scholarly journals The quasi-genderless heresy: The Dhūtaists and Master Jizhao

2004 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
VALENTINA BORETTI
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Chan Buddhism ◽  
Jin Dynasty ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

This paper looks at the professional alternatives that Buddhism offered to women by analysing the important role played by a female master in the as yet little studied Dhūta movement, a form of ‘heretical’ Chan Buddhism that flourished during the final years of the Jin dynasty and afterwards in the Yuan dynasty. By examining the descriptions of female master Jizhao and male master Puguang, as seen in epitaphs composed by officers-literati and preserved in a Bejing gazetteer dating back to the mid-fourteenth century, this paper aims to highlight some features of the Dhūtaists' discourse of femininity and also to point out the differences vis-à-vis orthodox Chan constructs, in order finally to evaluate whether such a discourse could have an influence on the general definitions and content of gender roles.

A Western Organ in Medieval China I. The Chinese Texts

1926 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-211
Author(s):  
A. C. Moule
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Chinese Texts ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

It is well known that the Chinese have had a little organ calledshêngoryüfor many ages, made with bamboo pipes which are fitted with free reeds, and played by suction. The wordsshêngandhuang, the reed, occur in theOdeswhich date from before 500b.c., and are traditionally explained as referring to an instrument like that which is still in use. But attention has not, I think, been called to the fact that a reed organ from the West was brought to China in the thirteenth century, and created so much interest at the time that it was reconstructed to play the Chinese scale. Ten or twelve of these instruments seem to have been made and to have been used in the Imperial orchestra during the Yüan dynasty (1280–1368), but I cannot find that they were used after that period. Three descriptions of theHsing lung shêng, as the organ was named, have been found in books of the fourteenth century, and translations of these are here given, with explanatory notes very kindly contributed by the Reverend Canon F. W. Galpin.

scholarly journals True Identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-119
Author(s):  
Ching-Ling Wang
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Buddhist Painting ◽  
Image Production ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

In the Rijksmuseum collection there is a painting depicting the Buddhist deity Water-Moon Avalokite´svara. The identification and dating of this painting are complex. It had long been considered to be a Chinese work of the Song Dynasty and dated to the twelfth century; later it was regarded as a Chinese work from the Yuan Dynasty and dated to the fourteenth century; more recently opinion shifted and it was seen as a Korean Buddhist painting from the Goryeo Dynasty and dated to the first half of the fourteenth century. This essay aims to serve as a fundamental research by examining the iconography and style of this painting in detail. The author argues on the basis of style that this painting is a late fourteenth-century Japanese hybrid creation that combines both Chinese iconography and the colouring of Chinese Song Buddhist painting with decorative elements of Korean Goryeo Buddhist painting. In light of the recent research into the inter-regional connection of East Asian Buddhist image production, the Rijksmuseum Water-Moon Avalokite´svaraprovides an example of the artistic interactions between China, Korea and Japan in the fourteenth century.

scholarly journals From Military Leaders to Administrative Experts: The Biography of the “Treacherous Minister” Temüder and his Ancestors

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1213-1230
Author(s):  
Wonhee Cho
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Han Chinese ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Fiscal Reform ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

Abstract Temüder (d. 1322) was an influential Mongol official of the Yuan dynasty in the early fourteenth century. The compilers of the Yuanshi listed him as one of the six “treacherous ministers,” and it is easy to simply dismiss him accordingly. However, a closer examination of the life of Temüder himself and his ancestors reveals how the Mongol elites adapted and changed throughout time, and specifically how the earlier generation of military leaders transformed into administrative experts in civil administration and fiscal reform. Based on his biography in the Yuanshi, supplemented with a few scattered records from literary collections of Han-Chinese contemporaries and Persian-language sources, this article reconstructs the lives of Temüder, his ancestors, and his sons. In addition to balancing Temüder’s overwhelmingly negative image, this article ultimately shows how the ruling outsiders – here, the Mongol elites exemplified by the case of Temüder – also gained new expertise to further consolidate their rule over China, and provides a more complex and nuanced perspective for understanding the mid- to late-Yuan period.

scholarly journals Islamic Astronomy in China: Two New Sources for the Huihui Li (“Islamic Calendar”)

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 697-700
Author(s):  
Benno Van Dalen ◽  
Michio Yano
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Accurate Prediction ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Explanatory Text ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

In this talk we will discuss some aspects of the exchange of astronomical knowledge that took place between the Muslim world and China in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. In that period both the eastern part of the Muslim world, consisting of Persia and surrounding countries, and China, ruled by the Yuan Dynasty, were part of the Mongol world empire. In particular in the period between 1260 and 1280, astronomers as well as astronomical books and instruments were exchanged between Persia and China. As a result, extensive descriptions of a Chinese luni-solar calendar can be found in Arabic and Persian astronomical works from the Mongol period, whereas a Chinese text entitled Huihui Li (“Islamic Calendar”) can be seen to be a translation of a typical Islamic astronomical handbook with tables and explanatory text, in Arabic and Persian called zīj. Islamic astronomy had a good name in China because of its accurate prediction of eclipses, and the Huihui li was used parallel with the official Chinese calendar for almost 300 years.

scholarly journals Identification of kinship and occupant status in Mongolian noble burials of the Yuan Dynasty through a multidisciplinary approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1660) ◽  
pp. 20130378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinqiu Cui ◽  
Li Song ◽  
Dong Wei ◽  
Yuhong Pang ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Minority Ethnic Group ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Chromosomal Dna ◽  
Molecular Genetic Data ◽  
First Dynasty ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368) was the first dynasty in Chinese history where a minority ethnic group (Mongols) ruled. Few cemeteries containing Mongolian nobles have been found owing to their tradition of keeping burial grounds secret and their lack of historical records. Archaeological excavations at the Shuzhuanglou site in the Hebei province of China led to the discovery of 13 skeletons in six separate tombs. The style of the artefacts and burials indicate the cemetery occupants were Mongol nobles. However, the origin, relationships and status of the chief occupant (M1m) are unclear. To shed light on the identity of the principal occupant and resolve the kin relationships between individuals, a multidisciplinary approach was adopted, combining archaeological information, stable isotope data and molecular genetic data. Analysis of autosomal, mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal DNA show that some of the occupants were related. The available evidence strongly suggests that the principal occupant may have been the Mongol noble Korguz. Our study demonstrates the power of a multidisciplinary approach in elucidating information about the inhabitants of ancient historical sites.

Wang Guowei and the Establishment of Chinese Drama in the Modern Canon of Classical Literature

T oung Pao ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-201
Author(s):  
Regina Llamas
Keyword(s):  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Literary Value ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Critical History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Universal Standard

AbstractThis essay examines the process by which Wang Guowei placed Chinese dramatic history into the modern Chinese literary canon. It explores how Wang formed his ideas on literature, drawing on Western aesthetics to explain, through the notions of leisure and play, the impetus for art creation, and on the Chinese notions of the genesis of literature to explain the psychology of literary creation. In order to establish the literary value of Chinese drama, Wang applied these ideas to the first playwrights of the Yuan dynasty, arguing that theirs was a literature created under the right aesthetic and creative circumstances, and that it embodied the value of "naturalness" which he considered a universal standard for good literature. By producing a scholarly critical history of the origins and nature of Chinese drama, Wang placed drama on a par with other literary genres of past dynasties, thus giving it a renewed status and creating at the same time a new discipline of research. Drama had now become an established literary genre.

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