THE HYAKUMANTŌ DARANI AND THE ORIGINS OF PRINTING IN EIGHTH-CENTURY JAPAN

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kornicki

The origins of printing in East Asia have been the subject of lively debate over the last twenty years, and a constant point of reference has been the first recorded act of printing in Japan, which took place in the 760s. The term Hyakumantō Darani 百万塔陀羅尼 (hereafter HD) is commonly used in Japan to refer to this episode, and it denotes the Buddhist dhāraṇī or spells which are thought to have been printed in Nara and then inserted into wooden miniature pagodas, and which have for a century been regarded as the oldest printed texts in the world.1 They were printed, so the evidence suggests, in the closing years of the reign of Shōtoku 稱德 (718–770, r. 764–770), who was the last woman on the Japanese throne for nearly one thousand years and who had had an earlier reign under the name Kōken 孝謙 (r. 749–758).2In this article I shall first examine the evidence relating to the HD and the origins of printing, since the whole question has long been clouded by hypotheses masquerading as fact. Second, I shall explore the origins of the practice of producing miniature pagodas and its transmission to Japan. Third, I shall argue that the established views on the motivation for the HD are inadequate, and shall identify the factors that demand a new explanation, particularly the pagodas themselves. Finally, I turn to the ideological and political factors underlying these events and suggest a new explanation. This new explanation focuses on the politics of Shōtoku's situation and the connection with empress Wu (Wu Zetian 武則天; 624–705, r. 690–705), and it goes some way towards explaining why printing was not resorted to again in Japan for several centuries.

2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Harding

The relationship between the global and the local is one of critical importance to all regions of the world. In the resolution of the tension between the irresistible surge of globalisation and the undeniable facts of society as it actually exists in the various localities which together comprise the very world which is presumably the object or the subject-matter of globalisation, law lies at the forefront. It is, one might say, the very intellectual battlefield which we have selected for the resolution of the major problem facing human society at the turn of the century. The purpose of this article is therefore to investigate, in a somewhat narrative fashion the relationship between the global and the local in the context of law in South East Asia. The topic is clearly too large to be dealt with in a short space with the rigour and articulation it really deserves, but it is hoped that the approach adopted will provide some kind of a frame of reference for regarding, studying, and hopefully improving, the law in the South East Asian region; and will perhaps focus a pencil of light on the problems of the global and the local in this particular regional context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
Uroš Miketić

This paper, using the operational method of content analysis, gives an overview of the programmatic attitudes of the parties in Serbia about the province of Kosovo and Metohija. We have used internet presentations of the parties in our case, but in some cases this meant that these were outdated programs from the period of diametrically opposed political circumstances in the country and the world, or general presentations without stating when and where the program was adopted. In any case, the Kosovo and Metohija issue is recognized by most parties, especially those with the most numerous membership and a long tradition, as an issue of first-class state importance. The parties are almost unanimous when it comes to protecting the rights of Serbs, their cultural heritage, and the economic interests of Serbia in the province. However, the positioning of the parties with regard to the final status of the province has brought major differences. Some parties stand firmly on the position of Resolution 1244 and the 2006 Constitution of the Republic of Serbia in relation to this matter, while on the opposite side are those political factors advocating for a permanent solution based on compromise. The statements of contemporary political actors in Serbia about the province of Kosovo and Metohija are not the subject of this paper, but we are exclusively focused on programs as a permanent testimony to the attitude of political circles in Serbia towards the aforementioned issue to this day.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Garavito

Incorporation is the body’s capacity to take something to alter or extend itself. In the literature on the subject, there is a lively debate on what constitutes incorporation. According to the Hypothesis of Extended Mind, whatever extends our cognitive processes is incorporated. At the same time, that object becomes a part of our self-manifestation. However, De Preester, in what I call a narrow version of incorporation, proposes that an object is incorporated to the self only if it is included in the sense of ownership of the body. Here, I explore a broader version of incorporation, related to Merleau-Ponty’s ideas of habit and incorporation. From this perspective, incorporation is the way a self expands and alters itself in its dealings with the world. A self, as a lived body, emerges in the self’s constitutive openness to worlds; therefore, objects (and even others) are incorporated in a temporal and situated way if they participate in constitutive experiences. Finally, this perspective explores the idea of a flexible and transparent self rather than a fixed self based on representations of the body.


