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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
This dissertation is the first detailed and extensive study dedicated to the life and art of the master artist and scholar-official Chen Rong (active 13th century), and offers an expanded analysis of his most famous work, the Nine Dragons scroll (1244). It provides a reconstruction of Chen Rong's biography, character and political career, and discusses his significance and impact in the study of Chinese painting during the late Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) and beyond, by highlighting the reception and interpretation of the Nine Dragons scroll in the past and in modern times. This is achieved by addressing writings such as eulogies, poems and commentary about Chen Rong by his contemporaries and later biographers, and also analysis of recent works by contemporary Chinese artists that reinterpret Chen Rong's Nine Dragons motif directly. In addition to offering an expanded reading and interpretation of Chen Rong's inscriptions on the Nine Dragons scroll and inscriptions by subsequent viewers of the scroll, this study sheds light on the artistic context, significance, and historical development of dragons and dragon painting in China. This dissertation also offers the first full English transcription and translation of Emperor Qianlong's inscription on the Nine Dragons scroll, and that of his eight officials. Furthermore, this dissertation includes two detailed appendices; one is a detailed appendix of all of Chen Rong's paintings documented to exist today, and the second is a list of paintings attributed to Chen Rong that have been mentioned in historical documents that no longer appear extant. This interdisciplinary study provides insight into the processes that influence how an artist's work is transformed beyond his time to that of legendary status. This clarification of Chen Rong's biography and artistic activity, particularly with respect to his most famous work the Nine Dragons scroll, contributes to modern scholarship by providing an expanded understanding of Chen Rong's life and art, which in turn, adjusts prevailing perceptions of his life and work.
ContributorsChao, Jacqueline (Author) / Brown, Claudia (Thesis advisor) / Codell, Julie (Committee member) / Baker, Janet (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation analyzes the way in which leaders of certain Taiwanese Buddhist organizations associated with a strand of Buddhist modernism called "humanistic Buddhism" use discourse and rhetoric to make environmentalism meaningful to their members. It begins with an assessment of the field of religion and ecology, situating it in the context of secular environmental ethics. It identifies rhetoric and discourse as important but under acknowledged elements in literature on environmental ethics, both religious and secular, and relates this lack of attention to rhetoric to the presence of a problematic gap between environmental ethics theory and environmentalist practice. This dissertation develops a methodology of rhetorical analysis that seeks to assess how rhetoric contributes to alleviating this gap in religious environmentalism. In particular, this dissertation analyzes the development of environmentalism as a major element of humanistic Buddhist groups in Taiwan and seeks to show that a rhetorical analysis helps demonstrate how these organizations have sought to make environmentalism a meaningful subject of contemporary Buddhist religiosity. This dissertation will present an extended analysis of the concept of "spiritual environmentalism," a term developed and promoted by the late Ven. Shengyan (1930-2009), founder of the Taiwanese Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain. Furthermore, this dissertation suggests that the rhetorical methodology proposed herein offers offers a direction for scholars to more effectively engage with religion and ecology in ways that address both descriptive/analytic approaches and constructive engagements with various forms of religious environmentalism.
ContributorsClippard, Seth (Author) / Chen, Huaiyu (Thesis advisor) / Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (Committee member) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Tillman, Hoyt (Committee member) / Minteer, Ben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The Vimalakirti Sutra is one of the classics of early Indian Mahayana Buddhism. The sutra narrates that Vimalakirti, an enlightened layman, once made it appear as if he were sick so that he could demonstrate the Law of Mahayana Buddhism to various figures coming to inquire about his illness. This dissertation studies representations of The Vimalakirti Sutra in Chinese painting from the fourth to the nineteenth centuries to explore how visualizations of the same text could vary in different periods of time in light of specific artistic, social and religious contexts. In this project, about forty artists who have been recorded representing the sutra in traditional Chinese art criticism and catalogues are identified and discussed in a single study for the first time. A parallel study of recorded paintings and some extant ones of the same period includes six aspects: text content represented, mode of representation, iconography, geographical location, format, and identity of the painter. This systematic examination reveals that two main representational modes have formed in the Six Dynasties period (220-589): depictions of the Great Layman as a single image created by Gu Kaizhi, and narrative illustrations of the sutra initiated by Yuan Qian and his teacher Lu Tanwei. The latter mode, which became more popular than the former in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), experienced adaptation from handscroll to panoramic mural. It is also during this period that a minor scenario, the Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers, became a necessary vignette for representation of the sutra. Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers gradually became an independent theme. This author investigates the thematic shift caused by various factors. These include the transformation of later Chinese narrative painting and the prevalence of shinu hua 仕女畫, painting of beauties, in later Chinese painting. There is also a change in the role of the Heavenly Maiden from one of many maidens to the only and necessary partner of Vimalakirti. Ultimately, the image of the Heavenly Maiden evolves from a Buddhist heavenly being to a Daoist fairy and later to a symbol representing auspicious meanings.
