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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Oriental religions
The Classic of Changes (Yi jing) is one of the most ancient texts
known to human civilization, always given pride of place in the
Chinese classical tradition. And yet the powerful fascination
exerted by the Classic of Changes has preserved the archaic text,
widely attracting readers with a continuing interest in trying to
understand it as a source of reflection and guide to ordinary
circumstances of human life. Its monumental influence over Chinese
thought makes the text an indispensable element in any informed
approach to Chinese culture.Accordingly, the book focuses on the
archaic core of the Classic of Changes and proposes a structural
anthropological analysis for two main reasons. First, unlike many
treatments of the Yi jing, there is a concern to place the text
carefully in the context of the ancient culture
Priceless Wisdom from a Modern Tao Te Ching Odyssey "...this book
will completely absorb your attention from the beginning..."
-Emanuele Pettener, PhD, assistant professor of Italian and writer
in residence at Florida Atlantic University #1 New Release in
Chinese Poetry, Asian Poetry, and Tao Te Ching A literary memoir
like no other, Monk of Park Avenue recounts novelist and martial
master Monk Yon Rou's spiritual journey of self-discovery. Learn
from Yon Rou as he tackles tragedy and redemption on an
unforgettable soul-searching odyssey. A spiritual journey with
extraordinary encounters. Yon Rou's memoir is a kaleidoscopic ride
through the upper echelons of New York Society and the
nature-worshipping, sword-wielding world of East Asian religious
and martial arts. Monk of Park Avenue divulges a privileged
childhood in Manhattan, followed by the bitter rigors of kung fu in
China and meditations in Daoist temples. Join Yon Rou's adventure
as he encounters kings, Nobel laureates, and the Mob. Witness this
martial master's incarceration in a high-mountain Ecuadorian
hellhole and fight for survival in Paraguay's brutal thorn jungle.
Meet celebrities along the way. A story of love, loss, persistence,
triumph, and mastery, The Monk of Park Avenue is peopled with the
likes of Milos Forman, Richard Holbrooke, Paul McCartney, Warren
Beatty and now-infamous opioid purveyors, the Sackler Family. Yun
Rou's memoir is no mere celebrity tell-all, but a novelist and
martial master's path to self-discovery. The Monk of Park Avenue
offers you: Paths for personal and spiritual growth Anecdotal
stories of self-discovery and insights into how to live An
eloquent, candid exploration of spiritual transformation If you
loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, To Shake the
Sleeping Self, or Lao Tzu by Ursula K. Le Guin, you'll love The
Monk of Park Avenue. Also, be sure to read Monk Yon Rou's Mad Monk
Manifesto, winner of both the Gold & Silver 2018 Nautilus Book
Award.
The Way That Lives in the Heart is a richly detailed ethnographic
analysis of the practice of Chinese religion in the modern,
multicultural Southeast Asian city of Penang, Malaysia. The book
conveys both an understanding of shared religious practices and
orientations and a sense of how individual men and women imagine,
represent, and transform popular religious practices within the
time and space of their own lives. This work is original in three
ways. First, the author investigates Penang Chinese religious
practice as a total field of religious practice, suggesting ways in
which the religious culture, including spirit-mediumship, has been
transformed in the conjuncture with modernity. Second, the book
emphasizes the way in which socially marginal spirit mediums use a
religious anti-language and unique religious rituals to set
themselves apart from mainstream society. Third, the study
investigates Penang Chinese religion as the product of a specific
history, rather than presenting an overgeneralized overview that
claims to represent a single "Chinese religion."
As China is rapidly reemerging as the world's dominant economic
powerhouse that it had been until the mid-eighteenth century,
interest in its religions and philosophies is on the rise. Just as
the history and culture of Western civilizations can hardly be
grasped without a measure of knowledge about Christianity, an
understanding of Chinese civilization and its history seems
impossible without some comprehension of Daoism. Though it has long
been clear that modern Daoism has its roots in Daoist movements of
the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), research on premodern Daoism had been
largely neglected. Published in six languages (Italian, French,
English, German, Chinese, and Japanese), the pioneering studies by
Monica Esposito (1962-2011) on Qing Daoism have been instrumental
in kindling keen scholarly interest both in the West and in China
and Japan. This book presents corrected and augmented versions of
three of Dr Esposito's seminal articles that had originally been
published in English ("Daoism in the Qing," "The Longmen School and
its Controversial History," and "Longmen Daoism in Qing China:
Doctrinal Ideal and Local Reality") along with English versions of
two articles that had hitherto only been available in Japanese and
Chinese: "Beheading the Red Dragon: The Heart of Feminine Alchemy"
and "An Example of Daoist and Tantric Interaction during the Qing
Dynasty: The Longmen xinzong." In addition, this volume contains a
bibliography of all her publications and a detailed index.
