Protecting the Dharma through Calligraphy in Tang China

Protecting the Dharma through Calligraphy in Tang China
Author: Pietro De Laurentis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000488640

This is a study of the earliest and finest collated inscription in the history of Chinese calligraphy, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu 集王聖教序 (Preface to the Sacred Teaching Scriptures Translated by Xuanzang in Wang Xizhi’s Collated Characters), which was erected on January 1, 673. The stele records the two texts written by the Tang emperors Taizong (599–649) and Gaozong (628–683) in honor of the monk Xuanzang (d. 664) and the Buddhist scripture Xin jing (Heart Sutra), collated in the semi-cursive characters of the great master of Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi (303–361). It is thus a Buddhist inscription that combines Buddhist authority, political power, and artistic charm in one single monument. The present book reconstructs the multifaceted context in which the stele was devised, aiming at highlighting the specific role calligraphy played in the propagation and protection of Buddhism in medieval China.

Protecting the Dharma Through Calligraphy in Tang China

Protecting the Dharma Through Calligraphy in Tang China
Author: Pietro De Laurentis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2021
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781003230472

"This is a study of the earliest and finest collated inscription in the history of Chinese calligraphy, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu (Preface to the Sacred Teaching Scriptures Translated by Xuanzang in Wang Xizhi's Collated Characters), which was erected on January 1, 673. The stele records the two texts written by the Tang emperors Taizong (599-649) and Gaozong (628-683) in honor of the monk Xuanzang (d. 664) and the Buddhist scripture Xin jing (Heart Sutra), collated in the semi-cursive characters of the great master of Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi (303-361). It is thus a Buddhist inscription that combines Buddhist authority, political power, and artistic charm in one single monument. The present book reconstructs the multifaceted context in which the stele was devised, aiming at highlighting the specific role calligraphy played in the propagation and protection of Buddhism in medieval China"--

Diamond Sutra Narratives

Diamond Sutra Narratives
Author: Chiew Hui Ho
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 534
Release: 2019-07-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004406727

Contextualizing the sutra within a milieu of intense religious and cultural experimentation, this volume unravels the sudden rise of Diamond Sutra devotion in the Tang dynasty against the backdrop of a range of social, political, and literary activities. Through the translation and exploration of a substantial body of narratives extolling the efficacy of the sutra, it explores the complex social history of lay Buddhism by focusing on how the laity might have conceived of the sutra and devoted themselves to it. Corroborated by various sources, it reveals the cult’s effect on medieval Chinese religiosity in the activities of an empowered laity, who modified and produced parasutraic texts, prompting the monastic establishment to accommodate to the changes they brought about.

The Landscape of Words

The Landscape of Words
Author: Robert E. Harrist
Publisher:
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2008
Genre: Art
ISBN:

This is the first study in a Western language devoted to one of the most visually distinctive features of the landscape in China--moya or moya shike, texts carved into granite boulders and cliffs that are part of the natural terrain at thousands of sites of historic or scenic interest. These inscriptions, carved in large, bold characters, served as a vast repository of texts produced continuously for over two thousand years and constitue an important form of public art. Focusing on the period prior to the eighth century C.E., Harrist demonstrates that the significance of the inscriptions depends on the interaction of words with topography, so that the medium of the written work has transformed geological formations into landscapes of ideological and religious significance.

Tangut Language and Manuscripts: An Introduction

Tangut Language and Manuscripts: An Introduction
Author: Jinbo Shi
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 563
Release: 2020-06-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004414541

In Tangut Language and Manuscripts, Shi Jinbo offers by far the fullest introduction to the Tangut script, grammar and manuscripts, which lay the foundation of historical narratives of Western Xia.

Introducing World Religions

Introducing World Religions
Author: Victoria Kennick Urubshurow
Publisher:
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

A fully comprehensive and new approach to the study of the world's religions which uses a dramatic metaphor to bring the subject alive and to explore players (key figures), the script (foundational texts) and performance (religious practice).

Beijing

Beijing
Author: Chongnian Yan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1989
Genre: Art
ISBN: