Of Tripod and Palate

Of Tripod and Palate PDF Author: R. Sterckx
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403979278
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Attitudes toward food and commensality constituted a central fiber in the social, religious, and political fabric of ancient Chinese society. The offering of sacrifices, the banqueting of guests, and the ritual preparation, prohibition or consumption of food and drink were central elements in each of China's three main religious traditions: the Classicist (Confucian) tradition, religious Daoism, and Buddhism. What links late Shang and Zhou bronze vessels to Buddhist dietary codes or Daoist recipes for immortality is a poignant testimony that culinary activity - fasting and feasting - governed not only human relationships but also fermented the communication between humans and the spirit world. In Of Tripod and Palate leading scholars examine the relationship between secular and religious food culture in ancient China from various perspectives.

Of Tripod and Palate

Of Tripod and Palate PDF Author: R. Sterckx
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781403963376
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Attitudes toward food and commensality constituted a central fiber in the social, religious, and political fabric of ancient Chinese society. The offering of sacrifices, the banqueting of guests, and the ritual preparation, prohibition or consumption of food and drink were central elements in each of China's three main religious traditions: the Classicist (Confucian) tradition, religious Daoism, and Buddhism. What links late Shang and Zhou bronze vessels to Buddhist dietary codes or Daoist recipes for immortality is a poignant testimony that culinary activity - fasting and feasting - governed not only human relationships but also fermented the communication between humans and the spirit world. In Of Tripod and Palate leading scholars examine the relationship between secular and religious food culture in ancient China from various perspectives.

Modeling Peace

Modeling Peace PDF Author: Jie Shi
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231549202
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
Among hundreds of thousands of ancient graves and tombs excavated to date in China, the Mancheng site stands out for its unparalleled complexity and richness. It features juxtaposed burials of the first king and queen of the Zhongshan kingdom (dated late second century BCE). The male tomb occupant, King Liu Sheng (d. 113 BCE), was sent by his father, Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE), to rule the Zhongshan kingdom near the northern frontier of the Western Han Empire, neighboring the nomadic Xiongnu confederation. Modeling Peace interprets Western Han royal burial as a political ideology by closely reading the architecture and funerary content of this site and situating it in the historical context of imperialization in Western Han China. Through a study of both the archaeological materials and related received and excavated texts, Jie Shi demonstrates that the Mancheng site was planned and designed as a unity of religious, gender, and intercultural concerns. The site was built under the supervision of the future occupants of the royal tomb, who used these burials to assert their political ideology based on Huang-Lao and Confucian thought: a good ruler is one who pacifies himself, his family, and his country. This book is the first scholarly monograph on an undisturbed and fully excavated early Chinese royal burial site.

Chinese Buddhism and the Scholarship of Erik Zürcher

Chinese Buddhism and the Scholarship of Erik Zürcher PDF Author: Jonathan A. Silk
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004522158
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Book Description
Since Erik Zürcher's landmark Buddhist Conquest of China, the study of earlier phases of Chinese Buddhist history has made great progress with new materials, new interpretations and new problematizations. This volume brings together 12 contributions from the leading scholars in the field offering new perspectives on this old tradition.

The Monkey and the Inkpot

The Monkey and the Inkpot PDF Author: Carla Nappi
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674054350
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
This is the story of a Chinese doctor, his book, and the creatures that danced within its pages. The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518 - 1593). In the first book-length study in English of Li's text, Carla Nappi reveals a "cabinet of curiosities" of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs.

Scribes of Gastronomy

Scribes of Gastronomy PDF Author: Isaac Yue
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888139983
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 173

Book Description
The culture of food and drink occupies a central role in the development of Chinese civilization, and the language of gastronomy has been a vital theme in a range of literary productions. From stanzas on food and wine in the Classics of Poetry to the articulation of refined dining in The Dream of the Red Chamber and Su Shi’s literary recipe for attaining culinary perfection, lavish textual representations help explain the unique appeal of food and its overwhelming cultural significance within Chinese society. These eight essays offer a colorful tour of Chinese gourmands whose work exemplifies the interrelationships of social and literary history surrounding food, with careful explication of such topics as the importance of tea in poetry, “the morality of drunkenness,” and food’s role in objectifying women.

Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China

Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China PDF Author: Roel Sterckx
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139495445
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
In ancient China, the preparation of food and the offering up of food as a religious sacrifice were intimately connected with models of sagehood and ideas of self-cultivation and morality. Drawing on received and newly excavated written sources, Roel Sterckx's book explores how this vibrant culture influenced the ways in which the early Chinese explained the workings of the human senses, and the role of sensory experience in communicating with the spirit world. The book, which begins with a survey of dietary culture from the Zhou to the Han, offers intriguing insights into the ritual preparation of food - some butchers and cooks were highly regarded and would rise to positions of influence as a result of their culinary skills - and the sacrificial ceremony itself. As a major contribution to the study of early China and to the development of philosophical thought, the book will be essential reading for students of the period, and for anyone interested in ritual and religion in the ancient world.

A Source Book in Chinese Longevity

A Source Book in Chinese Longevity PDF Author: Livia Kohn
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1931483221
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
People today live longer than in any time in history and they want to stay young and active for many years to come. The Chinese have successfully practiced longevity techniques for millennia, working with process-oriented and energy-based methods. Their literature is full of essential insights and practical guidelines to longer, healthier, and happier lives. This is the first comprehensive collection of traditional longevity sources in English translation. Arranged chronologically, it presents materials from ancient medical manuscripts through medieval manuals and Daoist scriptures to late imperial works that specifically focus on women. Well organized and illustrated, it provides easy access to a treasure trove of information, fascinating to scholars, practitioners, and lay readers alike.

Chinese Buddhism in Catholic Philippines

Chinese Buddhism in Catholic Philippines PDF Author: Ari C. Dy
Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 9712732010
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
Drawing on his personal experience of growing up exposed to the rituals of Chinese Buddhism, and yet embracing Catholicism and being ordained a Jesuit priest, Fr. Ari Dy ventures to examine Chinese Buddhism in the Philippines, analyzing its adaptation to the Philippines and its contribution to conceptions of Chinese identity.

Signs from the Unseen Realm

Signs from the Unseen Realm PDF Author: Robert Ford Campany
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865715
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
In early medieval China hundreds of Buddhist miracle texts were circulated, inaugurating a trend that would continue for centuries. Each tale recounted extraordinary events involving Chinese persons and places—events seen as verifying claims made in Buddhist scriptures, demonstrating the reality of karmic retribution, or confirming the efficacy of Buddhist devotional practices. Robert Ford Campany, one of North America’s preeminent scholars of Chinese religion, presents in this volume the first complete, annotated translation, with in-depth commentary, of the largest extant collection of miracle tales from the early medieval period, Wang Yan’s Records of Signs from the Unseen Realm, compiled around 490 C.E. In addition to the translation, Campany provides a substantial study of the text and its author in their historical and religious settings. He shows how these lively tales helped integrate Buddhism into Chinese society at the same time that they served as platforms for religious contestation and persuasion. Campany offers a nuanced, clear methodological discussion of how such narratives, being products of social memory, may be read as valuable evidence for the history of religion and culture. Readers interested in Buddhism; historians of Chinese religions, culture, society, and literature; scholars of comparative religion: All will find Signs from the Unseen Realm a stimulating and rich contribution to scholarship.