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To the Victorians, the Chinese were invariably "inscrutable." The
meaning and provenance of this impression--and, most importantly,
its workings in nineteenth-century Protestant missionary encounters
with Chinese religion--are at the center of Eric Reinders's
Borrowed Gods and Foreign Bodies, an enlightening look at how
missionaries' religious identity, experience, and physical
foreignness produced certain representations of China between 1807
and 1937. Reinders first introduces the imaginative world of
Victorian missionaries and outlines their application of mind-body
dualism to the dualism of self and other. He then explores Western
views of the Chinese language, especially ritual language, and
Chinese ritual, particularly the kow-tow. His work offers
surprising and valuable insight into the visceral nature of the
Victorian response to the Chinese--and, more generally, into the
nineteenth-century Western representation of China.
The most common Buddhist practice in Asia is bowing, yet Buddhist
and Christian Responses to the Kowtow Problem is the first study of
Buddhist obeisance in China. In Confucian ritual, everyone is
supposed to kowtow, or bow, to the Chinese emperor. But Buddhists
claimed exemption from bowing to any layperson, even to their own
parents or the emperor. This tension erupted in an imperial debate
in 662. This study first asks how and why Buddhists should bow (to
the Buddha, and to monks), and then explores the arguments over
their refusing to bow to the emperor. These arguments take us into
the core ideas of Buddhism and imperial power: How can one achieve
nirvana by bowing? What is a Buddha image? Who is it that bows? Is
there any ritual that can exempt a subject of the emperor? What are
the limits of the state's power over human bodies? Centuries later,
Christians had a new set of problems with bowing in China, to the
emperor and to "idols." Buddhist and Christian Responses to the
Kowtow problem compares these cases of refusing to bow, discusses
modern theories of obeisance, and finally moves to examine some
contemporary analogies such as refusing to salute the American
flag. Contributing greatly to the study of the body and power,
ritual, religion and material culture, this volume is of interest
to scholars and students of religious studies, Buddhism, Chinese
history and material culture.
The most common Buddhist practice in Asia is bowing, yet Buddhist
and Christian Responses to the Kowtow Problem is the first study of
Buddhist obeisance in China. In Confucian ritual, everyone is
supposed to kowtow, or bow, to the Chinese emperor. But Buddhists
claimed exemption from bowing to any layperson, even to their own
parents or the emperor. This tension erupted in an imperial debate
in 662. This study first asks how and why Buddhists should bow (to
the Buddha, and to monks), and then explores the arguments over
their refusing to bow to the emperor. These arguments take us into
the core ideas of Buddhism and imperial power: How can one achieve
nirvana by bowing? What is a Buddha image? Who is it that bows? Is
there any ritual that can exempt a subject of the emperor? What are
the limits of the state's power over human bodies? Centuries later,
Christians had a new set of problems with bowing in China, to the
emperor and to "idols." Buddhist and Christian Responses to the
Kowtow problem compares these cases of refusing to bow, discusses
modern theories of obeisance, and finally moves to examine some
contemporary analogies such as refusing to salute the American
flag. Contributing greatly to the study of the body and power,
ritual, religion and material culture, this volume is of interest
to scholars and students of religious studies, Buddhism, Chinese
history and material culture.
This is a cross-cultural study of the multifaceted relations
between Buddhism, its materiality, and instances of religious
violence and destruction in East Asia, which remains a vast and
still largely unexplored field of inquiry. Material objects are
extremely important not just for Buddhist practice, but also for
the conceptualization of Buddhist doctrines; yet, Buddhism
developed ambivalent attitudes towards such need for objects, and
an awareness that even the most sacred objects could be destroyed.
After outlining Buddhist attitudes towards materiality and its
vulnerability, the authors propose a different and more inclusive
definition of iconoclasm-a notion that is normally not employed in
discussions of East Asian religions. Case studies of religious
destruction in East Asia are presented, together with a new
theoretical framework drawn from semiotics and cultural studies, to
address more general issues related to cultural value, sacredness,
and destruction, in an attempt to understand instances in which the
status and the meaning of the sacred in any given culture is
questioned, contested, and ultimately denied, and how religious
institutions react to those challenges.
Widely regarded as Japan's greatest animated director, Hayao
Miyazaki creates films lauded for vibrant characters and meaningful
narrative themes. Examining the messages of his 10 full-length
films-from Nausicaa (1984) to The Wind Rises (2013)-this study
analyzes each for its religious, philosophical and ethical
implications. Miyazaki's work addresses a coherent set of human
concerns, including adolescence, good and evil, our relationship to
the past, our place in the natural order, and the problems of
living in a complex and ambiguous world. Exhibiting religious
influences without religious endorsement, his films enjoin
nonjudgment and perseverance in everyday life.
This is a cross-cultural study of the multifaceted relations
between Buddhism, its materiality, and instances of religious
violence and destruction in East Asia, which remains a vast and
still largely unexplored field of inquiry. Material objects are
extremely important not just for Buddhist practice, but also for
the conceptualization of Buddhist doctrines; yet, Buddhism
developed ambivalent attitudes towards such need for objects, and
an awareness that even the most sacred objects could be destroyed.
After outlining Buddhist attitudes towards materiality and its
vulnerability, the authors propose a different and more inclusive
definition of iconoclasm-a notion that is normally not employed in
discussions of East Asian religions. Case studies of religious
destruction in East Asia are presented, together with a new
theoretical framework drawn from semiotics and cultural studies, to
address more general issues related to cultural value, sacredness,
and destruction, in an attempt to understand instances in which the
status and the meaning of the sacred in any given culture is
questioned, contested, and ultimately denied, and how religious
institutions react to those challenges.
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