Download Free Purposes Means And Convictions In Daoism Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Purposes Means And Convictions In Daoism and write the review.

Purposes, Means and Convictions in Daoism. A Berlin Symposium (II)" contains twelve articles that represent contributions of international scholars who specialise in studies of religious Daoism. In 2005 they participated in a symposium with the same title that the Seminar fur Sinologie at Humboldt-University (Berlin) staged with the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG/Bonn). The two parts of the book, Historical and Ritual Traditions (I) and Varieties of Religious Activities and Functions (II), mirror the understanding of the basic themes as developed during the symposium and the ensuing discussions. The articles cover periods and developments from the beginning of the religious Daoism up to the late 19th century. The four Chinese contributions are accompanied by English summaries.
At the core of Daoism are ancient ideas concerning the Way, the fundamental process of existence (the Dao). Humans, as individuals and as a society, should be aligned with the Dao in order to attain the fullness of life and its potential. This book presents the history of early Daoism, tracing the development of the tradition between the first and the fifth centuries CE. This book discusses the emergence of several Daoist movements during this period, including the relatively well-known Way of the Celestial Master that appeared in the second century, and the Upper Clarity and the Numinous Treasure lineages that appeared in the fourth century. These labels are very difficult to determine socially, and they obscure the social reality of early medieval China, that included many more lineages. This book argues that these lineages should be understood as narrowly defined associations of masters and disciples, and it goes on to describe these diverse social groupings as ‘communities of practice’. Shedding new light on a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, the formation of Daoism as a new religion in early medieval China, this book presents a major step forward in Daoist Studies.
Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic presents most basic concepts and practices of Thunder Magic (Wu-lei fa). In the Song period (12th ct.) Wu-lei fa was a label given to a vast section of specialised ritual practices in religious Taoism. These rituals incorporated and continued older exorcist ways and means that were part of the practical range of religious Taoisms, meeting the demands of an agrarian society that suffered from natural disasters (for example droughts and inundations). Thunder specialist were asked to pray for rain or clear skies, disperse demoniac molestations and ensure a harmonious life. The book is largely based on materials attributed to the school of Wang Wen-ch'ing who was a famous promoter of Wu-lei fa at the court of emperor Sung Hui-tsung. Wang Wen-ch' ing and his followers succeeded in combining the southern traditions of internal alchemy (nei-tan) with exorcist practices. These Taoists also attempted to work out and describe the scientific foundation of Thunder Magic rituals (Wu-lei fa) in terms of astronomy and other emblematic expressions. The theoretical and actual sublimation of exorcist practices was in tune with scholarly tendencies and standards of the time. It was also an attempt to gain or bolster official acceptance.
After the Warring States, treated in Part One of this set, there is no more fecund era in Chinese religious and cultural history than the period of division (220-589 AD). During it, Buddhism conquered China, Daoism grew into a mature religion with independent institutions, and, together with Confucianism, these three teachings, having each won its share of state recognition and support, formed a united front against shamanism. While all four religions are covered, Buddhism and Daoism receive special attention in a series of parallel chapters on their pantheons, rituals, sacred geography, community organization, canon formation, impact on literature, and recent archaeological discoveries. This multi-disciplinary approach, without ignoring philosophical and theological issues, brings into sharp focus the social and historical matrices of Chinese religion.
Over the last 40 years, our vision of Chinese culture and history has been transformed by the discovery of the role of religion in Chinese state-making and in local society. The Daoist religion, in particular, long despised as "superstitious," has recovered its place as "the native higher religion." But while the Chinese state tried from the fifth century on to construct an orthodoxy based on Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, local society everywhere carved out for itself its own geomantically defined space and organized itself around local festivals in honor of gods of its own choosing-gods who were often invented and then represented by illiterate mediums. Looking at China from the point of view of elite or popular culture therefore produces very different results.--John Lagerwey has done extensive fieldwork on local society and its festivals. This book represents a first attempt to use this new research to integrate top-down and bottom-up views of Chinese society, culture, and history. It should be of interest to a wide range of China specialists, students of religion and popular culture, as well as participants in the ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue between historians and anthropologists.--John Lagerwey is professor of Daoist history at the ?cole Pratique des Hautes ?tudes and of Chinese studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is author of Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History and editor of the 30-volume "Traditional Hakka Society Series" as well as the recently published four-volume set Early Chinese Religion.-----
From the fifth century BC to the present and dealing with the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) as well as popular religion, this introduction to the eight-volume Early and Modern Chinese Religion explores key ideas and events in four periods of paradigm shift in the intertwined histories of Chinese religion, politics, and culture. It shows how, in the Chinese church-state, elite processes of rationalization, interiorization, and secularization are at work in every period of major change and how popular religion gradually emerges to a position of dominance by means of a long history of at once resisting, adapting to, and collaborating with elite-driven change. Topics covered include ritual, scripture, philosophy, state policy, medicine, sacred geography, gender, and the economy. It also serves as the basis for an on-line Coursera course.
This volume, the result of an international collaboration of forty scholars, provides a comprehensive resource on Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in their Chinese, Korean, and Japanese contexts from the first few centuries of the common era to the present.
At the origins of the major religious traditions one typically finds a seminal figure. Names such as Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, and Moses are well known, yet their status as "founders" has not gone uncontested. Does Paul deserve the credit for founding Christianity? Is Laozi the father of Daoism, or should that title belong to Zhuangzi? What is at stake, if anything, in debates about the historical Buddha? What assumptions are implicit in the claim that Hinduism is a religion without a founder? The essays in Varieties of Religious Invention do not attempt to settle these perennial arguments. Rather, they consider the subtexts of such debates as an exercise in comparative religion: Who engages in them? To whom do they matter, and when? To what extent are origins thought to define the essence of a religion? When is development in a religious tradition perceived as deviation from its roots? In what ways do arguments about founders serve as proxies for broader cultural, theological, political, or ideological questions? What do they reveal about the ways in which the past is remembered and authority negotiated? Surveying the landscape shaped by these questions within each tradition, the authors provide insights and novel perspectives about the individual religions, and about the study of world religions more generally.
In 142 CE, the divine Lord Lao descended to Mount Cranecall (Sichuan province) to establish a new covenant with humanity through a man named Zhang Ling, the first Celestial Master. Facing an impending apocalypse caused by centuries of sin, Zhang and his descendants forged a communal faith centering on a universal priesthood, strict codes of conduct, and healing through the confession of sins; this faith was based upon a new, bureaucratic relationship with incorruptible supernatural administrators. By the fourth century, Celestial Master Daoism had spread to all parts of China, and has since played a key role in China’s religious and intellectual history. Celestial Masters is the first book in any Western language devoted solely to the founding of the world religion Daoism. It traces the movement from the mid-second century CE through the sixth century, examining all surviving primary documents in both secular and canonical sources to offer a comprehensive account of the development of this poorly understood religion. It also provides a detailed analysis of ritual life within the movement, covering the roles of common believer or Daoist citizen, novice, and priest or libationer.
One of the most magnificent and enduring themes in Chinese painting history can be found depicted in Daoist temples from the local village up to the very capital, viz., the paintings of the Heavenly Court (chaoyuan tu). Surprisingly, its images have remained largely unstudied in Western scholarship. Drawing on a comparative study of four complete sets of wall paintings dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (the oldest examples), and their related images, painting criticism, stele inscriptions, and Daoist ritual manuals, the author offers the first comprehensive study of the historical development, iconography, ritual context, methods of mural design, and the personalisations made by patrons of the four Heavenly Court paintings.