Conversion to Chastity: A Buddhist Catalyst in Early Imperial China

NAN Nü ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-56
Author(s):  
Keung Lo Yuet
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Biological Condition ◽  
Physical Body ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Monastic Code

AbstractThis paper traces the history of the notion of female chastity (zhen) in China from pre-Qin to the mid-imperial era and argues that, prior to the arrival of Buddhism in China, the idea of female “chastity” was concerned not so much with physical virginity as the dutiful fulfillment of wifely obligations as stipulated by the Confucian marriage rites. A woman's chastity was determined by her moral rectitude rather than by her biological condition. The understanding of the physical body as a sacrosanct entity that must be defended against defilement and violation emerged under the influence of Buddhist notions of the uncontaminated body, the pious observance of the Buddhist monastic code, and the performance of religious charity that became popular in early imperial China. Based on a critical analysis of a wide array of Confucian canonical texts, dynastic histories, Indian Buddhist scriptures, biographies of Chinese monks and nuns, the monastic code, and Chinese Buddhist encyclopedias, this paper delineates the gradual process by which the Buddhist concept of the “pure body” became fully assimilated into the indigenous Chinese notion of female “rectitude” and the notion of female chastity finally acquired an ontological identity around the end of the sixth century.

scholarly journals Hegel, Feminist Philosophy, and Disability: Rereading our History

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Dryden
Keyword(s):  
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Feminist Philosophy ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Disability Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Canonical Texts

<p class="NoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA">Although feminist philosophers have been critical of the gendered norms contained within the history of philosophy, they have not extended this critical analysis to norms concerning disability. In the history of Western philosophy, disability has often functioned as a metaphor for something that has gone awry. This trope, according to which disability is something that has gone wrong, is amply criticized within Disability Studies, though not within the tradition of philosophy itself or even within feminist philosophy. In this paper, I use one instance of this disability metaphor, contained within a passage from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel&rsquo;s <em>Philosophy of Right</em>, in order to show that paying attention to disability and disability theory can enable identification of ableist assumptions within the tradition of philosophy and can also open up new interpretations of canonical texts. On my reading, whereas Hegel&rsquo;s expressed views of disability are dismissive, his logic and its treatment of contingency offer up useful ways to situate and re-evaluate disability as part of the concept of humanity. Disability can in fact be useful to Hegel, especially in the context of his valorization of experiences of disruption and disorientation. Broadening our understanding of the possible ways that the philosophical tradition has conceived human beings allows us to better draw on its theoretical resources.&nbsp;</span></p><p class="NoSpacing">&nbsp;</p><p class="NoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA">Keywords: Hegel; contingency; history of philosophy; feminist Hegel scholarship</span></p><p class="NoSpacing"><span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></p>

The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Westerhoff
Keyword(s):  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Indian Thought ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classical Indian Philosophy ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
Scholastic Philosophy

This book gives a concise account of one of the most vibrant episodes in the history of ancient Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the beginning of the Common Era up to the time of Dharmakīrti in the sixth century CE. This period was characterized by the development of a variety of Buddhist philosophical schools and approaches that have shaped Buddhist thought up to the present day: the scholasticism of the Abhidharma, the Madhyamaka’s theory of emptiness, Yogācāra idealism, and the logical and epistemological works of Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti. The book attempts to describe the historical development of these schools in their intellectual context, with particular emphasis on three factors that shaped the development of Buddhist philosophical thought: the need to spell out the contents of canonical texts, the discourses of the historical Buddha and the Mahāyāna sutras; the desire to defend their positions by sophisticated arguments against criticisms from fellow Buddhists and from non-Buddhist thinkers of classical Indian philosophy; and the need to account for insights gained through the application of specific meditative techniques. While the main emphasis of our presentation is the period up the the sixth century CE, we will we also discuss some important selected figures who influenced Buddhist thought between this time and the decline of Buddhist scholastic philosophy in India at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Apocrypha from the History of the Jewish Military Union and its Authors

2008 ◽  
pp. 147-176
Author(s):  
Dariusz Libionka
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Warsaw Ghetto ◽  
History Of

This article is an attempt at a critical analysis of the history of the Jewish Fighting Union (JFU) and a presentation of their authors based on documents kept in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. The author believes that an uncritical approach and such a treatment of these materials, which were generated under the communist regime and used for political purposes resulted in a perverted and lasting picture of the history of this fighting organisation of Zionists-revisionists both in Poland and Israel. The author has focused on a deconsturction of the most important and best known “testimonies regarding the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising”, the development and JFU participation in this struggle, given by Henryk Iwaƒski, WΠadysΠaw Zajdler, Tadeusz Bednarczyk and Janusz Ketling–Szemley.A comparative analysis of these materials, supplemented by important details of their war-time and postwar biographies, leaves no doubt as to the fact that they should not be analysed in terms of their historical credibility and leads one to conclude that a profound revision of research approach to JFU history is necessary.