This book questions whether temples and Daoism are two independent
aspects of modern Chinese religion or if they are indissolubly
linked. It presents a useful analysis as to how modern history has
changed the structure and organization of religious and social life
in China, and the role that Daoism plays in this. Using an
interdisciplinary approach combining historical research and
fieldwork, this book focuses on urban centers in China, as this is
where sociopolitical changes came earliest and affected religious
life to the greatest extent and also where the largest central
Daoist temples were and are located. It compares case studies from
central, eastern, and southern China with published evidence and
research on other Chinese cities. Contributors examine how Daoism
interacted with traditional urban social, cultural, and commercial
institutions and pays close attention to how it dealt with
processes of state expansion, commercialization, migration, and
urban development in modern times. This book also analyses the
evolution of urban religious life in modern China, particularly the
ways in which temple communities, lay urbanites, and professional
Daoists interact with one another. A solid ethnography that
presents an abundance of new historical information, this book will
be of interest to academics in the field of Asian studies, Daoist
studies, Asian religions, and modern China.
A number of features mark this book apart from others. There is
simply no book currently available on Daoism (Taoism) written
primarily from a psychological perspective, covering topics on
Laozi's sociopolitical and psychological thoughts and their points
of contact with Western psychology, particularly that of Carl Jung.
The book comprises an in-depth introduction and a considered
translation of Laozi's classic on virtue and the Dao (Way). The
introduction covers Daoism as the counterculture in China and
beyond; the originality and distinctiveness of Laozi's thoughts;
the classic's influence and contemporary relevance to life in the
21st century; and insights on bilingualism that the author gained
in the process of translation. The book contains the very first
English translation of the Beida Laozi (Peking University Laozi),
in which the chapters on virtue precede those on the Dao.
Accordingly, the classic is renamed The Classic of Virtue and the
Dao. The author has given his best to honor both accuracy and
poetic beauty by paying great attention to diction, clarity, and
economy of expression. The Classic of Virtue and the Dao is one of
the most creative and thought-provoking texts of antiquity. All of
the 77 chapters of the classic are categorized into 13 thematic
groups, each of which begins with an introduction. This would make
it easier for the reader to grasp its major viewpoints and
concepts, such as virtue, humility, and selflessness. Titles for
individual chapters, as well as comments and notes, have also been
added.
In shops, shrines, homes and gardens throughout Japan, at noisy
festivals and in the most serene teahouses, you are likely to
encounter the plump, smiling image of Otafuku--a mythic figure from
Japan's distant past. With her twinkling eyes and rosy lips, she
appears in countless incarnations: on banners, cups and bowls, and
in craft, furniture, painting and sculpture. Who is this warm,
wonderful lady, whose gentle and calming presence is felt
everywhere in Japan? In Otafuku, renowned author Amy Katoh explores
in her own inimitable way the colorful world of Otafuku. Katoh
traces Otafuku's roots and folk beginnings, showing her many
delightful identities, and providing a magical glimpse into this
charming and little-known corner of Japanese culture. With a
mixture of poems, photographs, anecdotes and stories, she presents
a veritable jewel box of surprises that is sure to enchant readers.
Today Otafuku is Japan's most influential female icon and is
attributed with having many bestowing powers including health,
pleasure, success, and the granting of wishes.
This volume of new essays is the first English-language anthology
devoted to Chinese metaphysics. The essays explore the key themes
of Chinese philosophy, from pre-Qin to modern times, starting with
important concepts such as yin-yang and qi and taking the reader
through the major periods in Chinese thought - from the Classical
period, through Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, into the
twentieth-century philosophy of Xiong Shili. They explore the major
traditions within Chinese philosophy, including Daoism and Mohism,
and a broad range of metaphysical topics, including monism,
theories of individuation, and the relationship between reality and
falsehood. The volume will be a valuable resource for upper-level
students and scholars of metaphysics, Chinese philosophy, or
comparative philosophy, and with its rich insights into the
ethical, social and political dimensions of Chinese society, it
will also interest students of Asian studies and Chinese
intellectual history.
Engaging in existential discourse beyond the European tradition,
this book turns to Asian philosophies to reassess vital questions
of life's purpose, death's imminence, and our capacity for living
meaningfully in conditions of uncertainty. Inspired by the dilemmas
of European existentialism, this cross-cultural study seeks
concrete techniques for existential practice via the philosophies
of East Asia. The investigation begins with the provocative
writings of twentieth-century Korean Buddhist nun Kim Iryop, who
asserts that meditative concentration conducts a potent energy
outward throughout the entire karmic network, enabling the radical
transformation of our shared existential conditions. Understanding
her claim requires a look at East Asian sources more broadly.