ContributorsLiu, Chen (Author) / Brown, Claudia (Thesis advisor) / Chou, Ju-hsi (Committee member) / Wu, Jiang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study focuses on the Black Tiger Cult in Anze, Shanxi from the 17th to the 21stcentury and explores changing human-tiger relationships as well as the localization of canonical traditions. Drawing upon local gazetteers, scholar-officials' petitions, canonical texts, stele inscriptions, and temple murals in the area, this study sheds new light on relations among animals, humans, and gods through the deification of the black tiger. While the harsh natural environment intensified conflicts between humans and tigers, the rise of the Black Tiger Cult in local communities helped ease these ecological and social conflicts during the late-imperial era. As the cult gradually established its presence to serve spiritual and practical needs of local people, its practice complemented the mainstream religious communities and state-sponsored sacrificial rituals. The Black Tiger Cult brought together communities and the state power by providing them a space to express and negotiate their spiritual, political, agricultural, and cultural interests. This study also offers a comparative perspective on the Black Tiger Cult in North China and the Tiger Lord Cult in Taiwan during modern times. Different levels of connections between these cults and the historical memory of human-tiger conflicts may contribute to the reinvention of the deified tiger and its relationship with contemporary people. This study argues that the deification of tigers did not elevate the position of animals higher than that of human beings. The establishment of Black Tiger Temples likely changed the local distribution of tigers. Moreover, although traditions of tiger gods vary in different regions and times, they share similar cultural elements that have been interwoven with local human-tiger/animal relationships.
ContributorsZhang, Shuran (Author) / Chen, Huaiyu (Thesis advisor) / Tillman, Hoyt C (Committee member) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This dissertation discusses how Confucianism was invented as the basis for culturalidentity of East Asia and how the “Confucian” Classics were circulated and translated in and beyond China proper. Penetrating the compelling forces behind four well-known and widely used texts—the Shijing, the Hanshu, the Shuowen jiezi, and the Erya—in relation to the power dynamics and negotiations among their writers and others in their times, this dissertation follows two tracks. The first investigates how the Classics—which were shared heritages in the pre-Han period (<202 B.C.E.)—became Confucian cultural capital, on the one hand, and how Confucius and his followers were described as authoritative transmitters of ancient culture and martyrs on orders from “anti-traditional” emperors (such as the China’s first Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi), on the other hand. These four early texts, therefore, set forth the framework within which later Confucian intellectuals studied the Classics and the ancient knowledge therein, and also understood their relationship with state power. The second track explores these texts’ Sinocentric and pedantic attitude toward the circulation of the Confucian Classics among people and cultural “Others” who lacked training in the archaic language of the Classics. Nowadays, in light of the fact that the Confucian Classics have become required texts in the curriculum of national learning in the People's Republic of China (PRC), this dissertation provides a lens through which one can see more clearly how Confucianism becomes part of nation building, even in the contemporary world.
