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- All Subjects: China
- Creators: Bokenkamp, Stephen
Description
This is a comparative study of two advanced ordination rituals, Daoist chuanshou (conferral of ordination rank) and Buddhist abhiṣeka (guanding) in the mid-late Tang and Five Dynasties (763-979). I analyzed a number of not-well-studied Daoist ritual protocols in the early medieval period, and revealed that rituals recast gender and fostered monastic relations. On the other hand, relying on both canonical materials and a manuscript preserved in Japan that recorded an abhiṣeka performed during the Tang dynasty in 839 C.E., I demonstrated how the canonical prescriptions of Indian origin, with modified actions and reinterpreted meaning, were transformed to respond to the Chinese religious and social environment. Having examined the language of the texts and the step of the rituals, I interpreted how these rituals were made sense in their own religious context, and compared their frame, structure, modality, symbol, and meaning.
Ordination rite concerns the transmission of religious knowledge and authority, and the establishment of religious identity. It is in the relationship between the individual body and the community that Daoists and Buddhists found the form of apprenticeship that led to the embodiment of the community. The mastery of religious knowledge within the community––scriptures, register, mantras, and precepts, etc., was known only through the actual ritual practice. In other words, the ritual body became the locus for coordination of all levels of bodily, social, and cosmological experience via the dialectic of objectification and embodiment in the ordination rites. As the ritualized bodies, those who were ordained coherently comprised the community, which in turn remolded them with dynamically and diversely shaped identities.
Ordination rite concerns the transmission of religious knowledge and authority, and the establishment of religious identity. It is in the relationship between the individual body and the community that Daoists and Buddhists found the form of apprenticeship that led to the embodiment of the community. The mastery of religious knowledge within the community––scriptures, register, mantras, and precepts, etc., was known only through the actual ritual practice. In other words, the ritual body became the locus for coordination of all levels of bodily, social, and cosmological experience via the dialectic of objectification and embodiment in the ordination rites. As the ritualized bodies, those who were ordained coherently comprised the community, which in turn remolded them with dynamically and diversely shaped identities.
ContributorsWu, Yang, Ph.D (Author) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Tillman, Hoyt (Thesis advisor) / Cutter, Robert Joe (Committee member) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Sacred apocalyptic texts claim to foretell coming events, warning the faithful of some terrible fate that lies beyond the present. Such texts often derive their power from successfully recasting past events in such a way as they appear to be "predicted" by the text and thus take on additional meanings beyond the superficial. This ex eventu status allows apocalyptic texts to increase the credibility of their future predictions and connect emotionally with the reader by playing on present fears. The fifth-century Daoist apocalyptic text, the Scripture on the Cycles of Heaven and Earth (Tiandi yundu jing, 天地運度經), is no exception. This thesis examines the apocalyptic markers in the poetic sections of the text, attempting to develop a strategy for separating the generic imagery (both to Chinese texts and the apocalyptic literary genre as a whole) from the more significant recoverable references to contemporary events such as the fall of the Jin dynasty and the subsequent founding of the Liu-Song dynasty.
ContributorsBussio, Jennifer Jean (Author) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / Cutter, Robert J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
A Foreigner's Guide to China, a creative project, is a short novel that blends cultural analysis and linguistic study in a collective investigation of modern China. As China grows at an unprecedented pace, many Americans still remain ignorant of life and development in a foreign place on the other side of the world. The project is an attempt to help mesh cultural lines and aid students, travelers, and businesspeople travelling to China for the first time. Therefore, the main goal of the entire project is to provide an actual guidebook that can be read prior to going to China or while in the country. The project is divided into two main types of chapters: cultural analysis and advice giving on day to day life in China, and linguistic study that adopts a more academic approach. Both types of chapters use my personal anecdotes to give both context and a sense of reality to the advice I include in the project. While very different in their styles, the two types of chapters ultimately work towards the same end: explaining differences and similarities between Chinese and American cultures, and giving a cultural opening from which to expand understanding. The novel is written in a lighthearted and humorous tone that attempts to soften the often seemingly offensive overtone that appears when analyzing cultures side by side. Topics include landing advice, transportation, cuisine, working life, and school life, as well as Mandarin Chinese tones, politeness, and dialects. Overall, the project has a more cultural outlook with a heavier focus on those sections.
ContributorsDaliere, Andrew John (Author) / Oh, Young (Thesis director) / Lyon, Mich (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12