Considering practices as diverse as Buddhist merit-making
ceremonies, Confucian/Ruist methods for self-cultivation, the
ritual memorization and recitation of texts, and Yijing divination,
the book concludes by advocating a speculative turn. This
'speculative existentialism' counters the suspicion toward
metaphysics characteristic of twentieth-century European
existential thought and, at the same time, advances a program for
action. It is not a how-to guide for living, but rather a
philosophical methodology that takes seriously the power of mental
cultivation to transform the meaning of the life that we share.
After a century during which Confucianism was viewed by academics
as a relic of the imperial past or, at best, a philosophical
resource, its striking comeback in Chinese society today raises a
number of questions about the role that this ancient
tradition-re-appropriated, reinvented, and sometimes
instrumentalized-might play in a contemporary context. The Sage and
the People, originally published in French, is the first
comprehensive enquiry into the "Confucian revival" that began in
China during the 2000s. It explores its various dimensions in
fields as diverse as education, self-cultivation, religion, ritual,
and politics. Resulting from a research project that the two
authors launched together in 2004, the book is based on the
extensive anthropological fieldwork they carried out in various
parts of China over the next eight years. Sebastien Billioud and
Joel Thoraval suspected, despite the prevailing academic consensus,
that fragments of the Confucian tradition would sooner or later be
re-appropriated within Chinese society and they decided to their
hypothesis. The reality greatly exceeded their initial
expectations, as the later years of their project saw the rapid
development of what is now called the "Confucian revival" or
"Confucian renaissance". Using a cross-disciplinary approach that
links the fields of sociology, anthropology, and history, this book
unveils the complexity of the "Confucian Revival" and the relations
between the different actors involved, in addition to shedding
light on likely future developments.
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Daodejing
(Hardcover)
Lao zi; Translated by Brook Ziporyn
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R660
Discovery Miles 6 600
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Grounded in a lifetime of research and interpretive work and
informed by careful study of recent archaeological discoveries of
alternate versions of the text, Brook Ziporyn, one of the
preeminent explicators of Eastern religions in English, brings us a
revelatory new translation-and a radical reinterpretation-of the
central text of Taoist thought. Ziporyn offers an alternative to
the overly comforting tone of so many translations, revealing
instead the electrifying strangeness and explosively unsettling
philosophical implications of this famously ambiguous work. In
Ziporyn's hands, this is no mere "wisdom book" of anodyne
affirmations or mildly diverting brain-teasers-this pathbreaking
Daodejing will forever change how the text is read and understood
in the West.
Draws on Tomans Aquinas' theory to interpret Confucian view of
partial relationships. Provides cogent arguments in terms of
familial partiality and egalitarian impartiality. Proposes a binary
metrics to understand the Confucian family-oriented ethics. The
approach to Confucianism in this book is interdisciplinary and
quite new to readers.
Just as Christianity has its Vatican in Rome, modern Daoism boasts
of a unique center of religious authority and administration: the
Temple of the White Clouds (Baiyun guan) in Beijing, seat of the
general headquarters of the Chinese Daoist Association. This temple
complex in Beijing, called by Dr Esposito "modern Daoism's
Vatican," houses the grave of the mythical founder of Daoism's
Quanzhen tradition and celebrates the patriarchs of its Longmen
("Dragon Gate") branch as his legitimate heirs. Monica Esposito
describes in this book how Daoist masters and historiographers in
China, much like their Catholic counterparts in Europe, invented a
glorious patriarchal lineage as well as a system of ordination
designed to perpetuate orthodox transmission and central control.
They also created a kind of New Testament: a new canonical
collection of scriptures entitled "The Gist of the Daoist Canon"
(Daozang jiyao). It contains hundreds of texts including the Daoist
classic The Secret of the Golden Flower which achieved fame through
the commentary by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. A classic
study on the invention of religious traditions, the four parts of
Creative Daoism describe in detail the construction of the Daoist
Vatican's lineage of patriarchs, system of ordination, canon of
sacred scriptures, and doctrine of universal salvation.
This book presents the welfare regime of societies of Chinese
heritage as a liminal space where religious and state authorities
compete with each other for legitimacy. It offers a path-breaking
perspective on relations between religion and state in East Asia,
presenting how the governments of industrial societies try to
harness the human resources of religious associations to assist in
the delivery of social services. The book provides background to
the intermingling of Buddhism and the state prior to 1949; and the
continuation of that intertwinement in Taiwan and in other
societies where live many people of Chinese heritage since then.
The main contribution of this work is its detailed account of
Buddhist philanthropy as viewed from the perspectives of the state,
civil society, and Buddhists. This book will appeal to academics in
social sciences and humanities and broader audiences interested by
the social role of religions, charity, and NGOs, in social policy
implementation. It explores why governments turn to Buddhist
followers and their leaders and presents a detailed view of
Buddhist philanthropy. This book contributes to our understanding
of secularity in non-Western societies, as influenced by religions
other than Christianity.
