Animals play crucial roles in Buddhist thought and practice.
However, many symbolically or culturally significant animals found
in India, where Buddhism originated, do not inhabit China, to which
Buddhism spread in the medieval period. In order to adapt Buddhist
ideas and imagery to the Chinese context, writers reinterpreted and
modified the meanings different creatures possessed. Medieval
sources tell stories of monks taming wild tigers, detail rituals
for killing snakes, and even address the question of whether a
parrot could achieve enlightenment. Huaiyu Chen examines how
Buddhist ideas about animals changed and were changed by medieval
Chinese culture. He explores the entangled relations among animals,
religions, the state, and local communities, considering both the
multivalent meanings associated with animals and the daily
experience of living with the natural world. Chen illustrates how
Buddhism influenced Chinese knowledge and experience of animals as
well as how Chinese state ideology, Daoism, and local cultic
practices reshaped Buddhism. He shows how Buddhism, Confucianism,
and Daoism developed doctrines, rituals, discourses, and practices
to manage power relations between animals and humans. Drawing on a
wide range of sources, including traditional texts, stone
inscriptions, manuscripts, and visual culture, this
interdisciplinary book bridges history, religious studies, animal
studies, and environmental studies. In examining how Buddhist
depictions of the natural world and Chinese taxonomies of animals
mutually enriched each other, In the Land of Tigers and Snakes
offers a new perspective on how Buddhism took root in Chinese
society.
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