of Chinese politics,
personal connections infused with affection and trust-the Social
Capital in the Confucian culture-facilitate political engagement.
Despite the country's continuous advocacy for the "rule of law,"
state and public perceptions of legal professionals and legal
practices, such as mediation and lawyer-judge relations, are
fundamentally moralized. A new "people ideology," which originated
in the Confucian political culture, has been re-appropriated to
legitimate the Party's hegemonic governing position and policies.
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Four Testaments
- Tao Te Ching, Analects, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita: Sacred Scriptures of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism
(Paperback)
Brian Arthur Brown; Foreword by Francis X Clooney S J; Contributions by David Bruce, K E Eduljee, Richard Freund, …
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R1,570
Discovery Miles 15 700
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Four Testaments brings together four foundational texts from world
religions-the Tao Te Ching, Dhammapada, Analects of Confucius, and
Bhagavad Gita-inviting readers to experience them in full, to
explore possible points of connection and divergence, and to better
understand people who practice these traditions. Following Brian
Arthur Brown's award-winning Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel,
Quran, this volume of Four Testaments features essays by esteemed
scholars to introduce readers to each tradition and text, as well
as commentary on unexpected ways the ancient Zoroastrian tradition
might connect Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism, along
with the Abrahamic faiths. Four Testaments aims to foster deeper
religious understanding in our interconnected and contentious
world.
The I Ching has influenced thinkers and artists throughout the
history of Chinese philosophy. This new, accessible translation of
the entire early text brings to life the hidden meanings and
importance of China's oldest classical texts. Complemented
throughout by insightful commentaries, the I Ching: A Critical
Translation of the Ancient Text simplifies the unique system of
hexagrams lying at the centre of the text and introduces the
cultural significance of key themes including yin and yang, gender
and ethics. As well as depicting all possible ethical situations,
this new translation shows how the hexagram figures can represent
social relationships and how the order of lines can be seen as a
natural metaphor for higher or lower social rank. Introduced by Hon
Tze-Ki, an esteemed scholar of the text, this up-to-date
translation uncovers and explains both the philosophical and
political interpretations of the text. For a better understanding
of the philosophical and cosmological underpinning the history of
Chinese philosophy, the I Ching is an invaluable starting point.
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