The philosophy found in the I Ching was created by the ancients
from their careful observaton of nature. We 'moderns' can use the
sixty-four hexagrams found in the I Ching as a predictive tool to
enhance our lives and reconcile our spiritual and physical selves.
When one consults the 'I CHing', the hexagram gives the general
background of the situation, while the lines indicate the correct
way in which to handle the specific circumstance. This masterful
translation by Hua-Ching Ni is popular throughout the world.
This book reflects on three broad themes of Confucian-Christian
relations to assist in the appreciation of the church's theology of
mission. While the themes of this volume are theological in
orientation, the dialogue is engaged in from an interdisciplinary
approach that prioritises the act of listening. Part I surveys the
historical background necessary for an adequate understanding of
the contemporary Confucian-Christian dialogues. It examines the
history of Confucian-Christian relations, explores the Chinese
Rites Controversy, and delineates the contemporary task of
indigenizing Christianity by Sino-Christian theologians. Part II
compares elements in the Confucian and Christian traditions that
exemplify the epitome and fullness of spiritual development. It
discusses the Confucian practice of rites (li), interrogates how
the noble or exemplary person (junzi) competes, and outlines the
Confucian understanding of sageliness (shengren). Lastly, Part III
examines different aspects of the church's engagements with the
world outside of itself. It advocates for a Confucian-Christian
hermeneutic of moral goodness, attends to the Confucian emphasis on
moral self-cultivation, proposes that Confucian virtue ethics can
shed light on Christian moral living, and offers a
Confucian-Christian understanding of care for mother earth. This
book is ideally suited to lecturers and students of both Christian
studies and Confucian studies, as well as those engaged in mission
studies and interfaith studies. It will also be a valuable resource
for anyone interested in comparative religious and theological
studies on Christianity and Confucianism.
Drawing on evidence from a wide range of classical Chinese texts,
this book argues that xingershangxue, the study of "beyond form",
constitutes the core argument and intellectual foundation of Daoist
philosophy. The author presents Daoist xingershangxue as a typical
concept of metaphysics distinct from that of the natural philosophy
and metaphysics of ancient Greece since it focusses on
understanding the world beyond perceivable objects and phenomena as
well as names that are definable in their social, political, or
moral structures. In comparison with other philosophical traditions
in the East and West, the book discusses the ideas of dao, de, and
"spontaneously self-so", which shows Daoist xingershangxue's
theoretical tendency to transcendence. The author explains the
differences between Daoist philosophy and ancient Greek philosophy
and proposes that Daoist philosophy is the study of xingershangxue
in nature, providing a valuable resource for scholars interested in
Chinese philosophy, Daoism, and comparative philosophy.
In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld
traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the
most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through
their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its
sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist,
Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell's
'enforcers', the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose
post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for
moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations.
Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan
offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld
traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of
the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and
malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple's
spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between
Singapore and Malaysia (and their counterparts in Taiwan) through
an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham
challenges common assumptions about the nature and scope of Chinese
vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham's innovative
approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person
dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities.
Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the
book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between
sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the
destigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in
the future study of mystical and religious traditions. -- .
The Ethical Foundations of Early Daoism: Zhuangzi's Unique Moral
Vision presents a comprehensive study of the normative dimensions
of early Daoism in general and the classic text Zhuangzi in
particular. Lee argues that our inclination to view Daoism as an
amoral tradition stems from Orientalist assumptions about Daoism as
well as our received assumptions about the nature of morality. By
enlarging the scope of morality, Lee suggests that early Daoist
texts like the Zhuangzi can be read as works of moral philosophy
that speak to specifically moral concerns in ethics, government,
and society. Lee casts the moral imperative of the Zhuangzi as an
ethics of attunement to the Way and develops this thesis in the
context of friendship, government, death, and human flourishing.
The Third Birth of Confucius deals with the Chinese sage and
philosopher Confucius and his philosophical and politico-cultural
legacies. As the title suggests, Confucius has once again taken
birth in China. Confucius 'died' for the first time when he gave
way to Buddhism in the tenth century, but was reinvented again
(Neo-Confucianism). This was the second birth of Confucius. In the
twentieth century, under the influence of western ideas, China's
liberals and Marxists abandoned Confucius again. But how long can a
civilization live without any ideational orientation? Hence, the
third birth of Confucius from AD 2000 onwards. Confucius is
emerging as a proxy word for cultural nationalism. In fact, it is
not one Confucius who is taking birth in China but two. One is the
common man's Confucius, which is authentic and genuine. The other
Confucius is promoted by the Chinese Government. The author
believes that soon either China will embrace democracy or it may
implode and disintegrate like the former Soviet Union. This book is
an attempt to unravel the muddled reality of China and will
definitely prove a landmark work in the field of Chinese Studies.
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