|
Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets
|
Buy Now
The Poetry Demon - Song-Dynasty Monks on Verse and the Way (Paperback)
Loot Price: R663
Discovery Miles 6 630
|
|
|
The Poetry Demon - Song-Dynasty Monks on Verse and the Way (Paperback)
Series: Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
Chinese Buddhist monks of the Song dynasty (960-1279) called the
irresistible urge to compose poetry "the poetry demon." In this
ambitious study, Jason Protass seeks to bridge the fields of
Buddhist studies and Chinese literature to examine the place of
poetry in the lives of Song monks. Although much has been written
about verses in the gong'an (Jpn. koan) tradition, very little is
known about the large corpora-roughly 30,000 extant poems-composed
by these monastics. Protass addresses the oversight by using
strategies associated with religious studies, literary studies, and
sociology. He weaves together poetry with a wide range of monastic
sources and in doing so argues against positing a "literary Chan"
movement that wrote poetry as a path to awakening; he instead
presents an understanding of monks' poetry grounded in the Song
discourse of monks themselves. The work begins by examining how
monks fashioned new genres, created their own books, and fueled a
monastic audience for monks' poetry. It traces the evolution of
gatha from hymns found in Buddhist scripture to an independent
genre for poems associated with Chan masters as living buddhas.
While Song monastic culture produced a prodigious amount of verse,
at the same time it promoted prohibitions against monks'
participation in poetry as a worldly or Confucian art: This
constructive tension was an animating force. The Poetry Demon
highlights this and other intersections of Buddhist doctrine with
literary sociality and charts productive pathways through numerous
materials, including collections of Chan "recorded sayings,"
monastic rulebooks, "eminent monk" and "flame record"
hagiographies, manuscripts of poetry, Buddhist encyclopedia,
primers, and sutra commentary. Two chapter-length case studies
illustrate how Song monks participated in two of the most prominent
and conservative modes of poetry of the time, those of parting and
mourning. Protass reveals how monks used Chan humor with reference
to emptiness to transform acts of separation into Buddhist
teachings. In another chapter, monks in mourning expressed their
grief and dharma through poetry. The Poetry Demon impressively
uncovers new and creative ways to study Chinese Buddhist monks'
poetry while contributing to the broader study of Chinese religion
and literature.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