scholarly journals THE HISTORY OF BILINGUAL DICTIONARIES RECONSIDERED: AN ANCIENT FRAGMENT RELATED TO PS.-PHILOXENUS (P.VARS. 6) AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Eleanor Dickey
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Alphabetical Order ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

Abstract This article identifies a papyrus in Warsaw, P.Vars. 6, as a fragment of the large Latin–Greek glossary known as Ps.-Philoxenus. That glossary, published in volume II of G. Goetz's Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum on the basis of a ninth-century manuscript, is by far the most important of the bilingual glossaries surviving from antiquity, being derived from lost works of Roman scholarship and preserving valuable information about rare and archaic Latin words. It has long been considered a product of the sixth century a.d., but the papyrus dates to c.200, and internal evidence indicates that the glossary itself must be substantially older than that copy. The Ps.-Philoxenus glossary is therefore not a creation of Late Antiquity but of the Early Empire or perhaps even the Republic. Large bilingual glossaries in alphabetical order must have existed far earlier than has hitherto been believed.

scholarly journals What Did Angola Learn from the World and What Did the World Learn from COVID-19? Reflection on Epidemiological Surveillance in Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-540
Author(s):  
Euclides Nenga Manuel Sacomboio
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Epidemiological Surveillance ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Scientific Reflection ◽  
Epidemiological Situation

The global community is racing to slow down and eventually stop the spread of COVID-19, which is a pandemic that has killed thousands of lives and made tens of thousands sick. The new coronavirus has already reached Angola, with 25 confirmed cases, among them 2 died and 6 were cured. The government has decreed a state of emergency on 24 March 2020 for 15 days, which was extended twice for the same number of days that will make it possible to reduce clusters of people and keep them at home. This study reflected on the diverse ways of leadership. It is an article of theoretical, technical and scientific reflection, based on the experience of a new epidemiological situation, with a critical analysis based on technical, scientific and professional experience, with bibliographic input of data obtained from information published in scientific articles, newspapers, magazines and other official documents published in Angola and worldwide related to COVID-19. This article emerged from critical thinking based on the current situation of COVID-19 in Angola in the world and is reflected in this article, what Angola should learn and learned from the experience of other countries that also imported the disease, their history of investment in health, characteristics of their populations, their economies and other aspects.

Finding a Home for a Roof in Production within the Building History of Poggio Civitate (Murlo)

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 65-94
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Winter
Keyword(s):  
Sixth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Under Construction

Abstract The unique workshop excavated at Poggio Civitate (Murlo) contained elements of a terracotta roof in the process of production (Roof 2–22 [Winter 2009]). The conflagration that destroyed the buildings on the plateau at the beginning of the sixth century B. C. E. in effect fired the raw clay elements, which were lying on the workshop floor in the shade of the roof to dry before firing. No building under construction has previously been identified as the planned home for this roof. Possible candidates can now be proposed, buildings which show no evidence of being finished to the point of having a tiled roof or of having objects in the interior that would represent use levels.

A History of Metatypy in the Bel Languages

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Ross
Keyword(s):  
Austronesian Language ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
History Of

AbstractIn earlier work Takia, an Oceanic Austronesian language, has been compared with its Papuan neighbour Waskia to show that much of the grammar of Takia can be explained as the outcome of metatypy on the model of Waskia or a language typologically like it. Takia belongs to the Western subgroup of the small Bel family, the members of which have all undergone metatypy to some degree. In this paper data from the Bel languages are used to reconstruct the history of certain Takia grammatical features, especially clause chaining and postverbal enclitics, in order to confirm or refute earlier inferences about their history. These inferences are largely confirmed, and the origins of clause chaining and postverbal enclitics are situated as a sequence of changes within a history of the Bel languages. The investigation shows that, as expected, metatypy is a gradual process. It also confirms that the innovation of clause-chaining was a normal piece of grammaticisation, but one that was triggered by speakers' bilingualism in a clause-chaining language or languages.The investigation has yielded an unexpected spin-off by showing that metatypy was an ongoing process during the development of the Bel languages. Reconstructing the genesis of Western Bel clause-chaining and enclitic sequences forces us to reconstruct ongoing contact, whilst Matugar, an Eastern Bel language, reflects metatypy probably on the model of its Western Bel relatives.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document