A “Black Cult” in Early Medieval China: Iranian-Zoroastrian Influence in the Northern Dynasties

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-224
Author(s):  
SANPING CHEN ◽  
VICTOR H MAIR
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Common People ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

AbstractThrough an analysis of Chinese theophoric names - a genre that emerged in the early medieval period largely under heavy Iranian-Sogdian influence - we suggest that there was a contemporary ‘black worship’ or ‘black cult’ in northern China that has since vanished. The followers of this ‘black cult’ ranged from common people living in ethnically mixed frontier communities to the ruling echelons of the Northern Dynasties. By tapping into the fragmentary pre-Islamic Iranian-Sogdian data, we link this ‘black cult’ to the now nearly forgotten ancient Iranic worship of the Avestan family of heroes centered around Sāma. This religio-cultural exchange prompts an examination of the deliberate policy by the ethnic rulers of the Northern Dynasties to attract Central Asian immigrants for political reasons, a precursor to the Semu, the Mongols’ ‘assistant conquerors’ in the Yuan dynasty.

scholarly journals Chinese-Buddhist Encounter

Asian Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-111
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Mural Painting ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Multiple Meanings

The standard pictorial formula of Fuxi and Nüwa, a pair of indigenous Chinese deities, started to absorb new motifs from Buddhist art during the early medieval period when Buddhism became more prominent in China. In this paper, I focus on the juxtaposition of Fuxi-Nüwa and cintamani, a magic Buddhist jewel, depicted on the ceiling of the corridor in the tomb of Lady Poduoluo, Pingcheng, Shanxi (435 CE). Through a detailed visual analysis, I explain the multiple meanings embedded in the combination of the Chinese mythological figures with the Buddhist symbol in the funerary space, thus challenging the previous studies that understand cintamani only as a substitute for the sun and moon. This paper furthers the discussion on the hybrid image by investigating the mural painting on the ceiling of Mogao Cave 285 in Dunhuang. Despite their different spatial and temporal contexts, both the tomb of Lady Poduoluo and Mogao Cave 285 present a similar pictorial formula, featuring the hybridization of cintamani and the Fuxi-Nuwa pair. This phenomenon invites us to explore the transmission of such motifs. I, therefore, situate the production of the syncretic scheme of Fuxi-Nüwa with cintamani within a broader historical context and examine the artistic exchange between Pingcheng and Dunhuang by tracing the movements of images, artisans, and patrons in early medieval China.

“Buddhism Enters China” in Early Medieval China

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ford Campany
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
General Phenomenon ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Local Religion ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Early Medieval China

Narratives are important platforms for religious thought and vehicles of religious persuasion. They are not merely “didactic,” and they do not just flesh out, secondarily, religious doctrines. The early medieval centuries in China (c.200–600) saw the importation of Buddhism as well as the rise of organized Daoist religions. Members of both of these traditions sought to position their own understandings and priorities against the other. But there were other contending viewpoints as well, including classicist tradition and local religion. Proponents of all of these perspectives generated, recorded, and transmitted narratives to explain and justify their positions vis-à-vis each other. This chapter examines this general phenomenon in the early medieval period and then analyzes in detail some particular stories as examples. It was, in part, by the fashioning and exchange of stories that the similarities, differences, and relations among multiple religious repertoires were negotiated.

Public Powers, Private Powers, and the Exploitation of Metals for Coinage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Bianchi
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Italian Journal ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

In 1994, an article appeared in the Italian journal Archeologia Medievale, written by Chris Wickham and Riccardo Francovich, entitled ‘Uno scavo archeologico ed il problema dello sviluppo della signoria territoriale: Rocca San Silvestro e i rapporti di produzione minerari’. It marked a breakthrough in the study of the exploitation of mineral resources (especially silver) in relation to forms of power, and the associated economic structure, and control of production between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. On the basis of the data available to archeological research at the time, the article ended with a series of open questions, especially relating to the early medieval period. The new campaign of field research, focused on the mining landscape of the Colline Metallifere in southern Tuscany, has made it possible to gather more information. While the data that has now been gathered are not yet sufficient to give definite and complete answers to those questions, they nevertheless allow us to now formulate some hypotheses which may serve as the foundations for broader considerations as regards the relationship between the exploitation of a fundamental resource for the economy of the time, and the main players and agents in that system of exploitation, within a landscape that was undergoing transformation in the period between the early medieval period and the middle centuries of the Middle Ages.

scholarly journals The development of international law through the lens of the Italian doctrine

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-187
Author(s):  
Massimo Iovane
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period

Abstract This review essay analyses a very interesting collection of essays providing a fresh examination of international law schools operating in Italy from the early medieval period to current times. The Essay will show that the book adopts a completely new presentation of this subject, offering thus an unbiased assessment of the doctrinal debate developed in between the two World Wars.

Text and Commentary in the Medieval Period

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-yu Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Literary Texts ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Chinese Tradition ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Classical Chinese

In classical Chinese tradition, writing a commentary is a basic way of interpreting texts and teaching classics. A commentator not only speculates on an author’s intent but also cites from various oral or written accounts to annotate a text. Commentary thus becomes a core text for converging knowledge and conserving culture, and sometimes it is many times longer than the original text. This chapter focuses on a series of commentaries on literary texts in the early medieval period and shows that, instead of being secondary to the original text, a commentary constitutes a new text on a par with the urtext in many ways.

Pre-Tang Anthologies and Anthologization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Knechtges
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Literary Education ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Belles Lettres

In China from ancient times the anthology has occupied an important place in literary culture. During the early medieval period the purely literary anthology comes into its own. The emergence of a large number of anthologies in this period is related to changing conceptions of writing as well as attempts to define genres and to establish an independent category for belles lettres. Only a few of the anthologies from this period have survived, the most famous being the Wen xuan, compiled around 526. Another extant single-genre anthology is the Yutai xinyong. The Wen xuan eventually became the Chinese anthology par excellence, and for several centuries was the primary source from which scholars and writers obtained their literary education; it was also important in Japan and Korea.

The temple and the state in medieval South India

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kesavan Veluthat
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
The State ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Temple

This article brings out certain aspects of the ways in which the temple and the state were related in the early medieval period. Arriving in South India almost simultaneously, both derived support from each other. While the state patronised the temple, the latter lent considerable legitimacy to the former. The temple gradually started appropriating the role of the state in numerous ways, assuming administrative, judicial and fiscal functions. In many cases it was now in a position even to challenge the local political authorities.

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