1960 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Q. Fatimi

Kalah was the earliest recorded settlement of Muslims in this part of the world, and from Arab and Persian descriptions of it from the middle of the ninth to that of the fourteenth century, it was undoubtedly an important port in South East Asia.But where was it actually located? The problem has baffled some of the best minds of the east and the west. It has been debated since 1718. During this long period eminent historians, geographers, Arabicists, Indologists and Sinologists have made an effort at solving the riddle, but at best they have succeeded only partially. Earlier attempts at identification were very much wide of the mark. Abbe Renaudot (1718) who initiated the debate identified it with Malabar, while Gildemeister (1838) located it in Coromandel, and Reinaud (1845) equated it with Galle in Ceylon. Alfred Maury (1846) was the first to realise that the search for it must be made in the Malaysian region and he suggested Kedah. Walckenear (1852) made this equation famous by accepting it in his commentary on the story of Sindbad the sailor. P. A. van der Lith (1883–6) gave massive support to it in his elaborate and erudite discussion on the subject in his annotation and edition of Buzurg bin Shahriyār's Book of the Marvels of the Indies. It seemed that van der Lith had clinched the issue by getting the philological support from no less an eminent authority on the subject than M. Kern, who stated that the Malay d was pronounced very like an Arab 1. And then followed a galaxy of great Arabicists, like de Goeje (1889) and G. Le Strange (1905) all of whom accepted this equation. Pelliot (1901) and other Sinologists, and Coedes (1918) and other Indologists found it handy in their own search of Malaysian place-names.


2016 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Pier Giuseppe Rossi

The subject of alignment is not new to the world of education. Today however, it has come to mean different things and to have a heuristic value in education according to research in different areas, not least for neuroscience, and to attention to skills and to the alternation framework.This paper, after looking at the classic references that already attributed an important role to alignment in education processes, looks at the strategic role of alignment in the current context, outlining the shared construction processes and focusing on some of the ways in which this is put into effect.Alignment is part of a participatory, enactive approach that gives a central role to the interaction between teaching and learning, avoiding the limits of behaviourism, which has a greater bias towards teaching, and cognitivism/constructivism, which focus their attention on learning and in any case, on that which separates a teacher preparing the environment and a student working in it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Syarifudin Syarifudin

Each religious sect has its own characteristics, whether fundamental, radical, or religious. One of them is Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, which is in Cijati, South Cikareo Village, Wado District, Sumedang Regency. This congregation is Sufism with the concept of self-purification as the subject of its teachings. So, the purpose of this study is to reveal how the origin of Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, the concept of its purification, and the procedures of achieving its purification. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method with a normative theological approach as the blade of analysis. In addition, the data generated is the result of observation, interviews, and document studies. From the collected data, Jamaah Insan Al-Kamil adheres to the core teachings of Islam and is the tenth regeneration of Islam Teachings, which refers to the Prophet Muhammad SAW. According to this congregation, self-perfection becomes an obligation that must be achieved by human beings in order to remember Allah when life is done. The process of self-purification is done when human beings still live in the world by knowing His God. Therefore, the peak of self-purification is called Insan Kamil. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Feruza Mamatova ◽  

The present paper aims to compare the principles of choosing a marriage partner and analyse the status of being in the marrriage in the frame of family traditions that are totally inherent to the both of the nations: English and Uzbek. It is known that interconnection and cross-cultural communication between the countries of these two nationalities have been recently developed. The purpose to give an idea about these types of family traditions and prevent any misunderstanding that might occur in the communications makes our investigation topical one. The research used phraseological units as an object and the marriage aspects as the subject


2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-245
Author(s):  
Erik Ode

Abstract De-Finition. Poststructuralist Objections to the Limitation of the Other The metaphysic tradition always tried to structure the world by definitions and scientific terms. Since poststructuralist authors like Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze have claimed the ›death of the subject‹ educational research cannot ignore the critical objections to its own methods. Definitions and identifications may be a violation of the other’s right to stay different and undefined. This article tries to discuss the scientific limitations of the other in a pedagogical, ethical and political perspective.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-78
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Marin Georgiev

The subject of this article is the genesis of the professional culture of personnel management. The last decades of the 20th century were marked by various revolutions - scientific, technical, democratic, informational, sexual, etc. Their cumulative effect has been mostly reflected in the professional revolution that shapes the professional society around the world. This social revolution has global consequences. In addition to its extensive parameters, it also has intensive ones related to the deeply-rooted structural changes in the ways of working and thinking, as well as in the forms of its social organization. The professional revolutions in the history of Modern Times stem from this theory.Employees’ awareness and accountability shall be strengthened. The leader must be able to formulate and bring closer to the employees the vision of the organization and its future goal, to which all shall aspire. He should pay attention not to the "letter" but to the "spirit" of this approach.


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