ContributorsChik, Hin Ming Frankie (Author) / Tillman, Hoyt (Thesis advisor) / Oh, Young (Committee member) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / West, Stephen (Committee member) / Williams, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
This dissertation studies the artist Wang Hui 王翬 (1632-1717) from the perspective of his friendship with Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633-1690). Both artists are famous for their paintings in the early Qing dynasty. The work of Wang Hui has received considerable scholarly attention. This dissertation, however, will take a new approach to his work. A major aspect of the research is to examine the collaborative work by Wang Hui and Yun Shouping and the inscriptions written by both of them as primary sources, in an attempt to illuminate the artist’s theory and practice of art. Far from denying the artist’s talent, the emphasis on friendship enriches the exploration of the artist’s possible perception which reinforced his expression through art and situates the artist in his time and place. With elegant gatherings, travels, in-depth discussions, and collaborative art creations, this close friendship amplified Wang Hui’s talent by way of mutual inspiration, and provided the artist with confirmation of his own views, as well as a source of different yet constructive opinions that only a close friend could give. There have been many studies of artists as individual geniuses. In contrast, this study offers the exploration of a friendship between artists that led to new accomplishments. By viewing the artist and his artwork from the perspective of artists’ interactions, I intend to describe and explain early modern painting-related activities in terms of their fundamental connection with human relationships. I argue that painting, especially in the formats and social functions developed in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, played an essential role in the lives of artists in the early modern period. By emphasizing perceptual experience and creative process, I intend to underline the deep connection between art and life.
ContributorsSheng, Xiao (Author) / Brown, Claudia (Thesis advisor) / Baker, Janet (Committee member) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This study explores the Free Funeral Service Societies, a social movement in Myanmar merging charitable work with Buddhism. Originating in late 1990s in response to rising funeral costs from urban development, these groups expanded into a network providing various services rooted in the principle of parahita, or the welfare of others. Unlike prior research on Myanmar focusing on apolitical social services to carve out a public space for independent actions amidst oppressive military rule, this study delves into how the Free Funeral Service Movement redefines social services as Buddhist meritorious acts, therefore summoning lay Buddhists to acknowledge their social obligations toward the welfare of others and form themselves into pious subjects through parahita work. Lay Buddhists from all walks of life devote their spare time to parahita social services, particularly free funeral services, treating them as a body of technologies of the self (in Michel Foucault’s terms) for Buddhist self-formation of pious subjects through merit-making, cultivation of virtues, and death preparation.Contrary to the predominant focus on the exchange of material donations for merit in studies of Buddhist giving and merit-making, this study highlights how parahita workers seek not only merit but also the cultivation of piety, defined as virtuous dispositions and habits, through their parahita social services. The virtues nurtured through dedication to the common goods serve also to moralize the distinctive leadership role assumed by parahita workers in public life, their moral and affective connection with the public, and their implicit critique of the state’s failure in social welfare provision.
Additionally, this research contributes to the understanding of death and dying in Theravāda Buddhism by illuminating localized Buddhist experiences and practices associated with death preparation. Free funeral services offer ample opportunities for Buddhists to confront their mortality by inducing a heightened emotional state of fear, shock, and agitation, namely saṃvega, through encounters with states of suffering and especially death. Parahita workers’ interpretations of their experience of saṃvega reflect both traditional soteriological concerns with attaining enlightenment to escape suffering and a newfound ethical imperative to alleviate the suffering of others, thereby opening up new ethical pathways in public social life.
