Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500-1700 (Paperback)

In this illuminating study of a vital but long overlooked aspect of Chinese religious life, Jimmy Yu reveals that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, self-inflicted violence was an essential and sanctioned part of Chinese culture. He examines a wide range of practices, including blood writing, filial body-slicing, chastity mutilations and suicides, ritual exposure, and self-immolation, arguing that each practice was public, scripted, and a signal of certain cultural expectations. Yu shows how individuals engaged in acts of self-inflicted violence to exercise power and to affect society, by articulating moral values, reinstituting order, forging new social relations, and protecting against the threat of moral ambiguity. Self-inflicted violence was intelligible both to the person doing the act and to those who viewed and interpreted it, regardless of the various religions of the period: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and other religions. Self-inflicted violence as a category reveals scholarly biases that tend to marginalize or exaggerate certain phenomena in Chinese culture. Yu offers a groundbreaking contribution to scholarship on bodily practices in late imperial China, challenging preconceived ideas about analytic categories of religion, culture, and ritual in the study of Chinese religions.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	May 2012
First published:	April 2012
Authors:	Jimmy Yu (Sheng Yen Assistant Professor of Chinese Buddhist Studies)
Dimensions:	234 x 156 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	288
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-984490-6
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1500 to 1750 Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > History of religion Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Religious intolerance, persecution & conflict > General Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General Books > History > World history > 1500 to 1750 Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > History of religion Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > Religious intolerance, persecution & conflict > General
LSN:	0-19-984490-9
Barcode:	9780199844906

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