ContributorsHsu, Mu-Lung (Author) / Schober, Juliane (Thesis advisor) / Henn, Alexander (Committee member) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
This dissertation examines the development of a singular ritual tradition—the “rites of summoning for interrogation” (kaozhao fa考召法)—from its earliest traces during the Han (2nd century CE) to its full-flowering as a ritual specialty by the end of the Tang (618–907) by drawing upon both esoteric Daoist texts as well as anecdotal materials from the period. Practitioners of this tradition, termed “Ritual Masters of Summoning for Interrogation” (kaozhao fashi), identified as constituents of a larger celestial surveillatory bureaucracy and drew upon its authority to cure disease, exorcize spirits, mend rifts in the community, and even determine marriage compatibility. They did so by utilizing a range of ritualistic practices drawn from the earlier Celestial Master (Zhengyi 正一) and Upper Purity (Shangqing 上清) traditions, such as visualizations, incantations, ritualized pacing, and the talismanic arts. Such practices became widespread in the Song dynasty (960–1279) and were broadly adapted by Daoist movements of the period such as the Orthodox Methods of the Celestial Heart (Tianxin zhengfa 天心正法. In Chapter 1, I trace the origins of kaozhao back to the Han, where they—along with similar exorcistic traditions—drew inspiration from the bureaucratic argot and juridical stylings of officialdom. In Chapter 2, I posit a timeline for the development of kaozhao through the examination of ritual registers and situate the practice in context of the ritual landscape of 8th century China. Chapter 3 details the construction of the kaozhao practitioner’s identity, lineage, and history in the pages of a Tang-era ritual manual, the Jinsuo liuzhu yin 金鎖流珠引. This text provides the earliest categorization of kaozhao—dividing it into a binary of “civil” (wen 文) and “martial” (wu 武) practices—the combination of which were required to attain a new form of communal transcendence called “raising the residence” (bazhai 拔宅). Finally, I demonstrate how the kaozhao rite of “patrolling” (xunyou 巡遊), located therein, recast practitioners as celestial equivalents of the itinerant surveillance commissioners of the Tang, broadening their mandate as ritual polymaths.
ContributorsWolf, Lucas A (Author) / Bokenkamp, Stephen R (Thesis advisor) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / West, Stephen H (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
This dissertation challenges the conventional understanding that Song dynasty China (960–1279) was a period when Confucianism was placed at the center of governance. Bringing heretofore inadequately studied Buddhist and Daoist texts into discussion, it offers three case studies on interrelationships between Song emperors and the Three Teachings of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. As shown in all three cases, although a religious campaign directed by the emperor and his institutional apparatus could set out under the influence of a certain teaching/religion, the campaign’s outcome at the state level would often be a fusion of various religious and cultural components. My research suggests that Song emperors employed an eclectic strategy in selecting and utilizing elements from the Three Teachings and attempted to build an imperial religion centered around themselves. As such, Song imperial power emerged as a centripetal force that compelled the Three Teachings to tailor themselves to the imperial religion. Therefore, I term the Song imperial court as a “regulated syncretic field” where segments from different religious traditions became amalgamated into religious/ritualistic entities that served imperial visions of the time. Although proponents of the Three Teachings by and large continued their efforts to gain imperial acceptance of their teachings, they often turned to local society to ensure their authority when their efforts at the court failed. Further, I argue that such phenomena were rooted in the mechanism of patriarchal governance in which the emperor considered themselves and was considered by leaders of the Three Teachings to be the patriarch of his household/empire, who was responsible for balancing the power structure among the Three Teachings.
ContributorsLi, Jiangnan (Author) / Tillman, Hoyt (Thesis advisor) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / Hartman, Charles (Committee member) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This dissertation will examine particular aspects of Yuan and Qing dynasty Chinese art historiography and argue that Chinese artistic creation is built on a transreligious and transethnic aesthetic, rather than an aesthetic centered on a single unitary culture. My project has two primary goals. The first is to propose that transreligious and transethnic factors fundamentally altered Chinese aesthetics, and discuss specifically what those changes were. The second goal of this dissertation is to evaluate the importance of interdisciplinary research approaches — including literature, ceremonial traditions, religious scriptures, and multiethnic material culture — to the study of art history, and specifically to non-Han Chinese art historiography. By studying four artists of different ethnic backgrounds — Uyghur (Gao Kegong, 1248–1310), Nepali (Anige, 1245–1306), Manchu (Manggūri, 1672–1736) and Mongol (Fashishan, 1753–1813) — this dissertation intends to answer several questions: how did these artists’ native cultural and religious aesthetics influence their artworks? Might further examination of the transethnic and transreligious aspects of later Imperial artistic production bring new focus to previously unnoticed aspects of Chinese art? And, on the individual level, what new insights can be uncovered when art historians consider the works of a non-Han Chinese artist from these transethnic and transreligious perspectives? The materials used for this research include a close visual study of artworks from the Rubin Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
ContributorsAIERKEN, YIPAER (Author) / Brown, Claudia (Thesis advisor, Committee member) / Berger, Patricia (Committee member) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Codell, Julie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023